The Papal Election from a Young Catholic's Perspective

Today- for the first time ever- I am hosting a guest blogger here!  The following is my 11 year old son's journal for today.  He wrote so honestly about our special day yesterday that I thought he said it all better than I could.  

So-- here are some thoughts on the Papal election for the perspective of a very young Catholic--

 This week, we found ourselves in front of the computer for lengthy amounts of time.  We were “smoke watching.”  We watched EWTN and the Vatican T.V. for news of a new pope.

            Since the Cardinals in conclave who were voting couldn’t come out until we had a new pope, they used smoke signals to tell us if a new pope had been elected.  

            Well, on the afternoon of March the 13^th, 2013, after waiting for an hour and a half, doing nothing but watching birds who landed on the chimney, we finally got white smoke.  And there was a lot of it!  It billowed out like crazy for like five minutes!  (Fortunately, the birds had left the chimney at this point.)  

            And, then, after waiting another hour, our new pope came out!  He chose the name Pope Francis, gave a blessing, and went back inside.  I will never forget the day I did nothing but watch birds for an hour and a half because that was the day our new pope was elected!

Habemus Papam!

The last few hours have been full of overwhelming excitement as my children and I sat from more than an hour and a half watching and waiting for the smoke.

White!

Habemus Papam!

So many emotions....

for now...

May God Bless our new Holy Father 

Pope Francis

Such excitement....

The Conclave has begun... our new Pope will be elected soon.  The Holy Spirit is at work. Our good and holy College of Cardinals are in prayer.  This is a momentous time....

Praying for all the Cardinals (especially Cardinal Anthony Olubunmi Okogie from Nigeria who we adopted more than a week ago and have been praying hard for ever since), for all priests and religious, and for all the laity as we Catholics join together in profound unity to pray for and anticipate the future.

Burke family you have adopted this Cardinal:
Anthony Olubunmi Okogie, from Nigeria, born 16.6.1936.
He's been a Cardinal since 21.10.2003 and his function is: Archbishop emeritus of Lagos, Nigeria

Anticipating the announcement....

            When Pope John Paul II was elected, I was a toddler.  When Pope Benedict XVI was elected, I had a 6 year old, who was in kindergarten, and a three year old, a two year old, and an eight week old at home with me.  Though I clearly remember Pope JPII’s death and funeral, I remember very little of the papal election that followed.   

          I do remember hearing the names of possible new popes.  And, I remember hoping and praying for Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.  I remember feeling happy and filled with peace that he was the new Pope.  But I don’t remember watching for the white smoke or hearing the announcement “Habemus Papam.” 

            This time, (now that I have come to terms with Pope Benedict’s retirement) I am very anxiously awaiting the exhilaration of hearing the announcement that, “We have a Pope!”  I have spent the last few days learning all that I can about the process and preparing lessons to share it all with my children.    

           We sat down this morning surrounded by things I had printed off from the computer and we talked about the conclave, the College of Cardinals, and the procedures for electing and installing a new pope.  We looked at pictures of St. Peter’s square and I pointed out the Sistine Chapel where the conclave will take place and our new Pope will be chosen.  It is all very exciting and there is so much to learn.  

            Some of the resources we came across were so fabulous I just had to share….  So here is a list of the resources that my children and I found most helpful:

• How a Pope is elected, an interactive slideshow: 

 http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/come-si-elegge-il-papa/

• A Papal Unit Study-- found on "Shower of Roses" blog

 http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2013/02/papal-unit-study.html

• A diagram of Papal Vestements

http://www.infovisual.info/06/070_en.html

• 2 articles on Papal elections and history--
  found on "In the Heart of my Home" blog

 http://pflaum.com/jpii/elect.pdf

 http://pflaum.com/jpii/didyou.pdf

• Super cute crafts and activities for kids of all ages

 http://www.catholicinspired.com/2013/02/learning-about-election-of-new-pope.html

• Adopt a Cardinal to pray for

 http://adoptacardinal.org/

I only have a few minutes....

I was going to write a blog post in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes.  It was going to be about how last week my children and I watched the old movie, "The Song of Bernadette." And much to my children's surprise, it was a wonderful, captivating, very moving movie.  I was delighted by how enthralled they were with the movie which they first scoffed at for being old and in black and white- yuck!

I also had a book review I really intended to work on.  I finished In This House of Brede (by Rumer Godden) a little more than a week ago and am anxious to share my thoughts on the fictional story of the Brede monastery and a community of nuns living there in the late 1950's, early 1960's.

Then, this morning I saw the news of our beloved Holy Father and his resignation from the papal office.  Well after that my thoughts were so caught up in the shocking news that I figured I would abandon my other blog ideas and write about my feelings in response. 

But, then my little one started acting out of sorts just after lunchtime- while I was busy trying to prep for my Little Flowers meeting that was scheduled to begin in less than an hour from that time.  I took her temperature to find that, for the third time in as many months, she was feverish.  When my youngest gets sick she wants her mommy.  She wants me right next to her, close enough that she can hug my arm and lay her head on my shoulder.  

I figured my writing plans were doomed today....

But, she is napping now- and still burning up, poor little thing.  So, even though I have tons to say and my mind is swirling with thoughts... this is the best I can muster as far as my blog goes.....