As the trend in the ballots slowly made me realize that — in a manner of speaking the guillotine would fall on me — I started to feel quite dizzy. I thought that I had done my life’s work and could now hope to live out my days in peace. I told the Lord with deep conviction, ‘Don’t do this to me. You have younger and better (candidates) who could take up this great task with a totally different energy and with different strength.’ Evidently, this time he didn’t listen to me.
Pope Benedict XVI
Happy 85th birthday your Holiness! If I attain that age in 3o years and have a quarter of your mental acuity I will consider myself deeply blessed!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HOLY FATHER
God Bless our beloved Pope!
Happy Birthday Holy Father! I have a friend named Sarah who shares the same Birthday.
[…] Happy Birthday to the Pope! – Donald R. McClarey, The American Catholic […]
Full in the panting heart of Rome, beneath the apostle’s crowning dome, from pilgrims’ lips that kiss the ground breathes in all tongues one only sound: “God bless our Pope, the great, the good!” [Nicholas,Cardinal Wiseman]
A Belated Happy Birthday our Beloved, inspiring, prophetic Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. Mankind is blessed that God did not listen to your pleas to spare you from taking the mantle of the Seat of Saint Peter. His Choice is always the Best.