Starting today, join together with the Knights of Columbus and people all over the world in praying a

Novena for Pope Benedict XVI

All Knights of Columbus are encouraged to join in a special novena for Pope Benedict XVI, beginning Divine Mercy Sunday, April 11, and concluding Monday, April 19, the fifth anniversary of the Holy Father’s election in 2005.

We pray for the pope and for his pastoral mission, asking God to protect, strengthen and uplift our beloved Holy Father at this time of considerable challenge.   (KofC Website)

Novena Prayer For Holy Father

PRAYER FOR POPE BENEDICT XVI

Lord, source of eternal life and truth,
give to your shepherd, Benedict, a spirit
of courage and right judgment, a spirit
of knowledge and love. By governing
with fidelity those entrusted to his care,
may he, as successor to the Apostle
Peter and Vicar of Christ, build your
Church into a sacrament of unity, love
and peace for all the world. Amen.

V/ Let us pray for Benedict, the pope.

R/ May the Lord preserve him,
give him a long life,
make him blessed upon the earth,
and not hand him over
to the power of his enemies.

V/ May your hand
be upon your holy servant.

R/ And upon your son,
whom you have anointed.

Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory Be…

KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
In Solidarity With Our Holy Father
Adapted from Manual of Prayers
16000

Larry from Acts of the Apostasy has added this prayer text to the sidebar of his blog and suggests that other Catholic bloggers do the same.

This morning I downloaded and started reading Pope Benedict XVI’s new encyclical Caritas in Veritate.

Just to see what would happen, I pasted the introduction and first chapter into wordle.net.

Here is what came out.

Word Cloud of Caritas in Veritate

Yesterday, my family made the 230 km trek down to Toronto to Participate in St. Paul in the Square, a day of prayer, music, scripture study and a celebration of our Catholic faith.  There was praise and worship music led by the Susan Hookong-Taylor and Ana Dacosta Band, and the amazing Matt Maher.  Archbishop Thomas Collins led the assembled crowd through a Lectio Divina on Acts 17:16-34, where St. Paul was sharing the Good News in the marketplace in Athens.  It was a very fitting choice of scripture for the setting as we were all in the midst of the public square in the heart of downtown Toronto.   Archbishop Collin’s reflections were accompanied by the sounds of the city- drummers busking across the street,  a group Harley’s roaring away from the Hard Rock Cafe, and sirens of passing fire trucks. Prior to his talk, Archbishop Collins mingled with the crowd in the square. My daughter introduced herself to him and told him about her first communion. He gave her a special blessing.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is a slideshow of my pictures from St. Paul in the Square.