Lenten Offerings

Philosoraptor asks the question on all our minds

In Light of the World, Pope Benedict practically stated he'd resign under the right conditions, but that doesn't lessen the shock. It still seems so sudden. Why now? It's easy to feel abandoned. Like the job got too hard, so he decided to move on. But as the Anchoress points out, he's not giving up his burden so much as trading for one perhaps more suited for him:

He’s retiring to a monastery within the Vatican One does not “retire” into monasticism; a monastery is not an idyllic place of retreat, but a full-thrust into spiritual depths. It is where one goes to pray, do penance and — if one is particularly holy and willing — to engage in supernatural battle with things seen and unseen. 

This is grave stuff, indeed; a heavy task. My suspicion is that Benedict is not taking his leave of the papacy in order to play his piano and read his books. In the midst of the temporal Lent of 2013, he’s going to be immersing himself in the Long Lent that began for us in 2002, and is with us still. 

I suspect he will be doing penance for the church, and for the world — for those of us who cannot or will not do it, ourselves.

And so, where no pope in the last 600 years has seen the need or duty to step aside, Papa Ratzinger does so with quiet humility. What this says about him, or the last 600 years worth of popes, I do not know. Will it set a precedent? Unlikely. It's probably just Ratzinger being Ratzinger. He is unique in many ways. Through his own prayer and introspection, he concluded that there is now a better way for him to serve the Church.

I have previously written about how much Blessed John Paul the Great meant to me. Pope Benedict is similarly beloved by me, for altogether different reasons. JPG was the pope of my childhood; the charismatic figure who inspired love for the Church. B16 is the pope of my adulthood. The intellectual whose writings furthered my understanding of the Church. I know JPG was a great philosopher and theologian himself, but that's never how I knew him. But one of the first books I read in college was Ratzinger's Introduction to Christianity. And I've spent the last year or so reading Jesus of Nazareth (between 6 and 7 on Wednesday mornings, during my holy hour, which is why it's taking me so long). He's the writer that introduced me to spiritual, intellectual maturity.

And I'll always love him for Summorum Pontificum, which introduced me to the Latin Mass, which I have since fallen in love with.

Marc Barnes' has perhaps the best tribute, in a poetic style that is sublime even for him: "How unwitting the darkness that made his light shine brighter. He leaves as he came, with a humility that shocks the world."

Best. Prayer. Ever.

Came across this today on a comment on Catholic Memes:

Oremus.
Benedic, Domine, creaturam istam cerevisiae, quam ex adipe frumenti producere dignatus es: ut sit remedium salutare humano generi, et praesta per invocationem nominis tui sancti; ut, quicumque ex ea biberint, sanitatem corpus et animae tutelam percipiant. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

Which means, in the vernacular:

Bless, + O Lord, this creature beer, which thou hast deigned to produce from the fat of grain: that it may be a salutary remedy to the human race, and grant through the invocation of thy holy name; that, whoever shall drink it, may gain health in body and peace in soul. Through Christ our Lord.

 Amen, and bottoms up!