When we saw the national news broadcast on Easter Sunday they showed the Pope surprising his people with an Easter blessing. I commented to Bob on how ill he looked. I wondered aloud if they were basically keeping him alive with a strong steroid cocktail? His face was so swollen. I lifted him in prayer again. He looked as if he were suffering.-

Then Easter Monday we awoke to the news that he had died. May he rest in peace eternal with our God and our King. I mourn with the Catholic church. He was such a voice for the poor and the outcasts. He wanted to shun the church riches and displays of ostentatious flashiness. He thought his people should return to the love of the peasant King.

Embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important. Pope Francis

He tried throughout his life to model Saint Francis. The photo below is before he was so deathly ill.

In His honor and to the glory of Jesus will you try to live your faith, not only with words, but with your actions?

The app Lectio on Tuesday morning said, “I allow these prophetic truths spoken by a dying man (Pope Francis) to a worldwide audience of multiple millions to stir my own soul with praise now.

Dear brothers and sister, In the Lord’s Paschal Mystery, death and life contended in a stupendous struggle, but the Lord now lives forever. He fills us with the certainty that we too are called to share in the life that knows no end, when the clash of arms and the rumble of death will be heard no more. Let us entrust ourselves to him, for he alone can make all this new! (Revelation 21:5) Happy Easter to everyone!

Lectio also wrote, “I yield to the Lord today with a seven-word prayer taught to Pope Francis by his grandmother … ‘Jesus, make my heart more like yours. Jesus make my heart more like yours.’

Oh Father, grant this I pray for each of us!

Again I ask, in the Pope’s honor and to the glory of Jesus, will you try to live your faith, not only with words, but with your actions?