Their fleece was white as snow … presumably

CNS ^ | January 21, 2009 | Cindy Wooden

[NYer]

VATICAN CITY — Reporters in the Vatican press office felt baaaad this morning; they thought they were going to get to see closed-circuit footage of Pope Benedict XVI blessing two live lambs.

Instead we got a sound feed of the ceremony that took place in a small room adjacent to the Vatican audience hall.

Last year Pope Benedict blessed the lambs in Rome's Basilica of St. Agnes. (CNS photo/Reuters)

Today is the feast of St. Agnes, a Roman martyr, and it’s the day the pope traditionally blesses two lambs raised by Trappist monks near Rome.

The lambs are sheared and the wool is given to the cloistered Benedictine nuns at Rome’s Basilica of St. Cecilia. The nuns use the wool to make palliums, which are bands that the heads of archdioceses wear around their shoulders during liturgical functions.

Every year on the June 29 feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the pope places the bands around the necks of archbishops who have taken office in the past year.

Today, after blessing the animals, the pope also asked God to “bless the pastors who will receive the palliums made from the wool of these lambs.”

[NYer]

Pope Benedict XVI (L) blesses lambs during the feast day of Saint Agnes at the Vatican January 21, 2009. The lambs wool will be used to make archbishops liturgical vests known as 'palliums'. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (VATICAN)

[AnAmericanMother]

They seem like very well-behaved lambs.

Good thing the Pope isn't trying to bless any of MY livestock -- muddy pawmarks and lots of shed hair on nice clean vestments would be the result.

[GeronL]

were the lambs silent?

[Lucretia Borgia]

Heavily sedated lambs. Where’s the mint jelly?????

[AnAmericanMother]

They may just be tied up in those baskets. In the one shot of the lamb's head it doesn't have that goofy eyed look (and I have recent experience, my younger dog just had her hips OFA'd yesterday and she looked drunk).

Never cared for mint jelly with lamb. But these are famous lambs and will probably go back to the monastery to grow up.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Mary had a little lamb
His fleece was black as soot
Everywhere that Mary went
His sooty foot he put

[TASMANIANRED]

They look freshly washed.

[livius]

The lambs are toooooo cute. Somebody said they’re fed lots of food and then are sort of sleepy when they’re brought out (although you will notice the discreet silk ribbons tying them down). Other people have suggested Xanax.

But lambs really are very cute and are incredibly docile and sweet. I had never known any lambs or sheep personally, so to speak, until I did the Camino de Santiago. Spain is full of sheep, and they are incredibly sweet and sympathetic and trusting animals.

One of the Spanish girls I walked with for a couple of days told me that her grandfather had been a shepherd, and he named all of his sheep and then literally knew them all by name. They all looked the same to me. But he could identify them and call them out. He would sleep in front of the gate to the holding pens the shepherds put them in when they moved them to different pastures.

I never really understood why there was so much “sheep imagery” in the Gospels until I got to know sheep a little better.

I remember one stretch through the plains of Castilla, outside of Burgos, where I saw a strange shape about a mile away that I couldn’t identify. I thought it was a person who kept coming out onto the Camino to look for somebody else. When I got closer, I realized that it was a very tall, recently shorn sheep. But it had obviously been attacked by dogs, one of its legs was torn and it was lame, and it had gotten separated from its herd and its shepherd.

Because the pilgrims generally carried staffs, the sheep thought we might be its shepherd, whom it trusted and who was clearly the person the sheep wnated to see at that moment. It would raise its head when we came into view, but as soon as we got close enough (about a half kilometer) for it to identify our gait and size, it would drop its head and go back into the brush at the side of the Camino. It was really one of the most tragic things I have ever seen, but it really made me understand the sheep imagery in the Gospels.

[NYer]

I'm surprised PETA didn't picket the event.

That said, look at the purity of their white wool, consider how it will be used and, as the Holy Father asked, pray for the prelates who will be given the pallium from this wool. May God bless them in their ministry!

[Miss Marple]

I raised sheep when I was a girl and showed them at the fair.

I eventually had a flock of 20, and I could tell them all apart because their faces looked different to me. Some had narrow noses, some wide. Some had horns far apart, others close. Some had round eyes, some had more almond-shaped.

I still can see the differences in sheep faces when I go to the State Fair. You just have to learn how to look at them.

And they are sweet creatures. I even trained a ram to drink out of a hose and shake hands.

I would love to have sheep now, but alas, our zoning laws won't allow it.

I raised horned Dorsets, in which the males and females both have horns (most breeders now raise polled Dorsets). Very happy memories of my child and teen years.

[Desdemona]

The lambs are sheared and the wool is given to the cloistered Benedictine nuns at Rome’s Basilica of St. Cecilia. The nuns use the wool to make palliums, which are bands that the heads of archdioceses wear around their shoulders during liturgical functions.

Every year on the June 29 feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the pope places the bands around the necks of archbishops who have taken office in the past year.

We the sheep...

Seriously, several archdiocesan choirs are going to Rome for this. Please, pray for each and every one that it's reasonably affordable. The gas surcharge went down, but for ordinary people (singers) it's still a pricey trip.

[livius]

I still can see the differences in sheep faces when I go to the State Fair. You just have to learn how to look at them.

Yes, I guess if you get to know them, there are differences. They seem to recognize us by our general outline and the way we walk, and probably our voices. Who knows - maybe we all look alike to them!

[Kolokotronis]

Too, too cute, those Latin Rite lambs.

Here's what Greek lamb looks like!

[livius]

I know. They’re just so - well, pure and innocent looking. No wonder they’re such symbolic creatures.

[livius]

Yum!

[Desdemona]

They’re just so - well, pure and innocent looking. No wonder they’re such symbolic creatures.

Well, one of the most demonstrative pieces of Baroque music is movement 24 of Handel's "Messiah" - "All We Like Sheep" (have gone astray-ay-ay-ay, have gone astray-ay-ay-ay). Every one to his own way (or something like that. I think the score is in the trunk). Maybe that's why they're symbolic.

[NYer]

Here's what Greek lamb looks like!

That looks like the great, great-grandfather of the sweet lambs in the pope's photo.