Posted on 08/27/2018 8:34:40 AM PDT by Salvation
On the Feast of St. Monica, who prayed at length for her son, I’d like to say that my mother prayed for me too! And I really needed (and still need) her prayers.
In this time of pain in the Church where God’s people are rightly disturbed by the sins of the clergy, I know too that many of you have assured me and many clergy of your prayers. And thus, St. Monica, especially in this difficult time is an image not only of prayers for her son, but also of prayers for priests; for clearly, her son went on to become a priest and bishop.
Satan hates priests and seeks above all to get to us. Jesus remarked laconically and pointedly, quoting from Zechariah (13:7), Strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. This is why Satan hates priests and seeks to topple them.
Like St. Augustine, I have always felt my mother’s prayers very powerfully. I pray that my mother, Nancy Geiman Pope, who died in 2005, is now at home with the Lord and has met St. Monica. She always told me that she was praying for me! I often attributed her prayers to her tendency to worry. But I have learned of the power of her prayers and of their necessity. She said the Lord had told her that Satan wanted me and all priests and that she had better pray for me. I never doubted that she did and I’m sure she still does.
I remember once, a week before my ordination in 1989, I was up on the roof of our family house cleaning out the gutters. My mother came out and told me to “Come down from the roof at once!” and that she would hire someone to clean them. She later explained that her concern was that I, so near to my ordination, was now a special target of the Evil One and that I might have fallen from that roof by his evil machinations.
I have come to see both her wisdom and my need for her prayers. I have also come to value the prayers of so many of my parishioners, who have told me that they were praying for me. Yes, I need a mantle of protection—and so do all other priests. Pray for priests! Pray, pray, pray!
So today on this Feast of Monica, my thoughts stretch to my mother. Thanks, Mom, for your prayers and for your wisdom. One day you called me down from the “roof” of my pride and told me to keep my feet on solid ground. Yes, you knew, and you prayed. You warned me and then prayed some more. You knew that precious gifts, like the priesthood, also come with burdens and temptations that require sober and vigilant prayer.
And thank you, dear readers and beloved parishioners, for your prayers. They have sustained me. Better men than I are suffering and better men than I have fallen under the burden of office. It is only your prayers that have kept me. Yes, pray, pray, pray for priests! Join your prayers to those of St. Monica, my mother, Nancy Geiman Pope, others in the great beyond, and many others still here on this earth. Pray for priests! Pray, pray, pray!
The photo at the top? Yeah, that’s yours truly, in a needy moment; my mom is holding me up in prayer and care. She still does this from her current location, closer to the Lord I pray. Her prayers still hold me, as mine hold her. Requiescat in Pace.
Monsignor Pope Ping!
St. Monica, please pray for our stand-up priests who do not support this homosexuality in anyway!
I just finished an on-line Novena for St Monica. I’m praying for Msgr Pope and all those priests who are true to their faith and vows, who are suffering greatly in this time of extraordinary scandal. If we all pray, in the end there will be a far, far better Church.
Amen!!
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