Many thoughts have been going through my mind as I have been thinking, praying and reflecting upon Pope Benedict’s resignation. I’m not really sure how this will sound, because I’ll be going about this through the day with my hope being that I’ll post this around the end of the day.

I think first and foremost, we need to thank Pope Benedict for being a truly wonderful Pope. He opened up the doors so that the Anglicans could come back into communion with the Church. This is truly remarkable. He wrote his truly insightful and thought provoking Jesus of Nazareth volumes (my review of the first one to come). He released numerous documents in support of rekindling the fire of our faith and traditions. Latin Mass no longer needs the permission of the bishop in order to be said. These are just a few of my personal highlights that I can think of off the top of my head.

First though, the timing of his resignation comes during the most difficult time of year for the Church, during Lent. I believe that we as a Church will have a very difficult and spiritually draining Lent this year as we more than likely won’t have a Pope for the majority of it. I think Satan and his minions will be having a ball and enjoying themselves. I do believe however, this is an opportunity for us to grow even more though, I believe we can at least prepare for it, and remember that God has given us the tools that we need to overcome temptation, since Our Lord did it for 40 days Himself. So, maybe this will be a good Lent for us, as we may get to understand Christ’s temptations more.

Pope Benedict has always been a very insightful and prayerful man. He doesn’t make drastic decisions and he composes himself incredibly well and seems to be in communion with God when he is making decisions. He isn’t rash. I would suspect that the Holy Spirit must have had an interesting conversation and either revealed to him what is to come, or at least informed him that he needs to step down. I do not think this is political at all.

Pope Benedict has made it known and very clear that he believes that if a Pope can not serve, that he should step down. I believe he said this in his interview “Light of the World”. To me, he seems to be in good health, but of course, I do not know the state of his health. You have to admit, that he at least stays true to his word and is not being selfish in keeping his post to the point where he either dies or no longer can mentally server his position. He is looking out for the interests of the Church, which, he indeed as the Pope, is his first priority. Hardly a political movement if you ask me.

I’ve seen a lot of talk about St. Malachy’s prophecy. I don’t really know much about it, but taken from Father Z’s blog post on it the original Latin with translation:

In persecutione extrema S.R.E. sedebit Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus transactis ciuitas septicollis diruetur, et Iudex tremendus iudicabit populum suum. Finis  … In an extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, which once concluded, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the fearful Judge will judge his people. The end.

According to St. Malachy, the next Pope would be this Petrus Romanus. The prophecy has never been proven true, because of course it hasn’t happened yet, plus with all the anti-popes since St. Malachy, it gets confusing.

Interestingly though, if you do follow the prophecies of Our Lady of Garabandal, it is also believed that ‘The Warning’ will occur during the next Pope’s reign. It would indeed be interesting if that happened. Again, this apparition has not been approved by the Church. It can’t be approved until the prophecies have either come to fruition, or have not. Its as simple as that.

That’s all for now, in the coming days if I have more thoughts I’ll be sure to post him. The good news about Pope Benedict’s resignation is that now I’m blogging more, or I suppose that could be bad news.