With Popes in mind … Friday, June 28

Pope John Paul II on 12 August 1993 in Denver (Colorado), U.S.A.

A Rosary Meditation … The Second Sorrowful Mystery, the Scourging at the Pillar. “He was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins.” Isaiah 53:5.  As Pope John Paul II’s beatification cause moves forward, more is coming to light about the late pontiff’s life, including testimonies that he occasionally scourged himself and sometimes prayed nonstop for many hours. John Paul II often put himself through “bodily penance,” said Sister Tobiana Sobodka, a Polish nun who worked for the Pope in his private Vatican apartments and at his summer residence in Castle Gandolfo near Rome. “We would hear it,” said Sister Sobodka, who belongs to the Order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. “We were in the next room at Castle Gandolfo. You could hear the sound of the blows when he would flagellate himself. He did it when he was still capable of moving on his own.” Emery Kabongo, a secretary of John Paul II, also backed up the claim. “He would punish himself and in particular just before he ordained bishops and priests,” he said. “I never actually saw it myself but several people told me about it.”

The above is taken from an article at Newsmax.com. … Now, I’m not suggesting we follow suite. Perhaps there is more than one way to do “bodily penance”, something other than self-scourging. Something the average person, you and me, can do. And there is a simple answer to the desire to follow Christ in this. Jesus denied Himself. That’s the real crux of the matter. A little self-denial on our part. The Rule of Saint Benedict instructs the monks to live a life of perpetual Lent. Maybe every once in a while we could designate a day or so as our own personal Lent and practice a little self-denial, a little “crushing” of self.

Today …

St. Paul I, Pope

Pope St. Paul I. Pope from 757-767. The brother of Pope Stephen II and a Roman, he was educated in the Lateran Palace, became a deacon under Pope Zachary, and wielded considerable influence in his brother’s administration. Elected to succeed Stephen, he took as his primary concern the threat posed to Rome and the Papal States by the Lombards. Paul secured an alliance with the Frankish king Pepin the Short, thereby cementing the relationship between the Holy See and the Frankish Empire which culminated with the historically significant alliance between Pope Leo III and Charlemagne. Paul also opposed the Iconoclast policies of the Byzantine emperor Constantine V, thereby exacerbating further the deteriorating relationship between the papacy and the Byzantine Empire. He died on June 28 at St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, in Rome.

Quote … “Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.” Pope Paul VI.