April 2013 Grand Knight's Message: Prayers for Pope Francis

Grand Knight's article from the April 2013 bulletin: 

 My wife and I sat on the beach in Florida enjoying the beautiful weather and our children making sand castles on a beautiful afternoon. As we sat in our chairs, I overheard a couple of women talking about the day’s events. "Well, we have a new Pope! I think the Catholics will now be happy again."

Just how true her words are! To have the Vicar of Christ watching and praying for the Church should bring us great relief. With great excitement we announced to our children the good news, and were excited to learn more about who our new Pope was. We stopped for a moment and offered up a Glory Be in thanksgiving for our new Pope and for his Pontificate.

And so, this is a very simple article. I ask you all to pray for Benedict XVI in his retirement — in great thanksgiving for his sacrifice to Mother Church and for blessings on him in all his journeys yet to come. Let us also pray for Pope Francis. Please spend time in prayer for him as we begin to discover how God will use him to guide the Church. Certainly, we will see great scrutiny around the departure of Pope Benedict and the shortcomings of Pope Francis. Let us be their support through constant and continual prayer for them.

Please take a moment to offer up The Angelus for the intentions of Pope Francis:

• Leader: The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
• Response: And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
• All: Hail Mary, full of grace...

• Leader: Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
• Response: Be it done unto me according to thy word.
• All: Hail Mary, full of grace… 

• Leader: And the Word became flesh. 
• Response: And dwelt among us.
• All: Hail Mary, full of grace…

• Leader: Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
• Response: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
• Leader: Let us pray.
• All: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.