Mass For The Election Of A Pope...

At Blackfen our monthly First Saturday Missa Cantata we celebrated the Mass for the Election of a Pope. This doesn't get celebrated very often - for obvious reasons - and the last Sede Vacante period occurred before I started blogging. We used our most beautiful red vestments; they are from a nineteenth century French set, with an exquisite embroidered Agnus Dei on the back.

There are more photos on my Flickr page.

Fr. Finigan's sermon at the Mass was a real wake-up call. It was a salutary reminder that we need to pray for the election of a good, wise and holy Pontiff, and not just sit back complacently to wait for the Holy Spirit to do it all. Yes, we need to trust that God will not leave us orphans - he has promised to be with his bride, the Church, until the end of time. But that trust must not be presumptuous  and we need to remember that God sometimes allows evil to happen; sometimes it is allowed as a punishment for our sins. There have been bad Popes in the past. As my friend Vox in Rama said, our failure to pray more fervently for Benedict XVI probably lead (indirectly) to his resignation.

It's a sobering thought.

If you haven't got a Cardinal to pray for during the Sede Vacante, you can get one here.