Orthodox Skies and High Intelligibility!
Pope strongly defends Priestly Celibacy and Consecrated Virginity
Family is the vocation that God wrote in the nature of man and woman, but there is another vocation, complementary to that of matrimony: the calling to celibacy and to virginity for the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the vocation that Jesus himself lived. How to recognize it? How to follow it? …I answer you with two essential elements on how to recognize this vocation to the priesthood or to consecrated life: praying and walking in the Church. These two things go together, they are intertwined. At the source of every vocation to the consecrated life there always is a strong experience of God, an experience that is not forgotten, that is remembered all through life! …It is God who calls; but it is important to establish a daily relationship with Him, to listen to him in silence before the Tabernacle and in the intimacy of our own selves, to talk to him, to stay close to the Sacraments. Having this familiar relationship with the Lord is as it were to have open the window of our life, so that He may make his voice heard….I want to say one thing to you strongly, especially today: virginity for the Kingdom of God is not a “no”, it is a “yes”! True, it includes renunciation to a marital bond and to one’s own family, but at its foundation there is the “yes”, as a response to the total “yes” of Christ for us, and this “yes” makes [us] fertile.
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In this same upbeat vein, I simply must share this with you (from Eccles and Bosco is Saved):
‘Twas on the Monday morning Pope Francis came to call
With apologies to Flanders and Swann.

Now, let me explain this precisely…
'Twas on the Monday morning, Pope Francis came to call. He said a lot of clever things I didn't get at all. It seems, when he explains the faith, Things aren't always made clear, So I went to phone the Tablet up - a rag we all revere. CHORUS: Oh, it all makes work, For the holy man to do!
Now what Pope Francis meant to say was…
'Twas on the Tuesday morning, Ma Pepinster dropped in, She told me that the Pope had scrapped the old ideas of sin. "Abortion is OK now, Same-sex marriage too," she said. [said she.] But this didn't seem too likely So I e-mailed Father Zed. [Zee.] CHORUS: Oh, it all makes work, For the holy man to do!
'Twas on the Wednesday morning, Father Z came in pursuit, He sold me lots of coffee And he taught me how to shoot. He told me things were much the same As they had been before, But the day after his visit I found Dawkins at my door. CHORUS: Oh, it all makes work, For the holy man to do!
'Twas on the Thursday morning, That Dawkins rang the bell: Once he'd got across the threshold, Not so easy to expel. He said, "God's a delusion And the Catholics are vile," So I had to call a bishop in, To say something worthwhile! CHORUS: Oh, it all makes work, For the holy man to do!
This is not usually the way to welcome a bishop.
'Twas on the Friday morning, The bishop took his turn. He said "For abstract doctrine, I have really no concern. Just do what seems all right to you, And not what you've been taught." It sounds great, but I wanted To be sure what the Pope thought. CHORUS: Oh, it all makes work, For the holy man to do! On Saturdays and Sundays, They're busy down in Rome, So 'twas on the Monday morning, That the Pope came to my home!
The scansion, as in the original, is irregular, but it works OK if sung.
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