Long to Reign over us!

I have like everyone else been glued to the TV and marvelled at the visit of the Holy Father. Against all the earthly odds (but not the Heavenly One's!!) the people of God and those who would know Him, the searching and the curious and those who will become His, turned out in large numbers in Britain and listened to Pope Benedict and what he actually said live, instead of sound bite and editorial bias. We can be thankful for live TV unedited if not for the annoying rolling repetitive script underneath which at times was so unnecessary (surely we ought to be offered a choice to turn that rolling script off?!). Every word of H.H. can now be read again and studied and prayed over and hopefully acted upon ('be doers of The Word and not hearers only'). This was an impressive parish-style mission of excellence but of course Pope Benedict's parish is the whole of Christendom! The measure of success of any parish or other mission is not necessarily to be judged by it's immediate reaction to God's word but over months and years and lifetimes changed for the better. This will surely happen as the measure of the visit, as I said in my earlier post before the visit, will be if we are blessed by the visit or not. Who can deny that we have been richly blessed and that the fruits will be gathered over many years and even lifetimes (both here and in eternity). I still maintain that we should mount a campaign to get proper access to the national shrine of St. Edward the Confessor. Am I alone in feeling that the Dean was 'lording it over 'his ' church a bit? Otherwise The Abbey and especially the choir was magnificent. A very successful turnout by Blessed John Henry Newman's countrymen but then again we're used to having Royalty in our midst in this kingdom and we know how to appreciate those who reign over us temporally and spiritually too!