from Gloria oliuæ

Pope Benedict XVI's announcement that he will resign at the end of this month has staggering implications, even if you're not Catholic. The first thought that occurred to me as I was driving my kids to school and heard this on the radio was that prophecy mavens – Biblical and otherwise – will have a field day with this! I started thinking of St. Malachy's (well, it's attributed to this late twelfth century saint, but it doesn't appear in the historical record supposedly because it was sealed away in the Vatican until sixteenth century's end) Prophecy of the Popes, a collection of phrases that could be attributed to the reigning pope (Celestine II) and the next one hundred eleven of them.

To see the full prophecy and its pros and cons, go here for the simplest explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophecy_of_the_Popes

The Latin in today's title is the phrase attributed to Benedict, meaning “in the glory of the olive” for the regnal (that is, official) name that Joseph Ratzinger chose for himself eight years ago; the Benedictine order's crest bears an olive branch. And the last pope – for according to this prophecy, Benedict's successor as Pope will be the last one, “Petrus Romanus” or Peter the Roman (or Peter II, see next sentence) who presides over the destruction of Rome – appears to bring two thousand years full circle. Peter, the fisherman who was one of the original disciples of Jesus, is attributed in church histories to be the first pope. And even if you discount all non Biblical prophecy as satanic works – which the older I get the more I don't – if enough people believe this they might, just might, set world's end in motion.

(Oh, Malachy is not to be confused with the Old Testament prophet Malachi whose name meaning “messenger” graces that text's last book.) And neither am I to be confused with any great prophet; keeping me and my family together is enough of an issue, please don't make the world my purview! This weekend I had our kids Sarah and Jeffrey get over being sick with the diarrhea bug going around their schools – Jeffrey was out of school for two days and Sarah and Martha both had their bouts this weekend. So far yours truly (or in the words of Alex from A Clockwork Orange, “Your Humble Narrator”) hasn't come down sick, but I am napping more than I used to. It's a good thing to have energy husbanded up, isn't it. Especially when Sunday schoolers seem to be particularly energized – or in one third grader's words, “hyper” – and I wanted to pull my hair out at one point.

But I didn't (though I do need to get a haircut this weekend, I'm starting to get called “ma'am” from the back) and after church and lunch – Martha didn't come Sunday because she was having a hard time standing up without throwing up – Sarah and I went with Jeffrey to his second of five Minot Soccer Association kids' practices. He even got his shirt and he looks really cool in it; we've just got to make sure he only wears it on Sundays until soccer is over the middle of next month. And this being the week of Valentine's Day you see at school a lot of red and white around! I drove the kids to school and walked both the kids to their classes; Sarah readied for her weekly spelling test and tomorrow to deliver her first book report and Jeffrey with his strawberry ice cream topping for Thursday's class party. And tomorrow morning Martha and I have their parent-teacher conferences, which ought to be great!

Coming full circle, David