The Bishop Prayer

The bishop of our diocese retired some time ago (almost a year ago) due to illness. Bishops are appointed by the Pope — in this case, Pope Benedict XVI. As you can imagine, with all a pope does and deals with, appointing a bishop isn't going to be the very first priority task of the day.

From the time our bishop retired, our parish had been saying a prayer for the appointment of a new bishop to shepherd the faithful. For myself, I had added the prayer to my daily prayers. At one point in April 2008, I told God that I was tired of saying this prayer and seeing no results. I said that the pope was going to have to make his decision without my help in prayer. (Thankfully, God is very understanding of my humanness.)

Two days later, I was at the parish office and the gals in the office asked me if I'd heard the good news. The pope had appointed a new bishop, and it had just been announced by the diocese that morning. To say the least, I was a bit shocked.

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