The Litany of Loreto: Further thoughts

First of all thanks to epsilon for his suggestions, and to several people who have written to me privately encouraging me not to give up hope. One of these echoed epsilon's suggestion that I mount a petition. I am doubtful of my own ability to do such a thing as my blogs are not sufficiently widely read, but will wait until the end of this week and the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, before reconsidering the matter.

Secondly, I omitted to mention in my last post that my PCED correspondent also said, "We do not know what initiative(s) the Holy Father may take in the closing of the Year for Priests." This encouraged me to continue praying that he may do something special in any case. We now know that in Fatima he consecrated all priests to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the spoken prayer with which he did it was very special indeed. (He even mentioned the many who are consecrated to spiritual motherhood of priests.) In a very important respect, what he did was much more than I had asked for in the letter that never reached him. On the other hand, having this added invocation in the Litany, would be a perpetual reminder of the Year of the Priest and of his consecration in Fatima, a reminder to us all to continue to pray to Our Blessed Mother for all our priests.

Finally a word about the Holy Father's continued promotion of modern communication. The Vatican has moved amazingly rapidly over the past year in response to his lead. However, they have tended to concentrate on outgoing information, and appear to have done little yet about streamlining RECEPTION of information and responding to it. If the response to my letter, and the explanation I received, are anything to go by, Secretariat officials are still operating an old-fashioned system, which does not cope at all satisfactorily with the increased amount of mail received by the Holy Father, and which has the effect of making the flock feel cut off from their shepherd who has inspired them in the first place. Perhaps the next twelve months will see them giving some attention to this side of the communication process. As for emails, those of us who have tried that system to contact the Holy Father, only do so now to register their support for him. There is absolutely no point in asking questions or making suggestions because you simply will not receive a reply.

As for the General Audience epsilon, I never miss it!!!! God bless and thanks again.