It was requested that I show a picture of the Papal Blessing I recently received. My parents received one decades ago that has Pope John Paul II on it. A very good priest friend of my father's, Father Pingatore, brought it back from Rome for my parents. For years it hung on our wall in my parent's den (what an outdated term!) It currently hangs on the wall behind my computer desk (shown in the photo outside it's frame). I like it because it has a real 4x6 picture of Pope John Paul II on it, back when he was healthy and vibrant.
Although Pope John Paul II was "the Pope of my generation," I'm kind of partial to Pope Benedict. The blessing is beautiful and I suppose I should find a suitable frame for it...not the one that I have laying around from IKEA.
Sorry the pics are not so good. I had them laying on a table and stood on a chair to take the photos. Seems I'm a bit unbalanced! You can click on the photos to enlarge.
Thank you, JP Sonnen, for the very kind favor of obtaining this for us and carrying it back from Rome.
8 comments:
Boy, that's kind of neat, Swissie. I never heard of a "paper" (as opposed to a "papal" blessing). A real treasure.
What'd your folks have to do to merit that --- slaughter some Lombards or Vandals? Make the pilgrimage from London to Santiago de Compostella?
Crawl up 99 steps on their knees?
Holy Mother Church was a lot more interesting in the olden days when she was in charge!
Ray:
I don't know exactly what my parents had to do to get the apostolic blessing because they belonged to a secret society run by cardinals deep in the Vatican.
Kidding!
I believe there are several places you can obtain one in Rome. I think some orders of nuns create them (do the calligraphy). We got ours for our 20th wedding anniversary. Sigh. Can I be so old!
They're beautiful. So cool.
Hey there! My husband and I have a similar but larger scroll work papal blessing from Rome for the occasion of our wedding - these blessings also have a plenary indulgence attached to them under the usual norms (confession, etc) The indulgence is there but not expressly written on the document but is attached to every papal blessing.
Our most prized possession is an older papal blessing in french from the 1930's from my mother and father in laws wedding day blessing. Its from Pope Pius the XII and expressly states the blessing and the plenary indulgence at the moment of death for the couple AND their family (et famille) I like to look at this blessing and remind God frequently that I am one of the famille and pray I receive this blessing at the moment of my death.
Hi Sanctus:
Your blessing must be huge since this one is 13x17. Not a standard US size for your off-the-shelf picture frames! Very cool about the one of your PIL's. I don't know why this one doesn't say, "...and family." Thanks for the info on the indulgence!
Incredibly kind of Mr. Sonnen to arrange to get it and bring it back.
Our papal blessing from Benedict looks completely different in every way. Interesting!
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