How well I remember the day! I was confirmed in the Catholic Church on the same evening, along with a couple hundred other (several years younger) confirmands at St. Mary's. It was so peculiar to hear the Eucharistic prayer without the name of the pope!
While everyone was terribly grieved at the death of our Holy Father, it was nevertheless quite a grace to be confirmed on the same day as his death. It burned into my conscience, especially, that his life of holiness and bravery in the cause of Christ was precisely the life God was calling me to, as a soul who had just been received into full communion with the Catholic Church.
I understand that John Paul's cause for beatification is proceeding apace. Hopefully soon he will be raised to the honor of the altar. Lacking that, it seems appropriate to pray for the repose of his soul, as he himself requested such prayer:
O Lord God, by the Precious Blood of Your divine Son, Jesus, shed in His cruel scourging, deliver the souls in Purgatory, and among them those souls who are nearest to sharing Your glory, that they may fully praise and bless You forever. Amen.
Our Father... Hail Mary...
Eternal rest give to them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
Amen.
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