Pray for me and I'll pray for you

I really love the smiling sense of awe in his face!

In a weird but wonderful quirk of fate, all of my children were home yesterday on what we refer to as a "Mama approved skip day."  Classic Rock was working on the computer while the rest of us puttered around the house.  He excitedly announced from the depths of the upstairs office, "White Smoke!  There's White Smoke!"

I logged into an online news feed and called a good friend to make sure she'd heard.  She was at work and I didn't know if she'd have the news on.  Then she pointed out that she works at the Church and maybe they were more clued in than me.  Well, we know that's not hard :)  She even suggested that I use the television for up to date news.  Oh, yeah, the television...

I gathered the children to the den and we sat together watching, listening and waiting for the announcements of who?  what name? and from where?

The reporters discussed the use of social media in this era and commented that even 78 year old Pope [Emeritus] Benedict had used Twitter.  That's when the fun in my den started as the boys conjured possible Papal tweets:

Yo! Somebody sat on my cool pointy hat!

My crucifix is so large it wards off vampires.

Popping wheelies in the Pope-mobile.

And on it went.  All hilarious and with the best intentions.  Then the curtains on the balcony finally opened and we heard the news.  Latin American.  A Jesuit.  Francis (our family's favorite).  Humble.

Then he asked for the prayer of the people and bowed his head.  My first thought was a line from the Michael W. Smith song, Pray for Me.  "Pray for me and I'll pray for you."  So beautiful.

My next thought was that I love seeing Classic Rock in his new youth group t-shirt:

We do know it.  And we are proud.  It's a great day to be new!