Pope Francis Health Update: Vatican Issues Thursday Morning Statement

"The Vatican said in a statement that "the Holy Father participated in the rite of the blessing of the Sacred Ashes, which were imposed on him by the celebrant. He then received the Eucharist.

"Afterwards, he engaged in several work activities. During the morning, he also called Father Gabriel Romanelli, the parish priest of the Holy Family Church in Gaza. In the afternoon, he alternated between rest and work."

I can't help wondering if, rather than receiving the Eucharist, and engaging in "several work activities," and given his age and the fact of his double pneumonia, his time would be better spent actually saying Mass, even from his bed or armchair, and preparing for his certain death, which seems to be not too far in the future.

I continue to pray for him, that he will have a "happy death" as Catholic tradition describes it.  One in which he repents of all his sins (we ALL have to do that!), receives absolution, Holy Viaticum, and the Sacrament of Extreme Unction to strengthen him in his last hours against all attacks of the devil, and is given the grace of detachment from all sin, even venial sin, so that when he receives the plenary indulgence of the Apostolic Pardon, he may attain to heaven and the Beatific Vision immediately upon his death, rather than spending any time in Purgatory.

For those who think I am praying for him to die, I am not.  I do not wish for his death.  While a just punishment for our sins, death for any man is a tragedy, insofar as it was not part of God's original plan for us.  But through His passion, death, and resurrection Jesus Christ has conquered death, changing death from a final damnation into a passage to eternal life, for those who choose to permit God to do that for them.  Still, death for all of us is a certainty.  So it is no lack of charity to pray for someone's happy death.  In fact, it is a great charity to do so.  It is in this context, that of an old man with double pneumonia, and the certainty that he will die one day in the not-too-distant future, that I pray for a happy death for Pope Francis.

I also pray for my own happy death (hopefully in the very far future, but not guaranteed to be), and the happy deaths of all those whom I love, and have entrusted them to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.  Would that we should all die this way!