The Chair of Peter

Still no time for lengthy posts, so my long-anticipated post on sacred music will have to wait.

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter.  As best I can tell, this is the only furniture-related feast in the Roman Calendar, so it is fitting that we are in the throes of last-minute packing for our move tomorrow.  At this time of night and as stressed out as I am about tomorrow, I can't generate any sort of original thought for this occasion.  So, I offer the following prayer for Pope Benedict:

Let us pray for Benedict, our Pope. 

May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look mercifully upon Thy servant Benedict, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

What a wonderful gift it is for the teaching authority of the Church, symbolized by Peter's Chair, to have endured for so many centuries.