Grass Roots
*Long Sniff* "Ahhhh...that's much, much better". His holiness, The Young Pope Peter II became a busier man ever since he was elected by God and the Cardinals to lead the One True Apostolic, Celestian Catholic Church and its faithful from the demons, like how a shepard needs to tend to his own flock of lost sheep away from the wolves. Although initially he thought that it wouldn't make much difference than he was just a mere cardinal attending to his own congregation, it quickly dawned upon him that being a Pope is truly such a hectic and stressful job, how on Earth did his predecessors manage to handle this chores and duties? Certainly for him prayers weren't just enough to calm him down and make him relax, unfortunately whether he liked it or not, he found something ingenuitive that surprisingly was quite effective to begin with...FRANKINCENSE...instead of pot-smoking! Heck yes!
Sure it is an integral part of religious and spiritual ceremonies around the world, but did you ever notice that unique calm instilled by the smell of incense? It turns out the smoke of frankincense can measurably relieve the symptoms of anxiety and depression, whether or not it was still considered a sin was up to between him and God alone TYP thought. There he was lying on that bed in his bedroom, after a long day of serving the masses and the Lord, after endless hours of praying and celebrating mass, giving all of the most holy sacraments to any believer deemed to be worth of them, combatting heresies and blasphemy, meeting the youth, the old, the sick, the crippled...the list goes on and on. At last when it made him so calm and peaceful in his broken mind...with the last huffs and puffs from the tray containing smoking hot iincense, he slumbered in, tucked neatly and nicely in bed and....began to
*Alarm clock ring-dinging* "GAH!...Oh, t'was just a silly dream...full of banal platitudes hehe...or? The Young Pope, looking slightly confused in the early morning as to whether that dream was sanctioned by the Divnity, the Frankincense or a combination of both, he let out a breath and wanted to snooze, but realised that as Pontiff the day was just starting for him, a long day like every other one he lived through, as dawn was rising over the Vatican, and it was a soft, pink light tinged subtly with shades of orange and gold. Acrobatic doves who made their homes in the vast colonnade in St. Peter’s Square, which had atop its columns statues of the Holy Saints, dashed to and fro, cooing gently. Lines of pilgrims and worshippers had already begun to queue next to the basilica’s great bronze door, awaiting entrance into the tomb of St. Peter himself and the holiest acreage in Catholic Christendom. From inside this holy of holies came the polyphonic chant of many monks and nuns performing Lauds, the monastic prayer which greeted the rising of the sun:
When Pope Peter II opened one of the bedroom windows to let in a fresh breeze of air gush through, “Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel; quia visitavit et fecit redemptionem plebi suæ,” sang a hundred Benedict monks and Cistercian Nuns in perfect unison, the differece in octaves creating profound wave of spiritual music:
“Et erexit cornu salutis nobis, in domo David pueri sui.
Sicut locutus est per os sanctorum, qui a sæculo sunt, prophetarum eius:
Salutem ex inimicis nostris, et de manu omnium, qui oderunt nos:
Ad faciendam misericordiam cum patribus nostris, et memorari testamenti sui sancti.
Iusiurandum, quod iuravit ad Abraham patrem nostrum, daturum se nobis:
Ut sine timore, de manu inimicorum liberati, serviamus illi.
In sanctitate et iustitia coram ipso, omnibus diebus nostris.
Et tu, puer, propheta Altissimi vocaberis, præibis enim ante faciem Domini parare vias eius: Ad dandam scientiam salutis plebi eius: in remissionem peccatorum eorum:
Per viscera misericordiæ Dei nostri: in quibus visitabit nos oriens ex alto:
Illuminare his qui in tenebris et in umbra mortis sedent: ad dirigendos pedes nostros in viam pacis.”*
*In English the Lauds may be translated as: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel: for He hath visited, and redeemed His people; And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us: in the house of His servant David; As He spake by the mouth of His holy Prophets: which have been since the world began; That we should be saved from our enemies: and from the hands of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers: and to remember His holy covenant; To perform the oath which He sware to our forefather Abraham: that He would give us, That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies: might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him: all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto His people: for the remission of their sins; Through the tender mercy of our God: whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us; To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death: and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”"I wonder what the Lord has prepared for me today?" he asked while looking at the blue sky.
