Monday, June 2, 2014

My Favourite Pope




1. Anybody can be Pope; the proof of this is that I became one.   
2. It is easier for a father to have children than it is for children to have a real father.
3. Someone asked  Pope John: “How many people work in the Vatican” and he replied: “Only about half of them.” 
4. Born poor but of honourable and humble people, I am particularly proud to die poor.
5. The Italians come to ruin most generally in three ways; women gambling and farming. My family chose the slowest one.
6. Men are like wine - some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.
7. See everything, overlook a great deal, correct a little.
8. Here I am at the end of the road and at the top of the heap.
9. We are not here to guard a museum but to create a flourishing garden of life. 
10. The feeling of my smallness and nothingness always keeps me in good company.
11. It often happens that  I wake up at night and begin to think about some serious problem and decide I must tell the Pope about it. Then  I wake up completely and remember that  I am the Pope.
12. When I eat alone I feel like a seminarian being punished. I tried it for one week and I was not comfortable. Then I searched through Sacred Scripture for something saying I had to eat alone. I found nothing, so I gave it up and it's much better now.
13. The habit of thinking ill of everything and everyone is tiresome to ourselves and to all around us.
14. Do not walk through time without leaving worthy evidence of your passage
15. When asked what he thought about death the Pope said:  “My bags are packed and I am ready to go.”

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I have been meaning to ask you this for a while but I have given up on finding a button to send you a message so I will juts leave a comment and hope you see it. I really love you blog, I have been following it for a while. I was wondering, could you recommend me other Buddhist blogs to follow? Cause I have been unlucky and as someone who has just recently started getting into Buddhism I would like to read form people from different traditions and such.

Thank you for your time.

Shravasti Dhammika said...

Dear Carolina, I’m glad you find my blog interesting and that you are wanting to explore Buddhism more. Here are a few links that you might find useful.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/

http://www.buddhanet.net

/e-learning/basic-guide.htm

http://www.buddhisma2z.com/

http://www.goodquestiongoodanswer.net/

http://www.buddhanet.net/

brahmavihara said...

It's always interesting to observe that one of the hallowed rituals that The Pope has to conduct is to wash the feet of the socially disadvantaged, criminals and other ordinary members of the Roman Catholic Flock. My guess about this activity is, that it reflects upon the selfless qualities of loving-kindness that were displayed by Jesus Christ, or are at least qualities that are thought to accord with fundamental Christian values. I remember staying at a Buddhist Monastery of the Thai Forest tradition some years ago. I was told by some of the monks there, that in their tradition, that the very famous teachers of this lineage were part of a daily ritual in which their feet were washed by junior or lesser monks and that there was actually a sense of competition about who would be the one doing the washing because this activity was seen as something that could generate a lot of good merit for the lucky foot washer. Interesting! I am certain that a similar sense of selflessness was also being developed here as well.