Pope wears Prada?

No, the Pope is said not to be wearing a pair of Prada red shoes. Only The Devil wear Prada. Vatican said :

According to Vatican sources the Pope’s shoes are made by a cobbler from Novara called Adriano Stefanelli, who makes them from calf or kid for the winter and nappa leather for the summer. Papal shoe repairs are carried out by Antonio Arellano, a Peruvian shoemaker in the Borgo, the medieval quarter next to St Peter’s.

(source : TimesOnline)

And it reminds me of the a joke by Archibishop Sheen in one of his talk with youths about sex. First, he explained to the youths the names of the robes the Bishops wear for different feasts. There is the cassocks which they wear daily and other robes that come with the season like purple, red, green and gold. So, one day, Archibishop Sheen went to some posh hotel in Beverly Hills for some event. Usually, these posh hotels have butlers who will turn down the bed at night when you are away from your room. They will place your pajamas on the bed.

So, Archbishop told the youths that when he got back to his rooms, he found his own pajamas on one side of the bed (it must be a king size bed) and his purple robe on the other side. Initially, I didn’t get the joke. Then, the youths started laughing and Archbishop explained that the butler must have mistaken the robe belonging to him as some night gown of a woman. LOL. Now, whenever I see my parish priests in their robes, I still find the night gown joke funny. And this comes from the Archbishop, so no one can fault me.

Though it is good to have all these exterior signs and symbols, sometimes, I do agree with this quote :

One prelate, on condition of anonymity, told AFP of his misgivings about the changes underway at the Vatican. “The liturgical celebration is first of all a spiritual encounter between believers and Christ. The increasingly insistent focus on ritual could give this encounter a constrained feeling.”

(AFP)

Initially when I joined a Catholic Church, I did get that overwhelming feelings of ‘OMG, what do I do now? Do I bow, do I kneel, do I stand, do I say this or do I say that?’. Sometimes, the whole ritual do become distractions rather than helping one to be close to the main issue - Be with Christ.

And a thought just occurred to me. Hmmmm….Jesus Christ was this simple man with simple robe, sandals and hairstyle, minus all the grand ’style’. I wonder who injected all these into the celebration? I am just wondering…..That’s why I now prefer to go to church on weekdays when there are less ‘distractions’. I don’t need to keep up with who is offering what, representing what, which cantor group is better or see who is wearing what on a beautiful Sunday and note if their shoes and bags match with their clothes.

You should try it too. Go to church when there is no crowd. You get that peaceful feelings.