Dear Pope Francis,

God bless you and your priesthood, dear Holy Father. For it is in this mysterious gift the papacy rests in your hands, stirs in your heart, and witnesses with your life.

Providence has brought you to us. I am always grateful for Providence. I am a spiritual daughter of St. Mother Theodore Guerin, the foundress of the Sisters of Providence in Terre Haute, Ind. In the 1980s, I was taught by her capable nuns whose one thread of thought was always to focus on God’s Providence.

God’s Plan Revealed Over Time

In God’s Providence, he put a man at the head of his Holy Catholic Church, starting with St. Peter who he asked three very poignant and straightforward questions. They are questions that each pope has answered through every century and ones you must ask yourself every day.

Christ asked Peter if he loved him three times (John 21:15-17) Answering ‘Yes’ each time, Jesus then commanded Peter to “Feed my Sheep,” instituting the role of the pope as the Good Shepherd. How vivid an image that does not change through the centuries of Christ’s Church but grows stronger.

How many times Our Lord spoke of the Good Shepherd protecting his flock, laying down His life for them, and keeping the wolves at bay. What a beautiful role you have been given by God himself.

A Rock to Hold on During the Storm

The times are weary and evil, like many other times the Church has weathered, and yet it finds you at the head of the church during an unprecedented time in history. We are a society entrenched in the greatest technology and the greatest sins that cry to heaven. Abortion rates skyrocket, infanticide in the womb, sodomy without shame, lack of shame in all areas of sexual life, and the pillaging of the poor despite these great technological advances infect our culture.

There is no cure for cancer and many Christians live like unbelievers forgetting the great grace of the Eucharistic Lord.

The papacy gives hope to world. Other sounds reverberate around the world. Words of Our Holy Father that are questioned, scrutinized, taken out of context, and at times cause alarm. That is for you and your cardinals to decide how to clarify while upholding the dogma of the Catholic Church that has sustained us for more than 2,000 years.

Support Our Holy Father

My job as a faithful lay Catholic is to pray for unity and to meet this culture as the great St. John Paul II told us to back in 1978, “Be Not Afraid.” The pope has many titles but the most endearing is Servant of the Servants of God. The Pope washes our feet, uplifts our hearts, and can never cease to lead us to truth, beauty, and goodness (Philippians 4:8.)

All this noise and distraction about your papacy—you were elected on my birthday— is the noisy clang of the chain the devil is attached to. He  is straining hard to be unleashed.

Did not the reverent Cardinal Sarah say, “”The truth is that the church is represented on earth by the vicar of Christ, that is by the pope. And whoever is against the pope is, ipso facto, outside the church.” What a holy cardinal you have supporting you in God’s Providence!

In 1978, when St. John Paul II took office there wasn’t the Internet, cellphones, and social media. Communism was alive when John Paul II was elected. A brick wall in Germany reminded us of the stark reality. Pope John Paul II lived through Nazism and a communist rule so what better Lion of Judah to come out roaring on the balcony of St. Peter’s proclaiming “Be Not Afraid.”

That proclamation is relevant today for the papacy and for the people of the Catholic Church. Today, we face new fears, new evils, and new trials but we say “Be Not Afraid.”

Different, Yet the Same

Your entry onto the balcony of St. Peter’s was quite different for quite a different papacy formed in God’s Providence. You came out more as a startled dove, surprised at the support and deep love showered on you from the people below your papal balcony. That love of the people has sustained the papacy through generations.

Accept that love, dearest Holy Father, for we love you. The sheep of the Good Shepherd follow your voice.

We seek your answer just as Christ sought Peter’s answer. For we are do what Christ did.

We ask you: Do you love us, Holy Father? Do you want to feed us? The faithful will keep asking you this. They will ask every pope that comes after you these same questions posed first by Christ.

Christ’s Promise

You asked us to pray for you that first night and we should honor that request every day. The Gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church that Christ founded. Christ’s promises are true even among the greatest sins. If the world as we know it does change, then the prayer we pray at every Mass, “Thy Kingdom Come,” has been fulfilled in great joy and Providence.

Hell has not triumphed in that instance and never will. Christ has triumphed. God’s laws are always fulfilled even when the mystery of it leaves us in awe.

Dear Holy Father, who follows a long line of popes both good and bad, I say to you as a faithful Catholic: “You are in my prayers” and “Be Not Afraid.” I say to my fellow Catholics hurt by the Church: “Be Not Afraid.” St. John Paul II set the example by teaching us to face the millennium we now live in with hope.

As St. Mother Theodore Guerin said to her nuns and her students that came after her down through the generations, “Put yourself gently into the hands of Providence. Trusting all your affairs to Him and putting them also under the protection of Mary and Joseph, you will see that all will be well”

This is my prayer for you and the entire Church. Heaven’s best to you dear Holy Father.

In Providence,

Your humble daughter,

Jennifer

About the author

Jennifer Lindberg is a wife and mother to six children. She is an award-winning journalist with first-place awards from the Associated Press. Jennifer left secular journalism after seeing John Paul II in Split, Croatia. This prompted her to begin a career in the Catholic press and writing for non-profits. She writes at www.thinkingfromhope and has an Instagram account by the same name. Follow her there, as she talks about hope, Catholicism, lifestyle, and the beauty of faith.

Notes:

1.“Put yourself gently into the hands of Providence.” The quote comes from a letter written by Mother Theodore, dated March 27, 1854, to Cecile (Le Fer De La Motte) Choisnet, the younger sister of Sisters Mary Joseph and St. Francis Xavier. It is hoped that the encouragement Mother Theodore offers her “beloved Cecile” will provide inspiration for all who visit her shrine.

“You will not be offended, and you will allow me to say, and repeat, that you ought not to give way to uneasiness about the future. Put yourself gently into the hands of Providence. Trusting all your affairs to Him and putting them also under the protection of Mary and Joseph, you will see that all will be well.” Saint Mother Theodore Guerin.

2. The official titles of the Pope are:

The official list of titles of the Pope, in the order in which they are given in the Annuario Pontificio, is: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God.[1] ^{https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Pope/Titles}

3. https://aleteia.org/2017/04/08/rare-footage-watch-pope-john-paul-iis-first-words-after-his-election/

4. Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, said the people who portray him as an opponent of Pope Francis are being used by the devil to help divide the church.

“The truth is that the church is represented on earth by the vicar of Christ, that is by the pope. And whoever is against the pope is, ipso facto, outside the church,” the cardinal said in an interview published Oct. 7 in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily.