HABEMUS PAPAM: POPE PETER THE ROMAN
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 8, 2025 – So, we have our Pope Peter the Roman after all, hidden (as they say) in plain sight.
“Prevost” is an anagram of “Petros V”, and “petros” is the Greek form of “Peter”.
Definition auto-compiled from two websites (one, two):
Petros is a name of Greek origin that means “rock”. It is an alternate form of Peter. The name derives from Latin “petra” (Petrus), from the Ancient Greek “petra” / “Petros”, from the Aramaic word “kephas”, which in turn derives from the Syriac “kefa”, all words meaning “stone, rock”.
“Kephas”, of course, is what Jesus surnamed his disciple Simon, the one we know as Peter and allegedly the first pope.
Pope Petros, who is of Italian heritage, will now sit in Rome, satisfying the prophecy for “Peter the Roman” in every conceivable way.
In case you’re new to this game, here is the last verse of Malachy’s prophecy, translated into English:
“In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.”
So again, there we have it. They done did it. They followed the script to the letter, and now, I guess, we’re doomed.
Pope Petros is 69. I give him 20-25 years at most, which gives the rest of us about 20-25 years before the “S” really Hits The Fan.
Remember – this is a script they’re following. It’s not a prophecy; it’s a script.
Malachy might have intended it as a prophecy, but they’re following it as a script.
As my grandmother would say (if she spoke Latin): Deus adiuvet nos omnes.
THIS IS THE STONE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 7, 2025 – For whatever time we have left here, we’re tasked with doing what’s right in the eyes of the Lord. That’s our job description – “Do God’s Will” – which encompasses all the other non-negotiables, like the Commandments and loving our enemies.
But doing what’s right in the eyes of the Lord is guaranteed going to put us at odds with those who don’t do what’s right, and those who don’t do what’s right are guaranteed going to be in positions of authority over us, pressuring us by various means to abide by their commands, not God’s.
We’re well acquainted with this pressure as born-again believers. It’s our everyday lived reality. What can only be described as Satan’s commandments have been enshrined in constitutions and laws, embedded in educational systems, promoted by all forms of media, and established as societal norms. Standing up for God now means standing against the whole of society, which can be daunting for some (it’s meant to be; it’s a test) but should never be for us. We are like David standing before Goliath armed with nothing but faith and trust and a sling and a few stones. But faith and trust in God won’t work without the sling and stones, any more than the sling and stones will work without faith and trust in God.
Being in the realm of time and space, we must put our belief (faith and trust) into action (sling and stones) or it has no value. It’s all well and good to declare that you have faith and trust in God even as you hang up your sling and mount your stones in a display case, saying “I’ve done what I’ve had to do; now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of my labor”. There will never be a time when we’ll be able to hang up our sling and mothball our stones, not while we’re here on Earth; we can put them down for a breather, yes, after each victory or loss, but we’ll always have to keep them in readiness for the next battle, which will likely come tomorrow or even later today.
For each of us, our sling is different; our stones are different. We fight the same battles using diverse tools, as God gives us the ability and guidance. My sling doesn’t look like yours, my stones don’t look like yours, but our faith and trust in God unfolds like fractals from the same source. There is only one God and therefore only one kind of faith and only one kind of trust because it comes from the same Spirit. Our faith and trust in God may differ in measure and degree, but in every other way they’re the same. They’re what bind us to each other spiritually and identify us as children of God and citizens of God’s Kingdom on Earth.
To the followers of Satan’s commands, our sling and stones are unsettling reminders of what they’ve rejected and what awaits them after death. Their ridicule of us and of what’s right in God’s eyes is a fear response. It’s delivered via arrogance and pride and dismissiveness and threats, but underneath is only fear. Terrified of God’s Judgement, they deny the existence of both God and his Judgement and declare there is nothing to fear but fear itself. They make themselves the law and their will the constitution and their desires the norm, but none of these things come from them: they all come from Satan.
This is the stone I shoot today. May it find its mark in the designated forehead. We are to fear, yes, but God and God only. Satan we’re only to pity.
“Forgive them, Father. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
PICKING FROM A PECK OF PAPAL PETERS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 4, 2025 – Pardon me if I’m not supposed to notice, but aren’t there an awful lot of papabile Peters in the 2025 conclave? I’m sure it doesn’t have anything to do with Malachy’s prophecy of “Peter the Roman” being the 112th (*see note below) and final pope, and it’s likely all just a coincidence. Nothing to see here, folks; move along. But still, I can’t help but notice all the Peters surging to the forefront of the betting odds… and what are the odds of THAT?
I wrote two and a half months ago, when Bergoglio was still warming Peter’s seat (or better said, lukewarming it), that the next pope will likely be a Peter. It could be someone who was christened Peter at birth, or it could be someone who takes the name of Peter after being crowned pope (I say “crowned”, but they don’t actually do that anymore to Caesars, I mean popes, at least not publicly). No pope has yet to take the name of Peter, allegedly out of deference to the original Peter. If someone who wasn’t christened Peter at birth becomes the next pope and takes the name of Peter, well, it might not yet be time to head for the hills, but you could consider sleeping with your running shoes on.
Here, in ranked order, is the latest list of the men most likely to be crowned pope in the 2025 conclave, according to a global betting site. Note that “Peter” can be spelled differently, depending on the language.
- Pier Parolin
- Luis Antonio Tagle
- Mateo Zuppi
- Peter Turkson
- Robert Sarah
- Pierbattista Pizzaballa
- Peter Erdo
Of these top seven contenders, four are Peters. I would wager that this many Peters on the papal short-list has never happened before.
What are we to make of it? Just a “coincidence”? Or is the Peter the Roman prophecy being force-fed into the pope-picking process because the scripted end is upon us?
Me, I’m rolling for Peter Pizzaballa becoming the next Big Cheese, solely because his name makes me hungry for pizza. That, and because Pizzaballa is currently the head honcho (Head Cheese? lol groan) of the Catholics in the very place where scripture tells us Peter actually was the head honcho for a time – Jerusalem. So, if the next pope is an Italian named Peter who already sits in the historically and scripturally designated seat of Peter in Jerusalem, then I’d say all the boxes (pizza boxes?) are checked for Malachy’s “Peter the Roman” prophecy coming to life. And it would be just the icing on the cake (or dare I suggest, extra cheese on the pie?) if all this happened now, at the 2025 conclave, given that humanity has recently been handed its eviction notice due to the allegedly impending polar shift that’s going to wipe most of us out in as little as 4 to 6 years.
The 2025 conclave starts in three days. Let’s see what happens.
In the meantime, for your viewing and listening pleasure, here’s a little ditty serenading pizza at a bakery in Peter Pizzaballa’s hometown of Bergamo, Italy. Enjoy!
ll fornaio pizza Bergamo Italy #shorts – YouTube
(* The next pope will be the112th from the time the prophecy was issued, if you count the Bergoglio papacy as invalid, as numerous priests have done and have been excommunicated for their efforts.)
WHO’S DIRECTING YOUR PLANS?
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 2, 2025 – We all have plans. Lots of them. From the time we wake up in the morning until the time we go to sleep at night, we’re making plans: Work plans. Meal plans. Shopping plans. Travel plans. Sometimes we even make plans to make time to make plans.
And yet, with all our planning, who’s directing us? Are we inspired by God’s Spirit or by our own will and impulse? Do we do what we do because we think we should do it (because someone has told us we should do it)? Or do we do what we do because God has advised us, one on one, to do it?
Who exactly is directing our plans?
The day I was born-again, I started reading the Bible. Better said, I started eating and drinking and absorbing God’s Word. I was spiritually ravenous. Like a newborn at the teat, I sucked and slurped and couldn’t get enough. And yet, there were some parts of God’s Word that were hard to swallow at the time. They stuck with me because they seemed to stick out. And every time I would read through the Bible, I would trip over them.
One of those parts is in James’ letter:
“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.
But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” (James: 4:13-17)
It seemed to me at the time that James was being a stickler. What did it matter if we prefaced our plans with “If the Lord will”? Surely God would support all our efforts to do good in his name and that of his precious son? Surely nothing that we did in his or Jesus’ name would go to waste? Surely everything we did with our heart in the right place would be duly noted and weighed in our favor? Surely it couldn’t be considered “evil” or “sin” if we did what we did with good intentions?
You would think. At least that’s what the world tells us: “His heart was in the right place”, “he had good intentions”, “he meant right”. I mean, wasn’t it James himself who told Jesus to get out there and do things to prove to the world that he was the Messiah (only to be knocked back by Jesus with that very same advice James would later give to us in his letter)? The world’s way of doing things is to do something because it seems like it should be done, or to jump in head-first and worry about the details later. Duty and compulsion. That’s the world’s way.
But is it God’s way?
Scripture very plainly says we’re to be patient and wait for God’s directive and timing. We’re always to be patient and wait for God’s directive and timing. We can’t assume tomorrow, let alone next year: We can’t even assume the rest of today. We always need to be patient and wait for God’s directive and timing.
Years ago, I tried to start a Bible study. I did everything I thought I needed to do to prepare for it, but no-one showed up. Day after day I waited in the appointed meeting room at the appointed time, but no-one showed up. Even the people who’d contacted me to tell me they were coming were no-shows. Eventually I gave up and realized that God didn’t want me to do the Bible study, at least not at that time. It was a very humbling experience for me, but also a profound teaching moment.
If God isn’t in it, it has no value. If God isn’t personally directing your steps, you’re better off standing still and remaining silent. How many of us make wild and empty gestures thinking we’re doing the right thing – “the Christian thing” – but how many of us will instead end up like King Saul, who also thought he was doing the right thing by sparing the choicest livestock for later sacrifice, even though God had specifically told him to kill everyone and everything and take nothing with him?
Make sure your offers of sacrifice are God-directed and not self-directed. There is no such thing as “a Christian thing to do”: There is only what God wills and what he doesn’t will. All our plans, whether directly in service to God or in our more mundane daily rounds, need to be inspired and directed by God. If they’re not, they’re not worth doing, and they might (like Saul) even get us condemned.
James was absolutely right in saying that we need to defer to God in making our plans. He wasn’t being a stickler; he was stating the scripture-based obvious. Some of us just take a little longer than others to get it.
LET US PRAY
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, May 2, 2025 – Do we pray for success or for God’s will to be done?
Because sometimes God’s will is that we fail. Sometimes God’s will is that we suffer. Sometimes God’s will is that we lose and that we die, or that our loved ones fail, suffer, lose, and die.
The pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness is a wild goose chase, as only God can give us those things, and not by our pursuing them. We get them only by doing God’s will.
When people ask me to pray for them, I pray for God’s will to be done. Some people don’t like that. They insist that I pray for their health or their healing or their success in a venture, or whatever it is they’ve specifically asked me to pray for. But what if their spiritual well-being can only come from their worldly failure? What if God’s will is the opposite of what they want? What if they need to suffer in order to heal in the only way that really matters?
We cannot and should never pray against God. We must and only pray for God’s will to be done. If the old adage cautions us to be careful in what we wish for, how much more careful should we be in what we pray for?
Last fall, I spent a few months attending various church services around Halifax. I was struck by amount of time the ministers spent praying for the worldly success of this or that parishioner, this or that politician, this or that dignitary. The laundry lists of prayer requests were long and tedious and centered mostly on physical healings and money-earning ventures. Not one request was about spiritual healing. Not one request asked that God’s will be done. It was all just “make them feel better” or “give them money”. Granted, this was the worldly church, but still.
“A people of none understanding.”
Sometimes God’s will is that we be allowed to fail and hit rock bottom. I know this from personal experience, because had I not failed and hit rock bottom, I would never have been reborn. The worldly church doesn’t focus on the need for some to hit rock bottom in order to heal, but we born-again believers need to focus on it. We need to highlight spiritual healing and well-being rather than physical or financial well-being. And the way to spiritual healing is almost always through worldly failure.
I will pray for you, if you ask me, but I will pray that God’s will be done and that you accept whatever God wills. I cannot and will not pray any other way.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 