{"id":21991,"date":"2025-04-23T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=21991"},"modified":"2025-04-23T05:29:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T10:29:51","slug":"pope-francis-trip-to-heaven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=21991","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis\u2019 Trip to Heaven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On Easter Monday morning, Pope Francis made his final journey — this time, straight into the arms of the One he loved and served so faithfully. Just hours after offering his last Easter blessing from the balcony of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica, he stepped into glory. What timing! What triumph!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe heaven rang with Hallelujahs, and Jesus Himself greeted him with, \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant.\u201d Easter doesn\u2019t just celebrate Christ\u2019s resurrection–it gives us the blessed assurance that we, too, will rise. Pope Francis is now basking in the presence of the Risen Lord he proclaimed so tenderly to the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My heart returned to a treasured moment in 2017, when my dear friends Charles and Shelia Michie and I visited Vatican City. We were among the sea of people in St. Peter\u2019s Square, but oh, what a view we had — front row seats beside the very path where Pope Francis rode by in his Popemobile. We were so close we could see the gentleness in his face, the joy in his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next to us sat a young couple holding a beautiful six-month-old baby boy, dressed in white, clutching a sign that read: \u201cOur baby was born on your birthday.\u201d Their hope? That Pope Francis would see their child. And, he did. He reached out, took that little one, and placed a kiss on his cheek. A sacred moment. A prayer answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pope Francis reminded me so much of Jesus in that moment. He truly embodied the heart of a shepherd — humble, kind, approachable. Like our Lord, he made time for the little ones, the forgotten, the seekers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019ll never forget his message that day: \u201cThe Fatherhood of God is the wellspring of our hope.\u201d He spoke of the prodigal father\u2019s love, of our God who welcomes us home time and again. He reminded us that when we call Him Abba, Father — we are calling out to One who never leaves us, never gives up on us, and always hears our prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So today, I celebrate the life and legacy of Pope Francis, one of many faithful voices who helped us see and savor God\u2019s amazing grace. May we, too, carry the torch forward — loving, serving, and telling the old, old story of Jesus and His love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Easter Monday morning, Pope Francis made his final journey — this time, straight into the arms of the One he loved and served so faithfully. Just hours after offering his last Easter blessing from the balcony of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica, he stepped into glory. What timing! What triumph! I believe heaven rang with Hallelujahs,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6199,691,17111,1210,1769,873,267,31679,15436,31675,39,40,5166,31678,877,4704,5639,12415,31673,12144,5640,31676,31680],"class_list":["post-21991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abba-father","tag-baby","tag-blessed-assurance","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-easter","tag-faith","tag-fatherhood-of-god","tag-glory","tag-hallelujahs","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-pope-francis","tag-popemobile","tag-resurrection","tag-st-peters-basilica","tag-st-peters-square","tag-timing","tag-trip-to-heaven","tag-triumph","tag-vatican-city","tag-well-done-faithful-servant","tag-wellspring-of-hope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21996,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21991\/revisions\/21996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}