Feast of St. Peter's Chair

Last week Kevin posted this picture of a statue of John Paul II that he saw on his trip to Mexico City, but what he didn't do is tell you what makes it so unique. I think on this the Feast of St. Peter's Chair there is no better time to explain its history.

When JP II came to Mexico City in 2002 to canonize Juan Diego, who Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to, the statue was built in the Pope's honor.

What is amazing about it is that the statue is made out of keys donated by the people of Mexico. The keys were used to symbolize Peter's reception of the keys to the kingdom from Jesus and the authority the Pope has today. In order to display this symbolism, they left many of the keys semi-unmelted in the back of the statue.

Isn't that awesome!

After dinner Kevin read the names of all 265 popes. Our son perked up every time a Pope with his name was mentioned. "Oh, that's me!" Other than that we got blank stares, but it was still interesting to hear the full line of succession.

While they are a bit young to understand papal succession, we had some fun making miters!

I posted instructions for them here because you can make a miter on dozens of Feast days with so many popes and bishops who are saints!