{"id":1820,"date":"2015-09-22T02:28:31","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T02:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1820"},"modified":"2015-09-21T20:48:47","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T20:48:47","slug":"pope-francis-in-washington-d-c-a-personal-welcome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/09\/pope-francis-in-washington-d-c-a-personal-welcome.html","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis in Washington, D.C.: A Personal Welcome!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/09\/20150920091956-e1442868457579.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1821\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2015\/09\/20150920091956-e1442868457579-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"20150920091956\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>One of the first things that strikes me about Washington DC this week is the personal way the City is preparing to greet Pope Francis. The picture with this blog is of the banner hanging on the Basilica of the National Shrine, where the Pope will celebrate the Mass of Canonization for Junipero Serra on Wednesday. It is not a formal, lofty message, but rather one that reflects an overt joy &#8211; and a message of love. Quite a difference from how other heads of State are often greeted!<\/p>\n<p>The message on the banner is simple, but complex, too. &#8220;Love Is Our Mission&#8221; is not something you can imagine being acted out once and then shelved, for a mission is something longer and more intense than a one-time expression and love has many musical tones and layers, sights and sounds.<\/p>\n<p>As Pope Francis begins the U.S. portion of his Visit, much will be said of his speeches and activities. I&#8217;ll be looking for those clues, those lessons of love that can inform me and many others on how to continue the &#8220;Mission&#8221; in the days and years ahead!<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<\/p>\n<p>Maureen<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; One of the first things that strikes me about Washington DC this week is the personal way the City is preparing to greet Pope Francis. The picture with this blog is of the banner hanging on the Basilica of the National Shrine, where the Pope will celebrate the Mass of Canonization for Junipero Serra&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pope Francis in Washington, D.C.: A Personal Welcome! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/09\/pope-francis-in-washington-d-c-a-personal-welcome.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pope Francis in Washington, D.C.: A Personal Welcome! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; One of the first things that strikes me about Washington DC this week is the personal way the City is preparing to greet Pope Francis. The picture with this blog is of the banner hanging on the Basilica of the National Shrine, where the Pope will celebrate the Mass of Canonization for Junipero Serra&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/09\/pope-francis-in-washington-d-c-a-personal-welcome.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-22T02:28:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-21T20:48:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/09\/20150920091956-e1442868457579-225x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pope Francis in Washington, D.C.: A Personal Welcome! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/09\/pope-francis-in-washington-d-c-a-personal-welcome.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pope Francis in Washington, D.C.: A Personal Welcome! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"&nbsp; One of the first things that strikes me about Washington DC this week is the personal way the City is preparing to greet Pope Francis. 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain &amp; Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1820"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1823,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1820\/revisions\/1823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}