Cake

John Paul said he wanted a shield and sword on his cake - I went with that, but it morphed into something very meaningful [thank goodness that Dani had recently had her nose in this book which sparked this idea] ...

The coat of arms for Pope John Paul II is intended to be a homage to the central mystery of Christianity, that of Redemption. It mainly represents a cross, whose form however does not correspond to any of the usual heraldry models. The reason for the unusual shift of the vertical part of the cross is striking, if one considers the second object included in the Coat of Arms: the large and majestic capital M, which recalls the presence of the Madonna under the Cross and Her exceptional participation in Redemption. The Pontiff’s intense devotion to the Holy Virgin is manifested in this manner, as it is also expressed in the motto when he was Cardinal Wojtyla: TOTUS TUUS. One cannot forget that right in the territory of the ecclesiastical Province of Krakow one can find the famous Marian sanctuary of Czestochowa, where the Polish people have been nurturing their filial devotion to the Madonna for centuries.

Pope John Paul, pray for us!

St. Anthony, pray for us!