tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11320281387458790452024-03-18T01:30:33.427-04:00ACTUS ESSENDI<em>An Electronic Journal on Aquinas's Doctrine of the Act of Being</em> <br><br> <b>Editor: Orestes J. González</b><br>Email: ojg2@actusessendi.us.com <br><br>Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comBlogger401125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-68964447703731237112024-03-18T01:30:00.004-04:002024-03-18T01:30:00.279-04:00Reflections on Palm Sunday by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0342: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>Palm
Sunday </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On seven
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on Palm Sunday, on 9 April 2006, 1 April 2007, 16 March
2008, 5 April 2009, 28 March 2010, 17 April 2011, and 1 April 2012. Here are the texts of seven brief reflections <span style="text-align: left;">prior to</span> the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i> and seven homilies delivered on
these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, XXI World Youth Day, Sunday, 9 April 2006 </span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Brothers and sisters,
</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In a short while
a delegation of German youth will consign the World Youth Day Cross to their Australian
peers. It is the Cross that beloved John Paul II entrusted to youth in 1984 so that
they would bring this sign of Christ’s love for humanity into the world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet Cardinal
Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, and Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of
Sydney, who wished to be present during this very significant moment. The passing
on of the Cross after every World Youth Day gathering has become a “tradition” in
the true sense of the word <i>traditio, </i>a highly symbolic consignment to be
lived with great faith, making the effort to fulfill a journey of conversion following
in the footsteps of Jesus. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This faith is taught
to us by Mary Most Holy, who was the first “to believe” and who carried her own
cross together with her Son, experiencing with him the joy of the Resurrection.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is why the Youth
Day Cross is accompanied by an icon of the Virgin, an image of Mary, <i>Salus Populi
Romani, </i>venerated in the Basilica of St Mary Major, the most ancient Basilica
of the West dedicated to the Blessed Mother. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Cross and the
Marian Icon of the World Youth Days, after having made stops in some countries of
Africa to manifest Christ’s closeness and that of his Mother to the people of that
Continent, tried by great suffering, will be welcomed in different regions of <st1:place w:st="on">Oceania</st1:place> beginning this February. It will travel through the
Dioceses of Australia and will finally reach <st1:place w:st="on">Sydney</st1:place> in July 2008. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is a spiritual
pilgrimage that involves the entire Christian community, especially young people.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, XXI World Youth Day, Sunday, 9 April 2006 </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For 20 years, thanks
to Pope John Paul II, Palm Sunday has become in a special way a day for youth -
the day on which all young people across the world go to meet Christ, eager to accompany
him to their cities and their countries, so that he may be among us and establish
his peace in the world. However, if we want to encounter Jesus and then to walk
with him on his path, we must ask: on what
path does he want to lead us? What do we expect of him? What does he expect of us?
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To understand what
happens on Palm Sunday and to know what this means, not only for that hour but for
all time, one detail has proved to be important; it also became the key to understanding
the event for his disciples too, when they looked back after Easter with new eyes
at those tumultuous days. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus entered the
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place> riding on a donkey, that is, the animal
of the simple, common country people, and moreover, it was an ass that did not belong
to him but one he had asked to borrow for the occasion. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He did not arrive
in an ostentatious royal carriage or on horseback like the great figures of the
world, but on a borrowed donkey. John tells us that at first the disciples did not
understand his action. Only after Easter did they realize that Jesus, by so acting,
was fulfilling what the prophets had foretold:
that his action derived from God’s Word and was bringing it to fulfilment.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It should be remembered,
John said, that in the Book of the Prophet Zechariah we read: “Fear not, daughter of <st1:place w:st="on">Zion</st1:place>; behold, your king is coming, sitting on
the colt of an ass” (Jn 12: 15; see Zec 9: 9). To understand the significance of
the prophecy and, consequently, of Jesus’ behavior, we must listen to the whole
of Zechariah’s text, which continues thus:
“He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>; the warrior’s bow
shall be banished, and he shall proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will
be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth” (see 9: 10). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With that, the Prophet
says three things about the future king. In the first place he says that he will
be a king of the poor, a poor man among the poor and for the poor. In this case
poverty is meant in the sense of the<b><i> </i></b><i>anawim</i> of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>,
of those believing and trusting souls that we meet around Jesus - in the perspective
of the first Beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A person can be materially
poor yet his heart can be full of greed for wealth and for the power that derives
from it. The very fact that he lives with envy and covetousness shows that, in his
heart, he is one of the rich. He wants to reverse the division of goods so that
he himself can take over the situation that was previously theirs. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The poverty that
Jesus means - that the prophets mean - presupposes above all inner freedom from
the greed for possession and the mania for power. This is a greater reality than
merely a different distribution of possessions, which would still be in the material
domain and thereby make hearts even harder. It is first and foremost a matter of
purification of heart, through which one recognizes possession as responsibility,
as a duty towards others, placing oneself under God’s gaze and letting oneself be
guided by Christ, who from being rich became poor for our sake (see II Cor 8: 9).
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Inner freedom is
the prerequisite for overcoming the corruption and greed that devastate the world
today. This freedom can only be found if God becomes our richness; it can only be
found in the patience of daily sacrifices, in which, as it were, true freedom develops.
It is the King who points out to us the way to this goal: Jesus, whom we acclaim on Palm Sunday, whom we
ask to take us with him on his way. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The second thing
the prophet shows us is that this king will be a king of peace: he will cause chariots of war and war horses to
vanish, he will break bows and proclaim peace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is brought about
in Jesus through the sign of the Cross. The Cross is the broken bow, in a certain
way, God’s new, true rainbow which connects the heavens and the earth and bridges
the abysses between the continents. The new weapon that Jesus places in our hands
is the Cross - a sign of reconciliation, of forgiveness, a sign of love that is
stronger than death. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Every time we make
the Sign of the Cross we should remember not to confront injustice with other injustice
or violence with other violence: let us remember
that we can only overcome evil with good and never by paying evil back with evil.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The third affirmation
of the prophet is the preannouncement of universality. Zechariah says that the kingdom
of the king of peace extends “from sea to sea... to the ends of the earth”. The
ancient promise of the earth, made to Abraham and to the Fathers, is replaced here
by a new vision: the domain of the Messianic
King is no longer a specific country that would later necessarily be separated from
other countries and hence, inevitably, would take a stance against them. His country
is the earth, the whole world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He creates unity
in the multiplicity of cultures, overcoming every boundary. By perceptively penetrating
the clouds of history that separated the Prophet from Jesus, we see in this prophecy,
emerging from the distant horizon of prophecy, the network of Eucharistic communities
that embraces the earth, the whole world - a network of communities that constitutes
Jesus’ “Kingdom of peace”, which extends from sea to sea, to the ends of the earth.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He comes in all cultures
and all parts of the world, everywhere, in wretched huts and in poor rural areas
as well as in the splendor of cathedrals. He is the same everywhere, the One, and
thus all those gathered with him in prayer and communion are also united in one
body. Christ rules by making himself our Bread and giving himself to us. It is in
this way that he builds his Kingdom. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This connection becomes
quite clear in the other words from the Old Testament which characterize and explain
the Palm Sunday liturgy and its special atmosphere. The crowds acclaim Jesus: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord” (Mk 11: 9; Ps 118[117]: 25ff.).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These words are part
of the rite of the Feast of Tabernacles, during which the faithful move in a circle
around the altar, holding in their hands branches of palm, myrtle and willow. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Now, their palms
in their hands, the people raise this cry before Jesus, in whom they see the One
who comes in the name of the Lord. The phrase:
“He who comes in the name of the Lord”, in fact, had long before become the
designation of the Messiah. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In Jesus, they recognize
the One who truly comes in the name of the Lord and brings God’s presence among
them. In the Church, this cry of hope of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>,
this acclamation of Jesus during his entry into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, has with good reason become the acclamation
of the One who comes in the Eucharist to meet us in a new way. We greet with the
cry of “Hosanna!” the One who brought God’s glory to the earth in flesh and blood.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We greet the One
who came yet always remains, the One who is to come. We greet the One who, in the
Eucharist, always comes to us again in the name of the Lord, thus joining the ends
of the earth in God’s peace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This experience of
universality is an essential part of the Eucharist. Since the Lord comes, we emerge
from our exclusive forms of particularism and enter into the great community of
all who are celebrating this holy sacrament. We enter his Kingdom of peace and in
him, in a certain way, we greet all our brothers and sisters to whom he comes, to
become truly a kingdom of peace in the midst of this lacerated world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">All three characteristics
announced by the Prophet - poverty, peace, universality - are summed up in the sign
of the Cross. Therefore, with good reason, the Cross has become the centre of the
World Youth Days. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">There was a time
- and it has not yet been completely surmounted - in which Christianity was rejected
precisely because of the Cross. The Cross speaks of sacrifice, it was said, the
Cross is the sign of the denial of life. Instead, we want life in its entirety,
without restrictions and without sacrifices. We want to live, all we want is to
live. Let us not allow ourselves to be limited by precepts and prohibitions; we
want richness and fullness - this is what was said and is still being said. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">All this sounds convincing
and seductive; it is the language of the serpent that says to us: “Do not be afraid! Quietly eat the fruit of all
the trees in the garden!” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Palm Sunday, however,
tells us that the great “Yes” is precisely the Cross, that the Cross itself is the
true tree of life. We do not find life by possessing it, but by giving it. Love
is a gift of oneself, and for this reason it is the way of true life symbolized
by the Cross. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the Cross
that was recently the focus of the World Youth Day in <st1:city w:st="on">Cologne</st1:city>
is being consigned to a special delegation so that it may begin the journey to <st1:place w:st="on">Sydney</st1:place>, where in 2008 the youth
of the world are planning to meet again around Christ to build with him the Kingdom
of peace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From <st1:city w:st="on">Cologne</st1:city> to <st1:place w:st="on">Sydney</st1:place>
- a journey across continents and cultures, a journey through a world torn and tormented
by violence! Symbolically, it is like the journey the prophet pointed out from sea
to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. It is the journey of the One who,
in the sign of the Cross, gives us peace and makes us become messengers of reconciliation
and of his peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I thank the young
people who will now carry this Cross, in which we can as it were touch the mystery
of Jesus on the highways of the world. Let us pray that at the same time, it will
touch us and open our hearts, so that by following his Cross we will become messengers
of his love and his peace. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">22nd
WORLD YOUTH DAY</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">GREETINGS OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">AT THE END OF PALM SUNDAY MASS </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 1st April 2007 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I welcome the English-speaking
pilgrims and visitors here this Palm Sunday, when we acclaim Jesus, model of humility,
our Messiah and King. In a special way I greet all the young people gathered in
<st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place> and around
the world to celebrate World Youth Day. May the great events of Holy Week, in which
we see love unfold in its most radical form, inspire you to be courageous “witnesses
of charity” for your friends, your communities and our world. Upon each of you present
and your families, I invoke God’s Blessings of peace and wisdom.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, 22nd World Youth Day, Sunday, 1st April 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Palm Sunday
procession we join with the crowd of disciples who in festive joy accompany the
Lord during his entry into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>.
Like them, we praise the Lord with a loud voice for all the miracles we have seen.
Yes, we too have seen and still see today the wonders of Christ: how he brings men and women to renounce the comforts
of their lives and devote themselves totally to the service of the suffering; how
he gives men and women the courage to oppose violence and deceit, to make room for
truth in the world; how, in secret, he persuades men and women to do good to others,
to bring about reconciliation where there had been hatred and to create peace where
enmity had reigned. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The procession is
first and foremost a joyful witness that we bear to Jesus Christ, in whom the Face
of God became visible to us and thanks to whom the Heart of God is open to us. In
Luke’s Gospel, the account of the beginning of the procession in the vicinity of
Jerusalem is in part modeled literally on the rite of coronation with which, according
to the First Book of Kings, Solomon was invested as heir to David’s kingship (see
I <i>Kgs</i> 1: 33-35). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, the procession
of the Palms is also a procession of Christ the King: we profess the Kingship of Jesus Christ, we recognize
Jesus as the Son of David, the true Solomon, the King of peace and justice. Recognizing
him as King means accepting him as the One who shows us the way, in whom we trust
and whom we follow. It means accepting his Word day after day as a valid criterion
for our life. It means seeing in him the authority to which we submit. We submit
to him because his authority is the authority of the truth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The procession of
the Palms - as it was at that time for the disciples - is primarily an expression
of joy because we are able to recognize Jesus, because he allows us to be his friends
and because he has given us the key to life. This joy, however, which is at the
beginning, is also an expression of our “yes” to Jesus and our willingness to go
with him wherever he takes us. The exhortation with which our Liturgy today begins,
therefore, correctly interprets the procession as a symbolic representation of what
we call the “following of Christ”: “Let us
ask for the grace to follow him”, we said. The expression “following of Christ”
is a description of the whole of Christian existence. In what does it consist? What
does “to follow Christ” actually mean? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the outset, with
the first disciples, its meaning was very simple and immediate: it meant that to go with Jesus these people decided
to give up their profession, their affairs, their whole life. It meant undertaking
a new profession: discipleship. The fundamental
content of this profession was accompanying the Teacher and total entrustment to
his guidance. The “following” was therefore something external, but at the same
time very internal. The exterior aspect was walking behind Jesus on his journeys
through Palestine; the interior aspect was the new existential orientation whose
reference points were no longer in events, in work as a source of income or in the
personal will, but consisted in total abandonment to the will of Another. Being
at his disposal, henceforth, became the raison d’être of life. In certain Gospel
scenes we can recognize quite clearly that this means the renouncement of one’s
possessions and detachment from oneself. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But with this it
is also clear what “following” means for us and what its true essence is for us: it is an interior change of life. It requires
me no longer to be withdrawn into myself, considering my own fulfilment the main
reason for my life. It requires me to give myself freely to Another - for truth,
for love, for God who, in Jesus Christ, goes before me and shows me the way. It
is a question of the fundamental decision no longer to consider usefulness and gain,
my career and success as the ultimate goals of my life, but instead to recognize
truth and love as authentic criteria. It is a question of choosing between living
only for myself or giving myself - for what is greater. And let us understand properly
that truth and love are not abstract values; in Jesus Christ they have become a
person. By following him, I enter into the service of truth and love. By losing
myself I find myself. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us return to
the liturgy and the procession of the Palms. In it the Liturgy has provided as the
hymn Psalm 24[23]. In <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
this was also a processional hymn used in the ascent to the hill of the temple.
The Psalm interprets the interior ascent, of which the exterior ascent is an image,
and explains to us once again what it means to ascend with Christ. “Who can ascend
the mountain of the Lord?” the Psalm asks and specifies two essential conditions.
Those who ascend it and truly desire to reach the heights, to arrive at the true
summit, must be people who question themselves about God. They must be people who
scan their surroundings seeking God, seeking his Face. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear young friends,
how important precisely this is today: not
merely to let oneself be taken here and there in life; not to be satisfied with
what everyone else thinks and says and does. To probe God and to seek God. Not letting
the question about God dissolve in our souls; desiring what is greater, desiring
to know him - his Face... </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The other very concrete
condition for the ascent is this: He “who
has clean hands and a pure heart” can stand in the holy place. Clean hands are hands
that are not used for acts of violence. They are hands that are not soiled with
corruption, with bribery. A pure heart - when is the heart pure? A heart is pure
when it does not pretend and is not stained with lies and hypocrisy: a heart that remains transparent like spring water
because it is alien to duplicity. A heart is pure when it does not estrange itself
with the drunkenness of pleasure, a heart in which love is true and is not only
a momentary passion. Clean hands and a pure heart: if we walk with Jesus, we ascend and find the
purification that truly brings us to that height to which man is destined: friendship with God himself. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Psalm 24[23], which
speaks of the ascent, ends with an entrance liturgy in front of the temple gate: “Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up,
O ancient doors! That the King of glory may come in.” In the old liturgy for Palm
Sunday, the priest, arriving in front of the church, would knock loudly with the
shaft of the processional cross on the door that was still closed; thereupon, it
would be opened. This was a beautiful image of the mystery of Jesus Christ himself
who, with the wood of his Cross, with the power of his love that is given, knocked
from the side of the world at God’s door; on the side of a world that was not able
to find access to God. With his Cross, Jesus opened God’s door, the door between
God and men. Now it is open. But the Lord also knocks with his Cross from the other
side: he knocks at the door of the world,
at the doors of our hearts, so many of which are so frequently closed to God. And
he says to us something like this: if the
proof that God gives you of his existence in creation does not succeed in opening
you to him, if the words of Scripture and the Church’s message leave you indifferent,
then look at me - the God who let himself suffer for you, who personally suffers
with you - and open yourself to me, your Lord and your God. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is this appeal
that we allow to penetrate our hearts at this moment. May the Lord help us to open
the door of our hearts, the door of the world, so that he, the living God, may arrive
in his Son in our time, and reach our life. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">23rd
WORLD YOUTH DAY</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St.
Peter’s Square, Palm Sunday, 16 March 2008 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of this
solemn Celebration in which we have meditated on Christ’s Passion, I wish to recall
the late Archbishop of Mossul for Chaldeans, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who
tragically passed away a few days ago. His beautiful witness of fidelity to Christ,
to the Church and to his people, who he did not want to abandon notwithstanding
numerous threats, urges me to raise a strong and heart-rending cry: stop the murders, stop the violence, stop the
hate in <st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place>!
And at the same time I raise an appeal to the Iraqi People, who for five years now
are marked with the sign of war that has provoked the disruption of its civil and
social life: beloved Iraqi People, lift up
your head and be yourself, in the first place, builders of your national life! May
there be reconciliation, forgiveness, justice and respect for civil coexistence
among tribes, ethnic and religious groups, the jointly responsible way to peace
in the Name of God! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I welcome the English-speaking
pilgrims and visitors here this Palm Sunday, when we acclaim Jesus, model of humility,
our Messiah and King. In a special way I greet all the young people gathered in
<st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>. I am looking
forward to seeing many of you, together with thousands of others from across the
globe, at World Youth Day in <st1:place w:st="on">Sydney</st1:place>.
Today, I wish to recognize the preparatory work being undertaken by the Australian
Bishops’ Conference together with Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, and the organizing
staff. Similarly, I wish to acknowledge the spirit of generous cooperation shown
by the Federal and the New South Wales Governments, as well as the residents and
business people of <st1:place w:st="on">Sydney</st1:place>.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us all pray for
our young people, that World Youth Day will be a time of deep and lasting spiritual
renewal. May the great events of Holy Week, in which we see love unfold in its most
radical form, inspire you all to be courageous ‘witnesses of charity’ to your friends,
your communities and our world. Upon each of you present and your families, I invoke
God’s blessings of peace and wisdom.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We now address the
Virgin Mary in prayer, so that she help us to live Holy Week in spiritual union
with Christ the Lord.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, 23rd World Youth Day, Sunday, 16 March 2008 </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Year after year the
Gospel passage for Palm Sunday recounts Jesus’ entry into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>. Together with his disciples and an
increasing multitude of pilgrims he went up from the plain of Galilee to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
The Evangelists have handed down to us three proclamations of Jesus concerning his
Passion, like steps on his ascent, thereby mentioning at the same time the inner
ascent that he was making on this pilgrimage. Jesus was going toward the temple
- toward the place where God, as Deuteronomy says, had chosen to “make his name
dwell” (see 12: 11; 14: 23). God who created heaven and earth gave himself a name,
made himself invocable; indeed, he made himself almost tangible to human beings.
No place can contain him, yet for this very reason he gave himself a place and a
name so that he, the true God, might be personally venerated as God in our midst.
We know from the account of the 12-year-old Jesus that he loved the temple as his
Father’s house, as his paternal home. He now visits this temple once again but his
journey extends beyond it: the final destination of his climb is the Cross. It is
the ascent described in the<b><i> </i></b><i>Letter to the Hebrews </i>as the ascent
towards the tent not pitched by human hands but by the Lord, which leads to God’s
presence. The final climb to the sight of God passes through the Cross. It is the
ascent toward “love to the end” (see Jn 13: 1), which is God’s true mountain, the
definitive place of contact between God and man. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">During his entry
into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>,
the people paid homage to Jesus as the Son of David with the words of the pilgrims
of Psalm 118[117]: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mt 21: 9). He then arrived at the temple.
There, however, in the place that should have been taken up by the encounter between
God and man, he found livestock merchants and money-changers who occupied this place
of prayer with their commerce. Certainly, the animals on sale were destined to be
burned as sacrifices in the temple, and since in the temple it was impossible to
use coins that bore the likeness of the Roman emperors, who were in opposition to
the true God, they had to be exchanged for coins that did not show the idolatrous
image. All this, however, could have taken place elsewhere: the place where this
was now occurring should have been, in accordance with its destined purpose, the
atrium of pagans. Indeed, the God of Israel was precisely the one God of all peoples.
And although pagans did not enter, so to speak, into the Revelation, they could
however, in the atrium of faith, join in the prayer to the one God. The God of Israel,
the God of all people, had always been awaiting their prayers too, their seeking,
their invocations. Instead, commerce was prevailing - dealings legalized by the
competent authority which, in its turn, profited from the merchants’ earnings. The
merchants acted correctly, complying with the law in force, but the law itself was
corrupt. “Covetousness... is idolatry”, the <i>Letter to the Colossians </i>says
(3: 5). This was the idolatry Jesus came up against in the face of which he cites
Isaiah: “My house shall be called a house of prayer” (Mt 21: 13; see Is 56: 7),
and Jeremiah: “But you make it a den of robbers” (Mt 21: 13; see Jer 7: 11). Against
the wrongly interpreted order, Jesus with his prophetic gesture defends the true
order which is found in the Law and the Prophets. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, all this must
give us, as Christians, food for thought. Is our faith sufficiently pure and open
so that starting from it “pagans”, the people today who are seeking and who have
their questions, can intuit the light of the one God, associate themselves in the
atriums of faith with our prayers and, with their questions, perhaps also become
worshippers? Does the awareness that greed is idolatry enter our heart too and the
praxis of our life? Do we not perhaps in various ways let idols enter even the world
of our faith? Are we disposed to let ourselves be ceaselessly purified by the Lord,
letting him expel from us and the Church all that is contrary to him? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the temple’s purification,
however, it was a matter of more than fighting abuses. A new time in history was
foretold. What Jesus had announced to the Samaritan woman concerning her question
about true worship is now beginning: “The hour is coming, and now is, when true
worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks
to worship him” (Jn 4: 23). The time when animals were sacrificed to God was over.
Animal sacrifices were only a substitute, a nostalgic gesture for the true way to
worship God. The <i>Letter to the Hebrews </i>on the life and work of Jesus uses
a sentence from Psalm 40[39]: “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but
a body have you prepared for me” (Heb 10: 5). Christ’s body, Christ himself, enters
to take the place of bloody sacrifices and food offerings. Only “love to the end”,
only love for human beings given totally to God is true worship, true sacrifice.
Worshipping in spirit and truth means adoring in communion with the One who is Truth;
adoring in communion with his Body, in which the Holy Spirit reunites us. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Evangelists tell
us that in Jesus’ trial false witnesses were produced who asserted that Jesus had
said: “I am able to destroy the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">temple</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, and to rebuild it
in three days” (Mt 26: 61). In front of Christ hanging on the Cross some people,
taunting him, referred to these same words: “You who would destroy the temple and
build it in three days, save yourself!” (Mt 27: 40). The correct version of these
words as Jesus spoke them has been passed on to us by John in his account of the
purification of the temple. In response to the request for a sign by which Jesus
could justify himself for such an action, the Lord replied: “Destroy this temple,
and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2: 18ff.). John adds that, thinking back
to this event of the Resurrection, the disciples realized that Jesus had been referring
to the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place> of
his Body (see 2: 21ff.). It is not Jesus who destroys the temple; it is left to
destruction by the attitude of those who transformed it from being a place for the
encounter of all peoples with God into a “den of robbers”, a haven for their dealings.
But as always, beginning with Adam’s fall, human failure becomes the opportunity
for us to be even more committed to love of God. The time of the temple built of
stone, the time of animal sacrifices, is now passed: the fact that the Lord now
expels the merchants does not only prevent an abuse but points to God’s new way
of acting. The new <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
is formed: Jesus Christ himself, in whom God’s love descends upon human beings.
He, by his life, is the new and living <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>.
He who passed through the Cross and was raised is the living space of spirit and
life in which the correct form of worship is made. Thus, the purification of the
temple, as the culmination of Jesus’ solemn entry into Jerusalem, is at the same
time the sign of the impending ruin of the edifice and the promise of the new Temple;
a promise of the kingdom of reconciliation and love which, in communion with Christ,
is established beyond any boundary. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Matthew, whose
Gospel we are hearing this year, mentions at the end of the account of Palm Sunday,
after the purification of the temple, two further, small events that once again
have a prophetic character and once again make clear to us Jesus’ true will. Immediately
after Jesus’ words on the house of prayer for all the people, the Evangelist continues:
“And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them”. In addition,
Matthew tells us that children cried out in the temple the acclamation of the pilgrims
at the city gates: “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Mt 21: 14ff.). Jesus counters
the animal trade and fiscal affairs with his healing goodness. This is the temple’s
true purification. He does not come as a destroyer; he does not come with the revolutionary’s
sword. He comes with the gift of healing. He dedicates himself to those who, because
of their ailments, were driven to the end of their life and to the margins of society.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus shows God as
the One who loves and his power as the power of love. Thus, he tells us what will
always be part of the correct worship of God: healing, serving and the goodness
that cures. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And then there are
children who pay homage to Jesus as the Son of David and acclaim him the Hosanna.
Jesus had said to his disciples that to enter the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>
it was essential to become once again like children. He himself, who embraces the
whole world, made himself little in order to come to our aid, to draw us to God.
In order to recognize God, we must give up the pride that dazzles us, that wants
to drive us away from God as though God were our rival. To encounter God it is necessary
to be able to see with the heart. We must learn to see with a child’s heart, with
a youthful heart not hampered by prejudices or blinded by interests. Thus, it is
in the lowly who have such free and open hearts and recognize Jesus, that the Church
sees her own image, the image of believers of all ages. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, let
us join at this moment the procession of the young people of that time - a procession
that winds through the whole of history. Together with young people across the world
let us go forth to meet Jesus. Let us allow ourselves to be guided toward God by
him, to learn from God himself the right way to be human beings. Let us thank God
with him because with Jesus, Son of David, he has given us a space of peace and
reconciliation that embraces the world with the Holy Eucharist. Let us pray to him
that we too may become, with him and starting from him, messengers of his peace,
adorers in spirit and truth, so that his Kingdom may increase in us and around us.
Amen.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Palm Sunday, 5 April 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yesterday, 4 April,
was the Fourth Day for Mine Awareness established by the United Nations. Ten years
after the Convention banning these weapons came into force and after the recent
opening of the protocol for the signing of the Convention prohibiting cluster bombs,
I wish to encourage the countries who have not yet done so to sign without delay
these important instruments of international humanitarian law, to which the Holy
See has always given its support. I likewise express my encouragement of any measure
intended to guarantee the necessary assistance to the victims of these devastating
weapons. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I also wish to remember,
with great sorrow, our African brothers and sisters who died in the Mediterranean
Sea a few days ago while attempting to reach <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>.
We cannot resign ourselves to these tragedies, which have unfortunately been occurring
for some time! The dimensions of this phenomenon render ever more urgent the need
for coordinated strategies between the European Union and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">African</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">States</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
as well as for the adoption of appropriate humanitarian measures so as to prevent
these migrants from turning to unscrupulous traffickers. As I pray for the victims
that the Lord may welcome them into his peace, I would like to point out that this
problem, recently aggravated by the global crisis, will only find a solution when
the African peoples, with the aid of the international community, can free themselves
from poverty and war. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I now address a special
greeting to the 150 delegates Bishops, priests and lay people who have participated
in the past few days in the international meeting on World Youth Day, organized
by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. Thus the preparatory journey has begun
towards the next world meeting of youth in August 2011 in <st1:state w:st="on">Madrid</st1:state>
and for which I have already indicated the theme: “Rooted and built up in Jesus
Christ, firm in the faith” (see <st1:place w:st="on">Col</st1:place>
2: 7). Complying with tradition, the young Australians will soon be handing over
to the young Spaniards the World Youth Day Cross, the “pilgrim cross” that brings
Christ’s message of love to the world’s youth. This “passing on of witness” acquires
a highly symbolic value, with which we express immense gratitude to God for the
gifts received at the great meeting in <st1:city w:st="on">Sydney</st1:city> and
for those he will deign to grant us during the event in <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place>. The Cross, accompanied by the Icon of
Our Lady, will depart tomorrow for the capital of <st1:place w:st="on">Spain</st1:place> and will be there in time for
the great procession on Good Friday. It will then set out on a long pilgrimage through
the Spanish Dioceses which will return it to <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place> in the summer of 2011. May this Cross
and this Icon of Mary be for everyone a sign of the invincible love of Christ and
of his and our Mother! </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet all the English-speaking
pilgrims and visitors here this Palm Sunday, when we recall the humble entry into
Jerusalem of Jesus, our King and Messiah. With vivid memories of my visit to Sydney
for World Youth Day, I greet Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, and Bishops
Anthony Fisher and Julian Porteous, Auxiliary Bishops of Sydney, who are here together
with a large group of young Australians to consign to their counterparts from Madrid
the World Youth Day Cross and Icon of Our Lady. May the great events of Holy Week
strengthen your faith and inspire you to be humble witnesses of charity. Upon each
of you present and your families, I invoke God’s blessings of peace and wisdom.
</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lastly, I greet with
affection the young Italian pilgrims, and in particular the youth groups. I hope
that you will all prepare yourselves for the coming Easter at the school of the
Apostle Paul, fully accepting Christ’s grace. And let us now accompany the consignment
of the Cross with our prayers. The Cross is handed over. And let us now pray confidently
to the Virgin Mary that she may always watch over the progress of young people and
help us all to live Holy Week fully.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD</span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, 24th World Youth Day, Sunday, 5 April 2009 </span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Young People,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Together with a growing
multitude of pilgrims, Jesus had gone up to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> for the Passover. In the final stage
of the journey, near <st1:place w:st="on">Jericho</st1:place>,
he had healed blind Bartimaeus, who called upon him as Son of David, pleading for
mercy. Now – having received his sight – he had gratefully joined the group of pilgrims.
At the gates of <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>,
when Jesus sat upon a donkey, an animal symbolizing the Davidic kingship, there
spontaneously arose among the pilgrims the joyful conviction: It is He, the Son
of David! Accordingly, they greet Jesus with the messianic acclamation: “Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord”, and they add: “Blessed is the kingdom
of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” (<i>Mk</i> 11:9f.).
We do not know exactly what the enthusiastic pilgrims imagined the coming <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">David</st1:placename></st1:place> would be like. But what about us, have
we truly understood the message of Jesus, the Son of David? Have we grasped what
is meant by the Kingdom of which He speaks during his interrogation with Pilate?
Do we understand what it means to say that this Kingdom is not of this world? Or
would we actually prefer that it were of this world?</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In <st1:city w:st="on">Saint John’s</st1:city> Gospel, after the account of the entry into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, there follows a
series of sayings in which Jesus explains the essential content of this new kind
of Kingdom. On a first reading of these texts, we can distinguish three different
images of the Kingdom in which the same mystery is reflected in a number of different
ways. John recounts, first of all, that during the feast there were some Greeks
among the pilgrims who “wanted to adore God” (see 12:20). Let us note the fact that
the true intention of these pilgrims was to adore God. This corresponds perfectly
to what Jesus says on the occasion of the cleansing of the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>: “My house shall be called a house of prayer
for all the nations” (<i>Mk</i> 11:17). The true purpose of the pilgrimage must
be that of encountering God; adoring him, and thus rightly ordering the fundamental
relationship of our life. The Greeks are searching for God, their lives are a journey
towards God. Now, through the two Greek-speaking Apostles, Philip and Andrew, they
convey this request to the Lord: “We wish to see Jesus” (<i>Jn</i> 12:21). These
are stirring words. Dear friends, we have gathered here for the same reason: we
wish to see Jesus. With this end in view, thousands of young people traveled to
<st1:city w:st="on">Sydney</st1:city> last year.
No doubt they will have had many different expectations in making this pilgrimage.
But the essential objective was this: we wish to see Jesus.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Concerning this request,
what did Jesus say and do at the time? It does not emerge clearly from the Gospel
whether any meeting took place between those Greeks and Jesus. Jesus takes a much
longer view. The essence of his response to those people’s request is this: “Unless
a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies,
it bears much fruit” (<i>Jn</i> 12:24). In other words: what matters here is not
a brief conversation with one or two people who then return home. I will come, like
a grain of wheat that has died and is risen, in a manner that is totally new and
beyond the limits of the moment, to encounter the world of the Greeks. Through the
resurrection, Jesus surpasses the limits of space and time. As the Risen One, he
is journeying towards the vast horizon of the world and of history. Yes indeed,
as the Risen One he goes to the Greeks and speaks with them, he shows himself to
them in such a way that they who are far away become near, and it is in their language,
in their culture, that his word is carried forward in a new way and understood in
a new way – his Kingdom comes. Thus we can recognize two essential characteristics
of this Kingdom. The first is that it comes by way of the cross. Since Jesus gives
himself completely, then as the Risen One he can belong to all and become present
to all. In the holy Eucharist, we receive the fruit of the grain of wheat that died,
the multiplication of the loaves that continues to the end of the world and throughout
all time. The second characteristic is this: his Kingdom is universal. The ancient
hope of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
is fulfilled: this Davidic kingship no longer has boundaries. It extends “from sea
to sea” – as the prophet Zechariah says (9:10) – in other words, it embraces the
whole world. Yet this is possible only because it is not a kingship of political
power, but is based solely on the free adherence of love – a love which, for its
part, is a response to the love of Jesus Christ who gave himself for all. I think
that above all we must learn these two things over and over again – universality
and catholicity. This means that no-one can propose himself, his culture, his generation
and his world as an absolute. It means that we all have to accept one another, renouncing
something of ourselves. Universality includes the mystery of the cross – going beyond
ourselves, obeying the communal word of Jesus Christ in the communal Church. Universality
is always a transcending of ourselves, a renunciation of something that is ours.
Universality and the cross go together. Only thus is peace created.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The saying about
the grain of wheat that dies is still located within Jesus’ response to the Greeks,
in fact it is his response. Then, however, he goes on to formulate once again the
fundamental law of human existence: “He who loves his life loses it, and he who
hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (<i>Jn </i>12:25). In
other words, the one who wants to have his life for himself, living only for himself,
keeping everything to himself and exploiting all its possibilities – is actually
the one who loses his life. Life becomes boring and empty. Only by self-abandonment,
only by the disinterested gift of the “I” in favor of the “you”, only in the “yes”
to the greater life, the life of God, does our life also become broad and great.
Thus this fundamental principle established by the Lord is ultimately identical
to the principle of love. Love, in fact, means letting go of oneself, giving oneself,
not wanting to possess oneself, but becoming free from oneself: not retiring into
oneself – (what will become of me?) – but looking ahead, towards the other – towards
God and towards the men that he sends to me. And once again, this principle of love,
which defines man’s path, is identical to the mystery of the cross, to the mystery
of death and resurrection that we encounter in Christ. Dear friends, perhaps it
is relatively easy to accept this as the fundamental great vision of life. In practice,
however, it is not a question of simply recognizing a principle, but of living according
to the truth that it contains, the truth of the cross and resurrection. Hence, once
again, a single great decision is not enough. It is certainly important, it is essential
to dare to take the great fundamental decision once, to dare to utter the great
“yes” that the Lord asks of us at a certain moment of our lives. But the great “yes”
of the decisive moment in our life – the “yes” to the truth that the Lord puts before
us – must then be won afresh every day in the situations of daily life when we have
to abandon our “I” over and over again, placing ourselves at the Lord’s disposal
when deep down we would prefer to cling to our “I”. An upright life always involves
sacrifice, renunciation. To hold out the promise of a life without this constant
re-giving of self, is to mislead. There is no such thing as a successful life without
sacrifice. If I cast a glance back over my whole life, I have to say that it was
precisely the moments when I said “yes” to renunciation that were the great and
important moments of my life.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of the
passage, <st1:city w:st="on">Saint John</st1:city> uses a modified form of Jesus’
prayer in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Garden</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Olives</st1:placename></st1:place> in his redaction
of our Lord’s “Palm Sunday” sayings. First comes the statement: “my soul is troubled”
(12:27). Here we see Jesus’ fear, amply illustrated by the other three evangelists
– his fear before the power of death, before the whole abyss of evil that he sees
and into which he must descend. The Lord suffers our fears together with us, he
accompanies us through the final anguish into the light. Then, in John’s narrative,
Jesus makes two petitions. The first, expressed only conditionally, is this: “What
shall I say – Father, save me from this hour?” (12:27). As a human being, even Jesus
feels impelled to ask that he be spared the terror of the passion. We too can pray
in this way. We too can grumble before the Lord, like Job, we can present him with
all the pleas that arise within us when we are faced with the injustice of the world
and the difficulty of our own “I”. When we come before him, we must not take refuge
in pious phrases, in a world of make-believe. Praying always also means struggling
with God, and like Jacob, we can say to him: “I will not let you go, unless you
bless me!” (<i>Gen</i> 32:26). But then comes Jesus’ second petition: “Glorify your
name!” (<i>Jn</i> 12:28). In the Synoptics, it is expressed in another way: “Not
my will, but yours be done!” (<i>Lk</i> 22:42). In the end, God’s glory, his lordship,
his will, is always more important and more true than my thought and my will. And
this is the essential point in our prayer and in our life: learning this right order
of reality, accepting it intimately; trusting in God and believing that he is doing
what is right; that his will is truth and love; that my life becomes good if I learn
to adhere to this right order. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are for
us the guarantee that we can truly trust God. It is in this way that his Kingdom
is realized.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Friends! At
the end of this liturgy, the young people of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>
will hand over the World Youth Day Cross to their counterparts from <st1:place w:st="on">Spain</st1:place>.
The Cross is on a journey from one side of the world to the other, from sea to sea.
And we are accompanying it. With the Cross, we move forward along its path and thus
we find our own path. When we touch the Cross, or rather, when we carry it, we touch
the mystery of God, the mystery of Jesus Christ. The mystery that God so loved the
world – us – that he gave his only-begotten Son for us (see <i>Jn </i>3:16). We
touch the marvelous mystery of God’s love, the only genuinely redemptive truth.
But we also touch the fundamental law, the constitutive norm of our lives, namely
the fact that without this “yes” to the Cross, without walking in communion with
Christ day by day, life cannot succeed. The more we can make some sacrifice, out
of love for the great truth and the great love, out of love for the truth and for
God’s love, the greater and richer life becomes. Anyone who wants to keep his life
for himself loses it. Anyone who gives his life – day by day in small acts, which
form part of the great decision – that person finds it. This is the challenging,
but also profoundly beautiful and liberating truth that we wish to enter into, step
by step, as the Cross makes its journey across the continents. May the Lord bless
this journey. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">25th
WORLD YOUTH DAY</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Palm Sunday, 28 March 2010 </span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As we come to the
end of this celebration we cannot but think of Palm Sunday 25 years ago. It was
the year 1985, which the United Nations had proclaimed “International Youth Year”.
Venerable and beloved John Paul II took that moment to commemorate Christ’s entry
into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> to
the acclaim of his youthful disciples, founded the annual World Youth Day. Since
then, Palm Sunday has acquired this characteristic: every two or three years it
takes place with great global meetings, following Jesus in a sort of youth pilgrimage
across the whole planet. Twenty-five years ago my beloved Predecessor invited young
people to profess their faith in Christ who “takes upon himself the cause of man”
(<i>Homily</i>, 31 March 1985, nos. 5, 7; <i>L’Osservatore Romano English edition</i>
9 April 1985, p. 2). Today I renew this call to the new generation, to bear witness
with the gentle and luminous power of truth so that the men and women of the third
millennium may not lack the most authentic model: Jesus Christ. I entrust this mandate
in particular to the 300 delegates of the International Youth Forum, who have come
from all over the world, convoked by the Pontifical Council for the Laity.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD</span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, 25th World Youth Day, Sunday, 28 March 2010 </span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Young People, </span></span></i></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel of the blessing of the palms
that we have heard gathered here in St Peter’s Square, begins with the sentence:
“[Jesus] went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem” (Lk 19: 28). At the very beginning
of today’s Liturgy, the Church anticipates her response to the Gospel saying: “Let
us follow the Lord”. This clearly expresses the theme of Palm Sunday. It is the
sequela. Being Christian means considering the way of Jesus Christ as the right
way for being human as that way which leads to our destination, to a completely
fulfilled and authentic humanity. In a special way I would like to repeat to all
young people on this 25th World Youth Day that being Christian is a path or, better,
a pilgrimage; it is to travel with Jesus Christ, to journey in the direction he
has pointed out and is pointing out to us. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But what direction is this? How do we
find it? Our Gospel passage offers two clues in this regard. In the first place
it says that it is an ascent. This has first of all a very concrete meaning. <st1:city w:st="on">Jericho</st1:city>, where the last part of Jesus’ pilgrimage began, is
250 metres below sea-level, whereas <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>
the destination is located at 740 to 780 metres above sea level: a climb of almost
1,000 metres. But this external route is above all an image of the internal movement
of existence that occurs in the following of Christ: it is an ascent to the true
heights of being human. Man can choose an easy path and avoid every effort. He can
also sink to the low and the vulgar. He can flounder in the swamps of falsehood
and dishonesty. Jesus walks before us and towards the heights. He leads us to what
is great, pure. He leads us to that healthy air of the heights: to life in accordance
with the truth; to courage that does not let itself be intimidated by the gossip
of prevalent opinions; to patience that bears with and sustains the other. He guides
people to be open towards the suffering, to those who are neglected. He leads us
to stand loyally by the other, even when the situation becomes difficult. He leads
us to the readiness to give help; to the goodness that does not let itself be disarmed,
even by ingratitude. He leads us to love he leads us to God. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus “went on ahead, going up to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>”. If we interpret
these words of the Gospel in the context of the way Jesus took in all its aspects
a journey which, precisely, continues to the end of time in the destination, “<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city>”, we can discover
various levels indicated. Of course, first of all, it must be understood that this
simply means the place, “<st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>”: it is the city
in which God’s <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city></st1:place>
stood, whose uniqueness must allude to the oneness of God himself. This place, therefore,
proclaims two things: on the one hand it says that there is only one God in all
the world, who exceeds by far all our places and times; he is that God to which
the entire creation belongs. He is the God whom all men and women seek in their
own depths, and of whom, in a certain way, they all have some knowledge. But this
God gave himself a Name. He made himself known to us, he initiated a history with
human beings; he chose a man Abraham as the starting point of this history. The
infinite God is at the same time the close God. He, who cannot be confined to any
building, nevertheless wants to dwell among us, to be totally with us. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If Jesus, with the pilgrim <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>, goes up to <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>,
he goes there to celebrate with <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
the Passover: the memorial of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
liberation a memorial which, at the same time, is always a hope of definitive freedom,
which God will give. And Jesus approaches this feast in the awareness that he himself
is the Lamb in which will be accomplished what the<i> Book of Exodus</i> says in
this regard: a lamb without blemish, a male, who at sunset, before the eyes of the
children of Israel, is sacrificed “as an ordinance for ever” (see Ex 12: 5-6, 14).
And lastly, Jesus knows that his way goes further: the Cross will not be his end.
He knows that his journey will rend the veil between this world and God’s world;
that he will ascend to the throne of God and reconcile God and man in his Body He
knows that his Risen Body will be the new sacrifice and the new Temple; that around
him, from the hosts of Angels and Saints the new Jerusalem will be formed, that
is in Heaven and yet also on the earth, because by his Passion he was to open the
frontier between Heaven and earth. His way leads beyond the summit of the Mountain
of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city></st1:place> to
the heights of God himself: this is the great ascent to which he calls us all. He
always remains with us on earth and he has always already arrived with God. He guides
us on earth and beyond the earth. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, the dimensions of our sequela become
visible in the ascent of Jesus the goal to which he wants to lead us: to the heights
of God, to communion with God, to being-with-God. This is the true destination and
communion with him is the way to it. Communion with Christ is being on the way,
a permanent ascent toward the true heights of our call. Journeying on together with
Jesus is at the same time also a journeying on in the “we” of those who want to
follow him. It introduces us into this community. Since the way to true life, to
being people in conformity with the model of the Son of God Jesus Christ, surpasses
our own strength, this journey always means being carried. We find ourselves, so
to speak, roped to Jesus Christ together with him on the ascent towards God’s heights.
He pulls and supports us. It is part of following Christ that we allow ourselves
to be roped together; that we acknowledge we cannot do it alone. This act of humility,
entering into the “we” of the Church is part of it; holding tight to the rope, the
responsibility of communion not breaking the rope through stubbornness or self-importance.
Humbly believing, with the Church, like being a roped-party on the ascent towards
God, is an essential condition for the following of Christ. This being roped together
also entails not behaving as masters of the Word of God, not running after a mistaken
idea of emancipation. The humility of “being with” is essential for the ascent.
The fact that in the Sacraments we always let the Lord once again take us by the
hand is also part of it; that we let ourselves be purified and strengthened by him;
that we accept the discipline of the ascent, even when we are weary. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lastly, we must say again: the Cross
is also part of the ascent towards the heights of Jesus Christ, of the ascent to
the heights of God. Just as in the affairs of this world it is impossible to achieve
great results without self-sacrifice and hard work; just as joy in a great discovery
of knowledge or in a true operational skill is linked to discipline, indeed, to
the effort of learning, so the way toward life itself, to the realization of one’s
own humanity, is linked to communion with the One who ascended to God’s heights
through the Cross. In the final analysis, the Cross is an expression of what love
means: only those who lose themselves find themselves. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us sum up: the following of Christ
requires, as a first step, a reawakening of the desire to be authentic human beings
and thus the reawakening of oneself for God. It then requires us to join the climbing
party, in the communion of the Church. In the “we” of the Church we enter into communion
with the “you” of Jesus Christ and thus reach the path to God. We are also asked
to listen to the Word of Jesus Christ and to live it: in faith, hope and love. Thus
we are on the way toward the definitive <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place>
and, from this moment, in a certain way, we already find ourselves there, in the
communion of all God’s Saints. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Our pilgrimage following Christ is not
therefore bound for an earthly city, but for the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">new City</st1:city></st1:place> of God that develops in the midst of
this world. Yet the pilgrimage to the earthly <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place> can also be useful to us Christians
for that more important journey. I myself linked three meanings to my pilgrimage
in the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy Land</st1:place> last year. First of all I thought
that what St John says at the beginning of his <i>First Letter</i> can happen to
us on such an occasion: that what we have heard, we can in a certain manner see
and touch with our hands (see 1 Jn 1: 1). Faith in Jesus Christ is not a legendary
invention. It is based on a true story. This history we can, so to speak, contemplate
and touch. It is moving to find oneself in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:city></st1:place> in the place where the Angel appeared
to Mary and intimated to her the duty to become the Mother of the Redeemer. It is
moving to be in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city></st1:place>
on the spot where the Word, made flesh, came to dwell among us; to walk on the holy
ground in which God chose to become a man and a child. It is moving to climb the
steps to <st1:place w:st="on">Calvary</st1:place>, to the place where Jesus died
for us on the Cross. And lastly, to stand before the empty sepulchre; to pray where
his holy body rested and where, on the third day, the Resurrection occurred. Following
the exterior ways taken by Jesus must help us walk more joyfully and with new certainty
on the interior way that he pointed out to us, that is he himself. </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When we go to the Holy Land as pilgrims
we also go, however and this is the second aspect as messengers of peace, with the
prayer for peace; with the strong invitation to all to do our utmost in that place,
which includes in its name the word “peace”, to make it truly become a place of
peace. Thus this pilgrimage is at the same time as a third aspect an encouragement
to Christians to stay in their country of origin and to work hard in it for peace.
</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us return once again to the Palm
Sunday Liturgy. In the prayer with which the palms are blessed, we pray that in
communion with Christ we may bear fruit with good works. Subsequent to an erroneous
interpretation of St Paul, the opinion that good works are not part of being Christian
or in any case are insignificant for the human being’s salvation has emerged time
and again in the course of history and also today. But if Paul says that works cannot
justify man, with this he did not oppose the importance of right action and, if
he speaks of the end of the Law, he does not say that the Ten Commandments are obsolete
and irrelevant. There is no need now to reflect on the full breadth of the issue
that concerned the Apostle. What is important is to point out that with the term
“Law” he does not mean the Ten Commandments but rather the complex way of life <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region></st1:place>
had adopted to protect itself against the temptations of paganism. Now, however,
Christ has brought God to the pagans. This form of distinction was not imposed upon
them. They were given as the Law Christ alone. However, this means love of God and
of neighbour and of everything that this entails. The Commandments, interpreted
in a new and deeper way starting from Christ, are part of this love, those Commandments
are none other than the fundamental rules of true love: first of all, and as a fundamental
principle, the worship of God, the primacy of God, which the first three Commandments
express. They say: “without God nothing succeeds correctly. Who this God is and
how he is we know from the person of Jesus Christ. Next come the holiness of the
family (4th Commandment), the holiness of life (5th Commandment), the order of marriage
(6th Commandment), the social order (7th Commandment), and lastly the inviolability
of the truth (8th Commandment). Today all this is of the greatest timeliness and
precisely also in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place></st1:city>’s
meaning if we read all his Letters. “Bear fruit with good works”: at the beginning
of Holy Week let us pray the Lord to grant us this fruit in ever greater abundance.
</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span lang="EN-GB">At the end of the Gospel for the blessing
of the palms, we hear the acclamation with which the pilgrims greet Jesus at the
Gates of Jerusalem. It takes up the words of <i>Psalm</i> 118 (117), which priests
originally proclaimed to pilgrims from the Holy City but which, in the meantime
had become an expression of messianic hope: “Blessed is he who enters in the Name
of the Lord” (Ps 118[117]: 26; see Lk 19: 38). Pilgrims see in Jesus the One who
is to come in the Name of the Lord. Indeed, according to St Luke’s Gospel they insert
one more word: “Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord”. And they
continue with an acclamation that recalls the message of the Angels at Christmas,
but change it in a manner that prompts reflection. The Angels spoke of the glory
of God in the highest and of peace on earth among men with whom he was pleased.
The pilgrims at the entrance to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place> say: “Peace on earth
and glory be to God in the highest!” They know only too well that there is no peace
on earth. And they know that the place of peace is Heaven they know that it is an
essential part of Heaven to be a haven of peace. This acclamation is therefore an
expression of profound suffering and, at the same time, a prayer of hope; may the
One who comes in the Name of the Lord bring to the earth what there is in Heaven.
May his kingship become the kingship of God, the presence of Heaven on earth. The
Church, before the Eucharistic consecration, sings the words of the <i>Psalm</i>
with which Jesus was greeted before his entry into the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place>:
She greets Jesus as the King who, coming from God, comes among us in the Name of
God. Today too, this joyous greeting is always a supplication and hope. Let us pray
the Lord that he bring to us Heaven, the glory of God and peace among men. Let us
understand this greeting in the spirit of the request in the Our Father: “Thy will
be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. We know that Heaven is Heaven, a place of
glory and peace because the will of God totally prevails there. And we know that
the earth will not be Heaven as long as God’s will is not done on it. Let us therefore
greet Jesus who comes down from Heaven and pray him to help us to recognize and
to do God’s will. May God’s kingship enter the world an</span>d thus be filled with
the splendor of peace. Amen.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">26th
WORLD YOUTH DAY</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Palm Sunday, 17 April 2011 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I welcome all the
English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here in Rome this Palm Sunday, as the whole Church sings “Hosanna” to the Son of
David, commemorating Our Lord’s solemn entry into Jerusalem in the days leading
up to his Passion and death. In a special way I greet all the young people present
and I look forward to celebrating World Youth Day in <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place> this summer with many thousands of others
from around the world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In Italian the
Pope said:</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lastly, I greet with
affection the Italian-speaking pilgrims, especially the young people whom I invite
to <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place>, for
the World Youth Day this coming August. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And now let us turn
in prayer to Mary, so that she may help us live Holy Week with intense faith. Mary
too exulted in spirit when Jesus made his royal entry into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, fulfilling the prophecies; but her
heart, like that of her Son, was prepared for the Sacrifice. Let us learn from her,
the faithful Virgin, to follow the Lord even when his path leads to the Cross.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, 26th World Youth Day, Sunday, 17 April 2011</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear young people!</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is a moving experience
each year on Palm Sunday as we go up the mountain with Jesus, towards the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>, accompanying him on
his ascent. On this day, throughout the world and across the centuries, young people
and people of every age acclaim him, crying out: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But what are we really
doing when we join this procession as part of the throng which went up with Jesus
to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> and
hailed him as King of Israel? Is this anything more than a ritual, a quaint custom?
Does it have anything to do with the reality of our life and our world? To answer
this, we must first be clear about what Jesus himself wished to do and actually
did. After Peter’s confession of faith in Caesarea Philippi, in the northernmost
part of the Holy Land, Jesus set out as a pilgrim towards <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> for the feast of Passover. He was journeying
towards the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> in the <st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype>, towards that place which for <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
ensured in a particular way God’s closeness to his people. He was making his way
towards the common feast of Passover, the memorial of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’s liberation from <st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place> and the sign of its hope of definitive
liberation. He knew that what awaited him was a new Passover and that he himself
would take the place of the sacrificial lambs by offering himself on the cross.
He knew that in the mysterious gifts of bread and wine he would give himself for
ever to his own, and that he would open to them the door to a new path of liberation,
to fellowship with the living God. He was making his way to the heights of the Cross,
to the moment of self-giving love. The ultimate goal of his pilgrimage was the heights
of God himself; to those heights he wanted to lift every human being.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Our procession today
is meant, then, to be an image of something deeper, to reflect the fact that, together
with Jesus, we are setting out on pilgrimage along the high road that leads to the
living God. This is the ascent that matters. This is the journey which Jesus invites
us to make. But how can we keep pace with this ascent? Isn’t it beyond our ability?
Certainly, it is beyond our own possibilities. From the beginning men and women
have been filled – and this is as true today as ever – with a desire to “be like
God”, to attain the heights of God by their own powers. All the inventions of the
human spirit are ultimately an effort to gain wings so as to rise to the heights
of Being and to become independent, completely free, as God is free. Mankind has
managed to accomplish so many things: we can fly! We can see, hear and speak to
one another from the farthest ends of the earth. And yet the force of gravity which
draws us down is powerful. With the increase of our abilities there has been an
increase not only of good. Our possibilities for evil have increased and appear
like menacing storms above history. Our limitations have also remained: we need
but think of the disasters which have caused so much suffering for humanity in recent
months.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Fathers of the
Church maintained that human beings stand at the point of intersection between two
gravitational fields. First, there is the force of gravity which pulls us down –
towards selfishness, falsehood and evil; the gravity which diminishes us and distances
us from the heights of God. On the other hand there is the gravitational force of
God’s love: the fact that we are loved by God and respond in love attracts us upwards.
Man finds himself betwixt this twofold gravitational force; everything depends on
our escaping the gravitational field of evil and becoming free to be attracted completely
by the gravitational force of God, which makes us authentic, elevates us and grants
us true freedom.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Following the Liturgy
of the Word, at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer where the Lord comes into
our midst, the Church invites us to lift up our hearts: <i>“Sursum corda!”</i> In
the language of the Bible and the thinking of the Fathers, the heart is the centre
of man, where understanding, will and feeling, body and soul, all come together.
The centre where spirit becomes body and body becomes spirit, where will, feeling
and understanding become one in the knowledge and love of God. This is the “heart”
which must be lifted up. But to repeat: of ourselves, we are too weak to lift up
our hearts to the heights of God. We cannot do it. The very pride of thinking that
we are able to do it on our own drags us down and estranges us from God. God himself
must draw us up, and this is what Christ began to do on the cross. He descended
to the depths of our human existence in order to draw us up to himself, to the living
God. He humbled himself, as today’s second reading says. Only in this way could
our pride be vanquished: God’s humility is the extreme form of his love, and this
humble love draws us upwards.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Psalm 24, which the
Church proposes as the “song of ascent” to accompany our procession in today’s liturgy,
indicates some concrete elements which are part of our ascent and without which
we cannot be lifted upwards: clean hands, a pure heart, the rejection of falsehood,
the quest for God’s face. The great achievements of technology are liberating and
contribute to the progress of mankind only if they are joined to these attitudes
– if our hands become clean and our hearts pure, if we seek truth, if we seek God
and let ourselves be touched and challenged by his love. All these means of “ascent”
are effective only if we humbly acknowledge that we need to be lifted up; if we
abandon the pride of wanting to become God. We need God: he draws us upwards; letting
ourselves be upheld by his hands – by faith, in other words – sets us aright and
gives us the inner strength that raises us on high. We need the humility of a faith
which seeks the face of God and trusts in the truth of his love.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The question of how
man can attain the heights, becoming completely himself and completely like God,
has always engaged mankind. It was passionately disputed by the Platonic philosophers
of the third and fourth centuries. For them, the central issue was finding the means
of purification which could free man from the heavy load weighing him down and thus
enable him to ascend to the heights of his true being, to the heights of divinity.
<st1:place w:st="on">Saint Augustine</st1:place>,
in his search for the right path, long sought guidance from those philosophies.
But in the end he had to acknowledge that their answers were insufficient, their
methods would not truly lead him to God. To those philosophers he said: recognize
that human power and all these purifications are not enough to bring man in truth
to the heights of the divine, to his own heights. And he added that he should have
despaired of himself and human existence had he not found the One who accomplishes
what we of ourselves cannot accomplish; the One who raises us up to the heights
of God in spite of our wretchedness: Jesus Christ who from God came down to us and,
in his crucified love, takes us by the hand and lifts us on high.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We are on pilgrimage
with the Lord to the heights. We are striving for pure hearts and clean hands, we
are seeking truth, we are seeking the face of God. Let us show the Lord that we
desire to be righteous, and let us ask him: Draw us upwards! Make us pure! Grant
that the words which we sang in the processional psalm may also hold true for us;
grant that we may be part of the generation which seeks God, “which seeks your face,
O God of Jacob” (see <i>Ps</i> 24:6). Amen.</span></div>
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<div class="style3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">27th WORLD YOUTH DAY</span></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<strong><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St
Peter’s Square</i>, <i>Palm Sunday, 1st April 2012</i></span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of this
celebration, I would like to cordially greet everyone here: Cardinals, brother Bishops,
Priests, men and women religious and all the faithful. I address a special greeting
to the organizing committees of World Youth Day in Madrid and of the upcoming one
in Rio de Janeiro, as well as the delegates to the International Meeting on World
Youth Days, organized by the Pontifical Council for Laity, represented here by the
President, Cardinal Ryłko, and Secretary, Bishop Clemens. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF PALM SUNDAY OF THE PASSION OF OUR LORD</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, 27th World Youth Day, Sunday, 1st April 2012</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear Brothers
and Sister</em>s,</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Palm Sunday is the
great doorway leading into Holy Week, the week when the Lord Jesus makes his way
towards the culmination of his earthly existence. He goes up to Jerusalem in order to fulfill the
Scriptures and to be nailed to the wood of the Cross, the throne from which he will
reign for ever, drawing to himself humanity of every age and offering to all the
gift of redemption. We know from the Gospels
that Jesus had set out towards <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>
in company with the Twelve, and that little by little a growing crowd of pilgrims
had joined them. Saint Mark tells us that
as they were leaving <st1:place w:st="on">Jericho</st1:place>,
there was a “great multitude” following Jesus (see 10:46).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the final stage
of the journey, a particular event stands out, one which heightens the sense of
expectation of what is about to unfold and focuses attention even more sharply upon
Jesus. Along the way, as they were leaving
<st1:place w:st="on">Jericho</st1:place>, a blind
man was sitting begging, Bartimaeus by name.
As soon as he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, he began to cry out:
“Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (<em>Mk</em> 10:47). People tried to silence him, but to no avail;
until Jesus had them call him over and invited him to approach. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. And the reply: “Master, let me receive my sight”
(v. 51). Jesus said: “Go your way, your faith
has made you well.” Bartimaeus regained his
sight and began to follow Jesus along the way (see v. 52). And so it was that, after this miraculous sign,
accompanied by the cry “Son of David”, a tremor of Messianic hope spread through
the crowd, causing many of them to ask: this Jesus, going ahead of us towards <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, could he be the
Messiah, the new David? And as he was about
to enter the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place>, had the moment come
when God would finally restore the Davidic kingdom?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The preparations
made by Jesus, with the help of his disciples, serve to increase this hope. As we heard in today’s Gospel (see <em>Mk</em>
11:1-10), Jesus arrives in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> from Bethphage
and the <st1:place w:st="on">Mount of Olives</st1:place>, that is, the route by
which the Messiah was supposed to come. From
there, he sent two disciples ahead of him, telling them to bring him a young donkey
that they would find along the way. They
did indeed find the donkey, they untied it and brought it to Jesus. At this point, the spirits of the disciples and
of the other pilgrims were swept up with excitement: they took their coats and placed
them on the colt; others spread them out on the street in Jesus’ path as he approached,
riding on the donkey. Then they cut branches
from the trees and began to shout phrases from Psalm 118, ancient pilgrim blessings,
which in that setting took on the character of messianic proclamation: “Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that
is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” (v. 9-10). This festive acclamation, reported by all four
evangelists, is a cry of blessing, a hymn of exultation: it expresses the unanimous
conviction that, in Jesus, God has visited his people and the longed-for Messiah
has finally come. And everyone is there,
growing in expectation of the work that Christ will accomplish once he has entered
the city.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But what is the content,
the inner resonance of this cry of jubilation?
The answer is found throughout the Scripture, which reminds us that the Messiah
fulfils the promise of God’s blessing, God’s original promise to Abraham, father
of all believers: “I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you ... and
by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves” (<em>Gen</em> 12:2-3). It is the promise that <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place> had always kept alive in prayer,
especially the prayer of the Psalms. Hence
he whom the crowd acclaims as the blessed one is also he in whom the whole of humanity
will be blessed. Thus, in the light of Christ,
humanity sees itself profoundly united and, as it were, enfolded within the cloak
of divine blessing, a blessing that permeates, sustains, redeems and sanctifies
all things.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here we find the
first great message that today’s feast brings us: the invitation to adopt a proper
outlook upon all humanity, on the peoples who make up the world, on its different
cultures and civilizations. The look that
the believer receives from Christ is a look of blessing: a wise and loving look,
capable of grasping the world’s beauty and having compassion on its fragility. Shining through this look is God’s own look upon
those he loves and upon Creation, the work of his hands. We read in the <em>Book of Wisdom</em>: “But thou
art merciful to all, for thou canst do all things, and thou dost overlook men’s
sins, that they may repent. For thou lovest
all things that exist and hast loathing for none of the things which thou hast made
... thou sparest all things, for they are thine, O Lord who lovest the living” (11:23-24,
26).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us return to
today’s Gospel passage and ask ourselves: what is really happening in the hearts
of those who acclaim Christ as King of Israel?
Clearly, they had their own idea of the Messiah, an idea of how the long-awaited
King promised by the prophets should act.
Not by chance, a few days later, instead of acclaiming Jesus, the <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> crowd will cry out
to Pilate: “Crucify him!” while the disciples, together with others who had seen
him and listened to him, will be struck dumb and will disperse. The majority, in fact, was disappointed by the
way Jesus chose to present himself as Messiah and King of Israel. This is the heart of today’s feast, for us too. Who is Jesus of Nazareth for us? What idea do we have of the Messiah, what idea
do we have of God? It is a crucial question,
one we cannot avoid, not least because during this very week we are called to follow
our King who chooses the Cross as his throne.
We are called to follow a Messiah who promises us, not a facile earthly happiness,
but the happiness of heaven, divine beatitude.
So we must ask ourselves: what are our true expectations? What are our deepest desires, with which we have
come here today to celebrate Palm Sunday and to begin our celebration of Holy Week?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear young people,
present here today, this, in a particular way, is your Day, wherever the Church
is present throughout the world. So I greet
you with great affection! May Palm Sunday
be a day of decision for you, the decision to say yes to the Lord and to follow
him all the way, the decision to make his Passover, his death and resurrection,
the very focus of your Christian lives. It
is the decision that leads to true joy, as I reminded you in this year’s World Youth
Day Message – “Rejoice in the Lord always” (<em>Phil</em> 4:4). So it was for Saint Clare of Assisi when, on Palm
Sunday 800 years ago, inspired by the example of Saint Francis and his first companions,
she left her father’s house to consecrate herself totally to the Lord. She was eighteen years old and she had the courage
of faith and love to decide for Christ, finding in him true joy and peace.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, may these days call forth two sentiments in particular: praise, after the
example of those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with their “Hosanna!”, and thanksgiving,
because in this Holy Week the Lord Jesus will renew the greatest gift we could possibly
imagine: he will give us his life, his body and his blood, his love. But we must respond worthily to so great a gift,
that is to say, with the gift of ourselves, our time, our prayer, our entering into
a profound communion of love with Christ who suffered, died and rose for us. The early Church Fathers saw a symbol of all this
in the gesture of the people who followed Jesus on his entry into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, the gesture of spreading
out their coats before the Lord. Before Christ
– the Fathers said – we must spread out our lives, ourselves, in an attitude of
gratitude and adoration. As we conclude,
let us listen once again to the words of one of these early Fathers, Saint Andrew,
Bishop of Crete: “So it is ourselves that we must spread under Christ’s feet, not
coats or lifeless branches or shoots of trees, matter which wastes away and delights
the eye only for a few brief hours. But we
have clothed ourselves with Christ’s grace, or with the whole Christ ... so let
us spread ourselves like coats under his feet ... let us offer not palm branches
but the prizes of victory to the conqueror of death. Today let us too give voice with the children
to that sacred chant, as we wave the spiritual branches of our soul: ‘Blessed is
he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel’” (<em>PG</em> 97, 994). Amen! </span></div>
</div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-17899287935476978122024-03-11T01:30:00.004-04:002024-03-11T01:30:00.146-04:00Reflections on the Fifth Sunday of Lent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0341: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Fifth Sunday of Lent </b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On seven
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Fifth Sunday of Lent, on 2 April 2006, 25 March 2007, 9 March
2008, 29 March 2009, 21 March 2010, 10 April 2011, and 25 March 2012. Here are the texts of seven brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i> and four homilies delivered on
these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square, Fifth Sunday of Lent, 2 April 2006</i>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On 2 April last year,
just as today, in these very hours and here in this very apartment, beloved Pope
John Paul II was living the last stage of his earthly pilgrimage, a pilgrimage of
faith, love and hope which left a profound mark on the history of the Church and
of humanity. His agony and death constitute, as it were, an extension of the Easter
Triduum. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We all remember the
images of his <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">last <i>Way</i></st1:address></st1:street><i>
of the Cross </i>on Good Friday: being unable
to go to the Colosseum, he followed it in his Private Chapel, a cross in his hands.
Then, on Easter morning he imparted the <i>Urbi et Orbi </i>Blessing, unable to
speak, solely with the gesture of his hand. Let us never forget that Blessing. It
was the most heartfelt and moving Blessing which he left us as the last testimony
of his desire to carry out his ministry to the very end. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">John Paul II died
as he had always lived, inspired by the indomitable courage of faith, abandoning
himself to God and entrusting himself to Mary Most Holy. This evening we will commemorate
him with a Marian Prayer Vigil in St Peter’s Square, where tomorrow afternoon we
will celebrate Mass for him. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A year after his
departure from this earth to the Father’s house, we can ask ourselves: what did this great Pope who led the Church into
the third millennium leave us? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">His legacy is immense
but the message of his very long Pontificate can be summed up well in the words
he chose to inaugurate it, here in St Peter’s Square on 22 October 1978: “Open wide the doors to Christ!” (<i>Inauguration
Homily; L’Osservatore Romano </i>English edition<i>, </i>2 November 1978, p. 12).
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">John Paul II incarnated
this unforgettable appeal, which I feel resounding within me as if it were yesterday,
in the whole of himself and in the whole of his mission as Successor of Peter, especially
with his extraordinary programme of Apostolic Journeys. In visiting the countries
of the entire world, meeting the crowds, the Ecclesial Communities, the Heads of
Government, Religious Leaders and various social realities, he was making, as it
were, a great gesture to confirm his initial words. He always proclaimed Christ,
presenting him to everyone, as did the Second Vatican Council, as an answer to man’s
expectations, expectations of freedom, justice and peace. Christ is the Redeemer
of man, he was fond of repeating, the one genuine Savior of every person and the
entire human race. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In his last years,
the Lord gradually stripped him of everything, to make him fully resemble him. And
when henceforth he could no longer travel or even walk, or finally even speak, his
gesture, his proclamation, was reduced to the essential: to the gift of himself to the very end. His death
was the fulfilment of a consistent witness of faith that moved the hearts of so
many people of good will. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">John Paul II departed
from us on a Saturday dedicated especially to Mary, for whom he had always had a
filial devotion. Let us now ask the heavenly Mother of God to help us treasure what
this great Pope gave and taught us. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Fifth Sunday of Lent, 25 March 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The 25th
of March is the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin. This year it
coincides with a Sunday in Lent and will therefore be celebrated tomorrow. I would
now like, however, to reflect on this amazing mystery of faith which we contemplate
every day in the recitation of the Angelus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Annunciation,
recounted at the beginning of St Luke’s Gospel, is a humble, hidden event - no one
saw it, no one except Mary knew of it -, but at the same time it was crucial to
the history of humanity. When the Virgin said her “yes” to the Angel’s announcement,
Jesus was conceived and with him began the new era of history that was to be ratified
in Easter as the “new and eternal Covenant”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact,
Mary’s “yes” perfectly mirrors that of Christ himself when he entered the world,
as the Letter to the Hebrews says, interpreting Psalm 40[39]: “As is written of
me in the book, I have come to do your will, O God” (Heb 10: 7). The Son’s obedience
was reflected in that of the Mother and thus, through the encounter of these two
“yeses”, God was able to take on a human face. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is
why the Annunciation is a Christological feast as well, because it celebrates a
central mystery of Christ: the Incarnation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Behold,
I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your Word”. Mary’s
reply to the Angel is extended in the Church, which is called to make Christ present
in history, offering her own availability so that God may continue to visit humanity
with his mercy. The “yes” of Jesus and Mary is thus renewed in the “yes” of the
saints, especially martyrs who are killed because of the Gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I stress
this because yesterday, 24 March, the anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop
Oscar Romero of <st1:place w:st="on">San Salvador</st1:place>,
we celebrated the Day of Prayer and Fasting for Missionary Martyrs: Bishops, priests,
Religious and lay people struck down while carrying out their mission of evangelization
and human promotion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These missionary
martyrs, as this year’s theme says, are the “hope of the world”, because they bear
witness that Christ’s love is stronger than violence and hatred. They did not seek
martyrdom, but they were ready to give their lives in order to remain faithful to
the Gospel. Christian martyrdom is only justified when it is a supreme act of love
for God and our brethren. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
Lenten Season we often contemplate Our Lady, who on Calvary sealed the “yes” she
pronounced at <st1:place w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:place>.
United to Christ, Witness of the Father’s love, Mary lived martyrdom of the soul.
Let us call on her intercession with confidence, so that the Church, faithful to
her mission, may offer to the whole world a courageous witness of God’s love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">VISIT
TO THE ROMAN PARISH OF ST FELICITY AND HER CHILDREN, MARTYRS</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Sunday,
25 March 2007</i> </span></div>
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</span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters of the Parish of St Felicity and her Children, Martyrs, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I have willingly
come to visit you on this Fifth Sunday of Lent, also known as Passion Sunday. I
offer you all my cordial greeting. I first address my thoughts to the Cardinal Vicar
and to Auxiliary Bishop Enzo Dieci. I then greet with affection the Vocationist
Fathers, to whom the Parish has been entrusted since its foundation in 1958, and
especially to Fr Eusebio Mosca, your parish priest, whom I thank for the beautiful
words with which he has briefly presented to me your community’s situation. I greet
the other priests, men and women religious, catechists and committed lay people,
and all those who make their own contribution in various ways to the multiple activities
of the Parish - pastoral, educational and for human advancement -, directed with
priority attention to children, young people and families. I greet the Filipino
community, quite numerous in your territory, who meet here every Sunday for Holy
Mass celebrated in their own language. I extend my greeting to all the inhabitants
of the Fidene neighborhood; they are very numerous and increasingly consist of people
from other parts of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>
and various countries in the world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here, as elsewhere,
situations of both material and moral hardship are not absent, situations that require
of you, dear friends, a constant commitment to witnessing that God’s love, fully
manifested in the Crucified and Risen Christ, actually embraces everyone without
distinctions of race and culture. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is basically
the mission of every parish community, called to proclaim the Gospel and to be a
place of acceptance and listening, formation and fraternal sharing, dialogue and
forgiveness. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How can a Christian
community stay faithful to this mandate? How can it become increasingly a family
of brothers and sisters enlivened by Love? The Word of God we have just heard, which
resounds with special eloquence in our hearts during this Lenten Season, reminds
us that our earthly pilgrimage is fraught with difficulties and trials, as was the
journey through the desert of the Chosen People before they reached the Promised
Land. But divine intervention, Isaiah assures us in the First Reading, can make
it easy, transforming the wilderness into a luxuriant country flowing with water
(see <i>Is</i> 43: 19-20). The Responsorial Psalm echoes the Prophet: while it evokes the joy of the return from the
Babylonian Exile, it implores the Lord to intervene on behalf of the “prisoners”
who depart weeping but who return rejoicing because God is present and, as in the
past, will also do “great things for us” in the future. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This very awareness,
this hope that after difficult times the Lord will always show us his presence and
love, must enliven every Christian community, provided by its Lord with abundant
spiritual provisions in order to cross the desert of this world and make it into
a fertile garden. These provisions are docile listening to his Word, the Sacraments
and every other spiritual resource of the liturgy and of personal prayer. The love
that impelled Jesus to sacrifice himself for us transforms us and makes us capable
in turn of following him faithfully. Continuing what the liturgy presented to us
last Sunday, today’s Gospel passage helps us understand that only God’s love can
change man’s life and thus every society from within, for it is God’s infinite love
alone that sets him free from sin, which is the root of all evil. If it is true
that God is justice, we should not forget that above all he is love. If he hates
sin, it is because he loves every human person infinitely. He loves each one of
us and his fidelity is so deep that it does not allow him to feel discouraged even
by our rejection. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, in particular,
Jesus brings us to inner conversion: he explains
why he forgives us and teaches us to make forgiveness received from and given to
our brothers and sisters the “daily bread” of our existence. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel passage
recounts the episode of the adulterous woman in two vivid scenes: in the first, we witness a dispute between Jesus
and the scribes and Pharisees concerning a woman caught in flagrant adultery who,
in accordance with the prescriptions of the Book of Leviticus (see 20: 10), was
condemned to stoning. In the second scene, a brief but moving dialogue develops
between Jesus and the sinner-woman. The pitiless accusers of the woman, citing the
law of Moses, provoke Jesus - they call him “Teacher” (Didáskale) -, asking him
whether it would be right to stone her. They were aware of his mercy and his love
for sinners and were curious to see how he would manage in such a case which, according
to Mosaic law, was crystal clear. But Jesus immediately took the side of the woman.
In the first place, he wrote mysterious words on the ground, which the Evangelist
does not reveal but which impressed him, and Jesus then spoke the sentence that
was to become famous: “Let him who is without
sin among you (he uses the term anamártetos here, which is the only time it appears
in the New Testament) be the first to throw a stone at her” (<i>Jn</i> 8: 7) and
begin the stoning. <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>
noted, commenting on John’s Gospel, that:
“The Lord, in his response, neither failed to respect the law nor departed
from his meekness”. And Augustine added that with these words, Jesus obliged the
accusers to look into themselves, to examine themselves to see whether they too
were sinners. Thus, “pierced through as if by a dart as big as a beam, one after
another, they all withdrew” (in<i> Io</i>. <i>Ev. tract</i> 33, 5). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So it was, therefore,
that the accusers who had wished to provoke Jesus went away one by one, “beginning
with the eldest to the last”. When they had all left, the divine Teacher remained
alone with the woman. <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>’s
comment is concise and effective: “relicti
sunt duo: misera et Misericordia, the two
were left alone, the wretched woman and Mercy” (ibid.). Let us pause, dear brothers
and sisters, to contemplate this scene where the wretchedness of man and Divine
Mercy come face to face, a woman accused of a grave sin and the One who, although
he was sinless, burdened himself with our sins, the sins of the whole world. The
One who had bent down to write in the dust, now raised his eyes and met those of
the woman. He did not ask for explanations. Is it not ironic when he asked the woman: “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
(8: 10). And his reply was overwhelming:
“neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again” (8: 11). Again, <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> in his Commentary
observed: “The Lord did also condemn, but
condemned sins, not man. For if he were a patron of sin, he would say, “neither
will I condemn you; go, live as you will; be secure in my deliverance; however much
you sin, I will deliver you from all punishment’. He said not this” (<i>Io Ev. tract.</i>
33, 6). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, from
the Word of God we have just heard emerge practical instructions for our life. Jesus
does not enter into a theoretical discussion with his interlocutors on this section
of Mosaic Law; he is not concerned with winning an academic dispute about an interpretation
of Mosaic Law, but his goal is to save a soul and reveal that salvation is only
found in God’s love. This is why he came down to the earth, this is why he was to
die on the Cross and why the Father was to raise him on the third day. Jesus came
to tell us that he wants us all in Paradise and that hell, about which little is
said in our time, exists and is eternal for those who close their hearts to his
love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this episode too,
therefore, we understand that our real enemy is attachment to sin, which can lead
us to failure in our lives. Jesus sent the adulterous woman away with this recommendation: “Go, and do not sin again”. He forgives her so
that “from now on” she will sin no more. In a similar episode, that of the repentant
woman, a former sinner whom we come across in Luke’s Gospel (see 7: 36-50), he welcomed
a woman who had repented and sent her peacefully on her way. Here, instead, the
adulterous woman simply receives an unconditional pardon. In both cases - for the
repentant woman sinner and for the adulterous woman - the message is the same. In
one case it is stressed that there is no forgiveness without the desire for forgiveness,
without opening the heart to forgiveness; here it is highlighted that only divine
forgiveness and divine love received with an open and sincere heart give us the
strength to resist evil and “to sin no more”, to let ourselves be struck by God’s
love so that it becomes our strength. Jesus’ attitude thus becomes a model to follow
for every community, which is called to make love and forgiveness the vibrant heart
of its life. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, on the Lenten journey we are taking, which is rapidly reaching its end,
we are accompanied by the certainty that God never abandons us and that his love
is a source of joy and peace; it is a powerful force that impels us on the path
of holiness, if necessary even to martyrdom. This is what happened to the children
and then to their brave mother, Felicity, the patron Saints of your Parish. Through
their intercession, may the Lord grant you an ever deeper encounter with Christ
and docile fidelity to follow him, so that, as happened for the Apostle Paul, you
too may sincerely proclaim: “I count everything
as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his
sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order
that I may gain Christ...” (<i>Phil</i> 3: 8). May the example and intercession
of these Saints be a constant encouragement to you to follow the path of the Gospel
without hesitation and without compromise. May the Virgin Mary, whom we will contemplate
tomorrow in the mystery of the Annunciation of the Lord and to whom I entrust all
of you and the entire population of this suburb of Fidene, obtain for you this generous
fidelity. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fifth Sunday of Lent, 9 March 2008<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In our Lenten journey
we have reached the Fifth Sunday, characterized by the Gospel of the resurrection
of Lazarus (Jn 11: 1-45). It concerns the last “sign” fulfilled by Jesus, after
which the chief priests convened the Sanhedrin and deliberated killing him, and
decided to kill the same Lazarus who was living proof of the divinity of Christ,
the Lord of life and death. Actually, this Gospel passage shows Jesus as true Man
and true God. First of all, the Evangelist insists on his friendship with Lazarus
and his sisters, Martha and Mary. He emphasizes that “Jesus loved” them (Jn 11:
5), and this is why he wanted to accomplish the great wonder. “Our friend Lazarus
has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him out of sleep” (Jn 11: 11), he tells his
disciples, expressing God’s viewpoint on physical death with the metaphor of sleep.
God sees it exactly as sleep, from which he can awaken us. Jesus has shown an absolute
power regarding this death, seen when he gives life back to the widow of Nain’s
young son (see Lk 7: 11-17) and to the 12 year-old girl (see Mk 5: 35-43). Precisely
concerning her he said: “The child is not
dead but sleeping” (Mk 5: 39), attracting the derision of those present. But in
truth it is exactly like this: bodily death is a sleep from which God can awaken
us at any moment. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This lordship over
death does not impede Jesus from feeling sincere “com-passion” for the sorrow of
detachment. Seeing Martha and Mary and those who had come to console them weeping,
Jesus “was deeply moved in spirit and troubled”, and lastly, “wept” (Jn 11: 33,
35). Christ’s heart is divine-human: in him
God and man meet perfectly, without separation and without confusion. He is the
image, or rather, the incarnation of God who is love, mercy, paternal and maternal
tenderness, of God who is Life. Therefore, he solemnly declared to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes
in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall
never die”. And he adds, “Do you believe this?” (Jn 11: 25-26). It is a question
that Jesus addresses to each one of us: a
question that certainly rises above us, rises above our capacity to understand,
and it asks us to entrust ourselves to him as he entrusted himself to the Father.
Martha’s response is exemplary: “Yes, Lord;
I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world”
(Jn 11: 27). Yes, O Lord! We also believe, notwithstanding our doubts and darkness;
we believe in you because you have the words of eternal life. We want to believe
in you, who give us a trustworthy hope of life beyond life, of authentic and full
life in your Kingdom of light and peace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We entrust this prayer
to Mary Most Holy. May her intercession strengthen our faith and hope in Jesus,
especially in moments of greater trial and difficulty.</span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PAPAL HOMILY AT <st1:city w:st="on">ROME</st1:city>’S <st1:place w:st="on">SAN LORENZO</st1:place> INTERNATIONAL YOUTH CENTRE <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I survived because “I knew I was expected’
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On Sunday, 9 March, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, the Holy
Father visited San Lorenzo International Youth Centre and celebrated Mass in the
tiny Church of San Lorenzo in Piscibus, close to the Vatican. The following is a
translation of the Pope’s Homily, given in Italian and part extemporaneously. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your Eminences, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It gives
me great joy to commemorate together with you, in this beautiful <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Romanesque</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>, the 25th anniversary of the San Lorenzo
International Youth Centre which Pope John Paul II wanted to be located in the vicinity
of St Peter’s Basilica and which he inaugurated on 13 March 1983. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Holy
Mass celebrated here every Friday evening is an important spiritual event for many
young people who have come from various parts of the world to study at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Roman</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Universities</st1:placename></st1:place>.
It is also an important spiritual encounter and a significant opportunity to make
contact with the Cardinals and Bishops of the Roman Curia as well as with Bishops
from the five Continents as they pass through <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place> on their <i>ad limina</i> visits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As you have
mentioned, I too came here often to celebrate the Eucharist when I was Prefect of
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and it was always a beautiful experience
to meet boys and girls from all corners of the earth who find this Centre an important
and hospitable reference point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And it is
precisely to you, dear young people, that I first address my cordial greeting, while
I thank you for your warm welcome. I also greet all of you who have desired to speak
at this solemn and at the same time family celebration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
in a special way the Cardinals and Prelates present. Among them, may I mention in
particular Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, the titular of this Church of San Lorenzo
in Piscibus, and Cardinal Stanis³aw Ry³ko, President of the Pontifical Council for
the Laity, whom I thank for his kind words of welcome addressed to me at the beginning
of Holy Mass, as well as to the two spokespersons for the young people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
Bishop Josef Clemens, Secretary of the Pontifical Council, the youth team, priests
and seminarians who animate this Centre under the guidance of the Youth Section
of this Dicastery, and all who in various capacities make their contribution. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am referring
to the Associations, Movements and Communities represented here, with a special
mention to the Emmanuel Community which has coordinated the various initiatives
for the past 20 years with great fidelity. It has also created a <st1:placename w:st="on">Mission</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype>
in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place> from which
come several of the young people who are present here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I also greet
the chaplains and volunteers who for the past 25 years have worked at the service
of youth. My affectionate greeting to each and every one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Life, death: basic questions <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We now come
to today’s Gospel, which is dedicated to an important, fundamental theme: what is life? What is death? How should one live?
How should one die? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To enable
us to understand better this mystery of life and Jesus’ answer, <st1:place w:st="on">St John</st1:place> uses two different
terms for this unique reality to suggest the different dimensions in this reality
of “life”; the word <i>bíos</i> and the word <i>zoé. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Bíos,
</i>as can easily be understood, means this great
biocosmos, this biosphere that extends from individual, primitive cells to the most
organized, most developed organisms; this great tree of life where all the possibilities
of this reality, <i>bios,</i> are developed. Man belongs to this tree of life; he
is part of this living cosmos that begins with a miracle: in inert matter a vital centre develops, the reality
that we call an organism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But although
man is part of this great biocosmos, he transcends it, for he is also part of that
reality which <st1:place w:st="on">St John</st1:place>
calls <i>zoé. </i>It is a new level of life in which the being is open to knowledge.
Of course, man is always man with all his dignity, even if he is in a comatose state,
even if he is at the embryonic stage, but if he lives only biologically, the full
potential of his being is not fulfilled. Man is called to open himself to new dimensions.
He is a being who knows. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Certainly,
animals know too, but only things that concern their biological life. Human knowledge
goes further; the human being desires to know everything, all reality, reality in
its totality; he wants to know what his being is and what the world is. He thirsts
for knowledge of the infinite, he desires to arrive at the font of life, he desires
to drink at this font, to find life itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, we
have touched on a second dimension: man is
not only a being who knows; he also lives in a relationship of friendship, of love.
In addition to the dimension of the knowledge of truth and being, and inseparable
from it, exists the dimension of the relationship of love. And here the human being
comes closer to the source of life from which he wants to drink in order to have
life in abundance, to have life itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We could
say that science, and medicine in particular, is one great struggle for life. In
the end, medicine seeks to counter death; it is the search for immortality. But
can we find a medicine that will guarantee us immortality? The question of today’s
Gospel is precisely this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Spiritual
immortality <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us try
to imagine that medicine succeeds in finding the recipe against death, the recipe
for immortality. Even in this case it would always be a medicine that fitted into
the biosphere, a useful medicine of course for our spiritual and human lives, but
in itself confined to within this biosphere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is easy
to imagine what would happen if the biological life of man lasted for ever; we would
find ourselves in an ageing world, a world full of old people, a world that would
no longer leave room for the young, for the renewal of life. We can therefore understand
that this cannot be the type of immortality to which we aspire; this is not the
possibility of drinking at the source of life for which we all long. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Precisely
at this point, when on the one hand we realize that we cannot hope for biological
life to be infinitely prolonged, yet on the other, we desire to drink from the very
source of life to enjoy life without end, it is precisely at this point that the
Lord intervenes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He speaks
to us in the Gospel, saying: “I am the resurrection
and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever
lives and believes in me shall never die”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“I am the
Resurrection”: to drink from the source of
life is to enter into communion with this infinite love which is the source of life.
In encountering Christ, we enter into contact, indeed, into communion with life
itself and we have already crossed the threshold of death because, beyond biological
life, we are in touch with true life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church
Fathers have called the Eucharist a <i>drug of immortality. </i>And so it is, for
in the Eucharist we come into contact, indeed, we enter into communion with the
Risen Body of Christ, we enter the space of life already raised, eternal life. Let
us enter into communion with this Body which is enlivened by immortal life and thus,
from this moment and for ever, we will dwell in the space of life itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
way, this Gospel is also a profound interpretation of what the Eucharist is and
invites us to live truly on the Eucharist, to be able thus to be transformed into
the communion of love. This is true life. In John’s Gospel the Lord says: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Life in
abundance is not as some think: to consume
everything, to have all, to be able to do all that one wants. In that case we would
live for inanimate things, we would live for death. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Life in
abundance means being in communion with true life, with infinite love. It is in
this way that we truly enter into the abundance of life and also become messengers
of life for others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On their
return, prisoners of war who had been in <st1:place w:st="on">Russia</st1:place> for 10 years or more, exposed
to cold and hunger, have said: “I was able
to survive because I knew I was expected. I knew people were looking forward to
my arrival, that I was necessary and awaited”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This love
that awaited them was the effective medicine of life against all ills. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In reality,
we are all awaited. The Lord waits for us and not only does he wait for us; he is
present and stretches out his hand to us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us take
the Lord’s hand and pray to him to grant that we may truly live, live the abundance
of life and thus also be able to communicate true life to our contemporaries, life
in abundance. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Fifth Sunday of Lent, 29 March 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would first of
all like to thank God and all those who collaborated in various ways in the success
of the Apostolic Journey that I was able to make to Africa in the past few days
and I invoke upon the seeds scattered on African soil an abundance of Blessings
from Heaven. I propose to expand on this significant pastoral experience next Wednesday
at the General Audience, but I cannot let this opportunity pass without expressing
the deep emotion I felt on encountering the Catholic communities and peoples of
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Cameroon</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on">Angola</st1:place>.
Two aspects impressed me above all, both of which are very important. The first
was the visible joy on the faces of the people, the joy of feeling part of the one
family of God, and I thank the Lord for having been able to share moments of simple
celebration, choral and full of faith, with the multitudes of these our brothers
and sisters. The second aspect is the strong feeling of sacredness in the air at
the Liturgical Celebrations, characteristic of all African peoples and which, I
can say, emerged at every moment of my stay among these dear peoples. The Visit
enabled me to see and understand better the reality of the Church in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, in the variety of her experiences and the challenges
she has to face in this period. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In thinking precisely
of the challenges that mark the path of the Church on the African continent and
in every other part of the world, we realize how timely are the words of the Gospel
this Fifth Sunday of Lent. In the imminence of his Passion Jesus declared: “Unless
a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies,
it bears much fruit” (Jn 12: 24). Now is no longer the time for words and discourses;
indeed the crucial hour has come for which the Son of God came into the world and
although his soul is troubled, he makes himself available to fulfill the Father’s
will to the end. And this is the will of God: to give eternal life to us who have
lost it. However, in order for this to be brought about Jesus dies, like a grain
of wheat that God the Father has sown in the world. Indeed, only in this way can
a new humanity germinate and grow, free from the dominion of sin and able to live
in brotherhood, as sons and daughters of the one Father who is in Heaven. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the great celebration
of faith lived together in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, we experienced
that this new humanity is alive, even with its human limitations. Abundant fruits
are gathered wherever missionaries, like Jesus, have given their life and continue
to spend it for the Gospel. I would like to address a special thought of gratitude
to them for the good that they do. They are women and men both religious and lay.
It was beautiful for me to see the fruit of their love for Christ and to observe
the Christian’s profound gratitude to them. Let us give thanks to God and pray to
Most Holy Mary that Christ’s message of hope and love may spread throughout the
world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT TO THE <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">PARISH</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">CHURCH</st1:placetype></st1:place> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF “SANTO
VOLTO DI GESÙ” IN <st1:city w:st="on">ROME</st1:city>’S
SUBURB OF MAGLIANA</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Fifth
Sunday of Lent, 29 March 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s Gospel
passage <st1:place w:st="on">St John</st1:place>
refers to an episode that occurred during the last phase of Christ’s public ministry,
just before the Jewish Passover, which was to be the Passover of his death and Resurrection.
While Jesus was in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>, the Evangelist recounts,
some Greeks, proselytes of Judaism who were curious and attracted by what he was
doing, approached Philip, one of the Twelve who had a Greek name and came from <st1:place w:st="on">Galilee</st1:place>. “Sir”, they said to him, “ we wish to see Jesus”.
Philip in turn went to Andrew, one of the first Apostles very close to the Lord
and who also had a Greek name, and they both went and “told Jesus” (see Jn 12: 20-21).
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the request of
these anonymous Greeks we can interpret the thirst to see and to know Christ which
is in every person’s heart; and Jesus’ answer orients us to the mystery of Easter,
the glorious manifestation of his saving mission. “The hour has come”, he declared,
“for the Son of man to be glorified (Jn 12: 23). Yes! The hour of the glorification
of the Son of man is at hand, but it will entail the sorrowful passage through his
Passion and death on the Cross. Indeed the divine plan of salvation which is for
everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike will only be brought about in this manner. Actually,
everyone is invited to be a member of the one people of the new and definitive Covenant.
In this light, we also understand the solemn proclamation with which the Gospel
passage ends: “and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”
(Jn 12: 32), and likewise the Evangelist’s comment: “He said this to show by what
death he was to die” (Jn 12: 33). The Cross: the height loftiness of love is the
loftiness of Jesus and he attracts all to these heights. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Very appropriately,
the liturgy brings us to meditate on this text of John’s Gospel today, on this Fifth
Sunday of Lent, while the days of the Lord’s Passion draw near in which we will
immerse ourselves spiritually as from next Sunday which is called, precisely, Palm
Sunday and the Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. It is as if the Church were encouraging
us to share Jesus’ state of mind, desiring to prepare us to relive the mystery of
his Crucifixion, death and Resurrection not as foreign spectators but on the contrary
as protagonists, involved together with him in his mystery of the Cross and the
Resurrection. Indeed, where Christ is his disciples called to follow him, to be
in solidarity with him at the moment of the combat must also be in order to share
in his victory. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What our association
with his mission consists of is explained by the Lord himself. In speaking of his
forthcoming glorious death, he uses a simple and at the same time evocative image:
“unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if
it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12: 24). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He compares himself
to a “grain of wheat which has split open, to bring much fruit to others”, according
to an effective statement of St Athanasius; it is only through death, through the
Cross that Christ bears much fruit for all the centuries. Indeed, it was not enough
for the Son of God to become incarnate. To bring the divine plan of universal salvation
to completion he had to be killed and buried: only in this way was human reality
to be accepted, and, through his death and Resurrection, the triumph of Life, the
triumph of Love to be made manifest; it was to be proven that love is stronger than
death. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet the man Jesus
who was a true man with the same sentiments as ours felt the burden of the trial
and bitter sorrow at the tragic end that awaited him. Precisely since he was God-Man
he felt terror even more acutely as he faced the abyss of human sin and all that
is unclean in humanity which he had to carry with him and consume in the fire of
his love. He had to carry all this with him and transform it in his love. “Now is
my soul troubled”, he confessed. “And what shall I say? Father, save me from this
hour?” (Jn 12: 27). The temptation to ask: “Save me, do not permit the Cross, give
me life!” surfaces. In the distress of his invocation we may grasp in anticipation
the anguished prayer of <st1:place w:st="on">Gethsemane</st1:place>, when, experiencing
the drama of loneliness and fear, he implored the Father to take from him the cup
of the Passion. At the same time, however, his filial adherence to the divine plan
did not fail, because it is precisely this that enables him to know that his hour
has come and with trust he prays: “Father, glorify your name” (Jn 12: 28). By this
he means “I accept the Cross” in which the name of God is glorified, that is, the
greatness of his love. Here too Jesus anticipates the words of the <st1:place w:st="on">Mount of Olives</st1:place>, the process that must be fundamentally brought
about in all our prayers: to transform, to allow grace to transform our selfish
will and open it to comply with the divine will. The same sentiments surface in
the passage of the Letter to the Hebrews proclaimed in the Second Reading. Prostrated
by extreme anguish because of the death that was hanging over him, Jesus offers
up prayers and supplications to God “with loud cries and tears” (Heb 5: 7). He invokes
help from the One who can set him free but always remaining abandoned in the Father’s
hands. And precisely because of his filial trust in God, the author notes, he was
heard, in the sense that he was raised, he received new and definitive life. The
Letter to the Hebrews makes us understand that these insistent prayers, of Jesus
with tears and cries, were the true act of the High Priest with which he offered
himself and humanity to the Father, there by transforming the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, this is the demanding way of the Cross that Jesus points out to all his
disciples. On several occasions he said, “If anyone wants to serve me, let him follow
me”. There is no alternative for the Christian who wishes to fulfill his vocation.
It is the “law” of the Cross, described with the image of the grain of wheat that
dies in order that new life may germinate; it is the “logic” of the Cross, recalled
also in today’s Gospel: “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life
in this world will keep it for eternal life”. “To hate” one’s life is a strong and
paradoxical Semitic expression that clearly emphasizes the radical totality which
must distinguish those who follow Christ and, out of love for him, put themselves
at the service of their brethren. They lose their life and thus find it. There is
no other way to experience the joy and the true fruitfulness of Love: the way of
giving oneself, of self-giving, of losing oneself in order to find oneself. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, Jesus’
invitation rings out with particular eloquence at today’s celebration in this Parish
of yours. Indeed, it is dedicated to the Holy Face of Jesus: that Face which “some
Greeks”, of which the Gospel speaks, wished to see; that Face which in the coming
days of the Passion we shall contemplate disfigured by human sins, indifference
and ingratitude; that Face, radiant with light and dazzling with glory that will
shine out at dawn on Easter Day. Let us keep our hearts and minds fixed on the Face
of Christ, dear faithful whom I greet with affection, starting with Fr Luigi Coluzzi,
your Parish Priest, to whom I am also grateful for expressing your sentiments. Thank
you for your cordial welcome: I am truly glad to be among you on the occasion of
the third anniversary of the dedication of your church and I greet you all with
affection. I extend a special greeting to the Cardinal Vicar, as well as to Cardinal
Fiorenzo Angelini, who has contributed to the realization of this new parish centre,
to the Auxiliary Bishop of the Sector, to Bishop Marcello Costalunga and to the
other Prelates present, to the priests who collaborate in the parish, to the praiseworthy
women religious of the Congregation of the Poor Daughters of the Visitation who
take care of the residents in their Rest Home for the elderly right opposite this
beautiful church. I greet the catechists, the Council and the parish workers and
those who collaborate in the life of the Parish; I greet the children, the young
people and their families. I extend my thoughts with pleasure to the inhabitants
of Magliana, especially the elderly, the sick, people who are lonely and in difficulty.
I am praying for each and everyone at this Holy Mass. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let yourselves be enlightened by the splendor of the Face of Christ, and
your young community which can now benefit from a new parish complex, with modern
and functional structures will walk united, united by the commitment to proclaim
and witness to the Gospel in this neighborhood. I know what great care you devote
to liturgical formation, making the most of every resource of your community: the
readers, the choir and all those who are dedicated to enlivening the celebrations.
It is important to put always personal and liturgical prayer first in our life.
I am aware of the great commitment you devote to catechesis to ensure that it lives
up to the expectations of the children, both those preparing to receive the sacraments
of First Communion and Confirmation and those who attend the After-School Prayer
and Recreation Centre. You are also anxious to provide a suitable catechesis for
parents, whom you invite to take a course of Christian formation together with their
children. In this way you seek to help families to live the sacramental events together,
educating and being educated in the faith “in the family”, which must be the first
and natural “school” of Christian life for all its members. I congratulate you on
your open and welcoming parish. It is motivated and enlivened by a sincere love
for God and for all the brethren, in imitation of St Maximilian Mary Kolbe to whom
it was originally dedicated. In <st1:place w:st="on">Auschwitz</st1:place>, with
heroic courage, he sacrificed himself to save the life of another. In our time,
marked by a general social and economic crisis, the effort you are making, above
all through the parish <i>Caritas </i>and the Sant’Egidio group, in order, as far
as possible, to meet the expectations of the poorest and neediest people is most
praiseworthy. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would like to say
a special word of encouragement to you, dear young people: let yourselves be attracted
by the fascination of Christ! Fixing his Face with the eyes of the faith, ask him:
“Jesus what do you want me to do with you and for you?”. Thus, keep listening. Be
guided by his Spirit, second the plan he has for you. Prepare yourselves seriously
and build families that are united and faithful to the Gospel and to be his witnesses
in society; then, if he calls you, be ready to dedicate your whole life to his service
in the Church as priests or as men and women religious. I assure you of my prayers;
in particular I am expecting you next Thursday in St Peter’s Basilica to prepare
ourselves for the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/gmg/documents/gmg_2009_en.html"><span style="color: black;">World Youth Day</span></a>, which as you know, is being celebrated
this year at the diocesan level, next Sunday. We shall remember together my beloved
and venerable Predecessor John Paul II on the fourth anniversary of his death. In
many circumstances he encouraged young people to encounter Christ and to follow
him with enthusiasm and generosity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters of this parish community, may the infinite love of Christ that shines in
his Face be radiant in your every attitude, and become your “daily life”. As <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> urged in an Easter
homily, “Christ has suffered; let us die to sin. Christ is risen; let us live for
God. Christ has passsed from this world to the Father; let us not be attached to
this earth with our hearts but follow him in the things of above. Our Lord was hung
on the wood of the Cross; let us crucify concupiscence of the flesh. he lay in the
tomb; buried with him, let us forget past things; he is seated in Heaven; let us
concentrate our longing on our desires to supreme things” (S. Agostino,<i> Discourse
229/D</i>, 1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Heartened by this
knowledge, let us continue the Eucharistic celebration, invoking the motherly intercession
of Mary, so that our life may become a reflection of Christ’s. Let us pray that
all those whom we meet may always perceive in our gestures and in our words the
pacifying and comforting goodness of his Face. Amen!</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Fifth Sunday of Lent, 21 March 2010</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have reached the
Fifth Sunday of Lent in which the Liturgy this year presents to us the Gospel episode
of Jesus who saves an adulterous woman condemned to death (Jn 8: 1-11). While he
is teaching at the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
the Scribes and Pharisees bring Jesus a woman caught in the act of adultery for
which Mosaic law prescribed stoning. Those men ask Jesus to judge the sinful woman
in order “to test him” and impel him to take a false step. The scene is full with
drama: the life of that person and also his own life depend on Jesus. Indeed, the
hypocritical accusers pretend to entrust the judgment to him whereas it is actually
he himself whom they wish to accuse and judge. Jesus, on the other hand, is “full
of grace and truth” (Jn 1: 14): he can read every human heart, he wants to condemn
the sin but save the sinner, and unmask hypocrisy. <st1:place w:st="on">St John</st1:place> the Evangelist highlights one detail:
while his accusers are insistently interrogating him, Jesus bends down and starts
writing with his finger on the ground. <st1:place w:st="on">St
Augustine</st1:place> notes that this gesture portrays Christ as the
divine legislator: in fact, God wrote the law with his finger on tablets of stone
(see <i>Commentary on John’s Gospel, </i>33, 5).<i> </i>Thus Jesus is the Legislator,
he is Justice in person. And what is his sentence? “Let him who is without sin among
you be the first to throw a stone at her”. These words are full of the disarming
power of truth that pulls down the wall of hypocrisy and opens consciences to a
greater justice, that of love, in which consists the fulfilment of every precept
(see Rom 13: 8-10). This is the justice that also saved Saul of Tarsus, transforming
him into <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
(see Phil 3: 8-14). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When his accusers
“went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest”, Jesus, absolving the woman of
her sin, ushers her into a new life oriented to good. “Neither do I condemn you;
go, and do not sin again”. It is the same grace that was to make the Apostle say:
“One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies
ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ
Jesus” (Phil 3: 13-14). God wants only goodness and life for us; he provides for
the health of our soul through his ministers, delivering us from evil with the Sacrament
of Reconciliation, so that no one may be lost but all may have the opportunity to
convert. In this Year for Priests I would like to urge Pastors to imitate the holy
Curé d’Ars in the ministry of sacramental pardon so that the faithful may discover
its meaning and beauty and be healed by the merciful love of God, who “even forces
himself to forget the future<i> </i>so that he can grant us his forgiveness!” (<i>Letter
to Priests for the Inauguration of the Year for Priests, </i>16 June 2009). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, let
us learn from the Lord Jesus not to judge and not to condemn our neighbour. Let
us learn to be intransigent with sin starting with our own! and indulgent with people.
May the holy Mother of God, free from all sin, who is the mediatrix of grace for
every repentant sinner, help us in this.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fifth Sunday of Lent, 10 April 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">There are only two
weeks to go until Easter and the Bible Readings of this Sunday all speak about resurrection.
It is not yet that of Jesus, which bursts in as an absolute innovation, but our
own resurrection, to which we aspire and which Christ himself gave to us, in rising
from the dead. Indeed, death represents a wall as it were, which prevents us from
seeing beyond it; yet our hearts reach out beyond this wall and even though we cannot
understand what it conceals, we nevertheless think about it and imagine it, expressing
with symbols our desire for eternity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Prophet Ezekiel
proclaimed to the Jewish people, exiled far from the land of Israel, that God would
open the graves of the dead and bring them home to rest in peace (see Ez 37:12-14).
This ancestral aspiration of man to be buried together with his forefathers is the
longing for a “homeland” which welcomes us at the end of our earthly toil. This
concept does not yet contain the idea of a personal resurrection from death, which
only appears towards the end of the Old Testament, and even in Jesus’ time was not
accepted by all Judeans. Among Christians too, faith in the resurrection and in
life is often accompanied by many doubts and much confusion because it also always
concerns a reality which goes beyond the limits of our reason and requires an act
of faith. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s Gospel
— the raising of Lazarus — we listen to the voice of faith from the lips of Martha,
Lazarus’ sister. Jesus said to her: “Your brother will rise again,” and she replies:
“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (Jn 11:23-24).
But Jesus repeats: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though
he die, yet shall he live” (Jn 11:25-26). This is the true newness which abounds
and exceeds every border! Christ pulls down the wall of death and in him dwells
all the fullness of God, who is life, eternal life. Therefore death did not have
power over him and the raising of Lazarus is a sign of his full dominion over physical
death which, before God, resembles sleep (see Jn 11:11).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However there is
another death, which cost Christ the hardest struggle, even the price of the Cross:
it is spiritual death and sin which threaten to ruin the existence of every human
being. To overcome <i>this </i>death, Christ died and his Resurrection is not a
return to past life, but an opening to a new reality, a “new land” united at last
with God’s Heaven. Therefore St Paul writes: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus
from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from will give life to your
mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us turn to the Virgin Mary, who previously shared in this Resurrection,
so that she may help us to say faithfully: “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the
Christ, the Son of God” (Jn 11:27), to truly discover that he is our salvation.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO <st1:country-region w:st="on">MEXICO</st1:country-region>
AND THE <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">REPUBLIC</st1:placetype> OF
<st1:placename w:st="on">CUBA</st1:placename></st1:place> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">(MARCH 23-29, 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><i>Expo</i></st1:placename><i> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bicentenario</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Park</st1:placetype></i></st1:place><i>, León, Sunday, 25 March 2012</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s
Gospel, Jesus speaks of the grain of wheat that falls to the ground, dies and bears
much fruit. This is his response to some Greeks who approached Philip asking: “we
would like to see Jesus” (<i>Jn</i> 12:21). Today we invoke Mary Most Holy and we
ask her: “show Jesus to us”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As we now
pray the Angelus and remember the Annunciation of the Lord, our eyes too turn spiritually
towards the hill of Tepeyac, to the place where the Mother of God, under the title
of “the Ever-Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe” has been fervently honored for
centuries as a sign of reconciliation and of God’s infinite goodness towards the
world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">My predecessors
on the Chair of Saint Peter honored her with affectionate titles such as Our Lady
of Mexico, Heavenly Patroness of Latin America, Mother and Empress of this continent.
Her faithful children, in their turn, who experience her help, invoke her confidently
with such affectionate and familiar names as the Rose of Mexico, Our Lady of Heaven,
Virgin <i>Morena</i>, Mother of Tepeyac, Noble <i>Indita</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, do not forget that true devotion to the Virgin Mary always takes us
to Jesus, and “consists neither in sterile nor transitory feelings, nor in an empty
credulity, but proceeds from true faith, by which we are led to recognize the excellence
of the Mother of God, and we are moved to filial love towards our Mother and to
the imitation of her virtues” (<i>Lumen Gentium</i>, no. 67). To love her means
being committed to listening to her Son, to venerate the <i>Guadalupana</i> means
living in accordance with the words of the blessed fruit of her womb.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At this
time, when so many families are separated or forced to emigrate, when so many are
suffering due to poverty, corruption, domestic violence, drug trafficking, the crisis
of values and increased crime, we come to Mary in search of consolation, strength
and hope. She is the Mother of the true God, who invites us to stay with faith and
charity beneath her mantle, so as to overcome in this way all evil and to establish
a more just and fraternal society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With these
sentiments, I place once again this country, all of Latin America and the <st1:place w:st="on">Caribbean</st1:place> before the gentle gaze of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I entrust all their sons and daughters to the Star of both the original and the
new evangelization; she has inspired with her maternal love their Christian history,
has given particular expression to their national achievements, to their communal
and social initiatives, to family life, to personal devotion and to the <i>Continental
Mission</i> which is now taking place across these noble lands. In times of trial
and sorrow she was invoked by many martyrs who, in crying out “Long live Christ
the King and Mary of Guadalupe” bore unyielding witness of fidelity to the Gospel
and devotion to the Church. I now ask that her presence in this nation may continue
to serve as a summons to defence and respect for human life. May it promote fraternity,
setting aside futile acts of revenge and banishing all divisive hatred. May Holy
Mary of Guadalupe bless us and obtain for us the abundant graces that, through her
intercession, we request from heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO <st1:country-region w:st="on">MEXICO</st1:country-region>
AND THE <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">REPUBLIC</st1:placetype> OF
<st1:placename w:st="on">CUBA</st1:placename></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">(MARCH 23-29, 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>HOLY MASS</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><i>Expo</i></st1:placename><i> <st1:placename w:st="on">Bicentenario</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Park</st1:placetype></i></st1:place><i>, León, Sunday, 25 March 2012</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</i>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am very
pleased to be among you today and I express my sincere gratitude to the Most Reverend
José Guadalupe Martín Rábago, Archbishop of León, for his kind words of welcome.
I greet the Mexican Bishops, and the Cardinals and other Bishops present here, and
in a special way those who have come from Latin America and the <st1:place w:st="on">Caribbean</st1:place>. I also extend a warm greeting to the authorities
that are with us, as well as all who have gathered for this Holy Mass presided by
the Successor of Peter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We said,
“A pure heart, create for me, O God” (<i>Ps</i> 50:12) during the responsorial psalm.
This exclamation shows us how profoundly we must prepare to celebrate next week
the great mystery of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. It also helps
us to look deeply into the human heart, especially in times of sorrow as well as
hope, as are the present times for the people of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region>
and of <st1:place w:st="on">Latin America</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The desire
for a heart that would be pure, sincere, humble, acceptable to God was very much
felt by Israel as it became aware of the persistence in its midst of evil and sin
as a power, practically implacable and impossible to overcome. There was nothing
left but to trust in God’s mercy and in the hope that he would change from within,
from the heart, an unbearable, dark and hopeless situation. In this way recourse
gained ground to the infinite mercy of the Lord who does not wish the sinner to
die but to convert and live (see <i>Ez</i> 33:11). A pure heart, a new heart, is
one which recognizes that, of itself, it is impotent and places itself in God’s
hands so as to continue hoping in his promises. Then the psalmist can say to the
Lord with conviction: “Sinners will return to you” (<i>Ps</i> 50:15). And towards
the end of the psalm he will give an explanation which is at the same time a firm
conviction of faith: “A humble, contrite heart you will not spurn” (v. 19).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The history
of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
relates some great events and battles, but when faced with its more authentic existence,
its decisive destiny, its salvation, it places its hope not in its own efforts,
but in God who can create a new heart, not insensitive or proud. This should remind
each one of us and our peoples that, when addressing the deeper dimension of personal
and community life, human strategies will not suffice to save us. We must have recourse
to the One who alone can give life in its fullness, because he is the essence of
life and its author; he has made us sharers in the same through his Son Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s
Gospel takes up the topic and shows us how this ancient desire for the fullness
of life has actually been achieved in Christ. <st1:place w:st="on">Saint John</st1:place> explains it in a passage in which the
wish of some Greeks to see Jesus coincides with the moment in which the Lord is
about to be glorified. Jesus responds to the question of the Greeks, who represent
the pagan world, saying: “Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified”
(<i>Jn </i>12:23). This is a strange response which seems inconsistent with the
question asked by the Greeks. What has the glorification of Jesus to do with the
request to meet him? But there is a relation. Someone might think – says <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Augustine</st1:place> – that Jesus
felt glorified because the Gentiles were coming to him. This would be similar to
the applause of the multitudes who give “glory” to those who are grand in the world,
as we would say today. But this is not so. “It was convenient that, before the wonder
of his glorification, should come the humility of his passion” (<i>In Joannis Ev</i>.
51:9: <i>PL</i> 35, 1766).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus’ answer,
announcing his imminent passion, means that a casual encounter in those moments
would have been superficial and perhaps deceptive. The Greeks will see the one they
wished to meet raised up on the cross from which he will attract all to himself
(see <i>Jn</i> 12:32). There his “glory” will begin, because of his sacrifice of
expiation for all, as the grain of wheat fallen to the ground that by dying germinates
and produces abundant fruit. They will find the one whom, unknown to them, they
were seeking in their hearts, the true God who is made visible to all peoples. This
was how Our Lady of Guadalupe showed her divine Son to Saint Juan Diego, not as
a powerful legendary hero but as the very God of the living, by whom all live, the
Creator of persons, of closeness and immediacy, of heaven and earth (see <i>Nican
Mopohua</i>, v.33). At that moment she did what she had done previously at the wedding
feast of <st1:place w:st="on">Cana</st1:place>. Faced with the embarrassment caused
by the lack of wine, she told the servants clearly that the path to follow was her
Son: “Do whatever he tells you” (<i>Jn</i> 2:5).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, by coming here I have been able to visit the monument to Christ the
King situated on top of the Cubilete. My venerable predecessor, Blessed Pope John
Paul II, although he ardently desired to do so, was unable on his several journeys
to this beloved land to visit this site of such significance for the faith of the
Mexican people. I am sure that in heaven he is happy that the Lord has granted me
the grace to be here with you and that he has blessed the millions of Mexicans who
have venerated his relics in every corner of the country. This monument represents
Christ the King. But his crowns, one of a sovereign, the other of thorns, indicate
that his royal status does not correspond to how it has been or is understood by
many. His kingdom does not stand on the power of his armies subduing others through
force or violence. It rests on a higher power than wins over hearts: the love of
God that he brought into the world with his sacrifice and the truth to which he
bore witness. This is his sovereignty which no one can take from him and which no
one should forget. Hence it is right that this shrine should be above all a place
of pilgrimage, of fervent prayer, of conversion, of reconciliation, of the search
for truth and the acceptance of grace. We ask Christ, to reign in our hearts, making
them pure, docile, filled with hope and courageous in humility.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From this
park, foreseen as a memorial of the bicentenary of the birth of the Mexican nation,
bringing together many differences towards one destiny and one common quest, we
ask Christ for a pure heart, where he as Prince of Peace may dwell “thanks to the
power of God who is the power of goodness, the power of love”. But for God to dwell
in us, we need to listen to him; we must allow his Word to challenge us every day,
meditating upon it in our hearts after the example of Mary (see <i>Lk</i> 2:51).
In this way we grow in friendship with him, we learn to understand what he expects
from us and we are encouraged to make him known to others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At Aparecida,
the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean saw with clarity the need to confirm,
renew and revitalize the newness of the Gospel rooted deeply in the history of these
lands “on the basis of a personal and community encounter with Jesus Christ which
raises up disciples and missionaries” (<i>Final Document</i>, 11). The <i>Continental
Mission</i> now taking place in the various dioceses of this continent has the specific
task of transmitting this conviction to all Christians and ecclesial communities
so that they may resist the temptation of a faith that is superficial and routine,
at times fragmentary and incoherent. Here we need to overcome fatigue related to
faith and rediscover “the joy of being Christians, of being sustained by the inner
happiness of knowing Christ and belonging to his Church. From this joy spring the
energies that are needed to serve Christ in distressing situations of human suffering,
placing oneself at his disposition and not falling back on one’s own comfort” (<i>Address
to the Roman Curia</i>, 22 December 2011). This can be seen clearly in the saints
who dedicated themselves fully to the cause of the Gospel with enthusiasm and joy
without counting the cost, even of life itself. Their heart was centered entirely
on Christ from whom they had learned what it means to love until the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
sense the Year of Faith, to which I have convoked the whole Church, “is an invitation
to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord, the only Savior of the world
[…]. Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it
is communicated as an experience of grace and joy” (<i>Porta Fidei</i> 6, 7).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to assist us in
purifying our hearts, especially in view of the coming Easter celebrations, that
we may enter more deeply the salvific mystery of her Son, as she made it known in
this land. And let us also ask her to continue accompanying and protecting her Mexican
and Latin American children, that Christ may reign in their lives and help them
boldly to promote peace, harmony, justice and solidarity. Amen. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACTUS-ESSENDI-PRINCIPLE-THOMAS-AQUINAS/dp/0578522179" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Actus essendi and the Habit of the First Principle in Thomas Aquinas</span></a></i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;"> </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-55776490669494156852024-03-04T01:30:00.004-05:002024-03-04T01:30:00.349-05:00Reflections on the Fourth Sunday of Lent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0340: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Fourth Sunday of Lent </b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On seven
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, on 26 March 2006, 18 March 2007, 2 March
2008, 22 March 2009, 14 March 2010, 3 April 2011, and 19 March 2012. Here are the texts of seven brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i> and three homilies delivered on
these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Lent, 26 March 2006</i>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Consistory held
in the past few days for the appointment of 15 new Cardinals was an intense ecclesial
experience that enabled us to sample the spiritual riches of collegiality, of being
together with brothers from various provenances, all of us sharing in one love for
Christ and for his Church. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In a certain way
we relived the reality of the first Christian community, gathered round Mary, Mother
of Jesus, and Peter, to receive the gift of the Spirit and to commit themselves
to spreading the Gospel throughout the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Fidelity to this
mission to the point of sacrificing their life is a distinctive feature of Cardinals,
as their oath attests, and is, as it were, symbolized by scarlet, which is the colour
of blood. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">By a providential
coincidence, the Consistory took place on 24 March, when we commemorated the missionaries
who died during the past year on the frontiers of evangelization and in the service
of humanity in various parts of the globe. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, the Consistory
was an opportunity to feel closer than ever to all those Christians who suffer persecution
in the cause of the faith. Their witness, news of which we receive every day, and
especially the sacrifice of those who were killed, is edifying to us and spurs us
to make an ever more sincere and generous commitment to evangelize. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">My thoughts go in
particular to those communities who live in countries where religious freedom is
lacking or where, despite the fact that it is allowed on paper, it is actually restricted
in many ways. I send them warm encouragement to persevere patiently in the love
of Christ, a seed of the Kingdom of God that is coming, indeed, already exists in
the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On behalf of the
entire Church, I would like to express the warmest solidarity to all who work at
the service of the Gospel in these difficult situations, and at the same time I
assure them of my daily remembrance in prayer. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church moves
on in history and spreads throughout the earth accompanied by Mary, Queen of the
Apostles. For Christians, as in the Upper Room, the Blessed Virgin always constitutes
the living memorial of Jesus. It is she who enlivens their prayers and sustains
their hope. Let us ask her to guide us on our daily journey and to protect with
special love those Christian communities that live in conditions of greater difficulty
and suffering.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT TO THE ROMAN PARISH OF «DIO PADRE MISERICORDIOSO»</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Fourth
Sunday of Lent, 26 March 2006</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Fourth Sunday
of Lent, traditionally known as <i>“Laetare </i>Sunday<i>”, </i>is permeated with
a joy which, to some extent, attenuates the penitential atmosphere of this holy
season: “Rejoice Jerusalem!”, the Church
says in the Entrance Antiphon, “Be glad for her... you who mourned for her”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The refrain of the
Responsorial Psalm echoes this invitation:
“The memory of you, Lord, is our joy”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To think of God gives
joy. We spontaneously ask ourselves: but
why should we rejoice? One reason, of course, is the approach of Easter. The expectation
of Easter gives us a foretaste of the joy of the encounter with the Risen Christ.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The deepest reason,
however, lies in the message offered by the biblical readings that the liturgy presents
to us today and that we have heard. They remind us that despite our unworthiness,
God’s infinite mercy is destined for us. God loves us in a way that we might call
“obstinate” and enfolds us in his inexhaustible tenderness. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is what already
emerges from the First Reading from the Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament
(see II Chr 36: 14-16, 19-23). The sacred author offers us a concise and meaningful
interpretation of the history of the Chosen People, who suffered God’s punishment
as a consequence of their rebellious behaviour:
the temple was destroyed and the people in exile no longer had a land; it
truly seemed that God had forgotten them. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Then, however, they
saw that God, through punishment, pursues a plan of mercy. It was to be the destruction
of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place> and the temple - as I said -, it was
to be an exile that would move the people’s hearts and bring them back to their
God so that they might know him more deeply. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And then the Lord,
demonstrating the absolute primacy of his initiative over every purely human effort,
was to make use of a pagan, King Cyrus of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Persia</st1:country-region>,
to set <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
free. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the text we have
heard, the anger and mercy of the Lord alternate in a dramatic sequence, but love
triumphs in the end, for God is love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How can we fail to
grasp from the memory of those distant events a message valid for all times, including
our own? In thinking of the past centuries, we can see that God continues to love
us even when he punishes us. Even when God’s plans pass through trial and punishment,
they always aim at an outcome of mercy and forgiveness. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is what the
Apostle Paul confirmed for us in the Second Reading, recalling that “God, who is
rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead
through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2: 4-5). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To express this reality
of salvation the Apostle, together with the term “mercy”, <i>eleos </i>in Greek,
uses the word for love, <i>agape</i>, taken up and further amplified in the most
beautiful statement which we heard in the Gospel passage: “God so loved the world that he gave his Only-begotten
Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:
16). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As we know, that
“giving” on the part of the Father had a dramatic development: it even went to the point of the sacrifice of
the Son on the Cross. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If Jesus’ entire
mission in history is an eloquent sign of God’s love, his death, in which God’s
redeeming tenderness is fully expressed, is quite uniquely so. Always, but particularly
in this Lenten Season, our meditation must be centred on the Cross. In it we contemplate
the glory of the Lord that shines out in the martyred body of Jesus. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God’s greatness,
his being love, becomes visible precisely in this total gift of himself. It is the
glory of the Crucified One that every Christian is called to understand, live and
bear witness to with his life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Cross - the giving
of himself on the part of the Son of God - is the definitive “sign” par excellence
given to us so that we might understand the truth about man and the truth about
God: we have all been created and redeemed
by a God who sacrificed his only Son out of love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is why the Crucifixion,
as I wrote in the Encyclical <i>Deus Caritas Est, </i>“is the culmination of that
turning of God against himself in which he gives himself in order to raise man up
and save him. This is love in its most radical form” (no. 12). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How should we respond
to this radical love of the Lord? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel presents
to us a person by the name of Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem
who sought out Jesus by night. He was a well-to-do man, attracted by the Lord’s
words and example, but one who hesitated to take the leap of faith because he was
fearful of others. He felt the fascination of this Rabbi, so different from the
others, but could not manage to rid himself of the conditioning of his environment
that was hostile to Jesus, and stood irresolute on the threshold of faith. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How many people also
in our time are in search of God, in search of Jesus and of his Church, in search
of divine mercy, and are waiting for a “sign” that will touch their minds and their
hearts! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, as then, the
Evangelist reminds us that the only “sign” is Jesus raised on the Cross: Jesus who died and rose is the absolutely sufficient
sign. Through him we can understand the truth about life and obtain salvation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is the principal
proclamation of the Church, which remains unchanged down the ages. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Christian faith,
therefore, is not an ideology but a personal encounter with the Crucified and Risen
Christ. From this experience, both individual and communitarian, flows a new way
of thinking and acting: an existence marked
by love is born, as the saints testify. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, this
mystery is particularly eloquent in your parish, dedicated to “God, the merciful
Father”. It was desired, as we well know, by my beloved Predecessor John Paul II
in memory of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, to effectively condense that extraordinary
spiritual event. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In meditating on
the Lord’s mercy that was revealed totally and definitively in the mystery of the
Cross, the text that John Paul II had prepared for his meeting with the faithful
on 3 April, Sunday <i>in Albis, </i>the Second Sunday of Easter last year, comes
to my mind. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the divine plans
it was written that he would leave us precisely on the eve of that day, Saturday,
2 April - we all remember it well -, and for that reason he was unable to address
his words to you. I would like to address them to you now, dear brothers and sisters. “To humanity, which sometimes seems bewildered
and overwhelmed by the power of evil, selfishness and fear, the Risen Lord offers
his love that pardons, reconciles and reopens hearts to hope. It is a love that
converts hearts and gives peace”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Pope, in this
last text which is like a testament, then added: “How much the world needs to understand and accept
Divine Mercy!” (<i>Regina Caeli Reflection, </i>read by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri,
Substitute of the Secretariat of State, to the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square,
3 April 2005; <i>L’Osservatore Romano </i>English Edition<i>, </i>6 April, p. 1,
no. 2). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To understand and
accept God’s merciful love: may this be your
commitment, first of all in your families and then in every neighbourhood milieu.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I hope for this with
all my heart as I offer you my cordial greeting, starting with the priests who care
for your community under the guidance of the parish priest, Fr Gianfranco Corbino,
to whom I offer sincere thanks for having interpreted your sentiments in a beautiful
presentation of this building, this “barque” of Peter and of the Lord. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I next extend my
greeting to the Cardinal Vicar, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, and to Cardinal Crescenzio
Sepe, the titular of your church, to the Vicegerent and the Bishop of the Eastern
Sector of Rome and to all those who cooperate actively in the various parish services.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I know that yours
is a young community, barely 10 years old, which spent its early days in precarious
conditions while waiting for the completion of its current structures. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I also know that
rather than discouraging you, the initial problems impelled you to unanimous apostolic
work with special attention to the area of catechesis, the liturgy and charity.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Continue, dear friends,
on the path on which you have set out, striving to make your parish a true family
in which fidelity to the Word of God and the Church’s Tradition may become, day
after day, more and more your rule of life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I know, moreover,
that because of its original architectural structure, your church attracts many
visitors. Make them appreciate not only the particular beauty of this sacred building,
but especially the riches of a lively Community, eager to witness to the love of
God, the merciful Father. That love is the true secret of Christian joy to which
today, <i>Laetare </i>Sunday, invites us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As we turn our gaze
to Mary, “Mother of holy joy”, let us ask her to help us deepen the reasons for
our faith, so that, as today’s liturgy urges us, renewed in the spirit and with
a joyful heart, we may respond to the eternal and boundless love of God. Amen!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Lent, 18 March 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I have just
returned from Casal del Marmo, the reformatory for minors in <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>,
where I went to visit on this Fourth Sunday of Lent, in Latin called <i>Laetare
</i>Sunday, that is, “Rejoice”, from the first word of the entrance antiphon in
the liturgy of <st1:place w:st="on">Mass.</st1:place>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgy
today invites us to rejoice because Easter, the day of Christ’s victory over sin
and death, is approaching. But where is the source of Christian joy to be found
if not in the Eucharist, which Christ left us as spiritual Food while we are pilgrims
on this earth? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Eucharist
nurtures in believers of every epoch that deep joy which makes us one with love
and peace and originates from communion with God and with our brothers and sisters.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Last Tuesday
the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation <i>Sacramentum Caritatis </i>was presented.
Its theme, precisely, is the Eucharist, the source and summit of the Church’s life
and mission. I wrote it gathering the fruits of the 11th General Assembly of the
Synod of Bishops, which took place in the <st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place> in October 2005. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I mean to
return to this important text, but I want to emphasize from this moment that it
is an expression of the universal Church’s faith in the Eucharistic Mystery and
is in continuity with the Second Vatican Council and the Magisterium of my venerable
Predecessors, Paul VI and John Paul II. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
Document, I wanted among other things to highlight its connection with the Encyclical
<i>Deus Caritas Est</i>:<i> </i>that is why I chose as its title <i>Sacramentum
Caritatis</i>, taking up St Thomas Aquinas’ beautiful definition of the Eucharist
(see <i>Summa Th. </i>III, q. 73, a. 3, ad 3), the “Sacrament of charity”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yes, in
the Eucharist Christ wanted to give us <i>his </i>love, which impelled him to offer
his life for us on the Cross. At the Last Supper, in washing the disciples’ feet,
Jesus left us the commandment of love: “even as I have loved you, that you also
love one another” (Jn 13: 34). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However,
since this is only possible by remaining united to him like branches to the vine
(see Jn 15: 1-8), he chose to remain with us himself in the Eucharist so that we
could <i>remain in him</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When, therefore,
we nourish ourselves with faith on his Body and Blood, his love passes into us and
makes us capable in turn of laying down our lives for our brethren (see I Jn 3:
16) and not to grasp it for ourselves. From this flows Christian joy, the joy of
love and the joy to be loved. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary is
the “Woman of the Eucharist” par excellence, a masterpiece of divine grace: the
love of God has made her immaculate, “holy and blameless before him” (see Eph 1:
4). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At her side,
as Custodian of the Redeemer, God placed <st1:place w:st="on">St
Joseph</st1:place>, whose liturgical Solemnity we will be celebrating
tomorrow. I invoke this great Saint, my Patron, in particular so that by believing,
celebrating and living the Eucharistic Mystery with faith, the People of God will
be pervaded by Christ’s love and spread its fruits of joy and peace to all humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">VISIT TO <st1:city w:st="on">ROME</st1:city>’S
PRISON FOR MINORS, “CASAL DEL MARMO”<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Chapel of the Merciful Father, Fourth Sunday of Lent, 18 March
2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
Brothers and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Boys and Girls, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I have willingly
come to pay you a Visit, and the most important moment of our meeting is Holy Mass,
where the gift of God’s love is renewed: a love that comforts us and gives us peace,
especially in life’s difficult moments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
prayerful atmosphere I would like to address my greeting to each one of you: to
the Hon. Mr Clemente Mastella, Minister of Justice, to whom I express a special
“thank you”; to Mrs Melìta Cavallo, Department Head of Justice for Minors, to the
other Authorities who have spoken, to those in charge, to the operators, teachers
and personnel of this juvenile penitentiary, to the volunteers, to your relatives
and to everyone present. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
the Cardinal Vicar and Auxiliary Bishop Benedetto Tùzia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
in particular, <st1:place w:st="on">Mons</st1:place>.
Giorgio Caniato, General Inspector of the Prisons Chaplaincy, and your Chaplain,
whom I thank for expressing your sentiments at the beginning of Holy Mass. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Eucharistic
celebration it is Christ himself who becomes present among us; indeed, even more:
he comes to enlighten us with his teaching - in the Liturgy of the Word - and to
nourish us with his Body and his Blood - in the Eucharistic Liturgy and in Communion.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, he
comes to teach us to love, to make us capable of loving and thereby capable of living.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But perhaps
you will say, how difficult it is to love seriously and to live well! What is the
secret of love, the secret of life? Let us return to the Gospel [of the Prodigal
Son]. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
Gospel three persons appear: the father and two sons. But these people represent
two rather different life projects. Both sons lived peacefully, they were fairly
well-off farmers so they had enough to live on, selling their produce profitably,
and life seemed good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet little
by little the younger son came to find this life boring and unsatisfying: “All of
life can’t be like this”, he thought: rising every day, say at six o’clock, then
according to Israel’s traditions, there must have been a prayer, a reading from
the Holy Bible, then they went to work and at the end of the day another prayer.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, day
after day he thought: “But no, life is something more. I must find another life
where I am truly free, where I can do what I like; a life free from this discipline,
from these norms of God’s commandments, from my father’s orders; I would like to
be on my own and have life with all its beauties totally for myself. Now, instead,
it is nothing but work...”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And so he
decided to claim the whole of his share of his inheritance and leave. His father
was very respectful and generous and respected the son’s freedom: it was he who
had to find his own life project. And he departed, as the Gospel says, to a far-away
country. It was probably geographically distant because he wanted a change, but
also inwardly distant because he wanted a completely different life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So his idea
was: freedom, doing what I want to do, not recognizing these laws of a God who is
remote, not being in the prison of this domestic discipline, but rather doing what
is beautiful, what I like, possessing life with all its beauty and fullness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And at first
- we might imagine, perhaps for a few months - everything went smoothly: he found
it beautiful to have attained life at last, he felt happy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Then, however,
little by little, he felt bored here, too; here too everything was always the same.
And in the end, he was left with an emptiness that was even more disturbing: the
feeling that this was still not life became ever more acute; indeed, going ahead
with all these things, life drifted further and further away. Everything became
empty: the slavery of doing the same things then also re-emerged. And in the end,
his money ran out and the young man found that his standard of living was lower
than that of swine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It was then
that he began to reflect and wondered if that really was the path to life: a freedom
interpreted as doing what I want, living, having life only for me; or if instead
it might be more of a life to live for others, to contribute to building the world,
to the growth of the human community.... <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So it was
that he set out on a new journey, an inner journey. The boy pondered and considered
all these new aspects of the problem and began to see that he had been far freer
at home, since he had also been a landowner contributing to building his home and
society in communion with the Creator, knowing the purpose of his life and guessing
the project that God had in store for him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">During this
interior journey, during this development of a new life project and at the same
time living the exterior journey, the younger son was motivated to return, to start
his life anew because he now understood that he had taken the wrong track. I must
start out afresh with a different concept, he said to himself; I must begin again.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And he arrived
at the home of the father who had left him his freedom to give him the chance to
understand inwardly what life is and what life is not. The father embraced him with
all his love, he offered him a feast and life could start again beginning from this
celebration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The son
realized that it is precisely work, humility and daily discipline that create the
true feast and true freedom. So he returned home, inwardly matured and purified:
he had understood what living is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Of course,
in the future his life would not be easy either, temptations would return, but he
was henceforth fully aware that life without God does not work; it lacks the essential,
it lacks light, it lacks reason, it lacks the great sense of being human. He understood
that we can only know God on the basis of his Word. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We Christians
can add that we know who God is from Jesus, in whom the face of God has been truly
shown to us. The young man understood that God’s Commandments are not obstacles
to freedom and to a beautiful life, but signposts on the road on which to travel
to find life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He realized
too that work and the discipline of being committed, not to oneself but to others,
extends life. And precisely this effort of dedicating oneself through work gives
depth to life, because one experiences the pleasure of having at last made a contribution
to the growth of this world that becomes freer and more beautiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I do not
wish at this point to speak of the other son who stayed at home, but in his reaction
of envy we see that inwardly he too was dreaming that perhaps it would be far better
to take all the freedoms for himself. He too in his heart was “returning home” and
understanding once again what life is, understanding that it is truly possible to
live only with God, with his Word, in the communion of one’s own family, of work;
in the communion of the great Family of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I do not
wish to enter into these details now: let each one of us apply this Gospel to himself
in his own way. Our situations are different and each one has his own world. Nonetheless,
the fact remains that we are all moved and that we can all enter with our inner
journey into the depths of the Gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Only a few
more remarks: the Gospel helps us understand who God truly is. He is the Merciful
Father who in Jesus loves us beyond all measure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The errors
we commit, even if they are serious, do not corrode the fidelity of his love. In
the Sacrament of Confession we can always start out afresh in life. He welcomes
us, he restores to us our dignity as his children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us therefore
rediscover this sacrament of forgiveness that makes joy well up in a heart reborn
to true life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Furthermore,
this parable helps us to understand who the human being is: he is not a “monad”,
an isolated being who lives only for himself and must have life for himself alone.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the contrary,
we live with others, we were created together with others and only in being with
others, in giving ourselves to others, do we find life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The human
being is a creature in whom God has impressed his own image, a creature who is attracted
to the horizon of his Grace, but he is also a frail creature exposed to evil but
also capable of good. And lastly, the human being is a free person. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We must
understand what freedom is and what is only the appearance of freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Freedom,
we can say, is a springboard from which to dive into the infinite sea of divine
goodness, but it can also become a tilted plane on which to slide towards the abyss
of sin and evil and thus also to lose freedom and our dignity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
we are in the Season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter. In this Season of Lent,
the Church helps us to make this interior journey and invites us to conversion,
which always, even before being an important effort to change our behaviour, is
an opportunity to decide to get up and set out again, to abandon sin and to choose
to return to God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us -
this is the imperative of Lent - make this journey of inner liberation together.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Every time,
such as today, that we participate in the Eucharist, the source and school of love,
we become capable of living this love, of proclaiming it and witnessing to it with
our life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Nevertheless,
we need to decide to walk towards Jesus as the Prodigal Son did, returning inwardly
and outwardly to his father. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the same
time, we must abandon the selfish attitude of the older son who was sure of himself,
quick to condemn others and closed in his heart to understanding, acceptance and
forgiveness of his brother, and who forgot that he too was in need of forgiveness.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the
Virgin Mary and <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place>,
my Patron Saint whose Feast it will be tomorrow, obtain this gift for us; I now
invoke him in a special way for each one of you and for your loved ones.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Lent, 2 March 2008<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On these Sundays
in Lent the liturgy takes us on a true and proper baptismal route through the texts
of John’s Gospel: last Sunday, Jesus promised the gift of “living water” to the
Samaritan woman; today, by healing the man born blind, he reveals himself as “the
light of the world”; next Sunday, in raising his friend Lazarus, he will present
himself as “the resurrection and the life”. Water, light and life are symbols of
Baptism, the Sacrament that “immerses” believers in the mystery of the death and
Resurrection of Christ, liberating them from the slavery of sin and giving them
eternal life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us reflect briefly
on the account of the man born blind (Jn 9: 1-41). According to the common mentality
of the time, the disciples take it for granted that his blindness was the result
of a sin committed by him or his parents. Jesus, however, rejects this prejudice
and says: “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of
God might be made manifest in him” (Jn 9: 3). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What comfort these
words offer us! They let us hear the living voice of God, who is provident and wise
Love! In the face of men and women marked by limitations and suffering, Jesus did
not think of their possible guilt but rather of the will of God who created man
for life. And so he solemnly declares: “We must work the works of him who sent me....
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jn 9: 5). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And he immediately
takes action: mixing a little earth with saliva he made mud and spread it on the
eyes of the blind man. This act alludes to the creation of man, which the Bible
recounts using the symbol of dust from the ground, fashioned and enlivened by God’s
breath (Gn 2: 7). In fact, “Adam” means “ground” and the human body was in effect
formed of particles of soil. By healing the blind man Jesus worked a new creation.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But this healing
sparked heated debate because Jesus did it on the Sabbath, thereby in the Pharisees’
opinion violating the feast-day precept. Thus, at the end of the account, Jesus
and the blind man are both cast out, the former because he broke the law and the
latter because, despite being healed, he remained marked as a sinner from birth.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus reveals to
the blind man whom he had healed that he had come into the world for judgement,
to separate the blind who can be healed from those who do not allow themselves to
be healed because they consider themselves healthy. Indeed, the temptation to build
himself an ideological security system is strong in man: even religion can become
an element of this system, as can atheism or secularism, but in letting this happen
one is blinded by one’s own selfishness. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us allow ourselves to be healed by Jesus, who can and wants to give
us God’s light! Let us confess our blindness, our shortsightedness, and especially
what the Bible calls the “great transgression” (see Ps 19[18]: 13): pride. May Mary
Most Holy, who by conceiving Christ in the flesh gave the world the true light,
help us to do this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">APOSTOLIC
JOURNEY <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF THE
HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO <st1:country-region w:st="on">CAMEROON</st1:country-region> AND <st1:place w:st="on">ANGOLA</st1:place><b><i> <u><o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">(MARCH
17-23, 2009)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><i>Cimangola Square</i></st1:address></st1:street><i>
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Luanda</st1:city></st1:place>, Fourth
Sunday of Lent, 22 March 2009</i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the conclusion
of our Eucharistic celebration, as my Pastoral Visit to <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>
comes to its close, let us now turn to Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer, to implore
her loving intercession upon us, our families, and our world.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Angelus prayer,
we recall Mary’s complete “yes” to the will of God. Through Mary’s obedience of
faith, the Son of God came into the world to bring us forgiveness, salvation and
life in abundance. By becoming a man like us in all things but sin, Christ taught
us the dignity and worth of each member of the human family. He died for our sins,
to gather us together into God’s family.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Our prayer rises
today from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Angola</st1:country-region>, from <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, and embraces the whole world. May the men and women
from throughout the world who join us in our prayer, turn their eyes to Africa,
to this great Continent so filled with hope, yet so thirsty for justice, for peace,
for a sound and integral development that can ensure a future of progress and peace
for its people.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today I commend to
your prayers the work of preparation for the coming Second Special Assembly for
<st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> of the Synod of Bishops, scheduled to meet
in October. Inspired by faith in God and trust in Christ’s promises, may the Catholics
of this Continent become ever more fully a leaven of evangelical hope for all people
of good will who love Africa, who are committed to the material and spiritual advancement
of its children, and the spread of freedom, prosperity, justice and solidarity in
the pursuit of the common good.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May Mary, Queen of
Peace, continue to guide <st1:country-region w:st="on">Angola</st1:country-region>’s
people in the task of national reconciliation following the devastating and inhuman
experience of the civil war. May her prayers obtain for all Angolans the grace of
authentic forgiveness, respect for others, and cooperation which alone can carry
forward the immense work of rebuilding. May the Holy Mother of God, who points us
to her Son, our brother, remind Christians everywhere of our duty to love our neighbour,
to be peacemakers, to be the first to forgive those who have sinned against us,
even as we have been forgiven.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here in Southern
Africa, let us ask our Lady in a particular way to intercede for peace, the conversion
of hearts, and an end to the conflict in the neighbouring <st1:place w:st="on">Great
Lakes</st1:place> region. May her Son, the Prince of Peace, bring healing to the
suffering, consolation to those who mourn, and strength to all who carry forward
the difficult process of dialogue, negotiation and the cessation of violence.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With this confidence,
then, we now turn to Mary, our Mother, and, in reciting this Angelus prayer, let
us pray for the peace and salvation of the whole human family.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">APOSTOLIC
JOURNEY<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF THE
HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO <st1:country-region w:st="on">CAMEROON</st1:country-region> AND <st1:place w:st="on">ANGOLA</st1:place><b><i> <u><o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">(MARCH
17-23, 2009)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC
CELEBRATION WITH THE BISHOPS OF I.M.B.I.S.A. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">(INTER-REGIONAL
MEETING OF BISHOPS OF <st1:place w:st="on">SOUTHERN AFRICA</st1:place>)</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><i>Cimangola Square</i></st1:address></st1:street><i>
in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Luanda</st1:city></st1:place>, Sunday,
22 March 2009</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Cardinals,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Brother Bishops
and Priests,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters in Christ,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“God so loved the
world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish,
but have eternal life” (<i>Jn</i> 3:16). These words fill us with joy and hope,
as we await the fulfilment of God’s promises! Today it is my particular joy, as
the Successor of the Apostle Peter, to celebrate this Mass with you, my brothers
and sisters in Christ from throughout Angola<b>, </b>São Tomé and Príncipe, and
so many other countries. With great affection in the Lord I greet the Catholic communities
from Luanda, Bengo, Cabinda, Benguela, Huambo, Huìla, Kuàndo Kubàngo, Kunène, North
Kwanza, South Kwanza, North Lunda, South Lunda, Malanje, Namibe, Moxico, Uíje and
Zàire. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In a special way,
I greet my brother Bishops, the members of the Inter-Regional Meeting of Bishops
of Southern Africa, assembled around this altar of the Lord’s sacrifice. I thank
the President of CEAST, Archbishop<b> </b>Damião Franklin, for his kind words of
welcome, and, in the person of their Pastors, I greet all the faithful in the nations
of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Botswana</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lesotho</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mozambique</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Namibia</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">South Africa</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Swaziland</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on">Zimbabwe</st1:place>.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s first reading
has a particular resonance for God’s people in <st1:place w:st="on">Angola</st1:place>. It is a message of hope addressed
to the Chosen People in the land of their Exile, a summons to return to <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> to rebuild the Lord’s <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>. Its vivid description of the destruction
and ruin caused by war echoes the personal experience of so many people in this
country amid the terrible ravages of the civil war. How true it is that war can
“destroy everything of value” (see <i>2 Chr </i>36:19): families, whole communities,
the fruit of men’s labour, the hopes which guide and sustain their lives and work!
This experience is all too familiar to <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> as
a whole: the destructive power of civil strife, the descent into a maelstrom of
hatred and revenge, the squandering of the efforts of generations of good people.
When God’s word – a word meant to build up individuals, communities and the whole
human family – is neglected, and when God’s law is “ridiculed, despised, laughed
at” (<i>ibid.</i>, v. 16), the result can only be destruction and injustice: the
abasement of our common humanity and the betrayal of our vocation to be sons and
daughters of a merciful Father, brothers and sisters of his beloved Son.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So let us draw comfort
from the consoling words which we have heard in the first reading! The call to return
and rebuild God’s <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
has a particular meaning for each of us. Saint Paul, the two thousandth anniversary
of whose birth we celebrate this year, tells us that “we are the temple of the living
God” (<i>2 Cor</i> 6:16). God dwells, we know, in the hearts of all who put their
faith in Christ, who are reborn in Baptism and are made temples of the Holy Spirit.
Even now, in the unity of the Body of Christ which is the Church, God is calling
us to acknowledge the power of his presence within us, to reappropriate the gift
of his love and forgiveness, and to become messengers of that merciful love within
our families and communities, at school and in the workplace, in every sector of
social and political life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here in <st1:place w:st="on">Angola</st1:place>,
this Sunday has been set aside as a day of prayer and sacrifice for national reconciliation.
The Gospel teaches us that reconciliation, true reconciliation, can only be the
fruit of conversion, a change of heart, a new way of thinking. It teaches us that
only the power of God’s love can change our hearts and make us triumph over the
power of sin and division. When we were “dead through our sins” (<i>Eph </i>2:5),
his love and mercy brought us reconciliation and new life in Christ. This is the
heart of the Apostle Paul’s teaching, and it is important for us to remind ourselves:
only God’s grace can create a new heart in us! Only his love can change our “hearts
of stone” (see <i>Ezek</i> 11:19) and enable us to build up, rather than tear down.
Only God can make all things new!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is to preach this
message of forgiveness, hope and new life in Christ that I have come to <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>. Three days ago, in Yaoundé, I had the joy of promulgating
the <i>Instrumentum Laboris</i> for the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the
Synod of Bishops, which will be devoted to the theme: <i>The Church in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> in Service to Reconciliation, Justice and Peace</i>.
I ask you today, in union with all our brothers and sisters throughout Africa, to
pray for this intention: that every Christian on this great continent will experience
the healing touch of God’s merciful love, and that the Church in Africa will become
“for all, through the witness borne by its sons and daughters, a place of true reconciliation”
(<i>Ecclesia in Africa</i>, 79).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, this
is the message that the Pope is bringing to you and your children. You have received
power from the Holy Spirit to be the builders of a better tomorrow for your beloved
country. In Baptism you were given the Spirit in order to be heralds of God’s Kingdom
of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace (see <i>Roman
Missal</i>, Preface of Christ the King). On the day of your Baptism you received
the light of Christ. Be faithful to that gift! Be confident that the Gospel can
affirm, purify and ennoble the profound human values present in your native culture
and traditions: your strong families, your deep religious sense, your joyful celebration
of the gift of life, your appreciation of the wisdom of the elderly and the aspirations
of the young. Be grateful, then, for the light of Christ! Be grateful for those
who brought it, the generations of missionaries who contributed – and continue to
contribute – so much to this country’s human and spiritual development. Be grateful
for the witness of so many Christian parents, teachers, catechists, priests and
religious, who made personal sacrifices in order to pass this precious treasure
down to you! And take up the challenge which this great legacy sets before you.
Realize that the Church, in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Angola</st1:country-region>
and throughout <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, is meant to be a sign before
the world of that unity to which the whole human family is called, through faith
in Christ the Redeemer.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The words which Jesus
speaks in today’s Gospel are quite striking: He tells us that God’s sentence has
already been pronounced upon this world (see <i>Jn</i> 3:19ff). The light has already
come into the world. Yet men preferred the darkness to the light, because their
deeds were evil. How much darkness there is in so many parts of our world! Tragically,
the clouds of evil have also overshadowed Africa, including this beloved nation
of <st1:place w:st="on">Angola</st1:place>.
We think of the evil of war, the murderous fruits of tribalism and ethnic rivalry,
the greed which corrupts men’s hearts, enslaves the poor, and robs future generations
of the resources they need to create a more equitable and just society – a society
truly and authentically African in its genius and values. And what of that insidious
spirit of selfishness which closes individuals in upon themselves, breaks up families,
and, by supplanting the great ideals of generosity and self-sacrifice, inevitably
leads to hedonism, the escape into false utopias through drug use, sexual irresponsibility,
the weakening of the marriage bond and the break-up of families, and the pressure
to destroy innocent human life through abortion? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet the word of God
is a word of unbounded hope. “God loved the world so much that he gave his only
Son … so that through him, the world might be saved” (<i>Jn</i> 3:16-17). God does
not give up on us! He continues to lift our eyes to a future of hope, and he promises
us the strength to accomplish it. As <st1:place w:st="on">Saint
Paul</st1:place> tells us in today’s second reading, God created us
in Christ Jesus “to live the good life”, a life of good deeds, in accordance with
his will (see <i>Eph</i> 2:10). He gave us his commandments, not as a burden, but
as a source of freedom: the freedom to become men and women of wisdom, teachers
of justice and peace, people who believe in others and seek their authentic good.
God created us to live in the light, and to be light for the world around us! This
is what Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel: “The man who lives by the truth comes
out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in
God” (<i>Jn</i> 3:21). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Live”, then, “by
the truth!” Radiate the light of faith, hope and love in your families and communities!
Be witnesses of the holy truth that sets men and women free! You know from bitter
experience that, in comparison with the sudden, destructive fury of evil, the work
of rebuilding is painfully slow and arduous. Living by the truth takes time, effort
and perseverance: it has to begin in our own hearts, in the small daily sacrifices
required if we are to be faithful to God’s law, in the little acts by which we demonstrate
that we love our neighbours, all our neighbours, regardless of race, ethnicity or
language, and by our readiness to work with them to build together on foundations
that will endure. Let your parishes become communities where the light of God’s
truth and the power of Christ’s reconciling love are not only celebrated, but proclaimed
in concrete works of charity. And do not be afraid! Even if it means being a “sign
of contradiction” (<i>Lk </i>2:34) in the face of hardened attitudes and a mentality
that sees others as a means to be used, rather than as brothers and sisters to be
loved, cherished and helped along the path of freedom, life and hope.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let me close by addressing
a special word to the young people of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Angola</st1:country-region>,
and to all young people throughout <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>. Dear
young friends: you are the hope of your country’s future, the promise of a better
tomorrow! Begin today to grow in your friendship with Jesus, who is “the way, and
the truth and the life” (<i>Jn</i> 14:6): a friendship nurtured and deepened by
humble and persevering prayer. Seek his will for you by listening to his word daily,
and by allowing his law to shape your lives and your relationships. In this way
you will become wise and generous prophets of God’s saving love. Become evangelizers
of your own peers, leading them by your own example to an appreciation of the beauty
and truth of the Gospel, and the hope of a future shaped by the values of God’s
Kingdom. The Church needs your witness! Do not be afraid to respond generously to
God’s call, whether it be to serve him as a priest or a religious, as a Christian
parent, or in the many forms of service to others which the Church sets before you.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters! At the end of today’s first reading, Cyrus, King of Persia, inspired by
God, calls the Chosen People to return to their beloved land and to rebuild<b> </b>the
<st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place> of the Lord.
May his words be a summons to all God’s People in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Angola</st1:country-region>
and throughout <st1:place w:st="on">Southern Africa</st1:place>: Arise! <i>Ponde-vos
a caminho!</i>(see<b> </b><i>2 Chr</i> 36:23) Look to the future with hope, trust
in God’s promises, and live in his truth. In this way, you will build something
destined to endure, and leave to future generations a lasting inheritance of reconciliation,
justice and peace. Amen.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Lent, 14 March 2010</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters</i>, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this Fourth Sunday
of Lent, the Gospel of the father and the two sons better known as the Parable of
the “Prodigal Son” (Lk 15:11-32) is proclaimed. This passage of St Luke constitutes
one of the peaks of spirituality and literature of all time. Indeed, what would
our culture, art and more generally our civilization be without this revelation
of a God the Father so full of mercy? It never fails to move us and every time we
hear or read it, it can suggest to us ever new meanings. Above all, this Gospel
text has the power of speaking to us of God, of enabling us to know his Face and,
better still, his Heart. After Jesus has told us of the merciful Father, things
are no longer as they were before. We now know God; he is our Father who out of
love created us to be free and endowed us with a conscience, who suffers when we
get lost and rejoices when we return. For this reason, our relationship with him
is built up through events, just as it happens for every child with his parents:
at first he depends on them, then he asserts his autonomy; and, in the end if he
develops well he reaches a mature relationship based on gratitude and authentic
love.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In these stages we
can also identify moments along man’s journey in his relationship with God. There
can be a phase that resembles childhood: religion prompted by need, by dependence.
As man grows up and becomes emancipated, he wants to liberate himself from this
submission and become free and adult, able to organize himself and make his own
decisions, even thinking he can do without God. Precisely this stage is delicate
and can lead to atheism, yet even this frequently conceals the need to discover
God’s true Face. Fortunately for us, God never fails in his faithfulness and even
if we distance ourselves and get lost he continues to follow us with his love, forgiving
our errors and speaking to our conscience from within in order to call us back to
him. In this parable the sons behave in opposite ways: the younger son leaves home
and sinks ever lower whereas the elder son stays at home, but he too has an immature
relationship with the Father. In fact, when his brother comes back, the elder brother
does not rejoice like the Father; on the contrary he becomes angry and refuses to
enter the house. The two sons represent two immature ways of relating to God: rebellion
and childish obedience. Both these forms are surmounted through the experience of
mercy. Only by experiencing forgiveness, by recognizing one is loved with a freely
given love a love greater than our wretchedness but also than our own merit do we
at last enter into a truly filial and free relationship with God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, let
us meditate on this parable. Let us compare ourselves to the two sons and, especially,
contemplate the Heart of the Father. Let us throw ourselves into his arms and be
regenerated by his merciful love. May the Virgin Mary, <i>Mater Misericordiae, </i>help
us to do this.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Lent, 3 April 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Lenten journey
that we are taking is a special time of grace during which we can experience the
gift of the Lord’s kindness to us. The Liturgy of this Sunday, called “<i>Laetare</i>”,
invites us to be glad and rejoice as the Entrance Antiphon of the Eucharistic celebration
proclaims: “Rejoice, <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>!
Be glad for her, you who love her; rejoice with her, you who mourned for her, and
you will find contentment at her consoling breasts” (see Is 66: 10-11). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What is the profound
reason for this joy? Today’s Gospel in which Jesus heals a man blind from birth
tells us. The question which the Lord Jesus asks the blind man is the <st1:place w:st="on">high point</st1:place> of the story: “Do
you believe in the Son of Man?” (Jn 9:35). The man recognizes the sign worked by
Jesus and he passes from the light of his eyes to the light of faith: “Lord, I believe!”
(Jn 9:38). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It should be noted
that as a simple and sincere person he gradually completes the journey of faith.
In the beginning he thinks of Jesus as a “man” among others, then he considers him
a “prophet” and finally his eyes are opened and he proclaims him “Lord”. In opposition
to the faith of the healed blind man is the hardening of the hearts of the Pharisees
who do not want to accept the miracle because they refuse to receive Jesus as the
Messiah. Instead the crowd pauses to discuss the event and continues to be distant
and indifferent. Even the blind man’s parents are overcome by the fear of what others
might think. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And what attitude
to Jesus should we adopt? Because of Adam’s sin we too are born “blind” but in the
baptismal font we are illumined by the grace of Christ. Sin wounded humanity and
destined it to the darkness of death, but the newness of life shines out in Christ,
as well as the destination to which we are called. In him, reinvigorated by the
Holy Spirit, we receive the strength to defeat evil and to do good. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact the Christian
life is a continuous conformation to Christ, image of the new man, in order to reach
full communion with God. The Lord Jesus is the “light of the world” (Jn 8:12), because
in him shines “the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Cor 4:6) that continues in
the complex plot of the story to reveal the meaning of human existence. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the rite of Baptism,
the presentation of the candle lit from the large Paschal candle, a symbol of the
Risen Christ, is a sign that helps us to understand what happens in the Sacrament.
When our lives are enlightened by the mystery of Christ, we experience the joy of
being liberated from all that threatens the full realization. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In these days which
prepare us for Easter let us rekindle within us the gift received in Baptism, that
flame which sometimes risks being extinguished. Let us nourish it with prayer and
love for others. Let us entrust our Lenten journey to the Virgin Mary, Mother of
the Church so that all may encounter Christ, Saviour of the world.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St.
Peter’s Square</i>, <i>Sunday, 18 March 2012</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On our
way towards Easter we have reached the Fourth Sunday of Lent. It is a journey with
Jesus through the “wilderness”, that is, a time in which to listen more attentively
to God’s voice and also to unmask the temptations that speak within us. The Cross
is silhouetted against the horizon of this wilderness. Jesus knows that it is the
culmination of his mission: in fact the Cross of Christ is the apex of love which
gives us salvation. Christ himself says so in today’s Gospel: just “as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever
believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14-15).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
reference is to the episode in which, during the Exodus from <st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place>, the Jews were attacked by poisonous
serpents and many of them died. God then commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent
and to set it on a pole; anyone bitten by serpents was cured by looking at the bronze
serpent (see Num 21:4-9). Jesus was to be raised likewise on the Cross, so that
anyone in danger of death because of sin, may be saved by turning with faith to
him who died for our sake: “for God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn
the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> comments: “So
far, then, as it lies with the physician, he has come to heal the sick. He that
will not observe the orders of the physician destroys himself. He has come a Saviour
to the world... You will not be saved by him; you shall be judged of yourself”.
(<i>On the Gospel of John</i> 12, 12: <em>PL</em> 35, 1190). Therefore, if the merciful
love of God — who went so far as to give his only Son to redeem our life — is infinite,
we have a great responsibility: each one of us, in fact, must recognize that he
is sick in order to be healed. Each one must confess his sin so that God’s forgiveness,
already granted on the Cross, may have an effect in his heart and in his life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> writes further:
“God accuses your sins: and if you also accuse them, you are united to God.... When
your own deeds will begin to displease you, from that time your good works begin,
as you find fault with your evil works. The confession of evil works is the beginning
of good works” (ibid., 13: <em>PL </em>35, 1191).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sometimes
men and women prefer the darkness to the light because they are attached to their
sins. Nevertheless it is only by opening oneself to the light and only by sincerely
confessing one’s sins to God that one finds true peace and true joy. It is therefore
important to receive the Sacrament of Penance regularly, especially during Lent,
in order to receive the Lord’s forgiveness and to intensify our process of conversion.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, tomorrow we shall be celebrating the solemn Feast of St Joseph. I warmly
thank all those who remember me in their prayers on my name day. In particular,
I ask you to pray for my Apostolic Journey to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on">Cuba</st1:place>,
on which I shall be setting out next Friday. Let us entrust it to the intercession
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so beloved and venerated in these two countries which
I am preparing to visit. </span></div>
</div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-9873989672195890302024-02-26T01:30:00.004-05:002024-02-26T01:30:00.146-05:00Reflections on the Third Sunday of Lent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0338: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Third Sunday of Lent </b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On seven
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Third Sunday of Lent, on 19 March 2006, 11 March 2007, 24 February
2008, 15 March 2009, 7 March 2010, 27 March 2011, and 11 March 2012. Here are the texts of seven brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i> and three homilies delivered on
these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Lent, 19 March 2006</span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, 19 March,
is the Solemnity of St Joseph, but as it coincides with the Third Sunday of Lent,
its liturgical celebration is postponed until tomorrow. However, the Marian context
of the Angelus invites us to reflect today with veneration on the figure of the
Blessed Virgin Mary’s spouse and Patron of the universal Church. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I like to recall
that beloved John Paul II was also very devoted to <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city>, to whom he dedicated the Apostolic
Exhortation <i>Redemptoris Custos</i>, Guardian of the Redeemer, and who surely
experienced his assistance at the hour of death. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The figure of this
great Saint, even though remaining somewhat hidden, is of fundamental importance
in the history of salvation. Above all, as part of the tribe of <st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place>,
he united Jesus to the Davidic lineage so that, fulfilling the promises regarding
the Messiah, the Son of the Virgin Mary may truly be called the “son of David”.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel of Matthew
highlights in a special way the Messianic prophecies which reached fulfilment through
the role that Joseph played: the birth of
Jesus in <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city> (2: 1-6); his journey through
<st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place>,
where the Holy Family took refuge (2: 13-15); the nickname, the “Nazarene” (2: 22-23).
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In all of this he
showed himself, like his spouse Mary, an authentic heir of Abraham’s faith: faith in God who guides the events of history
according to his mysterious salvific plan. His greatness, like Mary’s, stands out
even more because his mission was carried out in the humility and hiddenness of
the house of <st1:place w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:place>.
Moreover, God himself, in the person of his Incarnate Son, chose this way and style
of life - humility and hiddenness - in his earthly existence. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From the example
of <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city> we all receive a strong invitation to
carry out with fidelity, simplicity and modesty the task that <st1:city w:st="on">Providence</st1:city> has entrusted to us. I think especially
of fathers and mothers of families, and I pray that they will always be able to
appreciate the beauty of a simple and industrious life, cultivating the conjugal
relationship with care and fulfilling with enthusiasm the great and difficult educational
mission. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To priests, who exercise
a paternal role over Ecclesial Communities, may <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city> help them love the Church with affection
and complete dedication, and may he support consecrated persons in their joyous
and faithful observance of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience.
May he protect workers throughout the world so that they contribute with their different
professions to the progress of the whole of humanity, and may he help every Christian
to fulfil God’s will with confidence and love, thereby cooperating in the fulfilment
of the work of salvation.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC
CELEBRATION FOR ALL WORKERS <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ON
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Third Sunday of Lent, 19 March
2006</i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have listened
together to a famous and beautiful passage from the Book of Exodus, in which the
sacred author tells of God’s presentation of the Decalogue to <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>. One detail makes an immediate
impression: the announcement of the Ten Commandments
is introduced by a significant reference to the liberation of the People of Israel.
The text says: “I am the Lord your God, who
brought you out of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">land</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Egypt</st1:placename></st1:place>, out of the house
of bondage” (Ex 20: 2). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, the Decalogue
is intended as a confirmation of the freedom gained. Indeed, at a closer look, the
Commandments are the means that the Lord gives us to protect our freedom, both from
the internal conditioning of passions and from the external abuse of those with
evil intentions. The “nos” of the Commandments are as many “yeses” to the growth
of true freedom. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">There is a second
dimension of the Decalogue that should also be emphasized: by the Law which he gave through Moses, the Lord
revealed that he wanted to make a covenant with <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>. The Law, therefore, is a gift
more than an imposition. Rather than commanding what the human being ought to do,
its intention is to reveal to all the choice of God: He takes the side of the Chosen People; he set
them free from slavery and surrounds them with his merciful goodness. The Decalogue
is a proof of his special love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s liturgy offers
us a second message: The Mosaic Law was totally
fulfilled in Jesus, who revealed God’s wisdom and love through the mystery of the
Cross, “a stumbling block to Jews and an absurdity to Gentiles; but to those who
are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of
God” (I Cor 1: 23-24). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel just proclaimed
refers precisely to this: Jesus drove the
merchants and money-changers out of the temple. Through the verse of a Psalm: “Zeal for your house has consumed me” (see Ps
69[68]: 10), the Evangelist provides a key for the interpretation of this significant
episode. And Jesus was “consumed” by this “zeal” for the “house of God”, which was
being used for purposes other than those for which it was intended. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To the amazement
of everyone present, he responded to the request of the religious leaders who demand
evidence of his authority by saying: “Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2: 19). These are mysterious
words that were incomprehensible at the time; John, however, paraphrased them for
his Christian readers, saying<b><i>: </i></b><i> “Actually, he was talking about the temple of his
body” (</i>Jn 2: 21). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">His enemies were
to destroy that “temple”, but after three days he would rebuild it through the Resurrection.
The distressful “stumbling block” of Christ’s death was to be crowned by the triumph
of his glorious Resurrection. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Lenten season,
while we are preparing to relive this central event of our salvation in the Easter
<i>triduum, </i>we are already looking at the Crucified One, seeing in him the brightness
of the Risen One. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, today’s Eucharistic Celebration, which combines the commemoration of <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place> with meditation on
the liturgical texts of the Third Sunday of Lent, gives us the opportunity to consider
in the light of the Paschal Mystery another important aspect of human life. I am
referring to the reality of work, which exists today in the midst of rapid and complex
changes. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In many passages,
the Bible shows that work is one of the original conditions of the human being.
When the Creator shaped man in his image and likeness, he asked him to till the
land (see Gn 2: 5-6). It was because of the sin of our first parents that work became
a burden and an affliction (see Gn 3: 6-8), but in the divine plan it retains its
value, unaltered. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Son of God, by
making himself like us in all things, dedicated himself for many years to manual
activities, so that he was known as “the carpenter’s son” (see Mt 13: 55). The Church
has always, but especially in the last century, shown attention and concern for
this social context, as the many social interventions of the Magisterium testify
and the action of many associations of Christian inspiration show; some of them
are gathered here today and represent the whole world of workers.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am pleased to welcome
you, dear friends, and I address my cordial greeting to each one of you. A special
thought goes to Bishop Arrigo Miglio of Ivrea and President of the Italian Episcopal
Commission for Social Problems and Work, Justice and Peace, who has interpreted
your common sentiments and addressed courteous good wishes to me for my name day.
I am deeply grateful to him. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Work is of fundamental
importance to the fulfilment of the human being and to the development of society.
Thus, it must always be organized and carried out with full respect for human dignity
and must always serve the common good. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the same time,
it is indispensable that people not allow themselves to be enslaved by work or idolize
it, claiming to find in it the ultimate and definitive meaning of life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The invitation contained
in the First Reading is appropriate in this regard: “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days
you may labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord,
your God” (Ex 20: 8-9). The Sabbath is a
holy day, that is, a day consecrated to God on which man understands better the
meaning of his life and his work. It can therefore be said that the biblical teaching
on work is crowned by the commandment of rest. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The <i>Compendium
of the Social Doctrine of the Church </i>speaks opportunely of this: “For man, bound as he is to the necessity of work,
this rest opens to the prospect of a fuller freedom, that of the eternal Sabbath
(see Heb 4: 9-10). Rest gives men and women the possibility to remember and experience
anew God’s work from Creation to Redemption, in order to recognize themselves as
his work (see Eph 2: 10), and to give thanks for their lives and for their subsistence
to him who is their author” (no. 258). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Work must serve the
true good of humanity, permitting “men as individuals and as members of society
to pursue and fulfil their total vocation” (<i>Gaudium et Spes</i>, no. 35). For
this to happen, technical and professional qualifications, although necessary, do
not suffice; nor does the creation of a just social order, attentive to the common
good. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is necessary to
live a spirituality that helps believers to sanctify themselves through their work,
imitating <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city>,
who had to provide with his own hands for the daily needs of the Holy Family and
whom, consequently, the Church holds up as Patron of workers. His witness shows
that man is the subject and protagonist of work. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would like to entrust
to <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city> those
young people who are finding integration into the working world difficult, the unemployed
and everyone who is suffering hardship due to the widespread employment crisis.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Together with Mary,
his Spouse, may <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city>
watch over all workers and obtain serenity and peace for families and for the whole
of humanity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May Christians, looking
at this great Saint, learn to witness in every working environment to the love of
Christ, the source of true solidarity and lasting peace. Amen!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Lent, 11 March 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The passage of Luke’s
Gospel that is proclaimed on this Third Sunday of Lent relates Jesus’ comments on
two events of his time. The first: the uprising of some Galileans, which Pilate
repressed with bloodshed. The second: the fall of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">tower</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:placename></st1:place>,
which claimed 18 victims. Two very distinct, tragic events: one caused by man, the
other accidental. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">According to the
mentality of the time, people were inclined to think that the disgrace which struck
the victims was due to some grave fault of their own. Jesus instead says: “Do you
think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans.... Or
those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think
that they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>?” (Lk 13: 2, 4).
And in both cases he concludes: “I tell you, No: but unless you repent you will
all likewise perish” (13: 3, 5). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This, then, is the
point to which Jesus wants to bring his listeners: the necessity for conversion.
He does not propose it in legalistic terms, but rather in realistic ones, as the
only adequate response to the events that place human certainties in crisis. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the face of certain
disgraces, he warns, it does no good to blame the victims. Rather, true wisdom allows
one to question the precariousness of existence and to acquire an attitude of responsibility:
to do penance and to improve our lives. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is wisdom, this
is the most effective response to evil on every level: interpersonal, social and
international. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christ invites us
to respond to evil, first of all, with a serious examination of conscience and the
commitment to purify our lives. Otherwise, he says, we will perish, we will all
perish in the same way. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In effect, people
and societies that live without ever questioning themselves have ruin as their only
final destination. Conversion, on the other hand, while not preserving one from
problems and misfortunes, allows one to face them in a different “way”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First of all, it
helps to prevent evil, disengaging some of its threats. And in any case, it allows
one to overcome evil with good: if not always on a factual level, which sometimes
is independent of our will, certainly on a spiritual level. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In summary: <i>conversion
overcomes the root of evil, which is sin, even if it cannot always avoid its consequences.
</i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pray to Mary
Most Holy, who accompanies and sustains us on our Lenten journey, so that she may
help every Christian to rediscover the greatness, I would say, the beauty, of conversion.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May she help us understand
that doing penance and correcting one’s conduct is not simply moralism, but the
most effective way to change oneself and society for the better. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">An adage expresses
it well: to light a candle is worth more than to curse the darkness.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Lent, 24 February 2008<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year, on this
Third Sunday of Lent, the liturgy again presents one of the most beautiful and profound
passages of the Bible: the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (see Jn
4: 5-42). <st1:city w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:city>,
of whom I am speaking extensively in the Wednesday Catecheses, was justifiably fascinated
by this narrative, and he made a memorable comment on it. It is impossible to give
a brief explanation of the wealth of this Gospel passage. One must read and meditate
on it personally, identifying oneself with that woman who, one day like so many
other days, went to draw water from the well and found Jesus there, sitting next
to it, “tired from the journey” in the midday heat. “Give me a drink”, he said,
leaving her very surprised: it was in fact completely out of the ordinary that a
Jew would speak to a Samaritan woman, and all the more so to a stranger. But the
woman’s bewilderment was destined to increase. Jesus spoke of a “living water” able
to quench her thirst and become in her “a spring of water welling up to eternal
life”; in addition, he demonstrated that he knew her personal life; he revealed
that the hour has come to adore the one true God in spirit and truth; and lastly,
he entrusted her with something extremely rare: that he is the Messiah.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">All this began from
the real and notable experience of thirst. The theme of thirst runs throughout John’s
Gospel: from the meeting with the Samaritan woman to the great prophecy during the
feast of Tabernacles (Jn 7: 37-38), even to the Cross, when Jesus, before he dies,
said to fulfil the Scriptures: “I thirst” (Jn 19: 28). Christ’s thirst is an entranceway
to the mystery of God, who became thirsty to satisfy our thirst, just as he became
poor to make us rich (see II Cor 8: 9). Yes, God thirsts for our faith and our love.
As a good and merciful father, he wants our total, possible good, and this good
is he himself. The Samaritan woman, on the other hand, represents the existential
dissatisfaction of one who does not find what he seeks. She had “five husbands”
and now she lives with another man; her going to and from the well to draw water
expresses a repetitive and resigned life. However, everything changes for her that
day, thanks to the conversation with the Lord Jesus, who upsets her to the point
that she leaves her pitcher of water and runs to tell the villagers: “Come, see
a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (Jn 4: 29). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, like the Samaritan woman, let us also open our hearts to listen trustingly
to God’s Word in order to encounter Jesus who reveals his love to us and tells us:
“I who speak to you am he” (Jn 4: 26), the Messiah, your Saviour. May Mary, the
first and most perfect disciple of the Word made flesh, obtain this gift for us.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT TO THE ROMAN PARISH </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF “<st1:place w:st="on">SANTA MARIA</st1:place> LIBERATRICE” AT
MONTE TESTACCIO</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Third
Sunday of Lent, 24 February 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">After the example
of my venerable Predecessors, the Servants of God Paul VI and John Paul II, who
visited your parish respectively on 20 March 1966 and 14 January 1979, I too have
come among you today to meet your community and preside at the Eucharistic celebration
in your beautiful church dedicated to St Mary “Liberatrice”. I have come for a very
special event, the centenary of the consecration of the present-day church and the
transfer of the title of the parish of “Our Lady of Providence”, which already existed
in this neighbourhood of Testaccio, to “Santa Maria Liberatrice”. It was St Pius
X who entrusted the parish to the spiritual sons of Don Bosco, and under the indefatigable
guidance of Bl. Fr Michele Rua, St John Bosco’s first disciple, they built the church
in which we are now gathered. The Salesians were really already carrying out their
social and apostolic activity here in Testaccio, a district that has preserved its
own specific territorial and cultural character. Although we are in the heart of
the Roman metropolis, very familiar relations among people have persisted and while
the situation has somewhat changed in the past 20 years, the people are still strongly
rooted in their own territory, in the identity of the neighbourhood and in their
attachment to religious traditions. I know, for example, that your patronal feast
of St Mary “Liberatrice” every year gathers families and citizens who for various
reasons have moved elsewhere. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, I have
willingly come to share your joy in the jubilee you are celebrating and I have desired
to enrich it with the possibility of gaining a Plenary Indulgence throughout the
centenary year. I greet you all with affection. First of all, I greet the Cardinal
Vicar, Auxiliary Bishop Ernesto Mandara of the Central Sector and Fr Manfredo Leone,
your parish priest. I warmly thank him and his Salesian confreres for the pastoral
service they carry out together in your parish, and I am also grateful to him for
his kind words to me on behalf of you all. I also greet the guests of the Salesian
residence for priests whose headquarters are located on the parish premises, and
the various Religious Communities present in the territory: the Daughters of Mary,
Help of Christians; the Daughters of Divine Providence and the Good Shepherd Sisters.
I greet the men and women Cooperators and Salesian alumni, the parish associations,
the various groups committed to the animation of catechesis, the liturgy, charity
and the reading and deepening of the Word of God, the<i> Confraternity of Santa
Maria Liberatrice, </i>the youth groups and those who encourage meetings and formation
for engaged couples and established families. I address an affectionate greeting
to the children of the catechism classes and to all who attend the prayer and recreation
centre run by the parish and the Daughters of Mary, Help of Christians. I would
then like to extend my thoughts to all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, especially
the elderly, the sick and people who are alone and in difficulty. I am remembering
each and all at this Holy Mass. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let me now ask myself, together with you, what is the Lord telling us on
this most important anniversary for your parish? In today’s biblical texts for the
Third Sunday of Lent, useful ideas for meditation can be found that are particularly
appropriate for this important occasion. Through the symbol of water, which we find
in the First Reading and in the Gospel passage on the Samaritan woman, the Word
of God transmits to us an ever lively and timely message: God thirsts for our faith
and wants us to find the source of our authentic happiness in him. Every believer
is in danger of practising a false religiosity, of not seeking in God the answer
to the most intimate expectations of the heart but on the contrary, treating God
as though he were at the service of our desires and projects. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the First Reading
we see the Jewish People suffer in the desert from lack of water and, in the grip
of discouragement, complain and react violently, as on other occasions. They even
reached the point of rebelling against Moses and almost of rebelling against God.
The sacred author says: “They put the Lord to the proof by saying, “Is the Lord
among us or not?’“ (Ex 17: 7). The people demanded from God that he meet their expectations
and needs, rather than abandoning themselves trustfully into his hands, and in their
trial lost their trust in him. How often does this also happen in our lives? In
how many circumstances, rather than conforming docilely to the divine will, do we
want God to implement our own plans and grant our every desire? On how many occasions
does our faith prove frail, our trust weak, our religious sense contaminated by
magical and merely earthly elements? In this Lenten Season, as the Church invites
us to make a journey of true conversion, let us accept with humble docility the
recommendation of the Responsorial Psalm: “Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the desert, where
your fathers tempted me; they tested me though they had seen my works’“ (Ps 95[94]:
7-9). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The symbolism of
water returns with great eloquence in the famous Gospel passage that recounts Jesus’
meeting with the Samaritan woman in Sychar, by Jacob’s well. We immediately perceive
a link between the well, built by the great patriarch of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> to guarantee
his family water, and salvation history where God gives humanity water welling up
to eternal life. If there is a physical thirst for water that is indispensable for
life on this earth, there is also a spiritual thirst in man that God alone can satisfy.
This is clearly visible in the dialogue between Jesus and the woman who came to
Jacob’s well to draw water. Everything begins with Jesus’ request: “Give me a drink”
(see Jn 4: 5-7). At first sight it seems a simple request for a little water in
the hot midday sun. In fact, with this question, addressed moreover to a Samaritan
woman - there was bad blood between the Jews and the Samaritans - Jesus triggers
in the woman to whom he is talking an inner process that kindles within her the
desire for something more profound. <st1:place w:st="on">St
Augustine</st1:place> comments: “Although Jesus asked for a drink,
his real thirst was for this woman’s faith (<i>In Io ev. Tract. </i>XV, 11: <i>PL
</i>35, 1514). In fact, at a certain point, it was the woman herself who asked Jesus
for the water (see Jn 4: 15), thereby demonstrating that in every person there is
an inherent need for God and for salvation that only God can satisfy. It is a thirst
for the infinite which only the water that Jesus offers, the living water of the
Spirit, can quench. In a little while, in the Preface we shall hear these words:
Jesus “asked the woman of <st1:place w:st="on">Samaria</st1:place>
for water to drink, and had already prepared for her the gift of faith. In his thirst
to receive her faith, he awakened in her heart the fire of your love”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, in this dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman we see outlined
the spiritual itinerary that each one of us, that every Christian community, is
ceaselessly called to rediscover and follow. Proclaimed in this Lenten Season, this
Gospel passage acquires a particularly important value for catechumens who are already
approaching Baptism. This Third Sunday of Lent is in fact linked to the so-called
“first scrutiny”, which is a sacramental rite of purification and grace. The Samaritan
woman thus becomes the figure of the catechumen enlightened and converted to the
faith, who longs for the living water and is purified by the Lord’s action and words.
Yet we who have already been baptized but are also still on the way to becoming
true Christians, find in this Gospel episode an incentive to rediscover the importance
and meaning of our Christian life, the true desire of God who lives in us. As he
did with the Samaritan woman, Jesus wishes to bring us to powerfully profess our
faith in him so that we may then proclaim and witness to our brethren the joy of
the encounter with him and the marvels that his love works in our existence. Faith
is born from the encounter with Jesus, recognized and accepted as the definitive
Revealer and Saviour in whom God’s Face is revealed. Once that the Lord has won
the Samaritan woman’s heart, her life is transformed and she runs without delay
to take the Good News to her people (see Jn 4: 29). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters of the Parish of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Santa Maria</i></st1:place></st1:city><i>
Liberatrice! </i>This morning, Christ’s invitation to let ourselves be involved
in his demanding Gospel proposal rings out loud and clear for every member of your
parish community. <st1:city w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:city>
said that God thirsts after our thirst for him, that is, he desires to be desired.
The further the human being distances himself from God, the more closely God pursues
him with his merciful love. The liturgy encourages us today, also taking into account
the Lenten Season in which we are living, to review our relationship with Jesus,
to tirelessly seek his Face. And this is indispensable so that you, dear friends,
can continue in the new cultural and social context the work of evangelization and
human and Christian education carried out for more than a century by this parish,
which also includes in the ranks of her parish priests Venerable Luigi Maria Olivares.
Always open your hearts wider to the pastoral work in the missionary context, which
impels every Christian to meet people - particularly youth and families - where
they live, work and spend their leisure time, in order to proclaim to them God’s
merciful love. I know that you are dedicating similar attention and concern to the
care of vocations to the Priesthood and the Consecrated Life, proposing to children,
young people and families the topic of vocations, which is of the utmost importance
for the future of the Church. I encourage you then to persevere in the task of education,
which constitutes the typical charism of every Salesian parish. May the after school
prayer and recreation centre, the school and the moments for catechesis and prayer
be enlivened by authentic educators, witnesses whose hearts are especially close
to children, adolescents and youth. May St Mary <i>“Liberatrice”</i>, whom you love
and venerate so deeply and who raised Jesus as a child and adolescent together with
her husband Joseph, protect families and Religious in their task as formators and
give them the joy, as Don Bosco desired, of seeing “good Christians and honest citizens”
grow up in this neighbourhood. Amen!</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Lent, 15 March 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I shall be making
my first Apostolic Journey to <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> from Tuesday
17 to Monday 23 March. I shall go to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cameroon</st1:country-region>,
to the capital, Yaoundé, to present the “<i>Instrumentum Laboris”, </i>[working
document] of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops that
will be celebrated here in the <st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place>
in October. I shall then go on to <st1:city w:st="on">Luanda</st1:city>, the capital
of <st1:place w:st="on">Angola</st1:place>,
a country which has rediscovered peace after the long civil war and is now called
to rebuild itself in justice. With this Visit I intend to embrace in spirit the
entire African continent: its thousands of differences and its profoundly religious
soul; its ancient cultures and its laborious process of development and reconciliation;
its grave problems, its painful wounds and its enormous potential and hopes. I intend
to strengthen Catholics in the faith, to encourage Christians in their ecumenical
commitment and to bring to all the announcement of peace, entrusted to the Church
of the Risen Lord. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As I prepare myself
for this missionary Journey the words of the Apostle Paul, which today, on the Third
Sunday of Lent, the liturgy proposes for our meditation, resound in my mind: “We
preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to
those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God and the
wisdom of God”, the Apostle writes to the Christians of Corinth (1 Cor 1: 23-24).
Yes, dear brothers and sisters! I am leaving for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>
aware that I have nothing to propose or give to those whom I shall meet except Christ
and the Good News of his Cross, a mystery of supreme love, of divine love that overcomes
all human resistence and even makes forgiveness and love for one’s enemies possible.
This is the grace of the Gospel that is capable of transforming the world; this
is the grace that can also renew <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, because
it generates an irresistible force of peace and a profound and radical reconciliation.
The Church, therefore, does not pursue economic, social or political objectives;
the Church proclaims Christ, certain that the Gospel can move the hearts of all
and transform them, thereby renewing people and societies from within. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On 19 March, precisely
during my Pastoral Visit to <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, we shall celebrate
the Solemnity of St Joseph, Patron of the universal Church and my personal Patron
too. <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city>, warned by an angel in a dream, had
to flee with Mary to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region> in
<st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, to take Jesus, whom King Herod wanted to
kill, to safety. Thus the Scriptures were fulfilled; Jesus trod in the footsteps
of the ancient patriarchs, and, like the People of Israel, returned to the Promised
Land after having been in exile in <st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place>. I entrust to the heavenly intercession
of this great Saint my upcoming Pilgrimage and the populations of the whole of <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, together with the challenges that mark them and the
hopes that enliven them. I am thinking in particular of the victims of hunger, disease,
injustice, fratricidal conflicts and of every form of violence which unfortunately
continues to afflict adults and children, without sparing missionaries, priests,
men and women religious and voluntary workers. Brothers and sisters, accompany me
on this Journey with your prayers, invoking Mary, Mother and Queen of Africa.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Lent, 7 March 2010 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Liturgy of this
Third Sunday of Lent presents to us the topic of conversion. In the First Reading
from the Book of Exodus, Moses, while tending his flock, sees a burning bush that
is not consumed by the flames. He goes closer to look at this miracle when a voice
calls him by name and, reminding him of his unworthiness, orders him to take off
his sandals because that place is holy. The voice says to him, “I am the God of
your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob”. And he adds,
“I am who am” (Ex 3: 6a, 14). God likewise shows himself in various ways in each
of our lives. To be able to recognize his presence, however, we must approach him
with an awareness of our wretchedness and with deep respect. Otherwise we would
make ourselves incapable of encountering him and entering into communion with him.
As the Apostle Paul writes, this event is also recounted as a warning to us: it
reminds us that God does not reveal himself to those in whom are entrenched self-sufficiency
and frivolity but rather to those who are poor and humble before him.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s Gospel
passage, Jesus is questioned on certain distressing events: the killing of several
Galileans in the temple, on the orders of Pontius Pilate, and the collapse of a
tower on some passers by (see Lk 13: 1-5). In the face of the easy conclusion of
considering evil as an effect of divine punishment, Jesus restores the true image
of God who is good and cannot desire evil. And guarding us against believing that
misfortunes are the immediate effect of the personal sins of those whom they afflict,
says: “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans,
because they suffered thus? I tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise
perish” (Lk 13: 2-3). Jesus asks us interpret these events differently, putting
them in the perspective of conversion: misfortunes, sorrowful events must not awaken
curiosity in us or the quest for presumed sins; instead they must be opportunities
for reflection, in order to overcome the illusion of being able to live without
God and to reinforce, with the Lord’s help, the commitment to change our way of
life. With regard to sin, God shows himself to be full of mercy and never fails
to remind sinners to avoid evil, to grow in love for him and to offer practical
help to our neighbour in need, to live the joy of grace and not to go towards eternal
death. However, the possibility of conversion demands that we learn to read the
events of life in the perspective of faith, animated, that is, by holy fear of God.
In the presence of suffering and bereavement, the true wisdom is to let ourselves
be called into question by the precarious state of existence and to see human history
with the eyes of God who, desiring always and only the good of his children, through
an inscrutable design of his love sometimes permits us to be tried by suffering
in order to lead us to a greater good. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, let
us pray Mary Most Holy, who accompanies us on our Lenten journey, that she may help
every Christian to return to the Lord with his whole heart. May she sustain our
firm decision to renounce evil and to accept the will of God in our lives with faith.
</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT TO THE PARISH </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF <st1:city w:st="on">SAINT JOHN</st1:city> OF THE CROSS IN <st1:place w:st="on">ROME</st1:place></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC
CELEBRATION</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Third
Sunday of Lent, 7 March 2010</i><b> </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">““Repent’, says the
Lord, “for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’“, we proclaimed before the Gospel of
this Third Sunday of Lent that presents us with the fundamental theme of this “strong
season” of the liturgical year: the invitation to change our lives and to do works
worthy of penance. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus, as we heard,
recalls two items of news: a brutal repression in the Temple by the Roman police
(see Lk 13: 1) and the tragic death of 18 people, killed when the tower in Siloam
collapsed (v. 4). People interpret these events as divine punishment for those victims’
sins, and thinking they are upright, believe they are safe from such accidents and
that they have nothing in their own lives that they should change. Jesus, however,
denounces this attitude as an illusion: “Do you think that these Galileans were
worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I tell you,
no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (vv. 2-3). And he invites
us to reflect on these events for a greater commitment on the journey of conversion,
for it is precisely the closure of ourselves to the Lord and the failure to take
the path of our own conversion that lead to death, to the death of the soul. In
Lent, each one of us is asked by God to mark a turning point in our life, thinking
and living in accordance with the Gospel, correcting some aspect of our way of praying,
acting or working and of our relations with others. Jesus makes this appeal to us,
not with a severity that is an end in itself but precisely because he is concerned
for our good, our happiness and our salvation. On our part, we must respond to him
with a sincere inner effort, asking him to make us understand which particular ways
we should change. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The conclusion of
the Gospel passage reverts to the prospect of mercy, showing the urgent need to
return to God, to renew life in accordance with God. Referring to a custom of the
time, Jesus presents the parable of a fig tree planted in the vineyard. However,
this fig tree was barren, it produced no fruit (see Lk 13: 6-9). The dialogue that
develops between the master and the vinedresser shows on the one hand the mercy
of God who is patient and allows human beings, all of us, time in which to convert;
and on the other, the need to start to change both our interior and exterior way
of life straight away in order not to miss the opportunities that God’s mercy affords
us to overcome our spiritual laziness and respond to God’s love with our own filial
love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover, in the
passage we have heard, St Paul urges us not to deceive ourselves: it is not enough
to have been baptized and nourished at the Eucharistic table if we do not live as
Christians and are not attentive to the Lord’s signs (see 1 Cor 10: 1-4). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters of the Parish of San Giovanni della Croce, I am very glad to be with you
today to celebrate the Lord’s Day with you. I cordially greet the Cardinal Vicar,
the Auxiliary Bishop of the Sector, Fr Enrico Gemma, your parish priest whom I thank
for his beautiful words on behalf of you all, and the other priests who help him.
I would then like to extend my thoughts to all the inhabitants of the district,
especially the elderly, the sick and those who are lonely and in difficulty. I remember
each and every one to the Lord at this Holy Mass. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I know that your
parish is a young community. Indeed, it began its pastoral activity in 1989. It
spent 12 years in temporary premises and then in the new parish complex. Now that
you have a new sacred building, I would like my Visit to be an encouragement to
you to become more and more the Church of living stones that you are. I know that
the experience of the first 12 years marked a lifestyle that still endures. The
lack of suitable premises and consolidated traditions, in fact, impelled you to
trust in the power of God’s word which has been a lamp to light you on your way
and has brought practical results of conversion, participation in the Sacraments,
especially in the Sunday Eucharist, and service. I now urge you to make this Church
a place in which people learn to listen better and better to the Lord who speaks
to us in the Sacred Scriptures. May these never cease to be the life-giving centre
of your community so that it may become a continuous <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">school</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Christian</st1:placename></st1:place>
life from which every pastoral activity stems. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The building of the
new parish church has spurred you to a unanimous apostolic commitment, with special
attention to the areas of catechesis and the Liturgy. I congratulate you on the
pastoral efforts you are making. I know that various groups of the faithful gather
to pray, to be trained at the school of the Gospel, to participate in the Sacraments
especially Penance and the Eucharist and to live that dimension essential to Christian
life which is charity. I am thinking gratefully of all who help make the liturgical
celebrations livelier and increase the number of participants, as well as of those
who, together with the parish <i>Caritas </i>and the Sant’Egidio group, seek to
meet the many needs in the territory, especially the expectations of the poorest
and neediest. Lastly, I am thinking of all your praiseworthy efforts for families
and for the Christian education of children and of those who attend the after-school
prayer and recreation centre. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Since it came into
being this parish has been open to the new Movements and Ecclesial Communities,
thereby developing a broader awareness of Church and experiencing new forms of evangelization.
I urge you to continue courageously in this direction, but make sure you combine
all the realities present in a uniform pastoral project. I learned with pleasure
that with regard to vocations and the role of consecrated and lay people, your community
is proposing to promote the co-responsibility of all the members of the People of
God. As I have already had the opportunity to recall, this requires a change in
mindset, particularly concerning lay people: “They must no longer be viewed as
“collaborators’, of the clergy but truly recognized as “co-responsible’, for the
Church’s being and action, thereby fostering the consolidation of a mature and committed
laity” (<i>Address to the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome, </i>26 May
2009). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Christian families,
dear young people who live in this neighbourhood and attend the parish, let the
wish to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all involve you more and more. Do
not wait for others to come and bring you other messages that do not lead to life;
rather, make yourselves missionaries of Christ for your brothers and sisters, where
they live, work and study or merely spend their leisure time. Here too, start a
far-reaching and thorough vocations ministry, consisting of the education of families
and young people in prayer and in living life as a gift that comes from God. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, the strong season of Lent invites each one of us to recognize the mystery
of God that becomes present in our life, just as we heard in the First Reading.
Moses sees a bush in the wilderness that is burning but without being consumed.
First of all impelled by curiosity, he approaches it to see the mysterious event
when suddenly a voice comes from the bush that says: “I am the God of your father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Ex 3: 6). And it is
precisely this God who sent him to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region>,
charging him to lead the People of Israel to the Promised Land and to ask the Pharaoh,
on his behalf, to set <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
free. At this point Moses asks God what his Name is, the Name with which God manifests
his special authority, in order to present God to the people and then to the Pharaoh.
God’s answer may seem strange; it seems both an answer and not an answer. He says
of himself simply: “I am who I am”. “He is”, and this must suffice. God, therefore,
does not reject Moses’ request. He pronounces his Name, thus creating the possibility
of invoking him, of calling on him, of a relationship with him. By revealing his
Name, God establishes a relationship between himself and us. He enables us to invoke
him, he enters into relations with us and gives us the possibility of being in a
relationship with him. This means that he gives himself, in a certain way, to our
human world, becoming accessible, as if he were one of us. He faces the risk of
the relationship, of being with us. What began in the burning bush in the desert
is accomplished in the burning bush of the Cross where God, having become accessible
in his Son made man, really became one of us, is put into our hands and, in this
way, realizes the liberation of humanity. On Golgotha God, who during the night
of the flight from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region>
revealed himself as the One who frees us from slavery, revealed himself as the One
who embraces every human being with the saving power of the Cross and the Resurrection
and liberates him from sin and death, accepts him in the embrace of his love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us remain in
contemplation of this mystery of God’s Name, the better to understand the mystery
of Lent and to live as individuals and as communities in permanent conversion, so
as to be a constant epiphany in the world, a witness of the living God who sets
us free us and saves us out of love. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Lent, 27 March 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This third Sunday
of Lent is characterized by the Jesus’ famous conversation with the Samaritan woman,
recounted by the Evangelist John. The woman went every day to draw water from an
ancient well that dated back to the Patriarch Jacob and on that day she found Jesus
sitting beside the well, “wearied from his journey” (Jn 4:6). <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> comments: “Not for nothing was Jesus
tried…. The strength of Christ created you, the weakness of Christ recreated you….
With his strength he created us, with his weakness he came to seek us out” (<i>In
Ioh. Ev</i>., 15, 2).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus’ weariness,
a sign of his true humanity, can be seen as a prelude to the Passion with which
he brought to fulfilment the work of our redemption. In the encounter with the Samaritan
woman at the well, the topic of Christ’s “thirst” stands out in particular. It culminated
in his cry on the Cross “I thirst” (Jn 19:28). This thirst, like his weariness,
had a physical basis. Yet Jesus, as <st1:place w:st="on">St
Augustine</st1:place> says further, “thirsted for the faith of that
woman” (In Ioh. Ev. 15,11), as he thirsted for the faith of us all.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God the Father sent
him to quench our thirst for eternal life, giving us his love, but to give us this
gift Jesus asks for our faith. The omnipotence of Love always respects human freedom;
it knocks at the door of man’s heart and waits patiently for his answer. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the encounter
with the Samaritan woman the symbol of water stands out in the foreground, alluding
clearly to the sacrament of Baptism, the source of new life for faith in God’s Grace.
This Gospel, in fact — as I recalled in my Catechesis on Ash Wednesday — is part
of the ancient journey of the catechumen’s preparation for Christian Initiation,
which took place at the great Easter Vigil. “Whoever drinks of the water that I
shall give him”, Jesus said, “will never thirst; the water that I shall give him
will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (Jn 4:14). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This water represents
the Holy Spirit, the “gift” par excellence that Jesus came to bring on the part
of God the Father. Whoever is reborn by water and by the Holy Spirit, that is, in
Baptism, enters into a real relationship with God, a filial relationship, and can
worship him “in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:23, 24), as Jesus went on to reveal to
the Samaritan woman. Thanks to the meeting with Jesus Christ and to the gift of
the Holy Spirit, the human being’s faith attains fulfilment, as a response to the
fullness of God’s revelation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Each one of us can
identify himself with the Samaritan woman: Jesus is waiting for us, especially in
this Season of Lent, to speak to our hearts, to my heart. Let us pause a moment
in silence, in our room or in a church or in a separate place. Let us listen to
his voice which tells us “If you knew the gift of God…”. May the Virgin Mary help
us not to miss this appointment, on which our true happiness depends.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lastly, my thoughts
turn to the authorities and citizens of the Middle East, where in the past few days
various episodes of violence have occurred, so that there too priority may be given
to the way of dialogue and reconciliation in the search for a just and fraternal
coexistence.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St.
Peter’s Square</i>, <i>Sunday, 11 March 2012</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this
Third Sunday of Lent the Gospel — in St John’s version — refers to the famous episode
of Jesus who drives the animal dealers and the money-changers out of the Temple
of Jerusalem (see Jn 2:13-25). The event, recorded by all the Evangelists, happened
in the Passover Feast and made a deep impression on both the crowd and the disciples.
How should we interpret Jesus’ action? </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First
of all it should be noted that it did not provoke any repression from the keepers
of public order because it was seen as a typical prophetic action: indeed, in God’s
name prophets often reported abuse and sometimes did so with symbolic gestures.
The problem, if there was one, concerned their authority. For this reason the Jews
asked Jesus: “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” (Jn 2:18), show us
that you are truly acting in God’s name.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
expulsion of the dealers from the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
has also been interpreted in a political and revolutionary sense, placing Jesus
on a par with the zealots’ movement. The zealots were, precisely, “zealous” for
God’s law and prepared to use violence to enforce respect for it. In Jesus’ day
they were awaiting a Messiah who would free <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place> from Roman domination. But Jesus
did not fulfil this expectation, so much so that some disciples abandoned him and
Judas Iscariot even betrayed him. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact
it is impossible to interpret Jesus as violent: violence is contrary to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, it is a tool of the antichrist. Violence
is never useful to humanity but dehumanizes it.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let
us, therefore, listen to the words that Jesus spoke while he was carrying out this
action. “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of
trade”. And the disciples then remembered that in a Psalm is written: “zeal for
your house has consumed me” (69[68]:10). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
Psalm is a call for help in a situation of extreme danger, because of the hatred
of enemies: the plight that Jesus was to live through in his Passion. Zeal for the
Father and for his house was to bring him to the cross: his was the zeal of love
that pays in person, not the zeal that would like to serve God through violence.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact
the “sign” that Jesus was to give as proof of his authority would be his very death
and Resurrection. “Destroy this temple”, he said, “and in three days I will raise
it up”. And <st1:place w:st="on">St John</st1:place>
recorded: “he spoke of the temple of his body” (Jn 2:20-21). With the Pasch of Jesus
a new form of worship begins, the cult of love, and a new temple which is he himself,
the Risen Christ, through whom every believer can worship God “in spirit and truth”
(Jn 4:23). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, the Holy Spirit began to build this new temple in the womb of the Virgin
Mary. Let us pray through his intercession that every Christian may become a living
stone of this spiritual building. </span></div>
</div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-20799109517461176232024-02-19T01:30:00.004-05:002024-02-19T01:30:00.337-05:00Reflections on the Second Sunday of Lent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0336: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Second Sunday of Lent </b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Second Sunday of Lent, on 12 March 2006, 4 March 2007, 17
February 2008, 8 March 2009, 28 February 2010,
20 March 2011, 4 March 2012, and 24 February 2013. Here are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i> and two homilies delivered on
these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Lent, 12 March 2006</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yesterday
morning marked the end of the week of Spiritual Exercises preached by Cardinal
Marco Cé, Patriarch emeritus of <st1:city w:st="on">Venice</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>, here in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Apostolic</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Palace</st1:placetype></st1:place>.
They were days dedicated entirely to listening to the Lord, who always speaks
to us but expects our still greater attention, especially during this time of
Lent. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Gospel
reading also reminds us of this, re-proposing to us the episode of the
Transfiguration of Christ on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Tabor</st1:placename></st1:place>. Awestruck at the
sight of the transfigured Lord who was speaking with Moses and Elijah, Peter,
James and John were suddenly overshadowed by a cloud, out of which came a voice
which proclaimed: “This is my beloved Son on whom my favour rests; listen
to him” (Mk 9: 7). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When one has the
grace to live a strong experience of God, it is as if one is living an
experience similar to that of the disciples during the Transfiguration: a
momentary foretaste of what will constitute the happiness of <st1:place w:st="on">Paradise</st1:place>.
These are usually brief experiences that are sometimes granted by God,
especially prior to difficult trials. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">No one, however,
is permitted to live “on Tabor” while on earth. Indeed, human existence is a
journey of faith and as such, moves ahead more in shadows than in full light,
and is no stranger to moments of obscurity and also of complete darkness. While
we are on this earth, our relationship with God takes place more by listening
than by seeing; and the same contemplation comes about, so to speak, with
closed eyes, thanks to the interior light that is kindled in us by the Word of
God. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary’s
pilgrimage of faith </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin Mary
herself, among all human creatures the closest to God, still had to walk day
after day in a pilgrimage of faith (see <i>Lumen Gentium, </i>no. 58),
constantly guarding and meditating on in her heart the Word that God addressed
to her through Holy Scripture and through the events of the life of her Son, in
whom she recognized and welcomed the Lord’s mysterious voice. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And so, this is
the gift and duty for each one of us during the season of Lent: to listen
to Christ, like Mary. To listen to him in his Word, contained in Sacred
Scripture. To listen to him in the events of our lives, seeking to decipher in
them the messages of <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place>.
Finally, to listen to him in our brothers and sisters, especially in the lowly
and the poor, to whom Jesus himself demands our concrete love. To listen to
Christ and obey his voice: this is the principle way, the only way, that
leads to the fullness of joy and of love.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Lent, 4 March 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the Second
Sunday of Lent, the Evangelist Luke emphasizes that Jesus went up on the
mountain<i> “to pray” </i>(9: 28), together with the Apostles Peter, James and
John, and it was <i>“while he prayed” </i>(9: 29) that the luminous mystery of
his Transfiguration occurred. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, for the
three Apostles, going up the mountain meant being involved in the prayer of
Jesus, who frequently withdrew in prayer especially at dawn and after sunset,
and sometimes all night. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, this
was the only time, on the mountain, that he chose to reveal to his friends the
inner light that filled him when he prayed: his face, we read in the Gospel,
shone and his clothes were radiant with the splendour of the divine Person of
the Incarnate Word (see Lk 9: 29). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">There is another
detail proper to St Luke’s narrative which deserves emphasis: the mention of
the topic of Jesus’ conversation with Moses and Elijah, who appeared beside him
when he was transfigured. As the Evangelist tells us, they “talked with him...
and spoke of his departure” (in Greek, <i>éxodos</i>), “which he was to
accomplish at <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>”
(9: 31). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore, Jesus
listens to the Law and the Prophets who spoke to him about his death and
Resurrection. In his intimate dialogue with the Father, he did not depart from
history, he did not flee the mission for which he came into the world, although
he knew that to attain glory he would have to pass through the Cross. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the contrary,
Christ enters more deeply into this mission, adhering with all his being to the
Father’s will; he shows us that true prayer consists precisely in uniting our
will with that of God. For a Christian, therefore, to pray is not to evade
reality and the responsibilities it brings but rather, to fully assume them,
trusting in the faithful and inexhaustible love of the Lord. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason,
the verification of the Transfiguration is, paradoxically, the Agony in <st1:place w:st="on">Gethsemane</st1:place> (see Lk 22: 39-46). With his impending
Passion, Jesus was to feel mortal anguish and entrust himself to the divine
will; his prayer at that moment would become a pledge of salvation for us all. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, Christ
was to implore the Heavenly Father “to free him from death” and, as the author
of the Letter to the Hebrews wrote: “he was heard for his godly fear” (5: 7).
The Resurrection is proof that he was heard. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, prayer is not an accessory or “optional”, but a question of life
or death. In fact, only those who pray, in other words, who entrust themselves
to God with filial love, can enter eternal life, which is God himself. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">During this Season
of Lent, let us ask Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word and Teacher of the
spiritual life, to teach us to pray as her Son did so that our life may be
transformed by the light of his presence.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Lent, 17 February 2008<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Spiritual
Exercises, which brought the Pope and his collaborators of the Roman Curia
together in prayer and meditation as they do every year, ended here in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Apostolic</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Palace</st1:placetype></st1:place> yesterday. I thank all those who
have been spiritually close to us; may the Lord reward them for their
generosity. Today, the Second Sunday of Lent, as we continue on the penitential
journey, the liturgy invites us, after presenting the Gospel of Jesus’
temptations in the desert last week, to reflect on the extraordinary event of
the Transfiguration on the mountain. Considered together, these episodes
anticipate the Paschal Mystery: Jesus’ struggle with the tempter preludes the
great final duel of the Passion, while the light of his transfigured Body
anticipates the glory of the Resurrection. On the one hand, we see Jesus, fully
man, sharing with us even temptation; on the other, we contemplate him as the
Son of God who divinizes our humanity. Thus, we could say that these two
Sundays serve as pillars on which to build the entire structure of Lent until
Easter, and indeed, the entire structure of Christian life, which consists
essentially in paschal dynamism: from death to life. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The mountain - <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Tabor</st1:placename></st1:place>,
like Sinai - is the place of nearness to God. Compared with daily life it is
the lofty space in which to breathe the pure air of creation. It is the place
of prayer in which to stand in the Lord’s presence like Moses and Elijah, who
appeared beside the transfigured Jesus and spoke to him of the “exodus” that
awaited him in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>,
that is, his Pasch. The Transfiguration is a prayer event: in praying, Jesus is
immersed in God, closely united to him, adhering with his own human will to the
loving will of the Father, and thus light invades him and appears visibly as
the truth of his being: he is God, Light of Light. Even Jesus’ raiment becomes
dazzling white. This is reminiscent of the white garment worn by neophytes.
Those who are reborn in Baptism are clothed in light, anticipating heavenly
existence (see Rev 7: 9, 13). This is the crucial point: the Transfiguration is
an anticipation of the Resurrection, but this presupposes death. Jesus
expresses his glory to the Apostles so that they may have the strength to face
the scandal of the Cross and understand that it is necessary to pass through
many tribulations in order to reach the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>.
The Father’s voice, which resounds from on high, proclaims Jesus his beloved
Son as he did at the Baptism in the Jordan, adding: “Listen to him” (Mt 17: 5).
To enter eternal life requires listening to Jesus, following him on the way of
the Cross, carrying in our heart like him the hope of the Resurrection. “Spe
salvi”, saved in hope. Today we can say: “Transfigured in hope”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Turning now in
prayer to Mary, let us recognize in her the human creature transfigured within
by Christ’s grace and entrust ourselves to her guidance, to walk joyfully on
our path through Lent.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Lent, 8 March 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the past few
days, as you know, I have been doing Spiritual Exercises together with my
collaborators in the Roman Curia. It was a week of silence and prayer: our
minds and hearts could be entirely focused on God, listening to his word,
meditating on the mysteries of Christ. To summarize, it is a bit like what
happened to the Apostles Peter, James and John when Jesus took them with him up
a high mountain, and while he prayed he was “transfigured”: his Face and his
garments became luminous, glistening. Once again, the liturgy proposes this
well-known episode on this very day, the Second Sunday of Lent (see Mk 9:
2-10). Jesus wanted his disciples in particular those who would be responsible
for guiding the nascent Church to have a direct experience of his divine glory,
so that they could face the scandal of the Cross. Indeed, when the hour of
betrayal came and Jesus withdrew to the Garden of <i>Gethsemani, </i>he kept
the same disciples Peter, James and John close to him, asking them to watch and
pray with him (see Mt 26: 38). They were not to succeed in doing so, but the
grace of Christ was to sustain them and help them to believe in the
Resurrection. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I wish to
emphasize that the Transfiguration of Jesus was essentially an experience of
prayer (see Lk 9: 28-29). Indeed, prayer reaches its culmination and thus
becomes a source of inner light when the spirit of the human being adheres to
that of God and their respective wills merge, as it were, to become a whole.
When Jesus went up the mountain, he was immersed in contemplation of the loving
plan of the Father, who had sent him into the world to save humanity. Elijah
and Moses appeared beside Jesus, meaning that the Sacred Scriptures were in
concordance with the proclamation of his Paschal Mystery; that in other words
Christ had to suffer and die in order to enter into his glory (see Lk 24: 26,
46). At that moment Jesus saw silhouetted before him the Cross, the extreme
sacrifice necessary in order to free us from the dominion of sin and death. And
in his heart, once again, he repeated his “Amen”. He said yes, here I am, may
your loving will be done, O Father. And as had happened after his Baptism in
the <st1:place w:st="on">Jordan</st1:place>,
from Heaven there came signs of God the Father’s pleasure: the light that
transfigured Christ and the voice that proclaimed him “my beloved Son” (Mk 9:
7). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Together with
fasting and works of mercy, prayer is the backbone of our spiritual life. Dear
brothers and sisters, I urge you to find in this Lenten Season prolonged
moments of silence, possibly in retreat, in order to review your own lives in
the light of the loving plan of the heavenly Father. Let yourselves be guided
in this more intense listening to God by the Virgin Mary, a teacher and model
of prayer. Even in the thick darkness of Christ’s Passion, she did not lose the
light of her divine Son but rather treasured it in her heart. For this we call
on her as Mother of Trust and Hope!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Lent, 28 February 2010 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Spiritual
Exercises customarily held here at the <st1:placename w:st="on">Apostolic</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Palace</st1:placetype> in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vatican</st1:country-region> at the
beginning of Lent ended yesterday. Together with my collaborators of the Roman
Curia I spent days in recollection and intense prayer, reflecting on the
priestly vocation in harmony with the Year that the Church is celebrating. I
thank all who have been close to us in spirit. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this Second
Sunday of Lent the Liturgy is dominated by the episode of the Transfiguration
which in Luke’s Gospel immediately follows the Teacher’s invitation: “If any
man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and
follow me” (Lk 9: 23). This extraordinary event is an encouragement in the
following of Christ. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Luke does not
speak of the Transfiguration but describes what happens through two elements:
the Face of Jesus which changes and his clothes that become a dazzling white in
the presence of Moses and Elijah, a symbol of the Law and of the Prophets. The
three disciples who witness the scene are heavy with sleep: this is the
attitude of those who, although they have seen divine miracles, fail to
understand. It is only the struggle against drowsiness that enables Peter,
James and John to “see” Jesus in his glory. Then the rhythm quickens: while
Moses and Elijah take their leave of the Master, Peter speaks and as he speaks
a cloud envelops him and the other disciples in its shadow. This cloud, while
it covers them, reveals the glory of God, just as happened for the pilgrim
people in the desert. Their eyes can no longer see but their ears can hear the
voice that comes out of the cloud: “This is my Son, my <st1:place w:st="on">Chosen</st1:place>;
listen to him!” (v. 35). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The disciples no
longer have before them a transfigured face or dazzling garments or a cloud
that reveals the divine presence. They have before them “Jesus... alone” (v.
36). Jesus is alone with his Father while he prays but at the same time, “Jesus...
alone” is all that the disciples and the Church of every epoch have been
granted; and this must suffice on the journey. The only voice to listen to, the
only voice to follow is his, the voice of the One going up to Jerusalem who was
one day to give his life to “change our lowly body to be like his glorious body”
(Phil 3: 21). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Master, it is
well that we are here” (Lk 9: 33) are Peter’s ecstatic words, that often
resemble our own desire before the Lord’s consolations. However the
Transfiguration reminds us that the joys sown by God in life are not finishing
lines; rather they are lights he gives us during our earthly pilgrimage in
order that “Jesus alone” may be our Law and his word the criterion that directs
our existence. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Lenten
period I invite everyone to meditate assiduously on the Gospel. I also hope
that in this Year for Priests Pastors may be “truly pervaded by the word of
God... really know that word... to the point that it really leaves a mark on
[their] lives and shapes [their] thinking” (see <i>Homily, Chrism Mass, </i>9
April 2009). May the Virgin Mary help us to live intensely our moments of
encounter with the Lord so that we may follow him joyfully every day. Let us
turn our gaze to her, invoking her with the prayer of the <i>Angelus</i>.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Lent, 20 March 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I thank the Lord
who has granted me over the past few days the experience of the Spiritual
Exercises and I am also grateful to all who have been close to me in prayer.
This Sunday, the Second Sunday of Lent, is called “of the Transfiguration”
because the Gospel recounts this mystery of Jesus’ life. After Jesus had
foretold his Passion to the disciples, “he took with him Peter, James and John
his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured
before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as
light” (Mt 17:1-2). According to the senses the light of the sun is the
brightest light known in nature but, according to the spirit, the disciples
briefly glimpsed an even more intense splendour, that of the divine glory of
Jesus which illumines the whole history of salvation. St Maximus Confessor says
that “[the Lord’s] garments appear white, that is to say, the words of the
Gospel will then be clear and distinct, with nothing concealed” (<i>Ambiguum</i>
10: PG 91, 1128 B).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel tells
that beside the transfigured Jesus “there appeared... Moses and Elijah, talking
with him” (Mt 17:3); Moses and Elijah, figure of the Law and of the Prophets.
It was then that Peter, ecstatic, exclaimed “Lord, it is well that we are here;
if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and
one for Elijah” (Mt 17:4). However St Augustine commented, saying that we have
only one dwelling place, Christ: “he is the Word of God, the Word of God in the
Law, the Word of God in the Prophets” (<i>Sermo De Verbis Ev.</i> 78:3: PL 38,
491). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact, the
Father himself proclaims: “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him” (Mt 17:5). The Transfiguration is not a change in Jesus but the
revelation of his divinity: “the profound interpenetration of his being with
God, which then becomes pure light. In his oneness with the Father, Jesus is
himself ‘light from light’” (<i>Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the
Jordan to the Transfiguration</i>, Doubleday, New York, 2007, p. 310). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Peter, James and
John, contemplating the divinity of the Lord, are ready to face the scandal of
the Cross, as it is sung in an ancient hymn: “You were transfigured on the mountain
and your disciples, insofar as they were able, contemplated your glory, in
order that, on seeing you crucified, they would understand that your Passion
was voluntary and proclaim to the world that you are truly the splendour of the
Father” (<i>Κοντάκιον είς τήν Μεταμόρφωσιν</i>, in: <i>Μηναια</i>, t. 6, Rome
1901, 341).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
let us too share in this vision and in this supernatural gift, making room for
prayer, and for listening to the Word of God. Further, especially in this
Season of Lent, I urge you, as the Servant of God Paul VI wrote, “to
respond to the divine precept of penitence by some voluntary act, apart from
the renunciation imposed by the burdens of everyday life” (Apostolic
Constitution <i>Pænitemini, </i>17 February 1966, III, c: AAS 58 [1966], 182). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us invoke
the Virgin Mary so that she may help us always to listen to and follow the Lord
Jesus, even to the Passion and the Cross, in order to also participate in his
glory.</span></div>
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<div align="center" class="style1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MASS AND DEDICATION </span></div>
<div align="center" class="style1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF THE NEW PARISH OF ST CORBINIAN AT INFERNETTO (<st1:place w:st="on">ROME</st1:place>)</span></div>
<div align="center" class="style1" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sunday,
20 March 2011</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am very
pleased to be with you to celebrate an event as important as the Dedication to
God and to the service of the community of this church called after St
Corbinian. <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place>
has ordained that our meeting take place on the Second Sunday of Lent,
distinguished by the Gospel of the Transfiguration of Jesus. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, we
therefore have the juxtaposition of two elements, both of which are very
important: on the one hand, the mystery of the Transfiguration, and on the
other, that of the temple, that is, of God’s house amidst your houses. The
Bible Readings we have heard were chosen to illustrate these two aspects. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Transfiguration. The Evangelist Matthew has told us what happened when Jesus,
taking with him three of his disciples — Peter, James and John — climbed a high
mountain. While they were up there, on their own, Jesus’ face, and likewise his
garments, became radiant. This is what we call “Transfiguration”: a luminous,
comforting mystery. What is its meaning? The Transfiguration is
a revelation of the Person of Jesus, of his profound reality.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact, the eye
witnesses of the event, that is, the three Apostles, were enfolded in a cloud,
also bright — which in the Bible always heralds God’s presence — and they heard
a voice saying: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to
him” (Mt 17:5). This event prepared the disciples for the Paschal Mystery of
Jesus: to endure the terrible trial of the Passion and also to understand
properly the luminous event of the Resurrection. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The narrative
also speaks of Moses and Elijah who appear and talk with Jesus. Actually, this
episode is related to another two divine revelations. Moses climbed <st1:place w:st="on">Mount Sinai</st1:place> and there received God’s revelation. He asked
God to show him his glory but God answered Moses that he would not see his face
but only his back (<i>see</i> Ex 33:18-23) </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God made a
similar revelation to Elijah on the mountain: a more intimate manifestation,
not accompanied by a storm, an earthquake or by fire, but by a gentle breeze (<i>see</i>
1 Kings 19:11-13).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Unlike these two
episodes, in the Transfiguration it is not Jesus who receives the revelation of
God; rather, it is precisely in Jesus that God reveals himself and reveals his
face to the Apostles. Thus, those who wish to know God must contemplate the
face of Jesus, his face transfigured: Jesus is the perfect revelation of the
Father’s holiness and mercy. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us also
remember that on <st1:place w:st="on">Mount Sinai</st1:place> Moses also
received the revelation of God’s will: the Ten Commandments. And, again, it was
on the mountain that Elijah received from God the divine Revelation of a
mission he was to undertake. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus, on the
contrary, did not receive the revelation of what he was to do: he already knew
it. Rather it was the Apostles who heard God’s voice in the cloud, commanding: “Listen
to him”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God’s will was
fully revealed in the Person of Jesus. Anyone who wants to live in accordance
with God’s will must follow Jesus, listen to him and accept his words, and with
the help of the Holy Spirit, acquire a deep knowledge of them. This is the
first invitation I wish to offer you, dear friends, with great affection: grow
in the knowledge and love of Christ, both as individuals and as a parish
community, encounter him in the Eucharist, in listening to his word, in prayer
and in charity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The second point
is the Church as a building and especially as a community. Before reflecting,
however, on the Dedication of your church, I would like to tell you that my joy
at being with you today is enhanced for a special reason. Indeed, St Corbinian
founded the Diocese of Freising, <st1:state w:st="on">Bavaria</st1:state>,
of which I was Bishop for four years. In my episcopal coat of arms I chose to
insert an element closely associated with this Saint’s history: a bear. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is said that
a bear had torn St Corbinian’s horse to pieces while the Saint was on his way
to <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>. He
harshly reprimanded it, succeeded in taming it and on its back loaded his
baggage which had so far been carried by the horse. The bear bore this burden
as far as <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
and only then did the Saint set it free.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Perhaps this is
the point at which to say a few words about the life of St Corbinian. St
Corbinian was French. He was a priest from the region of <st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city>, not far from which he had founded a
monastery for himself. He was held in high esteem as a spiritual counselor but
was more inclined to contemplation and therefore came to <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place> to build a monastery here, close to the
tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However Pope
Gregory II — it was in about the year 720 — had founded a monastery nearby —
thought highly of his qualities, had understood his qualities and ordained him
a Bishop, charging him to go to Bavaria and to proclaim the Gospel in that land.
<st1:state w:st="on">Bavaria</st1:state>: the Pope was thinking of the country
between the Danube and the <st1:place w:st="on">Alps</st1:place> which had been
the Roman Province of Raetia for 500 years. Only at the end of the fifth
century did the majority of the Latin population return to <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A few simple
people had stayed there. The land was sparsely populated and a new people
settled in it, the Bavarian people which, because the Country had been
Christianized in the Roman period, discovered there a Christian heritage. The
Bavarian people had understood straight away that this was the true religion
and wanted to become Christian. However, there was a lack of educated people
and priests to preach the Gospel. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And so
Christianity had remained very fragmented, in its early stages. The Pope knew
of this situation, he knew of the thirst for faith that existed in that
country. He thus charged St Corbinian to go there and proclaim the Gospel
there. And in Freising, in the ducal city on the hilltop, the Saint built the
Cathedral — there was already a Shrine to Our Lady — and the Bishops See
remained there for more than 1,000 years. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Only after the
Napoleonic period was it transferred to <st1:place w:st="on">Munich</st1:place>,
30 kilometres further south. It is still called the “Diocese of Munich and
Freising”, and Freising’s majestic Romanesque cathedral has remained the heart
of the diocese. So we see that saints uphold the Church’s unity and
universality.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Universality: St
Corbinian connects <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>. Unity: St Corbinian tells us that the
Church is founded on Peter and guarantees to us that the Church founded on the
rock will endure for ever. One thousand years ago she was the same Church that
she is today, because the Lord is always the same. He is always Truth, ever old
and ever new, very up to date, present, and the key opening the future.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would now like
to thank all who have contributed to building this church. I know how hard the
Diocese of Rome is working to ensure every neighbourhood suitable parish
complexes. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet and
thank the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Sector and the Bishop
Secretary of the “Opera Romana” (Roman institution) for the preservation of
faith and the provision of new churches. I greet in particular my two
successors. I greet Cardinal Wetter, who conceived the initiative of dedicating
a parish church to St Corbinian and provided effective support for the project’s
realization. Thank you, Your Eminence, many thanks. I am glad that the church
was built so quickly. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet Cardinal
Marx, the current Archbishop of Munich and Freising, who feels love not only
for St Corbinian but also for his Church in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>. My cordial thanks to you too. I also
greet Bishop Clemens, from the Diocese of Paderborn who is Secretary of the
Council for the Laity. I extend a special thought to the parish priest, Fr Antonio
Magnotta, with my sincere gratitude for your words to me. Thank you! and of
course I also greet the parochial vicar! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Through all of
you present here, I would like to extend a word of affectionate closeness to
the approximately 10,000 residents in the Parish territory. Gathered round the
Eucharist, we more easily note that the mission of every Christian community is
to take the message of God’s love to everyone, to make everyone know his face.
This is why it is important that the Eucharist always be the heart of the life
of the faithful, as it is today for your Parish, although not
all its members have been able to take part in person.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today we are
living an important day which crowns the efforts, exertions and sacrifices made
by and the commitment of the local people to form a mature Christian community
that now has a Church, now definitively consecrated, in which to worship God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I rejoice that
this goal has been achieved and I am sure that it will encourage the gathering
and the development of the family of believers in this district. The Church
wishes to be present in every neighbourhood in which people live and work, with
the Gospel witness of consistent and faithful Christians, but also with
appropriate premises for prayer gatherings and for the sacraments, Christian
formation and the beginning of friendships and brotherhood, helping children,
young people, families and the elderly grow in the spirit of community which
Christ taught us and of which the Church stands in such great need.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Just as the
parish premises were built, my Visit is intended to encourage you to build ever
better the Church of living stones which you are. We heard in the Second
Reading “You are God’s field, God’s building”, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> wrote to the Corinthians (1 Cor 3:9)
and to us. And he urges us to build on the one true foundation which is Jesus
Christ (3:11). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason,
I also urge you to make your new church the place where one learns how to
listen to the word of God, the permanent “school” of Christian prayer from
which stems every activity of this young and committed parish.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The text from
the Book of Nehemiah, presented in the First Reading, is enlightening in this
respect. There it can be clearly seen that <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> is the people convoked to
listen to the word of God, written in the book of the Law. This book is read
solemnly by the ministers and explained to the people who, standing, raise
their hands to Heaven then kneel and prostrate themselves, face to the ground,
in a sign of adoration. It is a true liturgy enlivened by faith in God who
speaks, by repentance for infidelity to the Lord’s Law, and especially by joy —
for the proclamation of his word is a sign that he has not abandoned his
People, that he is close. May you too, dear brothers and sisters, in gathering
to listen to the word of God with faith and perseverance, become, from one
Sunday to the next, a Church of God, inwardly formed and fashioned by his Word.
What a great gift this is! May you always be grateful for it.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yours is a young
community, consisting largely of newly married couples who have come to live in
the neighbourhood; there are many children and young people. I know the
dedication and attention that are given to families and to the guidance of
young couples: may you be able to start a pastoral service for families, marked
by open and cordial hospitality to the new family nuclei, which will be able to
foster reciprocal knowledge, so that the parish community may always be,
increasingly, a “family of families” able to share with them, alongside the joys,
the inevitable initial difficulties.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I also know that
various groups of the faithful meet to pray, learning at the school of the
Gospel, to participate in the Sacraments and to live that essential dimension
for Christian life which is charity. I am thinking of all those who with the
Parish <i>Caritas</i> seek to meet the many needs in the area, especially by
responding to the expectations of the poorest and neediest people.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I rejoice in all
you do to prepare children and young people for the sacraments of Christian
life, and I urge you to to take an increasing interest in their parents too,
especially those who have small children; the Parish is striving to propose to
them too, at convenient times and in suitable ways, prayer and formation
meetings, especially for the parents of children who must receive Baptism and
the other sacraments of Christian initiation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May you also
treat with special care and attention families in difficulty or in an irregular
or precarious condition. Do not leave them on their own, but be lovingly close
to them, helping them to understand God’s authentic plan for marriage and the
family.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Pope wishes
to address a special word of affection and friendship also to you, dear
children and young people who are listening to me, and to your peers who live
in this parish. The present and the future of the ecclesial and civil community
are entrusted in a special way to you. The Church expects much from your
enthusiasm, from your ability to look ahead and from your wish for firm in the choices
in life.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends of
San Corbiniano! The Lord Jesus Christ who led the Apostles to the mountain to
pray and showed them his glory, has invited us to this new church today. Here
we can listen to him, we can recognize his presence in the breaking of the
Eucharist Bread; and in this way become a living Church, a temple of the Holy
Spirit, a sign of God’s love in the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Go home with
your hearts full of this gratitude and joy, because you are part of this great
spiritual building which is the Church. Let us entrust our Lenten journey, and
that of the entire Church to the Virgin Mary. May Our Lady, who followed her
Son Jesus to the Cross, help us to be faithful disciples of Christ, so that we
may be able to take part together with her in the joy of Easter. Amen.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St.
Peter’s Square</i>, <i>Sunday, 4 March 2012</i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
Sunday, the Second Sunday of Lent, is known as the Transfiguration of Christ.
Indeed in the Lenten itinerary, having invited us to follow Jesus into the
wilderness to face and overcome the temptations with him, the Liturgy now
proposes that we climb the “mountain” of prayer with him to contemplate God’s
glorious radiance on his human face. The episode of the Transfiguration of
Christ is unanimously attested by the Evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke. There
are two essential elements: first of all, Jesus leads the disciples Peter,
James and John up a high mountain and there “he was transfigured before them”
(Mk 9:2) and his face and his garments shone with dazzling light while Moses
and Elijah appeared beside him; the second, a cloud overshadowed the mountain
peak and from it came a voice saying: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him”
(Mk 9:7). Thus, light and the voice: the divine radiance on Jesus’ face, and
the voice of the heavenly Father that witnesses to him and commands that he be
listened to.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
mystery of the Transfiguration must not be separated from the context of the
path Jesus is following. He is now decisively oriented to fulfilling his
mission, knowing all too well that to arrive at the Resurrection he must pass
through the Passion and death on the Cross. He had spoken openly of this to his
disciples; but they did not understand, on the contrary they rejected this
prospect because they were not reasoning in accordance with God, but in
accordance with men (see Mt 16:23). </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It
is for this reason that Jesus takes three of them with him up the mountain and
reveals his divine glory, the splendour of Truth and of Love. Jesus wants this
light to illuminate their hearts when they pass through the thick darkness of
his Passion and death, when the folly of the Cross becomes unbearable to them.
God is light, and Jesus wishes to give his closest friends the experience of
this light which dwells within him. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">After
this event, therefore, he will be an inner light within them that can protect
them from any assault of darkness. Even on the darkest of nights, Jesus is the
lamp that never goes out. <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>
sums up this mystery in beautiful words, he says: “what this sun is to the eyes
of the flesh, that is [Christ] to the eyes of the heart” (<i>Sermones 78, </i>2:<i>
PL </i>38, 490). </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
brothers and sisters, we all need inner light to overcome the trials of life.
This light comes from God and it is Christ who gives it to us, the One in whom
the fullness of deity dwells (see <st1:state w:st="on">Col</st1:state>
2:9). Let us climb with Jesus the mountain of prayer and, contemplating his
face full of love and truth, let us allow ourselves to be filled with his
light. Let us ask the Virgin Mary, our guide on the journey of faith, to help
us to live out this experience in the season of Lent, finding every day a few
moments for silent prayer and for listening to the Word of God.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL VISIT TO THE ROMAN PARISH OF <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on">ST. JOHN</st1:place> BAPTIST DE LA SALLE AT TORRINO<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Sunday, 4 March 2012</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters of the Parish of St John Baptist de La Salle</i>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First
of all I would like to say a heartfelt thank you for this most cordial and warm
welcome. I am grateful to the good Parish Priest for his beautiful words, and
for the spirit of familiarity that I am encountering. We really are a family of
God and the fact that you also see the Pope as a father is something very
lovely that encourages me! However we must now remember that the Pope is not
the highest authority to appeal to. The highest is the Lord and let us look to
the Lord in order to perceive, to understand — as far as we can — something of
the message of this Second Sunday of Lent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s
liturgy prepares us both for the mystery of the Passion — as we heard in the
First Reading — and for the joy of the Resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
First Reading refers us to the episode in which God puts Abraham to the test (see
Gen 22:1-18). He had an only son, Isaac, who was born to him in his old age. He
was the son of the promise, the son who would also bring salvation to the
peoples. Nevertheless one day Abraham received from God the order to sacrifice
him as an offering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
elderly patriarch found himself facing the prospect of a sacrifice which for
him, as a father, was without any doubt the greatest imaginable. Yet not even
for a moment did he hesitate and having made the necessary preparations, he set
out with Isaac for the arranged place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And we
can imagine this journey toward the mountaintop, and what happened in his own
heart and in his son’s. He builds an altar, lays the wood upon it and having
bound the boy, grasps the knife, ready to sacrifice him. Abraham trusts totally
in God, to the point of being ready even to sacrifice his own son and, with his
son the future, for without a child the promised land was as nothing, ends in
nothing. And in sacrificing his son he is sacrificing himself, his whole
future, the whole of the promise. It really is the most radical act of faith.
At that very moment he is restrained by an order from on high: God does not
want death, but life, the true sacrifice does not bring death but life, and
Abraham’s obedience became the source of an immense blessing to this day. Let
us end here now, but we can meditate upon this mystery. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
Second Reading, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
says that God himself has made a sacrifice: he has given us his own Son, he
gave him on the Cross to triumph over sin and death, to triumph over the Evil
One and to overcome all the evil that exists in the world. And God’s
extraordinary mercy inspires the Apostle’s admiration and profound trust in the
power of God’s love for us; indeed, St Paul says: “He [God] who did not spare
his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things
with him?” (Rom 8:32). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If God
gives himself in the Son, he gives us everything. And Paul insists on the power
of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice against every other force that can threaten our
life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He
wonders: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who
justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised
from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?”
(vv. 33-34). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We are
in God’s heart, this is our great trust. This creates love and in love we go
towards God. If God has given his own Son for all of us, no one can accuse us,
no one can condemn us, no one can separate us from his immense love. Precisely
the supreme sacrifice of love on the Cross, which the Son of God accepted and
chose willingly, becomes the source of our justification, of our salvation.
Just think that this act of the Lord’s endures in the Blessed Eucharist, and in
his heart, for eternity, and this act of love attracts us, unites us with him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lastly,
the Gospel speaks to us of the episode of the Transfiguration (see Mk 9:2-10):
Jesus manifests himself in his glory before the sacrifice of the Cross and God
the Father proclaims his beloved Son, the one he loves, and commands the
disciples to listen to him. Jesus goes up a high mountain and takes three
Apostles with him — Peter, James and John — who will be particularly close to
him in his extreme agony, on another mountain, the <st1:place w:st="on">Mount
of Olives</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A
little earlier the Lord had announced his Passion and Peter had been unable to
understand why the Lord, the Son of God, should speak of suffering, rejection,
death, a Cross, indeed he had opposed the prospect of all this with
determination. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus
now takes the three disciples with him to help them to understand that the path
to attaining glory, the path of luminous love that overcomes darkness, passes
through the total gift of self, passes through the folly of the Cross. And the
Lord must take us with him too ever anew, at least if we are to begin to understand
that this is the route to take. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Transfiguration is a moment of light in advance, which also helps us see Christ’s
Passion with a gaze of faith. Indeed, it is a mystery of suffering but it is
also the “blessed Passion” because — in essence — it is a mystery of God’s
extraordinary love; it is the definitive exodus that opens for us the door to
the freedom and newness of the Resurrection, of salvation from evil. We need it
on our daily journey, so often also marked by the darkness of evil. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, as I have said, I am very happy to be with you today to celebrate
the Lord’s Day. I cordially greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishop of
the Sector, Fr Giampaolo Perugini, your parish priest, whom I thank once again
for his kind words on behalf of you all and also for the pleasing gifts you
have offered me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
the Parochial Vicars. And I greet the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary who have been here for so many years. They deserve
praise for having fostered the life of this parish, because their house
immediately offered generous hospitality to it, during the first three years of
its life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I then
extend my greeting to the Brothers of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Christian</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Schools</st1:placename></st1:place>,
who are naturally attached to this parish church dedicated to their Founder. I
greet in addition all those who are active in the parish context. I am
referring to the catechists, the members of the associations and movements, as
well as the various parish groups. Lastly I would like to embrace in spirit all
the inhabitants of the district, and especially the elderly, the sick, and
people who are lonely or in difficulty.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In
coming to you today I noticed the special position of this church, set at the
highest point in the district and endowed with a slender spire, as if it were a
finger or an arrow pointing towards heaven. It seems to me that this is an
important indication: like the three Apostles of the Gospel, we also need to
climb the mountain of the Transfiguration to receive God’s light, so that his
Face may illuminate our face. And it is in personal and community prayer that
we encounter the Lord, not as an idea or a moral proposal but, rather, as a
Person who wishes to enter into a relationship with us, who wants to be a
friend and to renew our life to make it like his. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
encounter is not solely a personal event; your church, set at the highest point
in the neighbourhood, reminds you that the Gospel must be communicated and
proclaimed to all. We do not expect others to bring different messages, that do
not lead to true life. Make yourselves missionaries of Christ to your brothers
and sisters wherever they live, work, study or just spend their leisure time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I know
about the many important evangelization projects that you undertake, in particular
through the after-school prayer and recreation centre called “Pole-star” — I am
also glad to wear this shirt (the centre’s shirt) — where, thanks to the
volunteer work of competent and generous people and the involvement of
families, the gathering of young people through sports is encouraged, without
however neglecting their cultural formation, through art and music. Above all
the relationship with God, the Christian values and an increasingly aware
participation in the Sunday Eucharistic celebration, are inculcated in them
here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I
rejoice that the sense of belonging to the parish community has continued to
develop and been consolidated down the years. Faith must be lived together and
the parish is a place in which we learn to live our own faith in the “we” of
the Church. And I would like to encourage you to promote pastoral
co-responsibility too, in a perspective of authentic communion among all the
realities present, which are called to walk together, to live complementarity
in diversity, to witness to the “we” of the Church, of God’s family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I know
how committed you are in preparing the children and young people for the
sacraments of Christian life. May the upcoming “Year of Faith” be a favourable
opportunity also for this parish to increase and to reinforce the experience of
catechesis on the great truths of the Christian faith, so as to enable the
whole neighbourhood to know and to deepen its knowledge of the Church’s Creed,
and to surmount that “religious illiteracy” which is one of the greatest
difficulties of our day. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friend, yours is a young community — it is made up of young families and,
thanks be to God, of the numerous children and youth who live in it. In this
regard, I would like to recall the task of the family and of the entire
Christian community to educate in faith, assisted in this by the theme of the
current Pastoral Year, by the Pastoral Guidelines proposed by the Italian
Episcopal Conference and without forgetting the profound and ever up to date
teaching of St John Baptist de La Salle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">You in
particular, dear families, are the environment in which the first steps of
faith are taken; may you be communities in which one learns to know and love
the Lord more and more, communities in which each enriches the other in order to
live a truly adult faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lastly,
I would like to remind all of you of the importance and centrality of the
Eucharist in personal and community life. May the heart of your Sunday be Holy
Mass which should be rediscovered and lived as a day of God and of the
community, a day on which to praise and celebrate the One who died and was
raised for our salvation, a day on which to live together the joy of an open
community, ready to receive every person who is lonely or in difficulty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed,
gathered around the Eucharist in fact, we more easily realize that the mission
of every Christian community is to bring the message of God’s love to everyone.
This is why it is important that the Eucharist always be at the heart of the
faithful’s life, just as it is today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
brothers and sisters, from <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Tabor</st1:placename>, the mountain of the Transfiguration, the
Lenten journey takes us to <st1:place w:st="on">Golgotha</st1:place>, the hill
of the supreme sacrifice of love of the one Priest of the new and eternal
Covenant. That sacrifice contains the greatest power of transformation of both
the human being and of history. Taking upon himself every consequence of evil
and sin, Jesus rose the third day as the conqueror of death and of the Evil
One. Lent prepares us to take part personally in this great mystery of faith
which we shall celebrate in the Triduum of the Passion, death and Resurrection
of Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us
entrust our Lenten journey and likewise that of the whole Church to the Virgin
Mary. May she, who followed her Son Jesus to the Cross, help us to be faithful
disciples of Christ, mature Christians, to be able to share with her in the
fullness of Easter joy. Amen!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 24 February 2013</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thank you for
your affection!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the
Second Sunday of Lent, we have a particularly beautiful Gospel, that of the
Transfiguration of the Lord. Luke the Evangelist highlights in particular the
fact that Jesus was transfigured while he was praying. Jesus experienced a
profound relationship with the Father during a sort of spiritual retreat which
he made on a high mountain in the company of Peter, James and John, the three
disciples ever present at the moments of the Teacher’s divine manifestation (Lk
5:10; 8:51; 9:28). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Lord, who
had just foretold his death and Resurrection (9:22), granted the disciples a
foretaste of his glory. And the heavenly Father’s voice rang out in the
Transfiguration, as in the baptism: “this is my Son, my <st1:place w:st="on">Chosen</st1:place>;
listen to him!” (9:35). Moreover the presence of Moses and Elijah, who
represent the Law and the Prophets of the Old Covenant, is particularly
significant: the whole history of the Covenant is oriented to him, Christ, who
makes a new “exodus” (9:31), not toward the promised land, as in the time of
Moses, but toward Heaven. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Peter’s words “Master,
it is well that we are here” represent the impossible attempt to put this
mystical experience on hold. <st1:place w:st="on">St
Augustine</st1:place> commented: “[Peter]... on the mountain...
had Christ as the food of his soul. Why should he have to go down to return to
his hard work and sorrows while up there he was filled with sentiments of holy
love for God and which thus inspired in him a holy conduct? (<i>Sermon</i>
78,3: pl 38, 491).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In meditating on
this passage of the Gospel, we can learn a very important lesson from it: first
of all, the primacy of prayer, without which the entire commitment to the
apostolate and to charity is reduced to activism. In Lent we learn to give the
right time to prayer, both personal and of the community, which gives rest to
our spiritual life. Moreover, prayer does not mean isolating oneself from the
world and from its contradictions, as Peter wanted to do on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Mount</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Tabor</st1:placename></st1:place>;
rather, prayer leads back to the journey and to action. “The Christian life”, I
wrote in my Message for this Lent, “consists in continuously scaling the
mountain to meet God and then coming back down, bearing the love and strength
drawn from him, so as to serve our brothers and sisters with God’s own love” (no.
3).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, I hear this word of God as addressed to me in particular at this
moment of my life. Thank you! The Lord is calling me “to scale the mountain”,
to devote myself even more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean
abandoning the Church; indeed, if God asks me this it is precisely so that I
may continue to serve her with the same dedication and the same love with which
I have tried to do so until now, but in a way more suited to my age and
strength.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us invoke
the intercession of the Virgin Mary: may she help everyone always to follow the
Lord Jesus, in prayer and in active charity. </span></div>
</div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br />
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-82935692404973095882024-02-12T01:30:00.003-05:002024-02-12T01:30:00.142-05:00Reflections on the First Sunday of Lent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0335: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the First Sunday of Lent </b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the First Sunday of Lent, on 5 March 2006, 25 February 2007, 10 February 2008, 1 March 2009,
21 February 2010, 13 March 2011, 26 February
2012, and 17 February 2013. Here are the
texts of eight brief reflections delivered on these occasions prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Lent, 5 March 2006</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This past Wednesday
we began Lent, and today we are celebrating the first Sunday of this liturgical
season that encourages Christians to set out on a path of preparation for Easter.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the Gospel
reminds us that Jesus, after being baptized in the River Jordan and impelled by
the Holy Spirit who settled upon him and revealed him as the Christ, withdrew for
40 days into the Desert of Judea where he overcame the temptations of Satan (see
Mk 1: 12-13). Following their Teacher and Lord, Christians also enter the Lenten
desert in spirit in order to face with him the “fight against the spirit of evil”.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The image of the
desert is a very eloquent metaphor of the human condition. The Book of Exodus recounts
the experience of the People of Israel who, after leaving <st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region>, wandered through the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">desert</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Sinai</st1:placename></st1:place>
for 40 years before they reached the Promised Land. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">During that long
journey, the Jews experienced the full force and persistence of the tempter, who
urged them to lose trust in the Lord and to turn back; but at the same time, thanks
to Moses’ mediation, they learned to listen to God’s voice calling them to become
his holy People. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In meditating on
this biblical passage, we understand that to live life to the full in freedom we
must overcome the test that this freedom entails, that is, temptation. Only if he
is freed from the slavery of falsehood and sin can the human person, through the
obedience of faith that opens him to the truth, find the full meaning of his life
and attain peace, love and joy. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this very reason
Lent is a favourable time for a diligent revision of life through recollection,
prayer and penance. The Spiritual Exercises, which will begin this evening in accordance
with tradition and continue until next Saturday here in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Apostolic</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Palace</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
will help me and my collaborators in the Roman Curia to enter with greater awareness
into this characteristic Lenten atmosphere. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, as I ask you to accompany me with your prayers, I assure you of my remembrance
to the Lord, so that Lent may be for all Christians an opportunity for conversion
and a more courageous effort towards holiness. For this, let us invoke the Virgin
Mary’s motherly intercession.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Lent, 25 February 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year the Message
for Lent is inspired by a verse of John’s Gospel, which in turn refers to a messianic
prophecy of Zechariah: “<i>They shall look on him whom they have pierced” </i>(Jn
19: 37). The beloved disciple, present at Calvary together with Mary, the Mother
of Jesus, and some other women, was an eyewitness to the thrust of the lance that
passed through Christ’s side, causing blood and water to flow forth (see Jn 19:
31-34). That gesture by an anonymous Roman soldier, destined to be lost in oblivion,
remains impressed on the eyes and heart of the Apostle, who takes it up in his Gospel.
How many conversions have come about down the centuries thanks to the eloquent message
of love that the one who looks upon Jesus crucified receives! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore, we enter
into the Lenten Season with our “gaze” fixed on the side of Jesus. In the Encyclical
Letter <i>Deus Caritas Est </i>(see no. 12), I wished to emphasize that only by
looking at Jesus dead on the Cross for us can this fundamental truth be known and
contemplated: “God is love” (I Jn 4: 8, 16). “In this contemplation”, I wrote,
“the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move” (no.
12). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Contemplating the
Crucified One with the eyes of faith we can understand in depth what sin is, how
tragic is its gravity, and at the same time, how immense is the Lord’s power of
forgiveness and mercy. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">During these days
of Lent, let us not distance our hearts from this mystery of profound humanity and
lofty spirituality. Looking at Christ, we feel at the same time looked at by him.
He whom we have pierced with our faults never tires of pouring out upon the world
an inexhaustible torrent of merciful love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May humankind understand
that only from this font is it possible to draw the indispensable spiritual energy
to build that peace and happiness which every human being continually seeks. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us ask the Virgin
Mary, pierced in spirit next to the Cross of her Son, to obtain for us a solid faith.
Guiding us along the Lenten journey, may she help us to leave all that distances
us from listening to Christ and his saving Word. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To her I entrust
in particular the week of Spiritual Exercises that will begin this afternoon here
in the <st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place>,
and in which I will participate along with my collaborators of the Roman Curia.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, I ask you to accompany us with your prayer, which I willingly reciprocate
during the recollection of the retreat, invoking the divine power upon each of you,
your families and your communities.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Lent, 10 February 2008<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Last Wednesday, we
entered Lent with fasting and the Rite of Ashes. But what does “entering Lent” mean?
It means we enter a season of special commitment in the spiritual battle to oppose
the evil present in the world, in each one of us and around us. It means looking
evil in the face and being ready to fight its effects and especially its causes,
even its primary cause which is Satan. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It means not off-loading
the problem of evil on to others, on to society or on to God but rather recognizing
one’s own responsibility and assuming it with awareness. In this regard Jesus’ invitation
to each one of us Christians to take up our “cross” and follow him with humility
and trust (see Mt 16: 24) is particularly pressing. Although the “cross” may be
heavy it is not synonymous with misfortune, with disgrace, to be avoided on all
accounts; rather it is an opportunity to follow Jesus and thereby to acquire strength
in the fight against sin and evil. Thus, entering Lent means renewing the personal
and community decision to face evil together with Christ. The way of the Cross is
in fact the only way that leads to the victory of love over hatred, of sharing over
selfishness, of peace over violence. Seen in this light, Lent is truly an opportunity
for a strong ascetic and spiritual commitment based on Christ’s grace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year the beginning
of Lent providentially coincides with the 150th anniversary of the Apparitions in
<st1:place w:st="on">Lourdes</st1:place>. Four years
after the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Blessed Pius
IX, Mary appeared to St Bernadette Soubirous for the first time on 11 February 1858
in the Grotto of Massabielle. Another three Apparitions accompanied by extraordinary
events followed in succession and finally the Blessed Virgin took her leave of the
young seer, in the local dialect, by disclosing to her: “I am the Immaculate Conception”.
The message that Our Lady continues to spread in Lourdes recalls the words that
Jesus spoke at the very beginning of his public mission, which we hear several times
during these days of Lent: “Repent, and believe
in the Gospel”, pray and do penance. Let us accept Mary’s invitation which echoes
Christ’s and ask her to obtain for us that we may “enter” Lent with faith, to live
this season of grace with inner joy and generous commitment. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us also entrust
to the Virgin the sick and all who take loving care of them. Indeed, the World Day
of the Sick will be celebrated tomorrow, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. I
wholeheartedly greet the pilgrims who will be gathering in St Peter’s Basilica,
led by Cardinal Lozano Barragán, President of the Pontifical Council for Health
Pastoral Care. Unfortunately I shall not be able to meet them because this evening
I will begin Spiritual Exercises, but in silence and recollection I will pray for
them and for all the needs of the Church and of the world. To all who desire to
remember me to the Lord, I offer my sincere thanks from this moment.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Lent, 1 March 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today is the First
Sunday of Lent and the Gospel, in the sober and concise style of St Mark, introduces
us into the atmosphere of this liturgical season: “The Spirit drove Jesus out into
the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan” (Mk
1: 12). In the Holy Land the Judean desert, which lies to the west of the River
Jordan and the Oasis of Jericho, rises over stony valleys to reach an altitude of
about 1,000 metres at <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>.
After receiving Baptism from John, Jesus entered that lonely place, led by the Holy
Spirit himself who had settled upon him, consecrating him and revealing him as the
Son of God. In the desert, a place of trial as the experience of the People of Israel
shows, the dramatic reality of the <i>kenosis, </i>the self-emptying of Christ who
had stripped himself of the form of God (see Phil 2: 6-7), appears most vividly.
He who never sinned and cannot sin submits to being tested and can therefore sympathize
with our weaknesses (see Heb 4: 15). He lets himself be tempted by Satan, the enemy,
who has been opposed to God’s saving plan for humankind from the outset. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the succinct account,
angels, luminous and mysterious figures, appear almost fleetingly before this dark,
tenebrous figure who dares to tempt the Lord. Angels, the Gospel says, “ministered”
to Jesus (Mk 1: 13); they are the antithesis of Satan. “Angel” means “messenger”.
Throughout the Old Testament we find these figures who help and guide human beings
on God’s behalf. It suffices to remember the Book of Tobit, in which the figure
of the Angel Raphael appears and assists the protagonist in every vicissitude. The
reassuring presence of the angel of the Lord accompanies the People of Israel in
all of their experiences, good and bad. On the threshold of the New Testament, Gabriel
is dispatched to announce to Zechariah and to Mary the joyful events at the beginning
of our salvation; and an angel we are not told his name warns Joseph, guiding him
in that moment of uncertainty. A choir of angels brings the shepherds the good news
of the Saviour’s birth; and it was also to be angels who announced the joyful news
of his Resurrection to the women. At the end of time, angels will accompany Jesus
when he comes in his glory (see Mt 25: 31). Angels minister to Jesus, who is certainly
superior to them. This dignity of his is clearly, if discreetly, proclaimed here
in the Gospel. Indeed, even in the situation of extreme poverty and humility, when
he is tempted by Satan he remains the Son of God, the Messiah, the Lord. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, we would be removing an important part of the Gospel were we to leave out
these beings sent by God, who announce and are a sign of his presence among us.
Let us invoke them frequently, so that they may sustain us in our commitment to
follow Jesus to the point of identifying with him. Let us ask them, especially today,
to watch over me and my collaborators in the Roman Curia; this afternoon we shall
be beginning a week of Spiritual Exercises, as we do every year. Mary, Queen of
Angels, pray for us!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Lent, 21 February 2010 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Last Wednesday, with
the penitential Rite of Ashes we began Lent, a Season of spiritual renewal in preparation
for the annual celebration of Easter. But what does it mean to begin the Lenten
journey? The Gospel for this First Sunday of Lent illustrates it for us with the
account of the temptations of Jesus in the desert. The Evangelist St Luke recounts
that after receiving Baptism from John, “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned
from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit for forty days in the wilderness, tempted
by the devil” (Lk 4: 1). There is a clear insistence on the fact that the temptations
were not just an incident on the way but rather the consequence of Jesus’ decision
to carry out the mission entrusted to him by the Father to live to the very end
his reality as the beloved Son who trusts totally in him. Christ came into the world
to set us free from sin and from the ambiguous fascination of planning our life
leaving God out. He did not do so with loud proclamations but rather by fighting
the Tempter himself, until the Cross. This example applies to everyone: the world
is improved by starting with oneself, changing, with God’s grace, everything in
one’s life that is not going well. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first of the
three temptations to which Satan subjects Jesus originates in hunger, that is, in
material need: “If you are the Son of God command this stone to become bread”. But
Jesus responds with Sacred Scripture: “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Lk 4:
3-4; see Dt 8: 3). Then the Devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth and
says: all this will be yours if, prostrating yourself, you worship me. This is the
deception of power, and an attempt which Jesus was to unmask and reject: “You shall
worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve” (see Lk 4: 5-8; Dt 6: 13).
Not adoration of power, but only of God, of truth and love. Lastly, the Tempter
suggests to Jesus that he work a spectacular miracle: that he throw himself down
from the pinnacle of the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
and let the angels save him so that everyone might believe in him. However, Jesus
answers that God must never be put to the test (see Dt 6: 16). We cannot “do an
experiment” in which God has to respond and show that he is God: we must believe
in him! We should not make God “the substance” of “our experiment”. Still referring
to Sacred Scripture, Jesus puts the only authentic criterion obedience, conformity
to God’s will, which is the foundation of our existence before human criteria. This
is also a fundamental teaching for us: if we carry God’s word in our minds and hearts,
if it enters our lives, if we trust in God, we can reject every kind of deception
by the Tempter. Furthermore, Christ’s image as the new Adam emerges clearly from
this account. He is the Son of God, humble and obedient to the Father, unlike Adam
and Eve who in the Garden of Eden succumbed to the seduction of the evil spirit,
of being immortal without God. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lent is like a long
“retreat” in which to re-enter oneself and listen to God’s voice in order to overcome
the temptations of the Evil One and to find the truth of our existence. It is a
time, we may say, of spiritual “training” in order to live alongside Jesus not with
pride and presumption but rather by using the weapons of faith: namely prayer, listening
to the Word of God and penance. In this way we shall succeed in celebrating Easter
in truth, ready to renew our baptismal promises. May the Virgin Mary help us so
that, guided by the Holy Spirit, we may live joyfully and fruitfully this Season
of grace. May she intercede in particular for me and for my collaborators of the
Roman Curia, who begin the Spiritual Exercises this evening.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Lent, 13 March 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is the First
Sunday of Lent, the liturgical Season of 40 days which constitutes a spiritual journey
in the Church of preparation for Easter. Essentially it is a matter of following
Jesus who is walking with determination towards the Cross, the culmination of his
mission of salvation. If we ask ourselves: “Why Lent? Why the Cross?”, the answer
in radical terms is this: because evil exists, indeed sin, which according to the
Scriptures is the profound cause of all evil. However this affirmation is far from
being taken for granted and the very word “sin” is not accepted by many because
it implies a religious vision of the world and of the human being. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact it is true:
if God is eliminated from the world’s horizon, one cannot speak of sin. As when
the sun is hidden, shadows disappear. Shadows only appear if the sun is out; hence
the eclipse of God necessarily entails the eclipse of sin. Therefore the sense of
sin — which is something different from the “sense of guilt” as psychology understands
it — is acquired by rediscovering the sense of God. This is expressed by the <i>Miserere
</i>Psalm, attributed to King David on the occasion of his double sin of adultery
and homicide: “Against you”, David says, addressing God, “against you only have
I sinned” (Ps 51(50):6).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the face of moral
evil God’s attitude is to oppose sin and to save the sinner. God does not tolerate
evil because he is Love, Justice and Fidelity; and for this very reason he does
not desire the death of the sinner but wants the sinner to convert and to live.
To save humanity God intervenes: we see him throughout the history of the Jewish
people, beginning with the liberation from <st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place>. God is determined to deliver
his children from slavery in order to lead them to freedom. And the most serious
and profound slavery is precisely that of sin. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason God
sent his Son into the world: to set men and women free from the domination of Satan,
“the origin and cause of every sin”. God sent him in our mortal flesh so that he
might become a victim of expiation, dying for us on the Cross. The Devil opposed
this definitive and universal plan of salvation with all his might, as is shown
in particular in the Gospel of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness which is
proclaimed every year on the First Sunday of Lent. In fact, entering this liturgical
season means continuously taking Christ’s side against sin, facing — both as individuals
and as Church — the spiritual fight against the spirit of evil each time (<i>Ash
Wednesday, Opening Prayer</i>).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us therefore
invoke the maternal help of Mary Most Holy for the Lenten journey that has just
begun, so that it may be rich in fruits of conversion. I ask for special remembrance
in prayer for myself and for my co-workers in the Roman Curia, as we shall begin
the week of Spiritual Exercises this evening.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St. Peter’s Square, Sunday, 26 February 2012</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this
First Sunday of Lent we meet Jesus who, after receiving Baptism from John the Baptist
in the River Jordan (see Mk 1:9), is subjected to temptation in the wilderness (see
Mk 1:12-13). St Mark’s concise narrative lacks the details we read in the other
two Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The wilderness referred to has various meanings.
It can indicate the state of abandonment and loneliness, the “place” of human weakness,
devoid of support and safety, where temptation grows stronger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However,
it can also indicate a place of refuge and shelter — as it was for the People of
Israel who had escaped from slavery in Egypt — where it is possible to experience
God’s presence in a special way. Jesus “was in the wilderness forty days, tempted
by Satan” (Mk 1:13). St Leo the Great comments that “The Lord wanted to suffer the
attack of the tempter in order to defend us with his help and to instruct us with
his example (<i>Tractatus </i>XXXIX,<i>3 De ieiunio quadragesimae</i>: CCL 138/A,
Turnholti 1973, 214-215).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What can
this episode teach us? As we read in the book <i>The Imitation of Christ</i>, “There
is no man wholly free from temptations so long as he lives... but by endurance and
true humility we are made stronger than all our enemies” (<i>Liber </i>I, C. XIII,
Vatican City 1982, 37), endurance and the humility of following the Lord every day,
learning not to build our lives outside him or as though he did not exist, but in
him and with him, for he is the source of true life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The temptation
to remove God, to arrange things within us and in the world by ourselves, relying
on our own abilities, has always been present in human history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus proclaims
that “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15), he announces
that in him something new happens: God turns to the human being in an unexpected
way, with a unique, tangible closeness, full of love; God is incarnate and enters
the human world to take sin upon himself, to conquer evil and usher men and women
into the world of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However,
this proclamation is accompanied by the request to measure up to such a great gift.
In fact Jesus adds: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). It is an invitation
to have faith in God and to convert all our actions and thoughts to goodness, every
day. The season of Lent is a favourable moment for renewing and reinforcing our
relationship with God, through daily prayer, acts of penance and works of brotherly
charity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us fervently
beg Mary Most Holy to accompany us on our Lenten journey with her protection and
to help us to impress the words of Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our lives so
as to convert to him. In addition, I entrust to your prayers the week of Spiritual
Exercises which I shall begin this evening with my co-workers in the Roman Curia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 17 February 2013</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With the traditional
Rite of Ashes last Wednesday we entered Lent, a season of conversion and penance
in preparation for Easter. The Church who is mother and teacher calls all her members
to renew themselves in spirit and to turn once again with determination to God,
renouncing pride and selfishness, to live in love. This Year of Faith Lent is a
favourable time for rediscovering faith in God as the basic criterion for our life
and for the life of the Church. This always means a struggle, a spiritual combat,
because the spirit of evil is naturally opposed to our sanctification and seeks
to make us stray from God’s path. For this reason the Gospel of Jesus’ temptations
in the wilderness is proclaimed every year on the First Sunday of Lent.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, after receiving
the “investiture” as Messiah “Annointed” with the Holy Spirit at the baptism in
the Jordan Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit himself to be tempted
by the devil. At the beginning of his public ministry, Jesus had to unmask himself
and reject the false images of the Messiah which the tempter was suggesting to him.
Yet these temptations are also false images of man that threaten to ensnare our
conscience, in the guise of suitable, effective and even good proposals. The Evangelists
Matthew and Luke present three temptations of Jesus that differ slightly, but only
in their order. Their essential core is always the exploitation of God for our own
interests, giving preference to success or to material possessions. The tempter
is cunning. He does not directly impel us towards evil but rather towards a false
good, making us believe that the true realities are power and everything that satisfies
our primary needs. In this way God becomes secondary, he is reduced to a means;
in short, he becomes unreal, he no longer counts, he disappears. Ultimately, in
temptation faith is at stake because God is at stake. At the crucial moments in
life but also, as can be seen at every moment, we stand at a crossroads: do we want
to follow our own ego or God? Our individual interests or the true Good, to follow
what is <i>really </i>good?<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As the Fathers of
the Church teach us, the temptations are part of Jesus’ “descent” into our human
condition, into the abyss of sin and its consequences; a “descent” that Jesus made
to the end, even to death on the Cross and to the hell of extreme remoteness from
God. In this way he is the hand that God stretches out to man, to the lost sheep,
to bring him back to safety. As <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>
teaches, Jesus took the temptations from us to give us his victory (see <i>Enarr.
in Psalmos</i>, 60, 3: pl 36, 724).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore let us
not be afraid either of facing the battle against the spirit of evil: the important
thing is to fight it with him, with Christ, the Conqueror. And to be with him let
us turn to his Mother, Mary; let us call on her with filial trust in the hour of
trial and she will make us feel the powerful presence of her divine Son, so that
we can reject temptations with Christ’s word and thus put God back at the centre
of our life. </span></div>
</div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACTUS-ESSENDI-PRINCIPLE-THOMAS-AQUINAS/dp/0578522179" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Actus essendi and the Habit of the First Principle in Thomas Aquinas</span></a></i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;"> </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-75767196975298992112024-02-05T01:30:00.004-05:002024-02-05T01:30:00.143-05:00Reflections on the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0329: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the Six</b><b>th </b><b>Sunday of Ordinary Time</b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On six occasions
during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 12 February 2006, 11 February 2007,
15 February 2009, 14 February 2010, 13 February 2011, and 12 February 2012. Here are the texts of eight brief reflections
delivered on these occasions prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 12 February 2006 </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yesterday, 11 February,
the liturgical Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, we celebrated World Day of the Sick.
This year its most important events took place in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Adelaide</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
and included an international Congress on the ever pressing topic of mental health.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Illness is a typical
feature of the human condition, to the point that it can become a realistic metaphor
of it, as <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>
expresses clearly in his prayer: “<i>Have
mercy on me, Lord! See: I do not hide my
wounds from you. You are the doctor, I am the sick person; you are merciful, I am
wretched” (Conf. </i>X, 39). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christ is the true
“Doctor” of humanity whom the heavenly Father sent into the world to heal man, marked
in body and mind by sin and its consequences. On these very Sundays, Mark’s Gospel
presents Jesus to us at the beginning of his public ministry, totally involved with
preaching and healing the sick in the villages of <st1:place w:st="on">Galilee</st1:place>.
The countless miraculous signs that he worked for the sick confirmed the “Good News”
of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of
<st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Gospel tells
of the healing of a leper and expresses most effectively the intensity of the relationship
between God and man, summed up in a wonderful dialogue: “If you will, you can make me clean”, the leper
says. “I do will it; be clean”, Jesus answers him, touching him with his hand and
healing him of leprosy (see <i>Mk</i> 1: 40-42). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We see here in a
concise form the entire history of salvation:
that gesture of Jesus who stretches out his hand and touches the body covered
with sores of the person who calls upon him, perfectly manifesting God’s desire
to heal his fallen creature, restoring to him “life in abundance” (see <i>Jn</i>
10: 10), eternal life, full and happy. Christ is “the hand” of God stretched out
to humanity, to rescue it from the quicksands of illness and death so that it can
stand on the firm rock of divine love (see <i>Ps</i> 39: 2-3). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, I would like
to entrust all the sick to Mary, “<i>Salus infirmorum</i>”, especially sick persons
in every part of the world who, in addition to the lack of health, are also suffering
loneliness, poverty and marginalization. I also address a special thought to those
in hospitals and every other health centre who care for the sick and spare no effort
for their recovery. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the Blessed Virgin
help each one find comfort in body and spirit through satisfactory health-care assistance
and fraternal charity, expressed by means of practical and supportive attention.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 11 February 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the Church
recalls the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to St Bernadette, which took place
on 11 February 1858 in the grotto of Massabielle, near <st1:place w:st="on">Lourdes</st1:place>. It was a miraculous event which made
that town, located in the French Pyrenees, a world centre of pilgrimages and intense
Marian spirituality. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In that place, now
almost 150 years ago, the Blessed Mother’s call to prayer and penance resounds strongly,
almost as a permanent echo of Jesus’ invitation which inaugurated his preaching
in Galilee: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and
believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1: 15). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover, that Shrine
has become the goal of numerous sick pilgrims who are encouraged by listening to
Mary Most Holy to accept their sufferings and offer them for the world’s salvation,
uniting them to those of Christ Crucified. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Precisely because
of the bond that exists between <st1:place w:st="on">Lourdes</st1:place>
and suffering humanity, 15 years ago our beloved John Paul II willed that, on the
occasion of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the World Day of the Sick would also
be celebrated. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year the heart
of this celebration is in the city of <st1:city w:st="on">Seoul</st1:city>, <st1:place w:st="on">South Korea</st1:place>,
where I sent as my representative Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, President of
the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care. I address a cordial greeting to
him and to all those gathered there. I would like to extend a greeting to the health-care
workers of the entire world, knowing well of their important service to the sick
persons in our society. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Above all, I would
like to express my spiritual closeness and affection to our sick brothers and sisters,
with a particular remembrance for those struck by graver illnesses and pain: to them, our attention is dedicated in a special
way on this Day. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is necessary to
maintain the development of palliative care that offers an integral assistance and
furnishes the incurably ill with that human support and spiritual guide they greatly
need. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This afternoon, in
St Peter’s Basilica, many sick will gather around Cardinal Camillo Ruini, who will
preside at the Eucharistic celebration. At the end of Holy Mass, I will have the
joy, as last year, to spend some time with them, reliving the spiritual climate
that I experienced at the Grotto of Massabielle. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would now like
to entrust to the maternal protection of the Immaculate Virgin, with the prayer
of the Angelus, the sick and suffering in body and spirit of the entire world.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>BENEDICT
XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 15 February 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">During these Sundays
the Evangelist Mark has offered for our reflection a sequence of various miraculous
cures. Today he presents to us a very special one, the healing of a leper (Mk 1:
40-45) who approached Jesus and, kneeling down begs him: “If you wish, you can make
me clean”. Jesus, moved with pity, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said
to him: “I do will it. Be made clean!” And the man was instantly healed. Jesus asked
him to say nothing about the event but to present himself to the priests to offer
the sacrifice prescribed by the Mosaic law. However, the leper who had been healed
was not able to keep quiet about it and instead proclaimed what had happened to
him to all so that the Evangelist recounts the sick flocked to Jesus in even greater
numbers, to the extent of forcing him to remain outside the towns to avoid being
besieged by people.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus said to the
leper: “Be made clean!” According to the ancient Jewish law (see Lv 13-14), leprosy
was not only considered a disease but also the most serious form of ritual “impurity”.
It was the priests’ duty to diagnose it and to declare unclean the sick person who
had to be isolated from the community and live outside the populated area until
his eventual and well-certified recovery. Thus, leprosy constituted a kind of religious
and civil death, and its healing a kind of resurrection. It is possible to see leprosy
as a symbol of sin, which is the true impurity of heart that can distance us from
God. It is not in fact the physical disease of leprosy that separates us from God
as the ancient norms supposed but sin, spiritual and moral evil. This is why the
Psalmist exclaims: “Blessed is he whose fault is taken away, / whose sin is covered”,
and then says, addressing God: “I acknowledged my sin to you, / my guilt I covered
not. / I said, “I confess my faults to the Lord’ / and you took away the guilt of
my sin” (32[31]: 1, 5). The sins that we commit distance us from God and, if we
do not humbly confess them, trusting in divine mercy, they will finally bring about
the death of the soul. This miracle thus has a strong symbolic value. Jesus, as
Isaiah had prophesied, is the Servant of the Lord who “has borne our griefs / and
carried our sorrows” (Is 53: 4). In his Passion he will become as a leper, made
impure by our sins, separated from God: he will do all this out of love, to obtain
for us reconciliation, forgiveness and salvation. In the Sacrament of Penance, the
Crucified and Risen Christ purifies us through his ministers with his infinite mercy,
restores us to communion with the heavenly Father and with our brothers and makes
us a gift of his love, his joy and his peace.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us invoke the Virgin Mary whom God preserved from every stain of sin
so that she may help us to avoid sin and to have frequent recourse to the Sacrament
of Confession, the sacrament of forgiveness, whose value and importance for our
Christian life must be rediscovered today.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 14 February 2010 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgical year
is a great journey of faith made by the Church, always preceded by her Mother the
Virgin Mary. This year, during the Sundays in Ordinary Time, the path is marked
by readings from Luke’s Gospel. Today it brings us to “a level place” (Lk 6: 17),
where Jesus stops with the Twelve and where a crowd of other disciples and people
who had come from everywhere gather to listen to him. This is the setting for the
proclamation of the “Beatitudes” (Lk 6: 20-26; see Mt 5: 1-12). Jesus, lifting up
his eyes to his disciples, says: “Blessed are you poor.... Blessed are you that
hunger.... Blessed are you that weep.... Blessed are you when men hate you... when
they cast out your name” on account of me. Why does he proclaim them blessed? Because
God’s justice will ensure that they will be satisfied, gladdened, recompensed for
every false accusation in a word, because from this moment he will welcome them
into his Kingdom. The Beatitudes are based on the fact that a divine justice exists,
which exalts those who have been wrongly humbled and humbles those who have exalted
themselves (see Lk 14: 11). In fact, the Evangelist Luke, after repeating four times
“blessed are you”, adds four admonitions: “Woe to you that are rich.... Woe to you
that are full now.... Woe to you that laugh now” and: “Woe to you, when all men
speak well of you”, because as Jesus affirms, the circumstances will be reversed;
the last will be first, and the first will be last (see Lk 13: 30). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This justice and
this Beatitude are realized in the “<st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename>”, or the “<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>”,
which will be fulfilled at the end of times but which is already present in history.
Wherever the poor are comforted and admitted to the banquet of life, there God’s
justice is already manifest. This is the work that the Lord’s disciples are called
to carry out also in today’s society. I am thinking of the Hostel run by the Roman
<i>Caritas</i> at Termini Station, which I visited this morning. I warmly encourage
all who work in that praiseworthy institution and those who, in every part of the
world, volunteer themselves generously to similar works of justice and of love.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year I dedicated
my <i>Message for Lent</i> which will begin this Wednesday, Ash Wednesday to the
theme of justice. Today I would therefore like to deliver it, in spirit, to all
of you, inviting you to read and meditate on it. Christ’s Gospel responds positively
to Man’s thirst for justice, but in an unexpected and surprising way. He does not
propose a social or political revolution but rather one of love, which he has already
brought about with his Cross and his Resurrection. It is on these that are founded
the Beatitudes which present a new horizon of justice, unveiled at Easter, thanks
to which we can become just and build a better world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, let
us turn now to the Virgin Mary. All the generations call her “blessed”, because
she believed the good news that the Lord proclaimed (see Lk 1: 45-48). Let us be
guided by her on our Lenten journey, to be freed from the illusion of self-sufficiency,
to recognize that we need God and his mercy, and thus to enter into his Kingdom
of justice, of love and of peace.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 13 February 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Sunday’s
Liturgy we continue to read Jesus’ so-called “Sermon on the Mount”. It is contained
in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Matthew’s Gospel. After the Beatitudes, which are the
programme of his life, Jesus proclaims the new Law, his <i>Torah, </i>as our Jewish
brothers and sisters call it. In fact, on his coming, the Messiah was also to bring
the definitive revelation of the Law and this is precisely what Jesus declares:
“Think not that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have come not
to abolish them but to fulfill them”.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And addressing his
disciples, he adds: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees,
you will never enter the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place>” (Mt 5:17, 20).
But what do this “fullness” of Christ’s Law and this “superior” justice that he
demands consist in?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus explains it
with a series of antitheses between the old commandments and his new way of propounding
them. He begins each time: “You have heard that it was said to the men of old…”,
and then he asserts: “but I say to you”…. For example, “You have heard that it was
said to the men of old, ‘<i>you shall not kill</i>; and whoever kills shall be liable
to judgment’. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall
be liable to judgment” (Mt 5:21-22). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And he does this
six times. This manner of speaking made a great impression on the people, who were
shocked, because those words: “I say to you” were equivalent to claiming the actual
authority of God, the source of the Law. The newness of Jesus consists essentially
in the fact that he himself “fulfils” the commandments with the love of God, with
the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within him. And we, through faith in Christ,
can open ourselves to the action of the Holy Spirit who makes us capable of living
divine love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So it is that every
precept becomes true as a requirement of love, and all join in a single commandment:
love God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself. “Love is the fulfilling
of the Law”, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
writes (Rom 13:10). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With regard to this
requirement, for example, the pitiful case of the four Rom children, who died last
week when their shack caught fire on the outskirts of this city, forces us to ask
ourselves whether a more supportive and fraternal society, more consistent in love,
in other words more Christian, might not have been able to prevent this tragic event.
And this question applies in the case of so many other grievous events, more or
less known, which occur daily in our cities and our towns.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, perhaps
it is not by chance that Jesus’ first great preaching is called the “Sermon on the
Mount”! Moses went up <st1:place w:st="on">Mount Sinai</st1:place> to receive the
Law of God and bring it to the Chosen People. Jesus is the Son of God himself who
came down from Heaven to lead us to Heaven, to God’s height, on the way of love.
Indeed, he himself is this way; all we have to do in order to put into practice
God’s will and to enter his Kingdom, eternal life, is to follow him.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Only one creature
has already scaled the mountain peak: the Virgin Mary. Through her union with Jesus,
her righteousness was perfect: for this reason we invoke her as <i>Speculum iustitiae.
</i>Let us entrust ourselves to her so that she may guide our steps in fidelity
to Christ’s Law.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 12 February 2012</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Last
Sunday we saw that in his public life Jesus healed many sick people, revealing that
God wants life for human beings, life in its fullness. This Sunday’s Gospel (Mk
1:40-45) shows us Jesus in touch with a form of disease then considered the most
serious, so serious as to make the person infected with it “unclean” and to exclude
that person from social relations: we are speaking of leprosy. Special legislation
(see Lev 13-14) allocated to priests the task of declaring a person to be “leprous”,
that is, unclean; and it was likewise the priest’s task to note the person’s recovery
and to readmit him or her, when restored to health, to normal life.</span></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">While
Jesus was going about the villages of <st1:place w:st="on">Galilee</st1:place> preaching,
a leper came up and besought him: “If you will, you can make me clean”. Jesus did
not shun contact with that man; on the contrary, impelled by deep participation
in his condition, he stretched out his hand and touched the man — overcoming the
legal prohibition — and said to him: “I will; be clean”. </span></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">That
gesture and those words of Christ contain the whole history of salvation, they embody
God’s will to heal us, to purify us from the illness that disfigures us and ruins
our relationships. In that contact between Jesus’ hand and the leper, every barrier
between God and human impurity, between the Sacred and its opposite, was pulled
down. This was not of course in order to deny evil and its negative power, but to
demonstrate that God’s love is stronger than all illness, even in its most contagious
and horrible form. Jesus took upon himself our infirmities, he made himself “a leper”
so that we might be cleansed.</span></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A splendid
existential comment on this Gospel is the well known experience of St Francis of
<st1:place w:st="on">Assisi</st1:place>, which he
sums up at the beginning of his Testament: “This is how the Lord gave me, Brother
Francis, the power to do penance. When I was in sin the sight of lepers was too
bitter for me. And the Lord himself led me among them, and I pitied and helped them.
And when I left them I discovered that what had seemed bitter to me was changed
into sweetness in my soul and body. And shortly afterward I rose and left the world”
(FF, 110). </span></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In those
lepers whom Francis met when he was still “in sin” — as he says — Jesus was present;
and when Francis approached one of them, overcoming his own disgust, he embraced
him, Jesus healed him from his “leprosy”, namely, from his pride, and converted
him to love of God. This is Christ’s victory which is our profound healing and our
resurrection to new life!</span></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, let us turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary,
whom we celebrated yesterday commemorating her Apparitions in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Lourdes</st1:city></st1:place>. Our Lady gave St Bernadette an ever timely
message: the invitation to prayer and penance. Through his Mother it is always Jesus
who comes to meet us to set us free from every sickness of body and of soul. Let
us allow ourselves to be touched and cleansed by him and to treat our brethren with
compassion! </span></div>
</div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-67485582295075642232024-01-29T01:30:00.004-05:002024-01-29T01:30:00.138-05:00Reflections on the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0328: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Fifth </b><b>Sunday of Ordinary Time</b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On seven
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 5 February 2006, 4 February 2007,
8 February 2009, 7 February 2010, 6 February 2011, 5 February 2012, and 10 February
2013. Here are the texts of eight brief
reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i> and one homily delivered
on these occasions.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 5 February 2006 </span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Pro-Life Day is being
celebrated today throughout <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>
and is a precious opportunity for prayer and reflection on the themes of the defence
and promotion of human life, especially when it is found to be in difficult conditions.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Many of the lay faithful
who work in this area are present in St Peter’s Square, some of whom are involved
in the Pro-Life Movement. I address my cordial greeting to them, with a special
thought for Cardinal Camillo Ruini who has accompanied them, and I once again express
my appreciation for the work they do to ensure that life is always received as a
gift and accompanied with love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As I invite you to
meditate on the Message of the Italian Bishops, which has as its theme<b><i> </i></b><i>“Respecting
life</i>,” I think back to beloved
Pope John Paul II, who paid constant attention to these problems. I would like in
particular to recall the Encyclical <i>Evangelium Vitae, </i>which he published
in 1995 and which represents an authentic milestone in the Church’s Magisterium
on a most timely and crucial issue. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Inserting the moral
aspects in a vast spiritual and cultural framework, my venerable Predecessor frequently
reasserted that human life has a value of paramount importance which demands recognition,
and the Gospel asks that it always be respected. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the light of my
recent Encyclical Letter on Christian love, I would like to underline the importance
of the <i>service of love </i>for the support and promotion of human life. In this
regard, even before active initiatives, it is fundamental to foster a correct <i>attitude
towards the other: </i>the culture of life
is in fact based on attention to others without any forms of exclusion or discrimination.
<i>Every </i>human life, as such, deserves and demands always to be defended and
promoted. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We are well aware
that all too often this truth risks being opposed by the hedonism widespread in
the so-called society of well-being: life
is exalted as long as it is pleasurable, but there is a tendency to no longer respect
it as soon as it is sick or handicapped. Based on deep love for every person it
is possible instead to put into practice effective forms of service to life: to newborn life and to life marked by marginalization
or suffering, especially in its terminal phase. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin Mary received
with perfect love the Word of life, Jesus Christ, who came into the world so that
human beings might “have life... abundantly” (<i>Jn</i> 10: 10). Let us entrust
to her expectant mothers, families, health-care workers and volunteers who are committed
in so many ways to the service of life. Let us pray in particular for people in
the most difficult situations.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOLY
MASS IN THE PARISH OF SAINT ANNE IN <st1:country-region w:st="on">VATICAN</st1:country-region></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Parish
of Saint Anne, Sunday, 5 February 2006
</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel [passage]
we have just listened to begins with a very nice, beautiful episode but is also
full of meaning. The Lord went to the house of Simon Peter and Andrew and found
Peter’s mother-in-law sick with a fever. He took her by the hand and raised her,
the fever left her, and she served them. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus’ entire mission
is symbolically portrayed in this episode. Jesus, coming from the Father, visited
peoples’ homes on our earth and found a humanity that was sick, sick with fever,
the fever of ideologies, idolatry, forgetfulness of God. The Lord gives us his hand,
lifts us up and heals us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And he does so in
all ages; he takes us by the hand with his Word, thereby dispelling the fog of ideologies
and forms of idolatry. He takes us by the hand in the sacraments, he heals us from
the fever of our passions and sins through absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
He gives us the possibility to raise ourselves, to stand before God and before men
and women. And precisely with this content of the Sunday liturgy, the Lord comes
to meet us, he takes us by the hand, raises us and heals us ever anew with the gift
of his words, the gift of himself. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But the second part
of this episode is also important. This woman who has just been healed, the Gospel
says, begins to serve them. She sets to work immediately to be available to others,
and thus becomes a representative of so many good women, mothers, grandmothers,
women in various professions, who are available, who get up and serve and are the
soul of the family, the soul of the parish. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And here, on looking
at the painting above the altar, we see that they do not only perform external services;
St Anne is introducing her great daughter, Our Lady, to the Sacred Scriptures, to
the hope of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>,
for which she was precisely to be the place of its fulfilment. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover, women were
the first messengers of the word of God in the Gospel, they were true evangelists.
And it seems to me that this Gospel, with this apparently very modest episode, is
offering us in this very Church of St Anne an opportunity to say a heartfelt “thank
you” to all the women who care for the parish, the women who serve in all its dimensions,
who help us to know the Word of God ever anew, not only with our minds but also
with our hearts. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us return to
the Gospel: Jesus slept at Peter’s house,
but he rose before dawn while it was still dark and went out to find a deserted
place to pray. And here the true centre of the mystery of Jesus appears. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus was conversing
with the Father and raised his human spirit in communion with the Person of the
Son, so that the humanity of the Son, united to him, might speak in the Trinitarian
dialogue with the Father; and thus, he also made true prayer possible for us. In
the liturgy Jesus prays with us, we pray with Jesus, and so we enter into real contact
with God, we enter into the mystery of eternal love of the Most Holy Trinity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus speaks to the
Father: this is the source and centre of
all Jesus’ activities; we see his preaching, his cures, his miracles and lastly
the Passion, and they spring from this centre of his being with the Father. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And in this way this
Gospel teaches us that the centre of our faith and our lives is indeed the primacy
of God. Whenever God is not there, the human being is no longer respected either.
Only if God’s splendor shines on the human face, is the human image of God protected
by a dignity which subsequently no one must violate. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The primacy of God.
Let us see how the first three requests in the “Our Father” refer precisely to this
primacy of God: that God’s Name be sanctified,
that respect for the divine mystery be alive and enliven the whole of our lives;
that “may God’s Kingdom come” and “may [his] will be done” are two sides of the
same coin; where God’s will is done Heaven already exists, a little bit of Heaven
also begins on earth, and where God’s will is done the Kingdom of God is present.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Since the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename>
is not a series of things, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> is the presence of
God, the person’s union with God. It is to this destination that Jesus wants to
guide us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The centre of his
proclamation is the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, that is, God as the
source and centre of our lives, and he tells us: God alone is the redemption of man. And we can
see in the history of the last century that in the States where God was abolished,
not only was the economy destroyed, but above all the souls. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moral destruction
and the destruction of human dignity are fundamental forms of destruction, and renewal
can only come from God’s return, that is, from recognition of God’s centrality.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A Bishop from the
<st1:place w:st="on">Congo</st1:place>
on an <i>ad limina </i>visit in these days said to me: Europeans generously give us many things for development,
but there is a hesitation in helping us in pastoral ministry; it seems as though
they considered pastoral ministry useless, that only technological and material
development were important. But the contrary is true, he said; where the Word of
God does not exist, development fails to function and has no positive results. Only
if God’s Word is put first, only if man is reconciled with God, can material things
also go smoothly. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The continuation
of the Gospel itself powerfully confirms this. The Apostles said to Jesus: come back, everyone is looking for you. And he
said no, I must go on to the next towns that I may proclaim God and cast out demons,
the forces of evil; for that is why I came. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus came - the
Greek text says, “I came out from the Father” - not to bring us the comforts of
life but to bring the fundamental condition of our dignity, to bring us the proclamation
of God, the presence of God, and thus to overcome the forces of evil. He indicated
this priority with great clarity: I did not
come to heal - I also do this, but as a sign -, I came to reconcile you with God.
God is our Creator, God has given us life, our dignity: and it is above all to him that we must turn.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And as Fr Gioele
has said, today, the Church in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>
is celebrating Pro-Life Day. In their Message, the Italian Bishops have wanted to
recall the priority duty to “respect life”, since it is a “unavailable” good. Man
is not the master of life; rather, he is its custodian and steward, and under God’s
primacy, this priority of administrating and preserving human life, created by God,
comes automatically into being. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This truth that man
is the custodian and steward of life is a clearly defined point of natural law,
fully illumined by biblical revelation. It appears today as a “sign of contradiction”
in comparison with the prevalent mindset. Indeed, we note that although there is
broad convergence generally on the value of life, yet when this point is reached,
that is, the point of the “availability” or “unavailability” to life, the two mindsets
are irreconcilably opposed. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In simpler terms,
we might say: one of the two mindsets maintains
that human life is in human hands, whereas the other recognizes that it is in God’s
hands. Modern culture has legitimately emphasized the autonomy of the human person
and earthly realities, thereby developing a perspective dear to Christianity, the
Incarnation of God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, as the Second
Vatican Council clearly asserted, if this autonomy leads us to think that “material
being does not depend on God and that man can use it as if it had no relation to
its Creator”, a deep imbalance will result, for “without a Creator there can be
no creature” (<i>Gaudium et Spes, </i>no. 36). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is significant
that in the passage cited, the conciliar Document states that this capacity to recognize
the voice and manifestation of God in the beauty of creation belongs to all believers,
regardless of their religion. From this we can conclude that full respect for life
is linked to a <i>religious sense</i>, to the inner attitude with which the human
being faces reality, as master or as custodian. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover, the word
<i>“respect” </i>derives from the Latin word <i>respicere</i>, to look at, and means
a way of looking at things and people that leads to recognizing their substantial
character, not to appropriate them but rather to treat them with respect and to
take care of them. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the final analysis,
if creatures are deprived of their reference to God as a transcendent basis, they
risk being at the mercy of the will of man who, as we see, can make an improper
use of it. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us invoke together St Anne’s intercession for your parish community,
which I greet with affection. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet in particular
your Parish Priest, Fr Gioele, and I thank him for his words to me at the beginning.
I then greet the Augustinian confreres with their Prior General; I greet Archbishop
Angelo Comastri, my Vicar General for <st1:place w:st="on">Vatican
City</st1:place>, Archbishop Rizzato, my Almoner, and everyone present,
especially the children, young people and all those who regularly use this church.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May St Anne, your
heavenly Patroness, watch over you all and obtain for each one the gift of being
a witness of the God of life and love.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 4 February 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, <i>Pro-Life
Day, </i>organized by the Bishops’ Conference on the theme: “Love and desire life”,
is being celebrated in <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>.
I cordially greet all those who are gathered in St Peter’s Square to witness their
commitment in support of life, from its conception to its natural end. I join the
Italian Bishops in renewing the appeal made several times by my venerable Predecessors
to all men and women of good will to welcome the great and mysterious gift of life.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Life, which is a
work of God, should not be denied to anyone, even the tiniest and most defenseless
unborn child, and far less to a child with serious disabilities. At the same time,
echoing the Pastors of the Church in <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>, I advise you not to fall into
the deceptive trap of thinking that life can be disposed of, to the point of “legitimizing
its interruption with euthanasia, even if it is masked by a veil of human compassion”.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The “Week of life
and of the family” begins in our Diocese of Rome today. It is an important opportunity
to pray and reflect on the family, which is the “cradle” of life and of every vocation.
We are well aware that the family founded on marriage is the natural environment
in which to bear and raise children and thereby guarantee the future of all of humanity.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, we also
know that marriage is going through a deep crisis and today must face numerous challenges.
It is consequently necessary to defend, help, safeguard and value it in its unrepeatable
uniqueness. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If this commitment
is in the first place the duty of spouses, it is also a priority duty of the Church
and of every public institution to support the family by means of pastoral and political
initiatives that take into account the real needs of married couples, of the elderly
and of the new generations. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A peaceful family
atmosphere, illumined by faith and the holy fear of God also nurtures the budding
and blossoming of vocations to the service of the Gospel. I am referring in particular
not only to those who are called to follow Christ on the path of the priesthood
but also to all men and women religious, the consecrated people we remembered last
Friday on the “World Day of Consecrated Life”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us pray that through a constant effort to promote life and the family
institution, our communities may be places of communion and hope in which, despite
the many difficulties, the great “yes” to authentic love and to the reality of the
human being and the family is renewed in accordance with God’s original plan. Let
us ask the Lord, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, to grant that respect
for the sacredness of life will grow so that people will be ever more aware of the
real needs of families and that the number of those who help to build the civilization
of love in the world will increase.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 8 February 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel today
(see Mk 1: 29-39) in close continuity with last Sunday’s presents to us Jesus who,
after preaching on the Sabbath in the synagogue of Capernaum, heals many sick people,
beginning with Simon’s mother-in-law. Upon entering Simon’s house, he finds her
lying in bed with a fever and, by taking her hand, immediately heals her and has
her get up. After sunset, he heals a multitude of people afflicted with ailments
of every kind. The experience of healing the sick occupied a large part of Christ’s
public mission and invites us once again to reflect on the meaning and value of
illness, in every human situation. This opportunity is also offered to us by the
World Day of the Sick which we shall be celebrating next Wednesday, 11 February,
the liturgical Memorial of Our Lady of <st1:place w:st="on">Lourdes</st1:place>.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Despite the fact
that illness is part of human experience, we do not succeed in becoming accustomed
to it, not only because it is sometimes truly burdensome and grave, but also essentially
because we are made for life, for a full life. Our “internal instinct” rightly makes
us think of God as fullness of life indeed, as eternal and perfect Life. When we
are tried by evil and our prayers seem to be in vain, then doubt besets us and we
ask ourselves in anguish: what is God’s will? We find the answer to this very question
in the Gospel. For example, in today’s passage we read that Jesus “healed many who
were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons” (Mk 1: 34); in another
passage from St Matthew it says that Jesus “went about all Galilee, teaching in
their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease
and every infirmity among the people” (Mt 4: 23). Jesus leaves no room for doubt:
God whose Face he himself revealed is the God of life, who frees us from every evil.
The signs of his power of love are the healings he performed. He thus shows that
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> is close at hand by restoring men and
women to their full spiritual and physical integrity. I maintain that these cures
are signs: they are not complete in themselves but guide us towards Christ’s message,
they guide us towards God and make us understand that man’s truest and deepest illness
is the absence of God, who is the source of truth and love. Only reconciliation
with God can give us true healing, true life, because a life without love and without
truth would not be life. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> is precisely the presence
of truth and love and thus is healing in the depths of our being. One therefore
understands why his preaching and the cures he works always go together: in fact,
they form one message of hope and salvation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thanks to the action
of the Holy Spirit, Jesus’ work is extended in the Church’s mission. Through the
sacraments it is Christ who communicates his life to multitudes of brothers and
sisters, while he heals and comforts innumerable sick people through the many activities
of health-care assistance that Christian communities promote with fraternal charity.
Thus they reveal the true Face of God, his love. It is true: very many Christians
around the world priests, religious and lay people - have lent and continue to lend
their hands, eyes and hearts to Christ, true physician of bodies and souls! Let
us pray for all sick people, especially those who are most seriously ill, who can
in no way provide for themselves but depend entirely on the care of others. May
each one of them experience, in the solicitude of those who are beside them, the
power and love of God and the richness of his saving grace. Mary, health of the
sick, pray for us!</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 7 February 2010 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters</i>, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Liturgy on this
Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time presents us with the subject of the divine call. In
a majestic vision Isaiah finds himself in the presence of the thrice-blessed Lord
and is overcome by great awe and a profound feeling of his unworthiness. But a seraph
purifies his lips with a burning coal and wipes away his sin. Feeling ready to respond
to God’s call, he exclaims: “Here I am, Lord. Command me!” (see Is 6:1-2; 3-8).
The same succession of sentiments is presented in the episode of the miraculous
catch of which today’s Gospel passage speaks. Asked by Jesus to cast their nets
although they had caught nothing during the night, trusting in his word, Simon Peter
and the other disciples obtain a superabundant catch. In the face of this miracle
Simon Peter does not throw his arms around Jesus to express his joy at the unexpected
catch. Rather, as the Evangelist Luke recounts, he falls to his knees saying, “Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man O Lord”. Jesus, therefore, reassures him: “Do not
be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men” (see Lk 5:10); and leaving everything,
he followed him. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Paul too, remembering
that he had been a persecutor of the Church, professed himself unworthy to be called
an apostle. Yet he recognized that the grace of God had worked wonders in him and,
despite his limitations, God had entrusted him with the task and honor of preaching
the Gospel (see 1 Cor 15:8-10). In these three experiences, we see how an authentic
encounter with God brings the human being to recognize his poverty and inadequacy,
his limitations and his sins. Yet in spite of this weakness the Lord, rich in mercy
and forgiveness, transforms the life of human beings and calls them to follow him.
The humility shown by Isaiah, Peter and Paul invites all who have received the gift
of a divine vocation not to focus on their own limitations but rather to keep their
gaze fixed on the Lord and on his amazing mercy so that their hearts may be converted
and that they may continue joyfully, “to leave everything” to him. Indeed, the Lord
does not look at what is important to human beings. “The Lord sees not as man sees;
man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Sam 16:7)
and makes human beings who are poor and weak but have faith in him fearless apostles
and heralds of salvation.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Year for
Priests, let us pray to the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers into his harvest.
Let us also pray that all who hear the Lord’s invitation to follow him may be able
after due discernment to respond to him generously, not trusting in their own strength
but opening themselves to the action of his grace. I ask all priests in particular
to revive their generous availability to respond every day to the Lord’s call with
the same humility and faith as Isaiah, Peter and Paul.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust all
vocations to the Blessed Virgin, especially vocations to the religious and priestly
life. May Mary inspire in each one the desire to pronounce his or her own “yes”
to the Lord with joy and total dedication.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 6 February 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Sunday’s
Gospel the Lord Jesus tells his disciples: “You are the salt of the earth.... You
are the light of the world” (Mt 5:13, 14). With these richly evocative images he
wishes to pass on to them the meaning of their mission and their witness.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Salt, in the cultures
of the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>, calls to mind several values
such as the Covenant, solidarity, life and wisdom. Light is the first work of God
the Creator and is a source of life; the word of God is compared to light, as the
Psalmist proclaims: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps
119[118]:105).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And, again in today’s
Liturgy, the Prophet Isaiah says: “If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy
the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your
gloom be as the noonday” (58:10). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Wisdom sums up in
itself the beneficial effects of salt and light: in fact, disciples of the Lord
are called to give a new “taste” to the world and to keep it from corruption with
the wisdom of God, which shines out in its full splendor on the Face of the Son
because he is “the true light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">United to him, in
the darkness of indifference and selfishness, Christians can diffuse the light of
God’s love, true wisdom that gives meaning to human life and action. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Next 11 February,
the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, we shall celebrate the World Day of the Sick.
It is a favorable opportunity on which to reflect, to pray and to increase the sensitivity
that the ecclesial communities and civil society show to our sick brothers and sisters.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Message for
this Day, inspired by a sentence from the First Letter of Peter, “By his wounds
you have been healed” (1 Pt 2:24), I invite everyone to contemplate Jesus, the Son
of God, who suffered and died but is Risen.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God radically opposes
the overbearingness of evil. The Lord takes care of human beings in every situation,
he shares in their suffering and opens their hearts to hope. I therefore urge all
health-care workers to recognize in the sick person not only a body marked by frailty
but first and foremost a person, to whom they should give full solidarity and offer
appropriated and qualified help. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this context I
also recall that today in <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>
is the “Day for Life”. I hope that everyone will make an effort to increase the
culture of life and to make the human being the centre in all circumstances. According
to both faith and reason, the dignity of the person cannot be reduced to his or
her faculties or visible capacity; thus human dignity is never lacking even when
the person is weak, sick or in need of help.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us invoke the motherly intercession of the Virgin Mary so that parents,
grandparents, teachers, priests and all who are involved in education may inculcate
in the young generations wisdom of heart, to enable them to attain fullness of life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 5 February 2012</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
Sunday’s Gospel presents to us Jesus who heals the sick: first Simon Peter’s mother-in-law
who was in bed with a fever and Jesus, taking her by the hand, healed her and helped
her to her feet; then all the sick in Capernaum, tried in body, mind and spirit,
and he “healed many… and cast out many demons” (Mk 1:34). The four Evangelists agree
in testifying that this liberation from illness and infirmity of every kind was
— together with preaching — Jesus’ main activity in his public ministry. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Illness
is in fact a sign of the action of Evil in the world and in people, whereas healing
shows that the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, God himself, is at
hand. Jesus Christ came to defeat Evil at the root and instances of healing are
an anticipation of his triumph, obtained with his death and Resurrection.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus
said one day: “those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are
sick” (Mk 2:17). On that occasion he was referring to sinners, whom he came to call
and to save. It is nonetheless true that illness is a typically human condition
in which we feel strongly that we are not self-sufficient but need others. In this
regard we might say paradoxically that illness can be a salutary moment in which
to experience the attention of others and to pay attention to others! </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However
illness is also always a trial that can even become long and difficult. When healing
does not happen and suffering is prolonged, we can be as it were overwhelmed, isolated,
and then our life is depressed and dehumanized. How should we react to this attack
of Evil? With the appropriate treatment, certainly — medicine in these decades has
taken giant strides and we are grateful for it — but the Word of God teaches us
that there is a crucial basic attitude with which to face illness and it is that
of faith in God, in his goodness. Jesus always repeats this to the people he heals:
your faith has made you well (see Mk 5:34, 36). </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Even
in the face of death, faith can make possible what is humanly impossible. But faith
in what? In the love of God. This is the real answer which radically defeats Evil.
Just as Jesus confronted the Evil One with the power of the love that came to him
from the Father, so we too can confront and live through the trial of illness, keeping
our heart immersed in God’s love. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We all
know people who were able to bear terrible suffering because God gave them profound
serenity. I am thinking of the recent example of Bl. Chiara Badano, cut off in the
flower of her youth by a disease from which there was no escape: all those who went
to visit her received light and confidence from her! Nonetheless, in sickness we
all need human warmth: to comfort a sick person what counts more than words is serene
and sincere closeness.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, next Saturday, 11 February, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, is the
World Day of the Sick. Let us too do as people did in Jesus’ day: let us present
to him spiritually all the sick, confident that he wants to and can heal them. And
let us invoke the intercession of Our Lady, especially for the situations of greater
suffering and neglect. Mary, Health of the Sick, pray for us!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 10 February 2013</i><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s liturgy,
the Gospel according to Luke presents the story of the call of the first disciples,
with an original version that differs from that of the other two Synoptic Gospels,
Matthew and Mark (see Mt 4: 18-22; Mk 1:16-20) . The call, in fact, was preceded
by the teaching of Jesus to the crowd and a miraculous catch of fish, carried out
by the will of the Lord (Lk 5:1-6). In fact, while the crowd rushes to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">shore</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Lake</st1:placename></st1:place> Gennesaret to hear Jesus, he sees Simon
discouraged because he has caught nothing all night. First Jesus asks to get into
Simon’s boat in order to preach to the people standing a short distance from the
shore; then, having finished preaching, he commands Simon to go out into the deep
with his friends and cast their nets (see v. 5). Simon obeys, and they catch an
incredible amount of fish. In this way, the evangelist shows how the first disciples
followed Jesus, trusting him, relying on his Word, all the while accompanied by
miraculous signs. We note that, before this sign, Simon addresses Jesus, calling
him “Master” (v. 5), while afterwards he addresses him as “Lord” (v. 7). This is
the pedagogy of God’s call, which does not consider the quality of those who are
chosen so much as their faith, like that of Simon that says: “At your word, I will
let down the nets” (v. 5).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The image of the
fish refers to the Church’s mission. <st1:place w:st="on">St
Augustine</st1:place> says in this regard, “Twice the disciples went
out to fish at the Lord’s command: once before the Passion and the other time after
the Resurrection. In the two scenes of fishing, the entire Church is depicted: the
Church as it is now and as it will be after the resurrection of the dead. Now it
gathers together a multitude, impossible to number, comprising the good and the
bad; after the resurrection, it will include only the good” (<i>Homily </i>248.1).
The experience of Peter, certainly unique, is nonetheless representative of the
call of every apostle of the Gospel, who must never be discouraged in proclaiming
Christ to all men, even to the ends of the world. However, today’s text is a reflection
on the vocation to the priesthood and the consecrated life. It is the work of God.
The human person is not the author of his own vocation but responds to the divine
call. Human weakness should not be afraid if God calls. It is necessary to have
confidence in his strength, which acts in our poverty; we must rely more and more
on the power of his mercy, which transforms and renews.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, may this Word of God revive in us and in our Christian communities courage,
confidence and enthusiasm in proclaiming and witnessing to the Gospel. Do not let
failures and difficulties lead to discouragement: it is our task to cast our nets
in faith — the Lord will do the rest. We must trust, too, in the intercession of
the Virgin Mary, the Queen of Apostles. Well aware of her own smallness, she answered
the Lord’s call with total confidence: “Here I am”. With her maternal help, let
us renew our willingness to follow Jesus, Master and Lord. </span></div>
</div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-70621848354650426972024-01-22T01:30:00.003-05:002024-01-22T01:30:00.186-05:00Reflections on the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0327: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Fourth</b><b> Sunday of Ordinary Time</b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 29 January 2006, 28 January 2007,
3 February 2008, 1 February 2009, 31 January 2010, 30 January 2011, 29 January 2012,
and 3 February 2013. Here are the texts
of eight brief reflections delivered on these occasions prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 29 January 2006 </span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Encyclical
published last Wednesday, by referring to the primacy of charity in the life of
Christians and of the Church, I wanted to recall that the privileged witnesses of
this primacy are the Saints, who made their lives a hymn to God-Love despite their
thousands of different tones. We celebrate them every day of the year in the liturgy.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am thinking, for
example, of those whom we are commemorating in these days: the Apostle Paul with his disciples Timothy and
Titus, St Angela Merici, St Thomas Aquinas, St John Bosco. These saints are very
different: the first belong to the beginnings
of the Church and were missionaries of the first evangelization; in the Middle Ages,
Thomas Aquinas is the model of a Catholic theologian who found in Christ the supreme
synthesis of truth and love; in the Renaissance, Angela Merici presented a path
of holiness also to those who were living in a secular environment; in the modern
epoch, Don Bosco, inflamed with love for Jesus the Good Shepherd, cared for the
most underprivileged children and became their father and teacher. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In truth, the Church’s
entire history is a history of holiness, animated by the one Love whose source is
God. Indeed, only supernatural love, like the love that flows ever new from Christ’s
heart, can explain the miraculous flourishing down the centuries of Orders, male
and female religious Institutes and other forms of consecrated life. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Encyclical,
I cited among the Saints most famous for their charity John of God, Camillus of
Lellis, Vincent de Paul, Louise de Marillac, Giuseppe Cottolengo, Luigi Orione and
Teresa of Calcutta (see no. 40). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This array of men
and women, molded by the Spirit of Christ who made them models of dedication to
the Gospel, leads us to consider the importance of consecrated life as an expression
and school of love.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Second Vatican
Council emphasized that the imitation of Christ in chastity, poverty and obedience
should be entirely oriented to the achievement of perfect charity (see<b><i> </i></b><i>Perfectae
Caritas, </i>no. 1). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Precisely in order
to shed light on the importance and value of consecrated life, the Church celebrates
this coming 2 February, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>, as the Day of Consecrated
Life. In the afternoon of that day, just as John Paul II liked to do, I will preside
at Holy Mass in the Vatican Basilica, to which the consecrated men and women who
live in <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city> are
specially invited. Let us together thank God for the gift of consecrated life and
pray that it may continue to be an eloquent sign of his merciful love in the world.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us now turn to
Mary Most Holy, mirror of love. With her motherly help may Christians and especially
consecrated persons walk expeditiously and joyfully on the path of holiness.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 28 January 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today the liturgical
calendar commemorates St Thomas Aquinas, the great Doctor of the Church. With his
charism as a philosopher and theologian, he offered an effective model of harmony
between reason and faith, dimensions of the human spirit that are completely fulfilled
in the encounter and dialogue with one another. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">According to <st1:city w:st="on">St Thomas</st1:city>’ thought, human
reason, as it were, “breathes”: it moves within a vast open horizon in which it
can express the best of itself. When, instead, man reduces himself to thinking only
of material objects or those that can be proven, he closes himself to the great
questions about life, himself and God and is impoverished. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The relationship
between faith and reason is a serious challenge to the currently dominant culture
in the Western world, and for this very reason our beloved John Paul II decided
to dedicate an Encyclical to it, entitled, precisely,<i> Fides et Ratio - </i>Faith
and Reason. Recently, I too returned to this topic in my Discourse to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Regensburg</st1:placename></st1:place>. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact, the modern
development of the sciences brings innumerable positive effects, as we all see,
that should always be recognized. At the same time, however, it is necessary to
admit that the tendency to consider true only what can be experienced constitutes
a limitation of human reason and produces a terrible schizophrenia now acclaimed,
which has led to the coexistence of rationalism and materialism, hyper-technology
and unbridled instinct. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is urgent, therefore,
to rediscover anew human rationality open to the light of the divine <i>Logos </i>and
his perfect revelation which is Jesus Christ, Son of God made man. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When Christian faith
is authentic, it does not diminish freedom and human reason; so, why should faith
and reason fear one another if the best way for them to express themselves is by
meeting and entering into dialogue? Faith presupposes reason and perfects it, and
reason, enlightened by faith, finds the strength to rise to knowledge of God and
spiritual realities. Human reason loses nothing by opening itself to the content
of faith, which, indeed, requires its free and conscious adherence. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Thomas Aquinas,
with farsighted wisdom, succeeded in establishing a fruitful confrontation with
the Arab and Hebrew thought of his time, to the point that he was considered an
ever up-to-date teacher of dialogue with other cultures and religions. He knew how
to present that wonderful Christian synthesis of reason and faith which today too,
for the Western civilization, is a precious patrimony to draw from for an effective
dialogue with the great cultural and religious traditions of the East and South
of the world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pray that
Christians, especially those who work in an academic and cultural context, are able
to express the reasonableness of their faith and witness to it in a dialogue inspired
by love. Let us ask the Lord for this gift through the intercession of St Thomas
Aquinas and above all, through Mary, Seat of Wisdom.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 3 February 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today I
would like to entrust various intentions to your prayers. In the first place, remembering
that yesterday, the liturgical Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, we celebrated
the World Day of Consecrated Life, I invite you to pray for those whom Christ calls
to follow him more closely with a special consecration. Our gratitude goes to these
brothers and sisters of ours who dedicate themselves with the vows of poverty, chastity
and obedience to the total service of God and the Church. May the Blessed Virgin
obtain many holy vocations to the consecrated life, which constitutes a precious
treasure for the Church and for the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Another
prayer intention is offered to us by the Pro-Life Day, being celebrated in <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place> today,
whose theme is <i>“Serving Life”</i>.<i> </i>I greet and thank all who are gathered
here in St Peter’s Square in order to witness to their commitment to defend and
promote life and to reassert that “a people’s civilization is measured by its capacity
to serve life” (<i>Message of the Italian Bishops’ Conference for the 30th National
Pro-Life Day</i>). May each one, according to his own possibilities, professionalism
and competence, always feel impelled to love and serve life from its beginning to
its natural end. In fact, welcoming human life as a gift to be respected, protected
and promoted is a commitment of everyone, all the more so when it is weak and needs
care and attention, both before birth and in its terminal phase. I join the Italian
Bishops in encouraging all those who, with an effort but also with joy, discreetly
and with great dedication, assist elderly or disabled relatives and those who regularly
give part of their time to help those people of every age whose lives are tried
by so many different forms of poverty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us also
pray that Lent, which begins next Wednesday with the Rite of Ashes - which I will
celebrate, as I do every year, in the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine -
may be a time of authentic conversion for all Christians, called to bear an increasingly
authentic and courageous witness to their faith. Let us entrust these prayer intentions
to Our Lady. From yesterday until the end of 11 February, the Memorial of Our Lady
of Lourdes and the 150th anniversary of the Apparitions, it is possible to receive
a Plenary Indulgence, applicable to the deceased, on the usual conditions - Confession,
Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions - and by praying before a blessed
image of Our Lady of Lourdes exposed for public veneration. The elderly and the
sick may obtain the Indulgence through heartfelt prayer. May Mary, Mother and Star
of Hope, light us on our way and make us ever more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 1st February 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year, among
the Sunday celebrations, the liturgy proposes the Gospel of St Mark for our meditation.
A unique characteristic of this Gospel is what is called the “messianic secret”:
namely, the fact that, for the moment, Jesus does not want it to be known outside
the small group of his disciples that he is the Christ, the Son of God. Moreover,
at this point he warns both the Apostles and the sick whom he heals not to reveal
his identity to anyone. For example, this Sunday’s Gospel passage (Mk 1: 21-28)
tells of a man possessed by the devil who suddenly shouts: “What have you to do
with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the
Holy One of God”. And Jesus commands the spirit: “Quiet! Come out of him!” And immediately
the Evangelist notes the unclean spirit, with excruciating cries, came out of that
man. Jesus not only drives demons out of people, freeing them from the worst slavery,
but prevents the demons themselves from revealing his identity. And he insists on
this “secret” because what is at stake is the success of his very mission, on which
our salvation depends. Indeed, he knows that to liberate humanity from the dominion
of sin he will have to be sacrificed on the Cross as the true Paschal Lamb. The
devil, for his part, seeks to dissuade him so as to divert him instead toward the
human logic of a powerful and successful Messiah. The Cross of Christ will be the
devil’s ruin, and this is why Jesus always taught his disciples that in order to
enter into his glory he must suffer much, he must be rejected, condemned and crucified
(see Lk 24: 26), for suffering is an integral part of his mission. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus suffered and
died on the Cross for love. On close consideration, it was in this way that he gave
meaning to our suffering, a meaning that many men and women of every age have understood
and made their own, experiencing profound tranquility even in the bitterness of
harsh physical and moral trials. And the theme that the Italian Bishops have chosen
for their customary Message on the occasion of today’s Pro-Life Day is precisely
<i>“The strength of life in suffering”</i>. I wholeheartedly make their words my
own, in which is seen the love of Pastors for their people and their courage in
proclaiming the truth the courage to say clearly, for example, that euthanasia is
a false solution to the drama of suffering, a solution unworthy of man. Indeed,
the true response cannot be to put someone to death, however “kindly”, but rather
to witness to the love that helps people to face their pain and agony in a human
way. We can be certain that no tear, neither of those who are suffering nor of those
who are close to them, is lost before God. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin Mary kept
her Son’s secret in her maternal heart and shared in the painful hour of the passion
and crucifixion, sustained by her hope in the Resurrection. Let us entrust to her
the people who are suffering and those who work every day to support them, serving
life in all of its phases: parents, health care workers, priests, religious, researchers,
volunteers and many others. Let us pray for them all.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 31 January 2010 </i><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Sunday’s
Liturgy we read one of the most beautiful passages of the New Testament and of the
whole Bible: the Apostle Paul’s “hymn to love” (1 Cor 12: 31-13: 13). In his First
Letter to the Corinthians, after explaining through the image of the body that the
different gifts of the Holy Spirit contribute to the good of the one Church, Paul
shows the “way” of perfection. It does not, he says, consist in possessing exceptional
qualities: in speaking new languages, understanding all the mysteries, having a
prodigious faith or doing heroic deeds. Rather, it consists in love <i>agape </i>that
is, in authentic love which God revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Love is the “greatest
gift” which gives value to all the others and yet it “is not jealous or boastful;
it is not arrogant”; on the contrary it “rejoices in the right” and in the good
of others. Whoever truly loves “does not insist on [his or her] own way”, “is “not
irritable or resentful” but “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things,
endures all things” (see 1 Cor 13: 4-7). In the end, when we find ourselves face
to face with God, all the other gifts will no longer matter; the only one that will
last forever is love, because God is love and we will be like him, in perfect communion
with him. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For now, while we
are in this world, love is the sign of Christians. It sums up their entire life:
what they believe and what they do. This is why at the beginning of my Pontificate
I chose to dedicate my first Encyclical to this very subject of love: <i>Deus Caritas
Est. </i>As you will remember, this Encyclical is made up of two parts that correspond
to the two aspects of charity: its meaning and hence its practice. Love is the essence
of God himself, it is the meaning of creation and of history, it is the light that
brings goodness and beauty into every person’s existence. At the same time love
is, so to speak, the “style” of God and of believers, it is the behavior of those
who, in response to God’s love, make their life a gift of themselves to God and
to their neighbour. In Jesus Christ these two aspects form a perfect unity: he is
Love incarnate. This Love has been fully revealed to us in Jesus Christ. Fixing
our gaze on him, we can confess with the Apostle John: “We have come to know and
to believe in the love God has for us” (see 1 Jn 4: 16; Encyclical <i>Deus Caritas
Est, </i>no. 1). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, if
we think of the Saints, we recognize the variety of their spiritual gifts and also
their human characteristics, but the life of each one of them is a hymn to charity,
a living canticle to God’s love! Today, 31 January, we are commemorating in particular
St John Bosco, the Founder of the Salesian Family and Patron of young people. In
this Year for Priests, I would like to invoke his intercession so that priests may
always be educators and fathers to the young; and that, experiencing this pastoral
love, many young people may accept the call to give their lives for Christ and for
the Gospel. May Mary Help of Christians, a model of love, obtain these graces for
us.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 30 January 2011</i><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this Fourth Sunday
of Ordinary Time, the Gospel presents the first great discourse that the Lord addresses
to the people on the gentle hills encircling the <st1:place w:st="on">Sea of Galilee</st1:place>.
“Seeing the crowds,” St Matthew writes, “he went up on the mountain, and when he
sat down his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them” (Mt
5:1-2). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus, the new Moses,
“takes his seat on the cathedra of the mountain” (<i>Jesus of Nazareth,</i> Doubleday,
New York 2007, p. 65) and proclaims “blessed” the poor in spirit, those who mourn,
the merciful, those who hunger for righteousness, the pure in heart, the persecuted
(<i>see</i> Mt 5:3-10). It is not a new ideology, but a teaching that comes from
on high and touches the human condition, the condition that the Lord, in becoming
flesh, wished to assume in order to save it. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore “the Sermon
on the Mount is addressed to the entire world, the entire present and future, and
yet it demands <i>discipleship</i> and can be understood and lived out only by following
Jesus and accompanying him on his journey” (<i>Jesus of Nazareth,</i> p. 69). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Beatitudes are
a new programme of life, to free oneself from the false values of the world and
to open oneself to the true goods, present and future. Indeed, when God comforts,
he satisfies the hunger for righteousness, he wipes away the tears of those who
mourn, which means that, as well as compensating each one in a practical way, he
opens the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place>. “The Beatitudes
are the transposition of the Cross and Resurrection into discipleship” (<i>ibid</i>.,
p. 74). They mirror the life of the Son of God who let himself even be persecuted
and despised until he was condemned to death so that salvation might be given to
men and women.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">An ancient hermit
says: “The Beatitudes are gifts of God and we must say a great ‘thank you’ to him
for them and for the rewards that derive from them, namely the Kingdom of God in
the century to come and consolation here; the fullness of every good and mercy on
God’s part … once we have become images of Christ on earth” (Peter of Damascus,
<i>In Filocalia</i>, Vol. 3, Turin 1985, p. 79). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel of the
Beatitudes is commented on with the actual history of the Church, the history of
Christian holiness, because, as St Paul writes, “God chose what is weak in the world
to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things
that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Cor 1:27-28). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason the
Church has no fear of poverty, contempt or persecution in a society which is often
attracted by material well-being and worldly power. St Augustine reminds us that
“it serves nothing to suffer these evils, but rather to bear them in the Name of
Jesus, not only with a serene soul but also with joy” (<i>see</i> <i>De sermone
Domini in monte</i>, i, 5,13: ccl 35, 13).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us invoke the Virgin Mary, the Blessed par excellence, asking her for
the strength to seek the Lord (<i>see</i> Zeph 2:3) and to follow him always, with
joy, on the path of the Beatitudes.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 29 January 2012</i><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
Sunday’s Gospel (Mk 1:21-28) presents to us Jesus, who was preaching on the Sabbath
in the Synagogue of Capernaum, the little town on the <st1:place w:st="on">Sea of
Galilee</st1:place> where Peter and his brother Andrew lived. His teaching, which
gave rise to wonder among the people, was followed by the deliverance of “a man
with an unclean spirit” (v. 23), who recognized Jesus as “the Holy One of God”,
that is, the Messiah. In a short time his fame spread across the region which he
passed through proclaiming the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> and healing the sick
of every kind: words and action. St John Chrysostom pointed out that the Lord “varies
the mode of profiting his hearers, after miracles entering on words, and again from
the instruction by his words passing to miracles” (<i>Hom. in Matthæum</i> 25, 1:
<em>PG</em> 57, 328).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
words Jesus addresses to the people immediately give access to the will of the Father
and to the truth about themselves. This was not the case for the scribes who instead
had to make an effort to interpret the Sacred Scriptures with countless reflections.
Moreover Jesus united the efficacy of the word with the efficacy of the signs of
deliverance from evil. St Athanasius notes that “for his charging evil spirits and
their being driven forth, this deed is not of man, but of God”; indeed the Lord
“drove away from men all diseases and infirmities”.... Those “who saw his power...
will no longer doubt whether this be the Son and Wisdom and Power of God?” (<i>Oratio
de Incarnatione Verbi</i> 18,19: <em>PG</em> 25, 128 BC. 129 B).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
divine authority is not a force of nature. It is the power of the love of God that
creates the universe and, becoming incarnate in the Only-Begotten Son, descending
into our humanity, heals the world corrupted by sin. Romano Guardini wrote: “Jesus’
entire existence is the translation of power into humility... here is the sovereignty
which lowers itself into the form of a servant” (<i>Il Potere</i>, Brescia 1999,
141-142).</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Authority,
for human beings, often means possession, power, dominion and success. Instead for
God authority means service, humility and love; it means entering into the logic
of Jesus who stoops to wash his disciples’ feet (see Jn 13:5), who seeks man’s true
good, who heals wounds, who is capable of a love so great that he gives his life,
because he is Love. In one of her Letters St. Catherine of <st1:place w:st="on">Siena</st1:place> wrote: “It is necessary for us to see and
know, in truth, with the light of the faith, that God is supreme and eternal Love
and cannot want anything but our good” (<i>Ep. 13</i> in: <i>Le Lettere</i>, vol.
3, Bologna 1999, 206).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, next Thursday, 2 February, we shall celebrate the Feast of the Presentation
of the Lord in the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>,
the World Day of Consecrated Life. Let us invoke Mary Most Holy with trust so that
she may guide our hearts to draw always from divine mercy, which frees and guarantees
our humanity, filling it with every grace and benevolence and with the power of
love.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 3 February 2013</i><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Gospel —
taken from chapter four of St Luke — is the continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel.
Once again we find ourselves in the Synagogue of Nazareth, the village where Jesus
grew up, where every knew him and his family. Then, after a period of absence, he
returned there in a new way: during the Sabbath liturgy he read a prophecy on the
Messiah by Isaiah and announced its fulfilment, making it clear that this word referred
to him, that Isaiah had spoken about him. The event puzzled the Nazarenes: on the
one hand they “all spoke well of him and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth” (Lk 4:22). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Mark reported
what many were saying: “Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given
to him?” (6:2). On the other hand, however, his fellow villagers knew him too well:
“He is one like us”, they say, “His claim can only be a presumption (see <i>The
Infancy Narratives</i>, English edition, p. 3). “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (Lk
4:22), as if to say “what can a carpenter from <st1:place w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:place> aspire to?”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Well-acquainted with
this imperviousness which confirms the proverb: “no prophet is acceptable in his
own country”, to the people in the synagogue Jesus addressed words that resonate
like a provocation. He cited two miracles wrought by the great prophets Elijah and
Elisha for men who were not Israelites in order to demonstrate that faith is sometimes
stronger outside <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>.
At this point there was a unanimous reaction. All the people got to their feet and
drove him away; and they even tried to push him off a precipice. However, passing
through the midst of the angry mob with supreme calmness he went away. At this point
it comes naturally to wonder: why ever did Jesus want to stir up this antagonism?
At the outset the people admired him and he might perhaps have been able to obtain
a certain consensus.... But this is exactly the point: Jesus did not come to seek
the agreement of men and women but rather — as he was to say to Pilate in the end
— “to bear witness to the truth” (Jn 18:37). The true prophet does not obey others
as he does God, and puts himself at the service of the truth, ready to pay in person.
It is true that Jesus was a prophet of love, but love has a truth of its own. Indeed,
love and truth are two names of the same reality, two names of God. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s liturgy
these words of <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
also ring out: “Love is not... boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not
insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at
wrong, but rejoices in the right” (1 Cor 13:43-6). Believing in God means giving
up our own prejudices and accepting the actual face in which he revealed himself:
Jesus of Nazareth the man. And this process also leads to recognizing him and to
serving him in others. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this path Mary’s
attitude is enlightening. Who could be more closely acquainted than her with the
humanity of Jesus? Yet she was never shocked by him as were his fellow Nazarenes.
She cherished this mystery in her heart and was always and ever better able to accept
it on the journey of faith, even to the night of the Cross and the full brilliance
of the Resurrection. May Mary also always help us to continue faithfully and joyfully
on this journey. </span></div>
</div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACTUS-ESSENDI-PRINCIPLE-THOMAS-AQUINAS/dp/0578522179" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Actus essendi and the Habit of the First Principle in Thomas Aquinas</span></a></i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;"> </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-47026079204709330832024-01-15T01:30:00.004-05:002024-01-15T01:30:00.136-05:00Reflections on the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0326: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Third</b><b> Sunday of Ordinary Time</b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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</span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 22 January 2006, 21 January 2007,
27 January 2008, 25 January 2009, 24 January 2010, 23 January 2011, 22 January 2012,
and 27 January 2013. Here are the texts
of eight brief reflections delivered prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 22 January 2006</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Sunday
falls in the middle of the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”, celebrated every
year from 18-25 January. It is an initiative that began at the start of the last
century and which has undergone a positive development, becoming more and more an
ecumenical reference point where Christians of the various confessions worldwide
pray and reflect on the same biblical text. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The passage
chosen this year is taken from Chapter 18 of the Gospel of St Matthew, which refers
to some of Jesus’ teachings regarding the community of disciples. Among other things,
he affirms: “If two of you agree on earth
about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where
two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18: 19-20).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How much
trust and hope these words of the Lord Jesus inspire! They especially spur Christians
to ask God together for that full unity among them, for which Christ himself prayed
to the Father with heartfelt insistence during the Last Supper (see Jn 17: 11, 21,
23). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We understand
well, therefore, how important it is that we Christians invoke the gift of unity
with persevering fidelity. If we do so with faith, we can be sure that our request
will be granted. We do not know when or how, as it is not for us to know; but we
must not doubt that one day we will be “one”, as Jesus and the Father are united
in the Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The prayer
for unity is the soul of the ecumenical movement which, thanks be to God, advances
throughout the world. Certainly, difficulties and trials are not lacking; but these
too have their spiritual usefulness because they push us to exercise patience and
perseverance and to grow in fraternal charity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God is love,
and only if we are converted to him and accept his Word will we all be united in
the one Mystical Body of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The expression
“God is love”, in Latin <i>“Deus caritas est”, </i>is the title of my first Encyclical,
which will be published this Wednesday, 25 January, Feast of the Conversion of St
Paul. I am pleased that it coincides with the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On that
day, I will be going to <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>’s
Basilica to preside at Vespers, in which Representatives of the other churches and
ecclesial communities will take part. May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church,
intercede for us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>BENEDICT XVI </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 21 January 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Sunday
occurs during the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity”, which, as is well known,
is celebrated each year in our hemisphere between 18 and 25 January. The theme for
2007 is a citation from Mark’s Gospel and refers to people’s amazement at the healing
of the deaf-mute accomplished by Jesus: <i>“He makes the deaf hear and the mute
speak” </i>(Mk 7: 37). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I intend
to comment more broadly on this biblical theme this 25 January, the liturgical Feast
of the Conversion of St Paul, when at 5: 30 p.m. I will preside at the celebration
of Vespers for the conclusion of the “Week of Prayer” in the Basilica of St Paul
Outside-the-Walls. I expect many of you to come to that liturgical encounter because
unity is achieved above all by praying, and the more unanimous the prayer, the more
pleasing it is to the Lord. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year
the initial project for the “Week”, subsequently adapted by the Joint International
Committee, was prepared by the faithful in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Umlazi</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">South Africa</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
a very poor town where AIDS has acquired pandemic proportions and human hopes are
few and far between. But the Risen Christ is hope for everyone. He is so especially
for Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As heirs
of the divisions that came about in past epochs, on this occasion they have wished
to launch an appeal: Christ can do all things, <i>“he makes the deaf hear and the
mute speak” </i>(Mk 7: 37). He is capable of imbuing Christians with the ardent
desire to listen to the other, to communicate with the other and, together with
him, speak the language of reciprocal love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity thus reminds us that ecumenism is a profound dialogical
experience, a listening and speaking to one another, knowing one another better;
it is a task within everyone’s reach, especially when it concerns<i> spiritual ecumenism,
</i>based on prayer and sharing which is now possible among Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I hope that
the longing for unity, expressed in prayer and brotherly collaboration to alleviate
human suffering, may spread increasingly in parishes and ecclesial movements as
well as among Religious institutes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I take this
opportunity to thank the Ecumenical Commission of the Vicariate of Rome and the
city’s parish priests who encourage the faithful to celebrate the “Week”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">More generally,
I am grateful to all who pray and work for unity with conviction and constancy in
every part of the world. May Mary, Mother of the Church, help all the faithful to
allow themselves in their innermost depths to be opened by Christ to reciprocal
communication in charity and in truth, to become one heart and one soul (see Acts
4: 32) in him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 27 January 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s
liturgy the Evangelist Matthew, who will accompany us throughout this liturgical
year, presents the beginning of Christ’s public mission. It consisted essentially
in preaching the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> and healing the sick,
showing that this Kingdom is close at hand and is already in our midst. Jesus began
his preaching in Galilee, the region where he grew up, the “outskirts” in comparison
with the heart of the Jewish Nation which was Judea, and in it, <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>. But the Prophet
Isaiah had foretold that this land, assigned to the tribes of Zebulun and Napthali,
would have a glorious future: the people immersed in darkness would see a great
light (see Is 8: 23-9: 2). In Jesus’ time, the term “gospel” was used by Roman emperors
for their proclamations. Independently of their content, they were described as
“good news” or announcements of salvation, because the emperor was considered lord
of the world and his every edict as a portent of good. Thus, the application of
this phrase to Jesus’ preaching had a strongly critical meaning, as if to say God,
and not the emperor, is Lord of the world, and the true Gospel is that of Jesus
Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The “Good
News” which Jesus proclaims is summed up in this sentence: “The <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename>
- or <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place> - is at hand” (see Mt 4: 17; Mk 1:
15). What do these words mean? They do not of course refer to an earthly region
marked out in space and time, but rather to an announcement that it is God who reigns,
that God is Lord and that his lordship is present and actual, it is being realized.
The newness of Christ’s message, therefore, is that God made himself close <i>in
him </i>and now reigns in our midst, as the miracles and healings that he works
demonstrate. God reigns in the world through his Son made man and with the power
of the Holy Spirit who is called “the finger of God” (Lk 11: 20). Wherever Jesus
goes the Creator Spirit brings life, and men and women are healed of diseases of
body and spirit. God’s lordship is thus manifest in the human being’s integral healing.
By this, Jesus wanted to reveal the Face of the true God, the God who is close,
full of mercy for every human being; the God who makes us a gift of life in abundance,
his own life. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> is therefore life that
asserts itself over death, the light of truth that dispels the darkness of ignorance
and lies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pray
to Mary Most Holy that she will always obtain for the Church the same passion for
God’s Kingdom which enlivened the mission of Jesus Christ: a passion for God, for
his lordship of love and life; a passion for man, encountered in truth with the
desire to give him the most precious treasure: the love of God, his Creator and
Father. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF <st1:city w:st="on">ST PAUL</st1:city> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">AND CONCLUSION OF THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>BENEDICT XVI </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 25 January 2009 </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Gospel
this Sunday the words of Jesus’ first preaching in <st1:place w:st="on">Galilee</st1:place>
resound: “This is the time of fulfilment. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>
is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mk 1: 15). And precisely today,
25 January, is the memorial of the “Conversion of St Paul”. It is a happy coincidence,
especially in this Pauline Year, thanks to which we can understand the true significance
of evangelical conversion <i>metanoia </i>by looking at the experience of the Apostle.
In truth, in Paul’s case, some prefer not to use this term because, they say, he
was already a believer, rather a fervent Hebrew, and therefore he did not pass from
no faith to the faith, from the idols to God, nor did he have to abandon the Hebrew
faith to adhere to Christ. Actually, the Apostle’s experience can be the model of
every authentic Christian conversion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Paul’s conversion
matured in his encounter with the Risen Christ; it was this encounter that radically
changed his life. What happened to him on the road to <st1:place w:st="on">Damascus</st1:place> is what Jesus asks in today’s Gospel:
Saul is converted because, thanks to the divine light, “he has believed in the Gospel”.
In this consists his and our conversion: in believing in Jesus dead and risen and
in opening to the illumination of his divine grace. In that moment Saul understood
that his salvation did not depend on good works fulfilled according to the law,
but on the fact that Jesus died also for him the persecutor and has risen. This
truth by which every Christian life is enlightened thanks to Baptism completely
overturns our way of life. To be converted means, also for each one of us, to believe
that Jesus “has given himself for me”, dying on the Cross (see Gal 2: 20) and, risen,
lives with me and in me. Entrusting myself to the power of his forgiveness, letting
myself be taken by his hand, I can come out of the quicksands of pride and sin,
of deceit and sadness, of selfishness and of every false security, to know and live
the richness of his love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
the invitation to conversion, confirmed by St Paul’s witness, resounds today, at
the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, as particularly important
also on the ecumenical level. The Apostle indicates to us the spiritual attitude
appropriate to being able to progress along the way of communion. He writes to the
Philippians, “It is not that I have reached it yet, or have already finished my
course; but I am racing to grasp the prize if possible, since I have been grasped
by Christ [Jesus] (3: 12). Certainly, we Christians still have not reached the goal
of full unity, but if we let ourselves be continually converted by the Lord Jesus,
we will surely reach it. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the one holy Church,
obtain for us the gift of a true conversion, so that as soon as possible the desire
of Christ <i>“Ut unum sint”</i> will be realized.<i> </i>To you we entrust the prayer
meeting at which I will preside this afternoon in the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls,
and in which will participate, as every year, the representatives of the Churches
and Ecclesial Communities present at <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 24 January 2010 </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Among the
biblical readings in today’s Liturgy is the famous text from the <i>First Letters
to the Corinthians</i>, in which <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
compares the Church to a human body. The Apostle writes: “For just as the body is
one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one
body, so it is with Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body
Jews or Greeks, slaves or free and all were made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor
12: 12-13). The Church is perceived as a body, of which Christ is the head, and
with him she forms a whole. Yet what the Apostle is eager to communicate is the
idea of unity among the multiplicity of charisms, which are the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. Thanks to these, the Church appears as a rich and vital organism not uniform
fruit of the one Spirit who leads everyone to profound unity, because she welcomes
differences without eliminating them and thus bringing about a harmonious unity.
She extends the presence of the Risen Lord throughout history, specifically through
the Sacraments, the word of God and the charisms and ministries distributed among
the community. Therefore, it is in Christ and in the Spirit that the Church is one
and holy, that is, that she partakes in an intimate communion that transcends and
sustains human intelligence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I wish to
emphasize this aspect as we are currently observing the Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity, which will conclude tomorrow, the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul. In
keeping with tradition, I will celebrate Vespers tomorrow afternoon in the Basilica
of St Paul Outside-the-Walls, at which Representatives of other Churches and ecclesial
Communities present in <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>
will participate. We will ask God for the gift of full unity for all the disciples
of Christ and, in particular, in keeping with this year’s theme, we will renew our
commitment to be witnesses together of the crucified and Risen Lord (see Lk 24:
48). The communion of Christians, in fact, makes the proclamation of the Gospel
more credible and effective, just as Jesus himself affirmed while praying to the
Father on the eve of his death: “That they may all be one... so that the world may
believe” (Jn 17: 21). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In conclusion,
dear friends, I wish to recall the figure of St Francis de Sales, whom the Liturgy
commemorates on 24 January. Born in <st1:state w:st="on">Savoy</st1:state> in 1567,
he studied law in <st1:city w:st="on">Padua</st1:city> and <st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city> and then, called by the Lord, became a priest.
He dedicated himself to preaching and to the spiritual formation of the faithful
with great success. He taught that the call to holiness was for everyone and that
each one as <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>
says in his comparison of the Church to the body has a place in the Church. St Francis
de Sales is the patron Saint of journalists and of the Catholic press. I entrust
to his spiritual assistance the <i>Message for World Communications Day</i>, which
I sign every year on this occasion and that was presented yesterday at the <st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, obtain that we may always progress in communion,
in order to pass on the beauty of all being one in the unity of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 23 January 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity is being held in these days, from 18 to 25 January.
This year its theme is a passage from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles that
sums up in a few words the life of the first Christian community of Jerusalem: “And
they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). It is very significant that this theme was
suggested by the Churches and Christian Communities of Jerusalem, reunited in an
ecumenical spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We know
how many trials our brothers and sisters of the Holy Land and of the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> must face. Their service is therefore all the
more precious, strengthened by a witness which in some cases has even gone so far
as the sacrifice of their life. Therefore, as we joyfully welcome the ideas offered
for reflection by the Communities that live in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, we gather round them and this becomes
a further factor of communion for all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today too,
if we Christians are to be in the world a sign and instrument of close union with
God and of unity among men we must found our life on these four “hinges”: a life
founded on the faith of the Apostles passed on through the living Tradition of the
Church, brotherly communion, the Eucharist and prayer. Only in this way, by remaining
firmly united to Christ, can the Church carry out her mission effectively, despite
the limitations and shortcomings of her members, despite the divisions which the
Apostle Paul already had to face in the community of Corinth as the Second Reading
from the Bible this Sunday recalls, where he says: “I appeal to you, brethren, by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no dissensions
among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment” (1 Cor
1:10).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact,
the Apostle knew that in the Christian community of <st1:place w:st="on">Corinth</st1:place> discord and divisions had developed; therefore,
with great firmness he added: “Is Christ divided?” (1:13). By so saying he affirmed
that every division in the Church is an offence to Christ; and, at the same time,
that it is always in him — the one Head and Lord — that we can find ourselves once
again united, through the inexhaustible power of his grace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here then
is the ever timely appeal of today’s Gospel: “Repent, for the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place>
is at hand” (Mt 4:17). The serious commitment of conversion to Christ is the way
that leads the Church, in the time that God ordains, to full and visible unity.
A number of ecumenical meetings in these days which are increasing everywhere in
the world is a sign of this. As well as the presence of various ecumenical Delegations
here in <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>, a meeting session of the Commission
for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Oriental</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Orthodox</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Churches</st1:placetype></st1:place> of the East will
begin tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow we shall conclude the Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity with the solemn celebration of Vespers on the Feast of the Conversion
of St Paul. May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church always go with us on this
journey. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St. Peter’s Square, Sunday, 22 January 2012</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</i>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Sunday
falls in the middle of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which is celebrated
from 18 to 25 January. I cordially invite everyone to join in the prayer that Jesus
addressed to the Father on the eve of his Passion: “that they may all be one...
so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). This year in particular our meditation
during the Week of Prayer for Unity refers to a passage of St Paul’s First Letter
to the Corinthians, from which the theme was formulated: “We will all be changed
by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (see 1 Cor 15:51-58). We are called to
contemplate Christ’s victory over sin and death, that is, his Resurrection, as an
event that radically transforms all who believe in him and gives them access to
incorruptible and immortal life. In addition, recognizing and accepting the transforming
power of faith in Jesus Christ sustains Christians in the search for full unity
among themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year
the resource material for the Week of Prayer for Unity has been prepared by a Polish
group. Indeed <st1:country-region w:st="on">Poland</st1:country-region>
has lived through a long history of courageously fighting various adversities and
time and again has given proof of great determination, motivated by faith. For this
reason the words of the above-mentioned theme have special resonance and effectiveness
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Poland</st1:country-region>.
Down the centuries Polish Christians have spontaneously perceived a spiritual dimension
in their desire for freedom and have understood that true victory can only be achieved
if it is accompanied by a profound inner transformation. They remind us that our
quest for unity can be realistically conducted if the change takes place within
us first of all and if we let God act, if we let ourselves be transformed into the
image of Christ, if we enter into new life in Christ who is the true victory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The visible
unity of all Christians is always a task that comes from on high, from God, a task
that demands the humility of recognizing our weakness and of receiving the gift.
However, to use a phrase which Bl. John Paul II liked to repeat, every gift also
becomes a commitment. The unity that comes from God therefore demands of us the
daily commitment to open ourselves to each other in charity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Week
of Prayer for Christian Unity has been a central feature in the Church’s ecumenical
activity for many decades. The time that we devote to prayer for the full communion
of Christ’s disciples will enable us to understand more deeply that we will be transformed
by his victory, by the power of his Resurrection. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Next Wednesday,
as is the custom, we shall conclude the Week of Prayer with the solemn celebration
of Vespers on the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, in the Basilica of St Paul
Outside-the-Walls at which representatives of other Churches and Christian Communities
will also be present. I expect many of you to come to this liturgical encounter
to renew together our prayer to the Lord, the source of unity, with filial trust,
to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 27 January 2013</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s
Liturgy brings together two separate passages of Luke’s Gospel and presents them
to us. The first (1:1-4) is the Prologue, addressed to a certain “Theophilus”. Since
this name in Greek means “friend of God” we can see in him every believer who opens
himself to God and wants to know the Gospel. Instead the second passage (4:14-21)
presents Jesus who, “in the power of the Spirit”, goes to the Synagogue in <st1:place w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:place> on the Sabbath. As
a strict observer, the Lord does not disregard the pattern of the weekly liturgy
and joins the assembly of his fellow citizens in prayer and in listening to the
Scriptures. The ritual provides for the reading of a text from the Torah or the
Prophets, followed by a commentary. That day Jesus stood up to read and found a
passage from the Prophet Isaiah that begins this way: “The spirit of the Lord God
is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted”
(61:1-2). Origen’s comment was: “It is no coincidence that he opened the scroll
and found the chapter of the reading that prophesies about him, this, too, was the
work of God’s providence” (<i>Homilies on the Gospel of Luke</i>, 32, 3). In fact
when the reading was over in a silence charged with attention, Jesus said, “Today
this scripture has [now] been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). St Cyril of
<st1:place w:st="on">Alexandria</st1:place> says
that “today”, placed between the first and the final coming of Christ, is related
to the believer’s ability to listen and to repent (see <i>PG </i>69, 1241). But
in an even more radical sense, Jesus himself is “the today” of salvation in history,
because he brings to completion the work of redemption. The word “today”, very dear
to St Luke (see 19:9, 23:43), brings us back to the Christological title preferred
by the Evangelist himself, namely: “Savior” (<i>sōtēr</i>). Already in the infancy
narratives, it is present in the words of the Angel to the shepherds: “For to you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
this Gospel passage also challenges us “today”. First of all, it makes us think
about how we live Sunday, a day of rest and a day for the family. Above all, it
is the day to devote to the Lord, by participating in the Eucharist, in which we
are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ and by his life-giving Word. Second,
in our diversified and distracted time, this Gospel passage invites us to ask ourselves
whether we are able to listen. Before we can speak of God and with God we must listen
to him, and the liturgy of the Church is the “school” of this listening to the Lord
who speaks to us. Finally, he tells us that every moment can be the propitious “day”
for our conversion. Every day (<i>kathçmeran</i>) can become the today of our salvation,
because salvation is a story that is ongoing for the Church and for every disciple
of Christ. This is the Christian meaning of “<i>carpe diem</i>”: seize the day in
which God is calling you to give you salvation!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the
Virgin Mary always be our model and our guide in knowing how to recognize and welcome
the presence of God our Savior and of all humanity every day of our lives. </span></div>
</div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
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</span><br />
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-29231442538662574282024-01-08T01:30:00.004-05:002024-01-08T01:30:00.225-05:00Reflections on the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0325: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Second
Sunday of Ordinary Time</b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
</span>
<br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 15 January 2006, 14 January 2007,
20 January 2008, 18 January 2009, 17 January 2010, 16 January 2011, 15 January 2012,
and 20 January 2013. Here are the texts
of eight brief reflections delivered on these occasions prior to the recitation of the </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Angelus</i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 15 January 2006</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Last Sunday, in which
we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year
began. The beauty of this season lies in the fact that it invites us to live our
ordinary life as a journey of holiness, that is, of faith and friendship with Jesus
continually discovered and rediscovered as Teacher and Lord, the Way, the Truth
and the Life of man. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is what John’s
Gospel suggests to us in today’s liturgy when it presents the first meeting between
Jesus and some of those who were to become his Apostles. They had been disciples
of John the Baptist and John himself directed them to Jesus when, after baptizing
him in the <st1:place w:st="on">Jordan</st1:place>,
he pointed him out as “the Lamb of God” (<i>Jn</i> 1: 36). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Two of his disciples
then followed the Messiah who asked them:
“What are you looking for?” The two asked him: “Teacher, where do you stay?” And Jesus answered: “Come and see”, that is, he invited them to follow
him and stay with him for a while. They were so impressed in the few hours that
they spent with Jesus that one of them, Andrew, said to his brother Simon: “We have found the Messiah.” Here are two especially
important words: “seek” and “find.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From the page of
today’s Gospel, we can take these two words and find a fundamental instruction in
them for the New Year: we would like it to
be a time when we renew our spiritual journey with Jesus, in the joy of ceaselessly
looking for and finding him. Indeed, the purest joy lies in the relationship with
him, encountered, followed, known and loved, thanks to a constant effort of mind
and heart. To be a disciple of Christ: for
a Christian this suffices. Friendship with the Teacher guarantees profound peace
and serenity to the soul even in the dark moments and in the most arduous trials.
When faith meets with dark nights, in which the presence of God is no longer “felt”
or “seen”, friendship with Jesus guarantees that in reality nothing can ever separate
us from his love (see <i>Rom</i> 8: 39). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To seek and find
Christ, the inexhaustible source of truth and life: the Word of God asks us to take up, at the beginning
of the New Year, this never-ending journey of faith. We too ask Jesus: “Teacher, where do you stay?” and he answers us: “Come and see.” For the believer it is always
a ceaseless search and a new discovery, because Christ is the same yesterday, today
and for ever, but we, the world and history, are never the same, and he comes to
meet us to give us his communion and the fullness of life. Let us ask the Virgin
Mary to help us to follow Jesus, savoring each day the joy of penetrating deeper
and deeper into his mystery. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>BENEDICT XVI </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 14 January 2007 </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The annual
<i>World Day of Migrants and Refugees</i> is being celebrated this Sunday. For the
occasion, I have addressed<b><i> </i></b>to all people of good will and to Christian
communities in particular a special Message on <i>The migrant family</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We can look
to the Holy Family of Nazareth, icon of all families, because it reflects the image
of God cherished in the heart of every human family, even when it is weakened and
at times disfigured by life’s trials. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Evangelist
Matthew recounts that shortly after Jesus’ birth, St Joseph was forced to flee to
Egypt, taking the Child and his Mother with him, in order to escape King Herod’s
persecution (see <i>Mt</i> 2: 13-15). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the drama
of the Family of Nazareth we perceive the sorrowful plight of so many migrants,
especially refugees, exiles, displaced people, evacuees and the persecuted. We recognize
in particular the difficulties of the migrant family: hardship, humiliation, poverty
and fragility. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The phenomenon
of human mobility is actually vast and diversified. According to recent calculations
by the United Nations, migrants, due to financial reasons, amount today to almost
200 million, approximately 9 million are refugees and about 2 million, international
students. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We must
add to this large number of brothers and sisters the internally displaced and those
whose situation is illegal, bearing in mind that in one way or another each one
of them depends on a family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is therefore
important to protect migrants and their families with the help of specific legislative,
juridical and administrative protection, and also by means of a network of services,
consultation centers and structures that provide social and pastoral assistance.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I hope that
a balanced management of migratory flows and of human mobility in general will soon
be achieved so as to benefit the entire human family, starting with practical measures
that encourage legal emigration and the reunion of families, and paying special
attention to women and minors. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed,
the human person must always be the focal point in the vast field of international
migration. Only respect for the human dignity of all migrants, on the one hand,
and recognition by the migrants themselves of the values of the society that has
taken them in, on the other, enable families to be properly integrated into the
social, economic and political systems of the host nation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
the reality of migration should never be viewed solely as a problem, but also and
above all as a great resource for humanity’s development. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover,
the migrant family is in a special way a resource as long as it is respected as
such; it must not suffer irreparable damage but must be able to stay united or to
be reunited and carry out its mission as the cradle of life and the primary context
where the human person is welcomed and educated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us ask
the Lord for this together, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary
and St Frances Xavier Cabrini, Patroness of migrants. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 20 January 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Thank
you. Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us pray the Angelus together, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Two days
ago we began the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, during which Catholics, Orthodox,
Anglicans and Protestants, knowing that their divisions are an obstacle to the acceptance
of the Gospel, implore the Lord together in a more intense way for the gift of full
communion. This providential initiative was born 100 years ago, when Fr Paul Wattson
introduced the “Octave” of Prayer for the unity of all Christ’s disciples. For this
reason, among many of you are Fr Wattson’s spiritual sons and daughters, Brothers
and Sisters of the Atonement, here in St Peter’s Square today; I greet them cordially
and encourage them to persevere in their special dedication to the cause of unity.
We all have the duty to pray and work to overcome every division among Christians
in response to Christ’s desire <i>“Ut unum sint.”</i> Prayer, conversion of heart
and strengthening the bonds of communion constitute the essence of this spiritual
movement that we hope will soon lead Christ’s disciples to the common celebration
of the Eucharist, a manifestation of their unity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year’s
biblical theme is significant: “Pray without ceasing” (I Thes 5: 17). <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city> addressed the community
of Thessalonica, which was experiencing inner disputes and conflicts, in order to
appeal forcefully for certain fundamental attitudes, among which stands out ceaseless
prayer. With this invitation, he wanted to make people understand that the capacity
to overcome all selfishness, to live together in peace and fraternal union and for
each one to bear the burdens and suffering of others comes from new life in Christ
and in the Holy Spirit. We must never tire of praying for Christian unity! When
Jesus prayed at the Last Supper that “they may all be one”, he had a precise goal
in mind: “so that the world may believe” (Jn 17: 21). The Church’s evangelizing
mission thus passes along the ecumenical road, the journey of unity of faith, Gospel
witness and genuine brotherhood. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Friday,
25 January, as I do every year, I shall be going to the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls
to conclude the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity with solemn Vespers. I invite
Romans and pilgrims to join with me and the Christians of the Churches and Ecclesial
Communities that will be taking part in the celebration to ask God for the precious
gift of reconciliation among all the baptized. May the holy Mother of God, whose
apparition to Alphonse Ratisbonne in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Sant’Andrea</st1:placename></st1:place>
delle Fratte we are commemorating today, obtain from the Lord an abundance of the
Holy Spirit for all his disciples, so that together we may reach perfect unity and
thus offer the witness of faith and life that the world urgently needs.<b> </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>BENEDICT XVI </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 18 January 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
Brothers and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today is
the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. Since the Pauline Year is being celebrated
this year, thinking precisely of <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city> as the great
itinerant missionary of the Gospel, I have chosen the theme: “<st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city> migrant, “Apostle of the peoples.’“ Saul
this was his Hebrew name was born into a family of Jews that had emigrated to <st1:city w:st="on">Tarsus</st1:city>, an important city in <st1:place w:st="on">Cilicia</st1:place>,
and he grew up with three cultures Hebrew, Hellenistic and Roman and a cosmopolitan
mentality. When he converted from being a persecutor of Christians to an apostle
of the Gospel, Paul became an “ambassador” of the Risen Christ to make him known
to all, in the conviction that in him all peoples are called to form the great family
of God’s children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is
also the Church’s mission, particularly in our time of globalization. As Christians,
we cannot fail to feel the need to transmit the message of the love of Jesus, especially
to those who do not know him, or rather who are in difficult or grievous situations.
Today I am thinking of migrants in particular. Their actual situation is undoubtedly
varied: in some cases, thank God, it is serene and well integrated; at other times,
unfortunately, it is painful, difficult and sometimes even dramatic. I would like
to assure you that the Christian community looks at each person and each family
with attention, and asks <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>
for the strength for a renewed effort to favor peaceful coexistence among men and
women of different races, cultures and religions in every part of the world. The
Apostle tells us what the secret of his new life was: “I”, he writes, “have been
grasped by Christ Jesus” (Phil 3: 12); and he adds: “Be imitators of me” (Phil 3:
17). Yes, each one of us, according to his/her own vocation and the place where
one lives and works, is called to witness to the Gospel, with greater concern for
those brothers and sisters who, from other countries and for various reasons, have
come to live among us, thus turning the phenomenon of migration into an opportunity
for encounter among civilizations. Let us pray and act so that this may occur in
an ever more peaceful and constructive way, in respect and in dialogue, averting
every temptation of conflict and oppression. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would
like to add a special word for seafarers and fishermen who have been living for
some time in great hardship. In addition to the usual difficulties, their freedom
to go ashore and bring chaplains on board is restricted, and they also risk piracy
and the damage of illegal fishing. I express my closeness to them and the wish that
their generosity, in sea rescue operations, may be rewarded by greater consideration.
I am thinking, lastly, of the World Meeting of Families that is drawing to a close
in <st1:city w:st="on">Mexico City</st1:city>,
and of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that begins precisely today. Dear
brothers and sisters, I invite you to pray for all of these intentions, invoking
the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 17 January 2010 </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Sunday
we are celebrating the World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The Church has been constantly
present beside these people in time, achieving unique goals in the past century:
it suffices to think of Bl. Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini and St Frances Cabrini.
In my Message for the occasion I called attention to migrant and refugee minors.
Jesus Christ, who as a newborn infant lived the dramatic experience of the refugee
because of Herod’s threats, taught his disciples to welcome children with great
respect and love. Indeed, whatever the nationality and the color of their skin,
children too must be considered first and foremost and always as people, images
of God, to be encouraged and protected against all marginalization and exploitation.
In particular, it is necessary to take every care to ensure that minors who find
themselves living in a foreign country are protected by legislation and, above all,
accompanied in the innumerable problems they have to face. While I warmly encourage
Christian communities and the organizations committed to serving minor migrants
and refugees, I urge everyone to keep alive an educational and cultural sensitivity
to them, in accordance with the authentic spirit of the Gospel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This afternoon,
almost 24 years after the Venerable John Paul II’s historic Visit, I shall be going
to the Great Synagogue of Rome, known as the “Tempio Maggiore” (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Major</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype></st1:place>),
to meet the Jewish Community of the city and take a further step on the journey
of harmony and friendship between Catholics and Jews. In fact, in spite of the problems
and difficulties, there is a climate of deep respect and dialogue among the believers
of both religions that testifies to how our relations have developed and to the
common commitment to recognize what unites us: faith in the one God, first of all,
but also the safeguard of life and of the family, and the aspiration to social justice
and peace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lastly,
I recall that the traditional Week of Prayer for Christian Unity will begin tomorrow.
Every year it constitutes for all who believe in Christ a propitious time for reviving
the ecumenical spirit, meeting, getting to know one another, praying and reflecting
together. The biblical theme, from St Luke’s Gospel, echoes the words of the Risen
Jesus to the Apostles: “You are witnesses of these things” (Lk 24: 48). Our proclamation
of Christ’s Gospel will be all the more credible and effective the more closely
we are united in his love, like true brothers. I therefore invite parishes, religious
communities, associations and ecclesial movements to pray ceaselessly, especially
during the Eucharistic celebrations, for the full unity of Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust
these three intentions our brother and sister migrants and refugees, religious dialogue
with the Jews and Christian unity to the maternal intercession of Mary Most Holy,
Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 16 January 2011<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Sunday
is World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which every year invites us to reflect on
the experience of numerous men and women and a great many families who leave their
homeland in search of a better standard of living.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Migration
is sometimes voluntary and at other times, unfortunately, is forcefully imposed
by war or persecution and often happens — as we know — in dramatic circumstances.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was set
up 60 years ago for this reason. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the Feast
of the Holy Family, straight after Christmas, we recalled that Jesus’ parents were
also obliged to flee from their country and seek refuge in <st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place>, to save the life of their Child:
the Messiah, the Son of God was a refugee. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church
herself has always experienced migration internally. Unfortunately, Christians at
times feel forced, with distress, to leave their land, thereby impoverishing the
countries in which their ancestors lived. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet the
voluntary moving of Christians, for various reasons, from one city to another, from
one country to another, from one continent to another, is an opportunity to increase
the missionary drive of the Word of God. It ensures a broader circulation of the
witness of faith within the Mystical Body of Christ through peoples and cultures,
reaching new frontiers and new environments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“One human
family”: this is the theme of the <i>Message </i>I wrote for this Day. It is a theme
that indicates the purpose, the destination of humanity’s great journey through
the centuries: to form one family, with, of course, all the differences that enrich
it but without boundaries, recognizing each one as a brother or sister. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is
what the Second Vatican Council affirmed: “All men form but one community. This
is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire
earth” (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, <i>Nostra
Aetate, </i>no. 1). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church,
the Council stated further, “is in the nature of sacrament — a sign and instrument,
that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men” (Constitution, <i>Lumen
Gentium,</i> no. 1).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is therefore
fundamentally important — although they are scattered across the world and thus
have different cultures and traditions — that Christians be one, as the Lord desired.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is
the aim of the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” that will take place in the
next few days, from 18 to 25 January. This year it is inspired by a passage from
the Acts of the Apostles: “They devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Octave
for Christian Unity is preceded, tomorrow, by the Day for Jewish-Christian Dialogue.
This significant juxtaposition calls to mind the importance of the common roots
that unite Jews and Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As we address
the prayer of the <i>Angelus</i> to the Virgin Mary, let us entrust to her protection
all migrants and all those who are dedicated to pastoral work among them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May Mary,
Mother of the Church also obtain for us that we may progress on our journey towards
the full communion of all Christ’s disciples.<b> </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St. Peter’s Square, Sunday, 15 January 2012</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"> <i>Dear Brothers and Sisters</i>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The theme
of vocation stands out in the biblical <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place>
of this Sunday — the Second in Ordinary Time. In the Gospel there is call to the
first disciples by Jesus; in the First Reading is the call of the Prophet Samuel.
In the forefront of both these accounts is the importance of the figure who plays
the role of mediator, helping people to recognize God’s voice and to follow it.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In Samuel’s
case it was Eli, a priest of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Shiloh</st1:placename> where the Ark of the Covenant
had formerly been kept, before it was taken to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>. One night, while he was asleep, Samuel,
who was still a boy and had lived ministering in the temple since infancy, heard
his name called three times and ran to Eli. But it was not Eli who had called him.
The third time Eli understood and said to Samuel: “if he calls you, you shall say,
‘speak Lord, for your servant hears’” (1 Sam 3:9). So it came to pass and from that
time Samuel learned to recognize God’s words and became his faithful prophet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the case
of Jesus’ disciples, the mediator is John the Baptist. John, in fact, had a vast
circle of disciples among whom were also the two pairs of brothers, Simon and Andrew,
and John and James, fishermen from <st1:place w:st="on">Galilee</st1:place>. It
was to two of them that the Baptist pointed out Jesus the day after his Baptism
in the River Jordan. He pointed Jesus out to them saying: “Behold, the Lamb of God”
(Jn 1:36), which is equivalent to saying: “Behold, the Messiah.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And the
two disciples followed Jesus, spent some time with him and became convinced that
he truly was the Christ. They immediately told the others, and in this way the first
nucleus of what was to become the College of the Apostles was created. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the light
of these two texts, I would like to stress the crucial role of the spiritual director
in the journey of faith and, in particular, in the response to the vocation of special
consecration for the service of God and of his People. The Christian faith already
in itself implies proclamation and witness. Indeed, it consists in adherence to
the Good News that Jesus of Nazareth has died and risen, that he is God. And so
it is that the call to follow Jesus more closely, giving up the formation of a family
of one’s own so as to dedicate oneself to the great family of the Church, normally
passes through the witness and introduction of an “elder brother”, who is usually
a priest. This is so but we should not forget the fundamental role of parents who,
with their genuine and joyful faith and their conjugal love, show their children
that it is beautiful and possible to build the whole of life on God’s love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
let us pray to the Virgin Mary for all educators, especially priests and parents,
that they may be fully aware of the importance of their spiritual role in order
to encourage the young not only in their human growth but also to respond to God’s
call, to say: “Speak Lord, for your servant hears.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 20 January 2013</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today the
liturgy proposes the Gospel episode of the wedding at <st1:place w:st="on">Cana</st1:place>,
recounted by John, an eyewitness of the event. This episode has been allocated to
this Sunday which immediately follows the Christmas season because, together with
the visit of the Magi from the East and the Baptism of Jesus, it forms the trilogy
of the Epiphany, in other words the manifestation of Christ. The miracle of the
wedding at <st1:place w:st="on">Cana</st1:place> is in fact “the first of his signs”
(Jn 2:11), that is, the first miracle that Jesus worked with which he showed his
glory in public, inspiring faith in his disciples. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us briefly
recall the events that occurred during that wedding feast in Cana of Galilee. It
happened that there was not enough wine and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, pointed this
out to her Son. He answered her that his hour had not yet come; but then acquiesced
to Mary’s request and, having had the six large jars filled with water, he transformed
the water into wine, an excellent wine, better than the previous one. With this
“sign” Jesus revealed himself as the messianic Bridegroom come to establish with
his people the new and eternal covenant, in accordance with the prophets’ words:
“as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you”
(Is 62:5). Moreover, wine is a symbol of this joy of love; but it also alludes to
the blood that Jesus was to pour out at the end to seal his nuptial pact with humanity.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church
is the Bride of Christ who makes her holy and beautiful with his grace. Nevertheless
this bride formed of human beings is in constant need of purification. And one of
the gravest sins that disfigure the Church’s face is that against her visible unity,
the historical divisions that separated Christians and that have not yet been resolved.
The annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is taking place in these very days,
from 18 to 25 January, an event much appreciated by believers and communities, which
reawakens in all the desire for, and spiritual commitment to, full communion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Very important
in this regard was the prayer vigil I celebrated about a month ago in this square
with thousands of young people from all over <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>
and with the ecumenical community of Taizé: a moment of grace in which we experienced
the beauty of forming one in Christ. I encourage everyone to pray together so that
we may achieve “what the Lord requires of us” (see Mic 6:6-8), as the theme of the
Week this year says. The theme was suggested by several Christian communities in
<st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place>,
who invite the faithful as brothers and sisters in Christ, to work hard to achieve
visible unity among Christians, and to overcome every type of unjust discrimination.
Next Friday, at the end of these days of prayer, I shall preside at Vespers in the
Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls, in the presence of the Representatives of
other Churches and Ecclesial Communities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
once again I would like to add to the prayer for Christian unity the prayer for
peace. Praying that in the various wars that are, unfortunately, still raging, the
despicable massacre of defenseless civilians may cease, an end be put to every form
of violence and the courage be found for dialogue and negotiation. For these intentions,
let us invoke the intercession of Mary Most Holy, Mediatrix of grace. </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-1051146567499345962024-01-02T01:30:00.004-05:002024-01-02T01:30:00.153-05:00Reflections on the Solemnity of the Epiphany by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0323: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the S</b><b>olemnity of the
Epiphany</b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI </b><b> </b></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate,
Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections
on the solemnity of the Epiphany (January 6 in Rome) in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. Here are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i> and eight homilies delivered on
these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE EPIPHANY </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Friday, 6 January 2006 </span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today we are celebrating
the Epiphany of the Lord, that is, his manifestation to the peoples, represented
by the Magi, mysterious figures who came from the East of whom the Gospel of St
Matthew speaks (<i>Mt</i> 2: 1-12). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The adoration of
Jesus by the Magi was immediately recognized as the fulfilment of the prophetic
Scriptures. “Nations shall walk by your light,” we read in the Book of Isaiah, “and
kings by your shining radiance... bearing gold and frankincense, and proclaiming
the praises of the Lord” (<i>Is</i> 60: 3, 6). Today, the light of Christ, which
was as it were contained in the Grotto of Bethlehem, reaches its full universal
importance. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">My thoughts go in
particular to the beloved brothers and sisters of the Eastern Churches which, in
line with the Julian Calendar, will be celebrating Holy Christmas tomorrow: I address my most cordial good wishes to them
for peace and good in the Lord. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the memory
of World Youth Day spontaneously springs to mind. Many of you were there last August
when more than a million young people came to <st1:place w:st="on">Cologne</st1:place>, who had taken as their motto the words
of the Magi referring to Jesus: “We have
come to worship him” (<i>Mt</i> 2: 2). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How often we have
heard and repeated these words! We cannot hear them now without returning in spirit
to that memorable event which was an authentic “epiphany”. Indeed, in its deepest
dimension, the youth pilgrimage can be seen as a journey guided by the light of
a “star”, the star of faith. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And today, I would
like to extend to the whole Church the message I proposed at the time to the young
people gathered on the banks of the Rhine:
“Open wide your hearts to God!”, I said to them, and today I repeat to all
of you, “Let yourselves be surprised by Christ!... Open the doors of your freedom
to his merciful love! Share your joys and pains with Christ, and let him enlighten
your minds with his light and touch your hearts with his grace” (<i>Address, Welcome
Celebration, </i>Poller Rheinwiesen Wharf, Cologne, 18 August 2005; <i>L’Osservatore
Romano </i>English edition<i>, </i>24 August, p. 4). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I wish that the whole
Church, as in <st1:place w:st="on">Cologne</st1:place>,
could breathe the atmosphere of an “epiphany” and of authentic missionary commitment,
inspired by the manifestation of Christ, the light of the world, sent by God the
Father to reconcile and unify humanity with the power of love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this spirit, let
us pray fervently for the full unity of all Christians, so that their witness may
become a leaven of communion for the whole world. For this, let us invoke the intercession
of Mary Most Holy, Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">«CAPPELLA
PAPALE» ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY</span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Friday, 6 January 2006</i> </span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The light that shone
in the night at Christmas illuminating the Bethlehem Grotto, where Mary, Joseph
and the shepherds remained in silent adoration, shines out today and is manifested
to all. The Epiphany is a mystery of light, symbolically suggested by the star that
guided the Magi on their journey. The true source of light, however, the “sun that
rises from on high” (see Lk 1: 78), is Christ. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the mystery of
Christmas, Christ’s light shines on the earth, spreading, as it were, in concentric
circles. First of all, it shines on the Holy Family of Nazareth: the Virgin Mary and Joseph are illuminated by
the divine presence of the Infant Jesus. The light of the Redeemer is then manifested
to the shepherds of Bethlehem, who, informed by an Angel, hasten immediately to
the grotto and find there the “sign” that had been foretold to them: the Child, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying
in a manger (see <i>Lk</i> 2: 12). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The shepherds, together
with Mary and Joseph, represent that “remnant of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>”, the poor, the <i>anawim, </i>to
whom the Good News was proclaimed. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Finally, Christ’s
brightness shines out, reaching the Magi who are the first-fruits of the pagan peoples.
</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The palaces of the
rulers of <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>,
to which, paradoxically, the Magi actually take the news of the Messiah’s birth,
are left in the shade. Moreover, this news does not give rise to joy but to fear
and hostile reactions. The divine plan was mysterious: “The light came into the world, but men loved
darkness rather than light because their deeds were wicked” (<i>Jn</i> 3: 19). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But what is this
light? Is it merely an evocative metaphor or does this image correspond to reality?
The Apostle John writes in his First Letter: “God is light; in him there is no darkness” (I
<i>Jn</i> 1: 5); and further on he adds:
“God is love”. These two affirmations, taken together, help us to understand
better: the light that shone forth at Christmas,
which is manifested to the peoples today, is God’s love revealed in the Person of
the Incarnate Word. Attracted by this light, the Magi arrived from the East. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the mystery of
the Epiphany, therefore, alongside an expanding outward movement, a movement of
attraction toward the centre is expressed which brings to completion the movement
already written in the Old Covenant. The source of this dynamism is God, One in
Three Persons, who draws all things and all people to himself. The Incarnate Person
of the Word is presented in this way as the beginning of universal reconciliation
and recapitulation (see <i>Eph</i> 1: 9-10). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He is the ultimate
destination of history, the point of arrival of an “exodus”, of a providential journey
of redemption that culminates in his death and Resurrection. Therefore, on the Solemnity
of the Epiphany, the liturgy foresees the so-called “Announcement of Easter”: indeed, the liturgical year sums up the entire
parable of the history of salvation, whose centre is “the Triduum of the Crucified
Lord, buried and risen”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the liturgy of
the Christmas season this verse of Psalm 98[97] frequently recurs as a refrain: “The Lord has made his salvation known: in the sight of the nations he has revealed his
justice” (v. 2). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These are words that
the Church uses to emphasize the “epiphanic” dimension of the Incarnation: the Son of God becoming human, his entry into
history, is the crowning point of God’s revelation of himself to <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
and to all the peoples. In the Child of Bethlehem, God revealed himself in the humility
of the “human form”, in the “form of a slave”, indeed, of one who died on a cross
(see <i>Phil</i> 2: 6-8). This is the Christian paradox. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, this very
concealment constitutes the most eloquent “manifestation” of God. The humility,
poverty, even the ignominy of the Passion enable us to know what God is truly like.
The Face of the Son faithfully reveals that of the Father. This is why the mystery
of Christmas is, so to speak, an entire “epiphany”. The manifestation to the Magi
does not add something foreign to God’s design but unveils a perennial and constitutive
dimension of it, namely, that “in Christ Jesus the Gentiles are now coheirs... members
of the same body and sharers of the promise through... the Gospel” (<i>Eph</i> 3:
6). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At a superficial
glance, God’s faithfulness to <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
and his manifestation to the peoples could seem divergent aspects; they are actually
two sides of the same coin. In fact, according to the Scriptures, it is precisely
by remaining faithful to his Covenant of love with the people of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
that God also reveals his glory to other peoples. Grace and fidelity (see <i>Ps</i>
89[88]: 2), “mercy and truth” (see <i>Ps</i> 85[84]: 11), are the content of God’s
glory, they are his “name”, destined to be known and sanctified by people of every
language and nation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, this “content”
is inseparable from the “method” that God chose to reveal himself, that is, absolute
fidelity to the Covenant that reaches its culmination in Christ. The Lord Jesus,
at the same time and inseparably, is “a light revealing to the Gentiles the glory
of your people <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>”
(Lk 2: 32), as the elderly Simeon was to exclaim, inspired by God, taking the Child
in his arms when his parents presented him at the temple. The light that enlightens
the peoples - the light of the Epiphany - shines out from the glory of Israel -
the glory of the Messiah born, in accordance with the Scriptures, in Bethlehem,
“the city of David” (see <i>Lk</i> 2: 4). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Magi worshipped
a simple Child in the arms of his Mother Mary, because in him they recognized the
source of the twofold light that had guided them: the light of the star and the light of the Scriptures.
In him they recognized the King of the Jews, the glory of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>, but also the King of all the
peoples. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The mystery of the
Church and her missionary dimension are also revealed in the liturgical context
of the Epiphany. She is called to make Christ’s light shine in the world, reflecting
it in herself as the moon reflects the light of the sun. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The ancient prophecies
concerning the holy city of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>,
such as the marvelous one in Isaiah that we have just heard: “Rise up in splendor! Your light has come....
Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance” (<i>Is</i>
60: 1-3), have found fulfilment in the Church. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is what disciples
of Christ must do: trained by him to live
in the way of the Beatitudes, they must attract all people to God through a witness
of love: “In the same way, your light must
shine before men so that they may see goodness in your deeds and give praise to
your heavenly Father” (<i>Mt</i> 5: 16). By listening to Jesus’ words, we members
of the Church cannot but become aware of the total inadequacy of our human condition,
marked by sin. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church is holy,
but made up of men and women with their limitations and errors. It is Christ, Christ
alone, who in giving us the Holy Spirit is able to transform our misery and constantly
renew us. He is the light of the peoples, the <i>lumen gentium, </i>who has chosen
to illumine the world through his Church (see <i>Lumen Gentium</i>, no. 1). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“How can this come
about?” we also ask ourselves with the words that the Virgin addresses to the Archangel
Gabriel. And she herself, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, gives us the answer: with her example of total availability to God’s
will - “<i>fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum”</i> (<i>Lk</i> 1: 38) - she teaches us
to be a “manifestation” of the Lord, opening our hearts to the power of grace and
faithfully abiding by the words of her Son, light of the world and the ultimate
end of history. So be it! </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE EPIPHANY</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Saturday, 6 January 2007 </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters</i>, </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Solemnity
of the Epiphany celebrates the manifestation of Christ to the Magi, an event that
St Matthew emphasizes greatly (see <i>Mt</i> 2: 1-12). His Gospel narrates that
some “Magi” - probably Persian religious leaders - reached <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> guided by a “star”, a luminous, heavenly
phenomenon which they interpreted as a sign of the birth of a new king of the Jews.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">No one in the city
knew anything; rather, the king in charge, Herod, remained very disturbed by the
news and conceived the tragic design of the “slaughter of the innocents” to eliminate
the newborn rival. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Magi, instead,
placed their trust in the Sacred Scriptures, in particular in the prophecy of Micah,
according to which the Messiah would be born at <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city>,
the city of <st1:city w:st="on">David</st1:city>, situated about 10 kilometers south
of <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> (see
<i>Mi</i> 5: 1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">They departed in
that direction and saw the star anew and, full of joy, followed it until it stopped
over a poor dwelling. They entered and found the Baby with Mary; they prostrated
before him and, in homage of his royal dignity, they offered him gold, frankincense
and myrrh. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Why is this happening
so important? Because in it the adhesion of the pagan people to faith in Christ
has begun to be fulfilled according to the promise made by God to Abraham, about
which the Book of Genesis refers: “By you all the families of the earth shall bless
themselves” (<i>Gn</i> 12: 3). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If Mary, Joseph and
the shepherds of Bethlehem therefore represent the people of Israel who have welcomed
the Lord, the Magi instead are the first of the peoples, also called to be part
of the Church, the new People of God established, no longer on ethnic, linguistic
or cultural homogeneity, but uniquely on the common faith in Jesus, Son of God.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Epiphany of Christ,
therefore, is at the same time the epiphany of the Church, the manifestation of
her universal vocation and mission. In this context I am happy to address my cordial
greeting to the beloved brothers and sisters of the <i>Eastern Churches </i>who,
following the Julian Calendar, <i>will celebrate Holy Christmas tomorrow</i>: with
affection I wish them an abundance of peace and Christian prosperity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am happy to recall
that on the occasion of the Epiphany, the <i>World Day of the Missionary Childhood
</i>is celebrated. It is the feast on which Christian children live with joy the
gift of faith and pray that the light of Jesus reaches all the children of the world.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I thank the children
of the “Divine Infancy”, present in 110 countries, because they are precious cooperators
of the Gospel and apostles of Christian solidarity to those most in need. I encourage
educators to cultivate in the little ones the missionary spirit, so that impassioned
missionaries are born among them, witnesses of the tenderness of God and announcers
of his love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Now we invoke the
Virgin Mary, <i>Star of Evangelization</i>:<i> </i>through her intercession may
Christians in every part of the earth live as sons of the light and lead humanity
to Christ, true light of the world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE EPIPHANY</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Saturday, 6 January 2007</i> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters</i>, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We celebrate with
joy the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the “manifestation” of Christ to the peoples
who are represented by the Magi, mysterious figures who came from the East. We celebrate
Christ, the destination of the pilgrimage of peoples in search of salvation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the First Reading
we listened to the Prophet, inspired by God, to contemplate <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> as a beacon of light which guides all
the peoples on their journey through the darkness and fog of the earth. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The glory of the
Lord shines on the holy City and attracts first of all his own children, displaced
and dispersed, but also, at the same time, the pagan nations who come to Zion from
all sides as to a common homeland, enriching it with their goods (see<i> Is</i>
60: 1-6). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Second Reading
presents what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, that is, through God’s loving
designs the convergence of Jews and Gentiles in the one <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Christ</st1:placename></st1:place>
was “the mystery” made manifest in the fullness of time, the “grace” of which God
had made him steward (see <i>Eph</i> 3: 2-3, 5-6). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In a little while
we will say in the Preface: “Today, you revealed in Christ your eternal plan of
salvation and showed him as the light of all peoples”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Twenty centuries
have passed since that mystery was revealed and brought about in Christ, but it
has not yet reached fulfilment. My beloved Predecessor, John Paul II, began his
Encyclical on the Church’s mission by writing: “As the second Millennium after Christ’s
Coming draws to an end, an overall view of the human race shows that this mission
is still only beginning” (<i>Redemptoris Missio, </i>no. 1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Several spontaneous
questions arise: in what sense is Christ still the <i>lumen gentium, </i>the Light
of the peoples, today? What point - if one can so describe it - has the universal
journey of the peoples toward God reached? Is it in a phase of progress or of regression?
And further: who are the Magi today? How, thinking of today’s world, should we interpret
these mysterious figures of the Gospel? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To answer these questions,
I would like to return to what the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council said in
this regard. And I am pleased to add that immediately after the Council, the Servant
of God, Paul VI, exactly 40 years ago on precisely 26 March 1967, dedicated to the
development of the peoples his Encyclical <i>Populorum Progressio</i>. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The whole of the
Second Vatican Council was truly stirred by the longing to proclaim Christ, the
Light of the world, to contemporary humanity. In the heart of the Church, from the
summit of her hierarchy, emerged the impelling desire, awakened by the Spirit, <i>for
a new epiphany of Christ in the world, </i>a world that the modern epoch had profoundly
transformed and that, for the first time in history, found itself facing the challenge
of a global civilization in which the centre could no longer be Europe or even what
we call the West and the North of the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The need to work
out a new world political and economic order was emerging but, at the same time
and above all, one that would be both spiritual and cultural, that is, a renewed
humanism. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This observation
became more and more obvious: a new world economic and political order cannot work
unless there is a spiritual renewal, unless we can once again draw close to God
and find God in our midst. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Before the Second
Vatican Council, the enlightened minds of Christian thinkers had already intuited
and faced this epochal challenge. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Well, at the beginning
of the third millennium, we find ourselves in the midst of this phase of human history
that now focuses on the word “globalization”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover, we realize
today how easy it is to lose sight of the terms of this same challenge, precisely
because we are involved in it: this risk is heavily reinforced by the vast expansion
of the mass media. Although, on the one hand, the media increase information indefinitely,
on the other, they seem to weaken our capacity for critical synthesis. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Solemnity
can offer us this perspective, based on the manifestation of a God who revealed
himself in history as the Light of the world to guide humanity and lead it at last
into the Promised Land where freedom, justice and peace reign. And we see more and
more clearly that on our own we cannot foster justice and peace unless the light
of a God who shows us his Face is revealed to us, a God who appears to us in the
manger of Bethlehem, who appears to us on the Cross. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Who then are the
“Magi” of today, and what point has their “journey” and our “journey” reached? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us return to that special moment of grace, the conclusion of the Second
Vatican Council on 8 December 1965, when the Council Fathers addressed certain “Messages”
to all humanity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first was addressed
“To Rulers” and the second, “To Men of Thought and Science”. These are two categories
of people who, in a certain way, we can see portrayed in the evangelical figures
of the Magi. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would then like
to add a third category, to which the Council did not address a message but which
was very present in its attention in the conciliar Decree <i>Nostra Aetate. </i>I
am referring to the spiritual leaders of the great non-Christian religions. Two
thousand years later, we can thus recognize in the figures of the Magi a sort of
prefiguration of these three constitutive dimensions of modern humanism: the political,
scientific and religious dimensions. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Epiphany shows
them to us in a state of “pilgrimage”, that is, in a movement of seeking, often
somewhat confused, whose point of arrival, in short, is Christ, even if the star
is sometimes hidden. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the same time,
the Epiphany shows to us God who in turn is on pilgrimage, a pilgrimage to man.
There is not only the pilgrimage of man towards God; God himself has set out towards
us: who is Jesus, in fact, if not God who has, so to speak, come out of himself
to meet humanity? It was out of love that he made himself history in our history;
out of love that he came to bring us the seed of new life (see <i>Jn</i> 3: 3-6)
and sow it in the furrows of our earth so that it might sprout, flower and bear
fruit.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, I would like
to make my own those Messages of the Council which have lost nothing of their timeliness.
For instance, one reads in the Message addressed to Rulers: “Your task is to be
in the world the promoters of order and peace among men. But never forget this:
It is God, the living and true God, who is the Father of men. And it is Christ,
his eternal Son, who came to make this known to us and to teach us that we are all
brothers. He it is who is the great artisan of order and peace on earth, for he
it is who guides human history and who alone can incline hearts to renounce those
evil passions which beget war and misfortune”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How can we fail to
recognize in these words of the Council Fathers the luminous trail of a journey
which alone can transform the history of the nations and the world? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And further, in the
“Message to Men of Thought and Science” we read: “Continue your search without tiring
and without ever despairing of the truth”, and this, in fact, is the great danger:
losing interest in the truth and seeking only action, efficiency and pragmatism!
“Recall the words of one of your great friends, <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>: “Let us seek with the desire to
find, and find with the desire to seek still more’. Happy are those who, while possessing
the truth, search more earnestly for it in order to renew it, deepen it and transmit
it to others. Happy also are those who, not having found it, are working toward
it with a sincere heart. May they seek the light of tomorrow with the light of today
until they reach the fullness of light.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This was said in
these two Council Messages. Today, it is more necessary than ever to flank the leaders
of nations and researchers and scientists with the leaders of the great non-Christian
religious traditions, inviting them to face one another with the light of Christ,
who came not to abolish but to bring to fulfilment what God’s hand has written in
the religious history of civilization, especially in the “great souls” who helped
to build up humanity with their wisdom and example of virtue. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christ is light,
and light cannot darken but can only illuminate, brighten, reveal. No one, therefore,
should be afraid of Christ and his message! And if, down through history, Christians
as limited people and sinners have sometimes betrayed him by their behavior, this
makes it even clearer that the light is Christ and that the Church reflects it only
by remaining united to him. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“We have seen his
star in the East, and have come to adore the Lord” (Gospel acclamation, see <i>Mt</i>
2: 2). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What amazes us each
time when we listen to these words of the Magi is that they prostrated themselves
before a simple baby in his mother’s arms, not in the setting of a royal palace
but, on the contrary, in the poverty of a stable in Bethlehem (see <i>Mt</i> 2:
11). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How was this possible?
What convinced the Magi that the Child was “the King of the Jews” and the King of
the peoples? There is no doubt that they were persuaded by the sign of the star
that they had seen “in its rising” and which had come to rest precisely over the
place where the Child was found (see <i>Mt</i> 2: 9). But even the star would not
have sufficed had the Magi not been people inwardly open to the truth. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In comparison with
King Herod, beset with his interests of power and riches, the Magi were directed
toward the goal of their quest and when they found it, although they were cultured
men, they behaved like the shepherds of Bethlehem: they recognized the sign and
adored the Child, offering him the precious and symbolic gifts that they had brought
with them. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us too pause in spirit to contemplate the image of the adoration of
the Magi. It contains a demanding and ever timely message. It is demanding and ever
timely, first of all for the Church, which, reflected in Mary, is called to show
to mankind Jesus, nothing but Jesus. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, he is the
All and the Church exists solely to remain united to him and to make him known to
the world. May the Mother of the Incarnate Word help us to be docile disciples of
her Son, the Light of the nations! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The example of the
Magi of that time is also an invitation to the Magi of today to open their minds
and hearts to Christ and to offer him the gifts of their research. I would like
to repeat to them, and to all the people of our time: do not be afraid of Christ’s
light! His light is the splendor of the truth. Let yourselves be enlightened by
him, all peoples of the earth; let yourselves be enveloped by his love and you will
find the way of peace. So may it be.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 6 January 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, despite the
rain, we joyfully celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, his manifestation to the peoples
of the entire world, represented by the Magi who came from the East to render homage
to the King of the Jews. Observing the heavenly phenomena, these mysterious personages
had seen a new star and, instructed by the ancient prophets as well, they recognized
in it the sign of the Messiah’s birth, a descendant of David (see Mt 2: 1-12). From
its initial appearance, therefore, the light of Christ began to attract to himself
the people “with whom he is pleased” (Lk 2: 14), of every tongue, people and culture.
It is the power of the Holy Spirit that moves hearts and minds to seek truth, beauty,
justice, peace. It is what the Servant of God John Paul II affirmed in the Encyclical
<i>Fides et Ratio</i>:<i> </i>“men and women are on a journey of discovery which
is humanly unstoppable - a search for the truth and a search for a person to whom
they might entrust themselves” (no. 33). The Magi found both of these realities
in the Child of Bethlehem. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Men and women of
every generation need on their pilgrim journey to be directed: what star can we
therefore follow? After coming to rest “over the place where the child was” (Mt
2: 9), the purpose of the star that guided the Magi ended, but its spiritual light
is always present in the Word of the Gospel, which is still able today to guide
every person to Jesus. This same Word, which is none other than the reflection of
Christ, true man and true God, is authoritatively echoed by the Church for every
well-disposed heart. The Church too, therefore, carries out the mission of the star
for humanity. But something of the sort could be said of each Christian, called
to illuminate the path of the brethren by word and example of life. How important
it is that we Christians are faithful to our vocation! Every authentic believer
is always traveling his own personal itinerary of faith, and at the same time, with
the little light that he carries within himself, can and must be a help to those
alongside him, and even help the one for whom finding the way that leads to Christ
is difficult. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">While we prepare
ourselves to pray the <i>Angelus</i>, I address my most cordial greetings to the
brothers and sisters of the Eastern Church who, following the Julian calendar, will
celebrate Christmas tomorrow. It is a great joy to share the mysteries of the faith
in the multiform richness of the Rites that witness to the Church’s bimillenial
history. Together with the Eastern Christian Community, greatly devoted to the Holy
Mother of God, we invoke the protection of Mary on the universal Church, so that
it may spread in the entire world the Gospel of Christ, <i>Lumen gentium, </i>light
of all peoples. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC
CELEBRATION </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ON THE
SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Sunday, 6 January 2008 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, we are celebrating
Christ, Light of the world, and his manifestation to the peoples. On Christmas Day
the message of the liturgy rings out in these words:<b> </b>“<i>Hodie descendit
lux magna super terram - </i>Today, a great light descends upon earth” (<i>Roman
Missal</i>). In <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city> this “great light” appeared
to a handful of people, a tiny “remnant of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>”: the Virgin Mary, her husband
Joseph and a few shepherds. It was a humble light, as is the style of the true God;
a little flame kindled in the night: a fragile newborn infant wailing in the silence
of the world... but this hidden, unknown birth was accompanied by the hymns of praise
of the heavenly hosts singing of glory and peace (see Lk 2: 13-14). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So it was that although
the appearance of this light on earth was modest, it was powerfully projected in
the heavens: the birth of the King of the Jews had been announced by the rising
of a star, visible from afar. This was attested to by some “wise men” who had come
to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> from
the East shortly after Jesus’ birth, in the time of King Herod (see Mt 2: 1-2).
Once again heaven and earth, the cosmos and history, call to each other and respond.
The ancient prophecies find confirmation in the language of the stars. “A star shall
come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>” (Nm 24:
17), announced Balaam, the pagan seer, when he was summoned to curse the People
of Israel, whom he instead blessed because, as God had revealed to him, “they are
blessed” (Nm 22: 12). In his Commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, Cromatius of Aquileia
establishes a connection between Balaam and the Magi: “He prophesied that Christ
would come; they saw him with the eyes of faith”. And he adds an important observation:
“The star was seen by everyone but not everyone understood its meaning. Likewise,
our Lord and Savior was born for everyone, but not everyone has welcomed him” (4:
1-2). Here, the meaning of the symbol of light applied to Christ’s birth appears:
it expresses God’s special blessing on Abraham’s descendents, destined to be extended
to all the peoples of the earth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel event
which we commemorate on the Epiphany - the Magi’s visit to the Child Jesus in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> - thus refers us
back to the origins of the history of God’s People, that is, to Abraham’s call.
We are in chapter 12 of the Book of Genesis. The first 11 chapters are like great
frescos that answer some of humanity’s fundamental questions: what is the origin
of the universe and of the human race? Where does evil come from? Why are there
different languages and civilizations? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Among the narratives
with which the Bible begins, there appears a first “covenant” which God made with
Noah after the flood. It was a universal covenant concerning the whole of humanity:
the new pact with Noah’s family is at the same time a pact with “all flesh”. Then,
before Abraham’s call, there is another great fresco which is very important for
understanding the meaning of Epiphany: that of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Tower</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Babel</st1:placename></st1:place>.
The sacred text says that in the beginning, “the whole earth had one language and
few words” (Gn 11: 1). Then men said: “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and
a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Gn 11: 4). The consequence
of this sin of pride, similar to that of Adam and Eve, was the confusion of languages
and the dispersion of humanity over all the earth (see Gn 11: 7-8). This means “<st1:city w:st="on">Babel</st1:city>” and was a sort of curse,
similar to being banished from the earthly paradise. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At this point, with
Abraham’s call, the story of the blessing begins: it is the beginning of God’s great
plan to make humanity one family through the covenant with a new people, chosen
by him to be a blessing among all the peoples (see Gn 12: 1-3). This divine plan
is still being implemented; it culminated in the mystery of Christ. It was then
that the “last times” began, in the sense that the plan was fully revealed and brought
about in Christ but needs to be accepted by human history, which always remains
a history of fidelity on God’s part, but unfortunately also of infidelity on the
part of us human beings. The Church herself, the depository of the blessing, is
holy and made up of sinners, marked by tension between the “already” and the “not
yet”. In the fullness of time Jesus Christ came to bring the covenant to completion:
he himself, true God and true man, is the Sacrament of God’s fidelity to his plan
of salvation for all humanity, for all of us. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The arrival in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> of the Magi from
the East to adore the newborn Messiah is a sign of the manifestation of the universal
King to the peoples and to all who seek the truth. It is the beginning of a movement
opposed to that of <st1:place w:st="on">Babel</st1:place>:
from confusion to comprehension, from dispersion to reconciliation. Thus, we discern
a link between Epiphany and Pentecost: if the Nativity of Christ, who is the Head,
is also the Nativity of the Church, his Body, we can see the Magi as the peoples
who join the remnant of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>,
foretelling the great sign of the “polyglot Church” that the Holy Spirit carried
out 50 days after Easter. The faithful and tenacious love of God which is never
lacking in his covenant from generation to generation is the “mystery” of which
St Paul speaks in his Letters and in the passage from the Letter to the Ephesians
which has just been proclaimed: the Apostle says that this mystery “was made known
to me by revelation” (Eph 3: 3). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This “mystery” of
God’s fidelity constitutes the hope of history. It is of course opposed by the impulses
of division and tyranny that wound humanity due to sin and conflicts of selfishness.
The Church in history is at the service of this “mystery” of blessing for all humanity.
The Church fully carries out her mission in this mystery of God’s fidelity only
when she reflects the light of Christ the Lord within herself and so helps the peoples
of the world on their way to peace and authentic progress. Indeed, God’s Word revealed
through the Prophet Isaiah still continues to apply: “darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory
will be seen upon you” (Is 60: 2). What the prophet proclaimed in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> was to be fulfilled
in Christ’s Church: “nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness
of your rising” (Is 60: 3). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With Jesus Christ,
Abraham’s blessing was extended to all peoples, to the universal Church as the new
<st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
which welcomes within her the whole of humanity. Yet, what the prophet said is also
true today in many senses: “thick darkness [covers] the peoples” and our history.
Indeed, it cannot be said that “globalization” is synonymous with “world order”
- it is quite the opposite. Conflicts for economic supremacy and hoarding resources
of energy, water and raw materials hinder the work of all who are striving at every
level to build a just and supportive world. There is a need for greater hope, which
will make it possible to prefer the common good of all to the luxury of the few
and the poverty of the many. “This great hope can only be God... not any god, but
the God who has a human face” (<i>Spe Salvi</i>,<i> </i>no. 31): the God who showed
himself in the Child of Bethlehem and the Crucified and Risen One. If there is great
hope, it is possible to persevere in sobriety. If true hope is lacking, happiness
is sought in drunkenness, in the superfluous, in excesses, and we ruin ourselves
and the world. It is then that moderation is not only an ascetic rule but also a
path of salvation for humanity. It is already obvious that only by adopting a sober
lifestyle, accompanied by a serious effort for a fair distribution of riches, will
it be possible to establish an order of just and sustainable development. For this
reason we need people who nourish great hope and thus have great courage: the courage
of the Magi, who made a long journey following a star and were able to kneel before
a Child and offer him their precious gifts. We all need this courage, anchored to
firm hope. May Mary obtain it for us, accompanying us on our earthly pilgrimage
with her maternal protection. Amen! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY
OF THE LORD </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Tuesday, 6 January 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today we are celebrating
the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the “Manifestation” of the Lord. The Gospel tells
how Jesus came into the world with deep humility and hiddenness. St Matthew, however,
mentions the episode of the Wise Men who arrive from the East, guided by a star,
to worship the newborn King of the Jews. Every time we hear this account, we are
struck by the stark contrast between the attitude of the Magi, on the one hand,
and that of Herod and the Jews on the other. In fact, the Gospel says that on hearing
the words of the Magi “Herod the king... was troubled, and all <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> with him” (Mt 2:
3). There are various ways in which this reaction can be understood: Herod is alarmed
because he sees in the one the Magi were seeking a rival to himself and his children.
On the other hand, the elders and inhabitants of <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> seem amazed, rather than anything else,
as though they had been woken from a certain lethargy and needed to think. Isaiah
had, in reality, foretold: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the
government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Is 9: 6). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So why should <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> have been worried?
It seems that the Evangelist almost desired to anticipate what was later to be the
attitude of the high priests and the Sanhedrin, as well as of the people, toward
Jesus during his public life. Certainly, it becomes clear that knowledge of the
Scriptures and of the messianic prophecies does not lead everyone to open themselves
to him and to his words. It comes to mind that Jesus with his Passion approaching
wept over <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>
because it had not recognized the time of its visitation (see Lk 19: 44). Here we
touch on one of the crucial points of historical theology: the drama of the faithful
love of God in the person of Jesus, who “came to his own, yet his own did not accept
him” (Jn 1: 11). In the light of the whole Bible this attitude of hostility, or
ambiguity, or superficiality represents that of every person and of the “world”
in the spiritual sense when closed to the mystery of the true God, who comes to
meet us in the disarming docility of love. Jesus, the “King of the Jews” (see Jn
18: 37), is the God of mercy and fidelity. He desires to reign in love and in truth
and asks us to convert, to abandon wicked deeds and to set out with determination
on the path of good. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Hence in this sense
“<st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>” is all
of us! May the Virgin Mary, who welcomed Jesus with faith, help us not to close
our hearts to his Gospel of salvation. Rather, let us allow ourselves to be conquered
and transformed by him, the “Emmanuel”, God who came to dwell among us to offer
us the gift of his peace and his love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE
EPIPHANY OF THE LORD <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Tuesday, 6 January 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Epiphany, the “manifestation”
of Our Lord Jesus Christ, is a many-facetted mystery. The Latin tradition identifies
it with the visit of the Magi to the Infant Jesus in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> and thus interprets it above all as
a revelation of the Messiah of Israel to the Gentiles. The Eastern tradition on
the other hand gives priority to the moment of Jesus’ Baptism in the River Jordan
when he manifested himself as the Only-Begotten Son of the heavenly Father, consecrated
by the Holy Spirit. John’s Gospel, however, also invites us to consider as an “epiphany”
the Wedding at Cana, during which, by changing the water into wine, Jesus “manifested
his glory; and his disciples believed in him” (Jn 2: 11). And what should we say,
dear brothers and sisters, especially we priests of the New Covenant who are every
day witnesses and ministers of the “epiphany” of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist?
The Church celebrates all the mysteries of the Lord in this most holy and most humble
Sacrament in which he both reveals and conceals his glory. “<i>Adoro te devote,
latens Deitas” </i>in adoration, thus we pray along with St Thomas Aquinas. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this year 2009,
which has been dedicated in a special way to astronomy to mark the fourth centenary
of Galileo Galilei’s first observations with the telescope, we cannot fail to pay
particular attention to the symbol of the star that is so important in the Gospel
account of the Magi (see Mt 2: 1-12). In all likelihood the Wise Men were astronomers.
From their observation point, situated in the East compared to Palestine, perhaps
in Mesopotamia, they had noticed the appearance of a new star and had interpreted
this celestial phenomenon as the announcement of the birth of a king, specifically
that in accordance with the Sacred Scriptures of the King of the Jews (see Nm 24:
17). The Fathers of the Church also saw this unique episode recounted by St Matthew
as a sort of cosmic “revolution” caused by the Son of God’s entry into the world.
For example, St John Chrysostom writes: “The star, when it stood over the young
Child, stayed its course again: which thing itself was of a greater power than belongs
to a star, now to hide itself, now to appear, and having appeared to stand still”
(<i>Homily on the Gospel of Matthew, </i>7, 3). St Gregory of Nazianzen states that
the birth of Christ gave the stars new orbits (see <i>Dogmatic Poems,</i> v, 53-64:
<i>PG</i> 37, 428-429). This is clearly to be understood in a symbolic and theological
sense. In effect, while pagan theology divinized the elements and forces of the
cosmos, the Christian faith, in bringing the biblical Revelation to fulfilment,
contemplates only one God, Creator and Lord of the whole universe. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The divine and universal
law of creation is divine love, incarnate in Christ. However, this should not be
understood in a poetic but in a real sense. Moreover, this is what Dante himself
meant when, in the sublime verse that concludes the <i>Paradiso</i> and the entire
<i>Divina Commedia</i>, he describes God as “the Love which moves the sun and the
other stars” (<i>Paradiso, </i>xxxiii, 145). This means that the stars, planets
and the whole universe are not governed by a blind force, they do not obey the dynamics
of matter alone. Therefore, it is not the cosmic elements that should be divinized.
Indeed, on the contrary, within everything and at the same time above everything
there is a personal will, the Spirit of God, who in Christ has revealed himself
as Love (see Encyclical <i>Spe Salvi, </i>no.<i> </i>5). If this is the case, then as St Paul wrote to the
Colossians people are not slaves of the “elemental spirits of the universe” (see
Col 2: 8) but are free, that is, capable of relating to the creative freedom of
God. God is at the origin of all things and governs all things, not as a cold and
anonymous engine but rather as Father, Husband, Friend, Brother and as the<i> Logos,
</i>“Word-Reason” who was united with our mortal flesh once and for all and fully
shared our condition, showing the superabundant power of his grace. Thus there is
a special concept of the cosmos in Christianity which found its loftiest expression
in medieval philosophy and theology. In our day too, it shows interesting signs
of a new flourishing, thanks to the enthusiasm and faith of many scientists who
following in Galileo’s footsteps renounce neither reason nor faith; instead they
develop both in their reciprocal fruitfulness. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christian thought
compares the cosmos to a “book” the same Galileo said this as well considering it
as the work of an Author who expresses himself in the “symphony” of the Creation.
In this symphony is found, at a certain point, what might be called in musical terminology
a “solo”, a theme given to a single instrument or voice; and it is so important
that the significance of the entire work depends on it. This “solo” is Jesus, who
is accompanied by a royal sign: the appearance of a new star in the firmament. Jesus
is compared by ancient Christian writers to a new sun. According to current astrophysical
knowledge, we should compare it with a star that is even more central, not only
for the solar system but also for the entire known universe. Within this mysterious
design simultaneously physical and metaphysical, which led to the appearance of
the human being as the crowning of Creation’s elements Jesus came into the world:
“born of woman” (Gal 4: 4), as St Paul writes. The Son of man himself epitomizes
the earth and Heaven, the Creation and the Creator, the flesh and the Spirit. He
is the centre of the cosmos and of history, for in him the Author and his work are
united without being confused with each other. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the earthly Jesus
the culmination of Creation and of history is found but in the Risen Christ this
is surpassed: the passage through death to eternal life anticipates the point of
the “recapitulation” of all things in Christ (see Eph 1: 10). Indeed “all things”,
the Apostle wrote “were created through him and for him (<st1:place w:st="on">Col</st1:place> 1: 16). And it is precisely with the resurrection
of the dead that he became “pre-eminent in all things” (<st1:place w:st="on">Col</st1:place> 1: 18). Jesus himself affirms this, appearing
to his disciples after the Resurrection: “all authority in Heaven and on earth has
been given to me” (Mt 28: 18). This awareness supports the way of the Church, Body
of Christ, on the paths of history. There is no shadow, however dark, that can obscure
Christ’s light. This is why believers in Christ never lack hope, even today, in
the face of the great social and financial crisis that is tormenting humanity, in
the face of the destructive hatred and violence that have not ceased to stain many
of the earth’s regions with blood, in the face of the selfishness and pretension
of the human being in establishing himself as his own God, which sometimes leads
to dangerous distortions of the divine plan concerning life and the dignity of the
human being, the family and the harmony of the Creation. Our efforts to free human
life and the world from the forms of poison and contamination that could destroy
the present and the future retain their value and meaning as I noted in the Encyclical
<i>Spe Salvi</i> mentioned above even if we apparently fail or seem powerless when
hostile forces appear to gain the upper hand, because “it is the great hope based
upon God’s promises that gives us courage and directs our action in good times and
bad” (no. 35). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christ’s universal
lordship is exercised in a special way on the Church. We read in the Letter to the
Ephesians that God “has put all things under [Christ’s] feet and has made him the
head over all things for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills all in all (Eph 1: 22-23). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Epiphany is the
manifestation of the Lord and as a reflection, it is the manifestation of the Church,
since the Body is inseparable from the Head. Today’s First Reading, from “Third
Isaiah”, gives us the precise perspective for understanding the reality of the Church
as a mystery of reflected light: “Arise, shine” the Prophet says, addressing Jerusalem,
“for your light has come, / and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you” (Is 60:
1). The Church is humanity illuminated, “baptized” in the glory of God, that is
in his love, in his beauty, in his dignity. The Church knows that her own humanity,
with its limitations and wretchedness, serve especially to highlight the work of
the Holy Spirit. She can boast of nothing, save in her Lord. It is not from her
that light comes; the glory is not hers. But this is precisely her joy, which no
one can take from her: to be a “sign and instrument” of the One who is <i>“lumen
gentium”,</i> the light of humanity (see Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution
<i>Lumen gentium, </i>no. 1). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, in
this Pauline Year, the Feast of the Epiphany invites the Church, and in her, every
community and every individual member of the faithful, to imitate, as did the Apostle
to the Gentiles, the service that the star rendered to the Magi from the East, guiding
them to Jesus (see St Leo the Great, <i>Disc. 3 for Epiphany, </i>5: <i>PL </i>54,
244). What was Paul’s life after his conversion other than a “race” to bring the
light of Christ to the peoples, and vice versa, to lead the peoples to Christ? God’s
grace made Paul a “star” for the Gentiles. His ministry is an example and an incentive
for the Church to rediscover herself as essentially missionary and to renew the
commitment to proclaim the Gospel, especially to those who do not yet know it. Yet,
in looking at <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>,
we cannot forget that his preaching was completely nourished by the Sacred Scriptures.
Therefore it should be powerfully reaffirmed in the perspective of the recent Assembly
of the Synod of Bishops that the Church and individual Christians can be a light
that leads to Christ only if they are diligently and intimately nourished by the
Word of God. It is the Word, certainly not us, that illumines, purifies and converts.
We are merely servants of the Word of life. This is how Paul saw himself and his
ministry: as a service to the Gospel. “I do it all for the sake of the Gospel”,
he wrote (1 Cor 9: 23). The Church, every ecclesial community, every Bishop and
every priest ought also to be able to say this: “I do it all for the sake of the
Gospel”. Dear brothers and sisters, pray for us, Pastors of the Church, that by
assimilating the Word of God daily we may pass it on faithfully to our brethren.
Yet we too pray for you, all the faithful, because every Christian is called through
Baptism and Confirmation to proclaim Christ, the light of the world, in word and
in the witness of his life. May the Virgin Mary, Star of Evangelization, help us
to bring this mission to completion together, and may <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>, the Apostle to the Gentiles, intercede
for us from Heaven. Amen. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY
OF THE LORD </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today we are celebrating
the great feast of the Epiphany, the mystery of the Lord’s Manifestation to all
the peoples, represented by the Magi who came from the East to worship the King
of the Jews (see Mt 2: 1-2). St Matthew, who recounts the event, stresses that they
arrived in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>
following a star that they had seen rising and interpreted as a sign of the birth
of the King proclaimed by the Prophets, in other words the Messiah. However, having
arrived in Jerusalem, the Magi needed the priests and scribes to direct them in
order to know exactly where to go, namely, Bethlehem, the city of David (see Mt
2: 5-6; Mic 5: 1). On their journey, the star and the Sacred Scriptures were the
two lights that guided the Magi, who appear to us as models of authentic seekers
of the truth. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">They were Wise Men
who scrutinized the stars and knew the history of the peoples. They were men of
science in the broad sense, who observed the cosmos, considering it almost as a
great open book full of divine signs and messages for human beings. Their knowledge,
therefore, far from claiming to be self-sufficient, was open to further divine revelations
and calls. In fact, they were not ashamed to ask the religious leaders of the Jews
for directions. They could have said: “we will do it on our own, we do not need
anyone”, thereby avoiding, according to our mentality today, all “contamination”
between science and the word of God. Instead, the Magi listened to the prophecies
and accepted them; and, no sooner had they continued on their way towards Bethlehem
than they saw the star again, as if to confirm the perfect harmony between human
seeking and the divine Truth, a harmony that filled the hearts of these genuine
Wise Men with joy (see Mt 2: 10). The culmination of their quest was the moment
when they found themselves before “the Child with Mary his Mother” (Mt 2: 11). The
Gospel says that they “fell down and worshipped him”. They might have been disappointed,
or even shocked. Instead, as the true Wise Men that they were, they were open to
the mystery that had manifested itself in a surprising manner and, with their symbolic
gifts, they showed that they recognized Jesus as the King and Son of God. Precisely
in that gesture were fulfilled the messianic oracles that proclaimed the homage
of nations to the God of Israel. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A final detail confirms
the unity in the Magi of intelligence and faith: it is the fact that “being warned
in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another
way” (Mt 2: 12). It would have been natural to return to <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>,
to Herod’s Palace and to the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
to spread the news of their discovery. Instead, the Magi, who had chosen the Child
as their Sovereign, kept this hidden, in accordance with Mary’s, or rather with
God’s own style. And thus just as they had appeared they disappeared in silence,
content but also transformed by their meeting with the Truth. They had discovered
a new Face of God, a new kingship: that of love. May the Virgin Mary, model of true
wisdom, help us to be authentic seekers of God’s truth, ever capable of living the
profound harmony that exists between reason and faith, science and revelation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE
EPIPHANY OF THE LORD<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the Solemnity
of the Epiphany, the great light that radiates from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Cave</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:placename></st1:place>
inundates all of mankind through the Magi from the East. The first <st1:place w:st="on">Reading</st1:place>, taken from the Book
of the Prophet Isaiah; and the passage from the Gospel of Matthew, which we just
heard, juxtapose the promise and its fulfilment in that particular tension noted
when reading passages from the Old and New Testaments in succession. Following the
humiliations undergone by the people of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place> at the hands of worldly powers,
the splendid vision of the Prophet Isaiah appears before us. He sees the moment
when the great light of God that seems powerless and incapable of protecting his
people will rise to shine on all the earth so that the kings of nations bow before
him, coming from the ends of the earth to deposit their most precious treasures
at his feet. And the heart of the people will tremble with joy. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Compared to this
vision, the one the Evangelist Matthew presents to us appears poor and humble: it
seems impossible for us to recognize in it the fulfilment of the Prophet Isaiah’s
words. In fact, those who arrived in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
were not the powerful and the kings of the earth, but the Magi, unknown men, perhaps
regarded with suspicion, and in any case, not deemed worthy of special attention.
The inhabitants of <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>
learned of the event but did not think it worth bothering about. Not even in Bethlehem
did anyone seem to take any notice of the birth of this Baby, called King of the
Jews by the Magi, nor about these men who had come from the East to visit him. Soon
after, in fact, when Herod made it clear that he was effectively the one in power
forcing the Holy Family to flee to Egypt and offering proof of his cruelty by the
massacre of the innocents (see Mt 2: 13-18) the episode of the Magi seemed to have
been disregarded and forgotten. It is therefore understandable that the hearts and
souls of believers throughout the centuries have been attracted more by the vision
of the Prophet than by the sober narration of the evangelist, as the Nativity scenes
also show where there are camels, dromedaries and powerful kings of the world kneeling
before the Child, laying down their gifts to him in precious caskets. But we must
pay more attention to what the two texts communicate to us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact, what did
Isaiah see with his prophetic vision? In one single moment, he glimpsed a reality
that was destined to mark all history. But even the event that Matthew narrates
is not a brief and negligible episode that closes with the Magi hastening back to
their own lands. On the contrary, it is the beginning. Those figures who came from
the East were not the last but the first of a great procession of those who, throughout
the epochs of history, are able to recognize the message of the Star, who know how
to walk on the paths indicated by Sacred Scripture. Thus they also know how to find
the One who seems weak and fragile but instead has the power to grant the greatest
and most profound joy to the heart of man. In him, indeed, is made manifest the
stupendous reality that God knows us and is close to us, that his greatness and
power are not expressed according to the world’s logic, but to the logic of a helpless
baby whose strength is only that of the love which he entrusts to us. In the journey
of history, there are always people who are enlightened by the light of the Star,
who find the way and reach him. They all live, each in his or her own way, the experience
of the Magi. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">They had brought
gold, incense and myrrh. These are certainly not gifts that correspond to basic,
daily needs. At that moment, the Holy Family was far more in need of something different
from incense or myrrh, and not even the gold could have been of immediate use to
them. But these gifts have a profound significance: they are an act of justice.
In fact, according to the mentality prevailing then in the Orient, they represent
the recognition of a person as God and King, that is, an act of submission. They
were meant to say that from that moment, the donors belonged to the sovereign and
they recognize his authority. The consequence is immediate. The Magi could no longer
follow the road they came on, they could no longer return to Herod, they could no
longer be allied with that powerful and cruel sovereign. They had always been led
along the path of the Child, making them ignore the great and the powerful of the
world, and taking them to him who awaits us among the poor, the road of love which
alone can transform the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore, not only
did the Magi set out on their journey, but their deed started something new they
traced a new road, and a new light has come down on earth which has never faded.
The Prophet’s vision is fulfilled: that light could no longer be ignored by the
world. People would go towards that Child and would be illumined by that joy that
only he can give. The light of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
continues to shine throughout the world. To those who have welcomed this light,
<st1:city w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:city> said:
“Even we, recognizing Christ our King and Priest who died for us, have honored him
as if we had offered him gold, incense and myrrh. But what remains is for us to
bear witness to him by taking a different road from that on which we came” (<i>Sermo
</i>202. <i>In Epiphania Domini, </i>3, 4). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus if we read together
the promise of the Prophet Isaiah and its fulfilment in the Gospel of Matthew in
the great context of all history, it is evident that what we have been told which
we seek to reproduce in our Nativity scenes is neither a dream nor a vain play on
sensations and emotions, devoid of vigor and reality, but is the Truth that irradiates
in the world, although Herod always seems stronger, and that Infant seems to be
found among people of no importance or who are even downtrodden. But in that Baby
is expressed the power of God, who brings together all people through the ages,
because under his lordship, they may follow the course of love which transfigures
the world. Nevertheless, even if the few in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> have become many, believers in Jesus
Christ always seem to be few. Many have seen the star, but only a few have understood
its message. Scripture scholars in the time of Jesus knew the word of God perfectly
well. They were able to say without hesitation what could be found in Scripture
about the place where the Messiah would be born, but as <st1:city w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:city> said: “They were like milestones
along the road though they could give information to travelers along the way, they
remained inert and immobile” (<i>Sermo </i>199. <i>In Epiphania Domini,</i> 1,
2). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore, we can
ask ourselves: what is the reason why some men see and find, while others do not?
What opens the eyes and the heart? What is lacking in those who remain indifferent,
in those who point out the road but do not move? We can answer: too much self-assurance,
the claim to knowing reality, the presumption of having formulated a definitive
judgment on everything closes them and makes their hearts insensitive to the newness
of God. They are certain of the idea that they have formed of the world and no longer
let themselves be involved in the intimacy of an adventure with a God who wants
to meet them. They place their confidence in themselves rather than in him, and
they do not think it possible that God could be so great as to make himself small
so as to come really close to us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Lastly, what they
lack is authentic humility, which is able to submit to what is greater, but also
authentic courage, which leads to belief in what is truly great even if it is manifested
in a helpless Baby. They lack the evangelical capacity to be children at heart,
to feel wonder, and to emerge from themselves in order to follow the path indicated
by the star, the path of God. God has the power to open our eyes and to save us.
Let us therefore ask him to give us a heart that is wise and innocent, that allows
us to see the Star of his mercy, to proceed along his way, in order to find him
and be flooded with the great light and true joy that he brought to this world.
Amen. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square</i>, <i>Thursday, 6 January 2011 </i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have celebrated
in the Basilica the Feast of the Epiphany — excuse me for being late — Epiphany
means the manifestation of Jesus to all peoples, today represented by the Magi,
who arrived in Bethlehem from the East to pay homage to the King of the Jews, whose
birth they had learned about by the appearance of a new star in the sky (<i>see</i>
Mt 2:1-12). In fact, before the arrival of the Magi, this event was little known
beyond the family circle, other than to Mary and Joseph, and probably to other relatives,
it was known by the shepherds of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>.
Having heard the joyful announcement, they had hastened to see the baby while he
was still lying in the manger. The coming of the Messiah, the expectation of the
people foretold by the Prophets, remained thus initially remained hidden. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Until, that is, those
mysterious figures — the Magi — arrived in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> to ask for news of the “King of the
Jews,” who had just been born. Obviously, as it had to do with a king, they went
to the royal palace where Herod resided. But he did not know anything about this
birth and, very worried, immediately summoned the priests and scribes who, based
on Micah’s famous prophecy (<i>see</i> 5:1), affirmed that the Messiah was to be
born in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>.
And in fact, setting out in that direction, the Magi saw the star again, which led
them to the place where Jesus was. Having entered, they prostrated themselves and
adored him, offering him symbolic gifts: gold, frankincense and myrrh. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is the Epiphany,
the manifestation: the coming and the adoration of the Magi is the first sign of
the unique identity of the Son of God who is also Son of the Virgin Mary. From that
moment the question began to be asked that would accompany the whole life of Christ,
and that in different ways passes through the centuries: who is this Jesus?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, this
is the question that the Church wishes to awaken in the hearts of all: who is Jesus?
This is the spiritual concern that drives the mission of the Church: to make known
Jesus, his Gospel, so that every man may discover in his human face the Face of
God, and be illumined by his mystery of love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Epiphany foretells
the universal openness of the Church, her call to evangelize all peoples. But the
Epiphany also tells us how the Church realizes this mission: by reflecting the light
of Christ and proclaiming his Word. Christians are called to imitate the service
that the star rendered to the Magi. We must shine out as children of light, so as
to attract all people to the beauty of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>.
And to those who seek the truth, we must offer the Word of God, which leads us to
recognize in Jesus “the true God and eternal life” (1 Jn 5:20).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Once again, we feel
within us profound gratitude to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. She is the perfect image
of the Church which gives the light of Christ to the world: she is the Star of evangelization.
“<i>Respice Stellam</i>,” St Bernard says to us: look to the Star, you who go in
search of truth and peace; turn your gaze to Mary, and she will show you Jesus,
light for every person and for all peoples.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE
EPIPHANY OF THE LORD<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Thursday, 6 January 2011<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the Solemnity
of Epiphany the Church continues to contemplate and to celebrate the mystery of
the birth of Jesus the Savior. In particular, this day stresses the universal destination
and significance of this birth.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">By becoming man in
Mary’s womb, the Son of God did not only come for the People of Israel, represented
by the Shepherds of Bethlehem, but also for the whole of humanity, represented by
the Magi. And it is precisely on the Magi and their journey in search of the Messiah
(<i>see</i> Mt 2:1-12) that the Church invites us to meditate and pray today. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We heard in the Gospel
that having arrived in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>
from the East they asked: “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we
have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him” (v. 2). What kind
of people were they and what kind of star was it? They were probably sages who scrutinized
the heavens, but not in order to try to “read” the future in the stars, possibly
to profit by so doing. Rather, they were men “in search” of something more, in search
of the true light that could point out the path to take in life. They were people
certain that something we might describe as the “signature” of God exists in creation,
a signature that man can and must Endeavour to discover and decipher. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Perhaps the way to
become better acquainted with these Magi and to understand their desire to let themselves
be guided by God’s signs is to pause to consider what they find on their journey,
in the great city of <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First of all they
met King Herod. He was certainly interested in the Child of which the Magi spoke;
not in order to worship him, as he wished to make them believe by lying, but rather
to kill him. Herod was a powerful man who saw others solely as rivals to combat.
Basically, on reflection, God also seemed a rival to him, a particularly dangerous
rival who would like to deprive men of their vital space, their autonomy, their
power; a rival who points out the way to take in life and thus prevents one from
doing what one likes. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Herod listened to
the interpretations of the Prophet Micah’s words, made by his experts in Sacred
Scripture, but his only thought was of the throne. So God himself had to be clouded
over and people had to be reduced to mere pawns to move on the great chessboard
of power. Herod is a figure we dislike, whom we instinctively judge negatively because
of his brutality.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet we should ask
ourselves: is there perhaps something of Herod also in us? Might we too sometimes
see God as a sort of rival? Might we too be blind to his signs and deaf to his words
because we think he is setting limits on our life and does not allow us to dispose
of our existence as we please?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers and
Sisters, when we see God in this way we end by feeling dissatisfied and discontent
because we are not letting ourselves be guided by the One who is the foundation
of all things.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We must rid our minds
and hearts of the idea of rivalry, of the idea that making room for God is a constraint
on us. We must open ourselves to the certainty that God is almighty love that takes
nothing away, that does not threaten; on the contrary he is the Only One who can
give us the possibility of living to the full, of experiencing true joy.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Magi then meet
the scholars, the theologians, the experts who know everything about the Sacred
Scriptures, who are familiar with the possible interpretations, who can quote every
passage of it since they know it by heart and are therefore of valuable assistance
to those who choose to walk on God’s path. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> says, they like
being guides to others, they point out the way; but they themselves do not travel,
they stand stock-still. For them the Scriptures become a sort of atlas to be perused
with curiosity, a collection of words and concepts for study and for learned discussion.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, once again
we can ask ourselves: is not there a temptation within us to consider the Sacred
Scriptures, this very rich and vital treasure for the faith of the Church, as an
object of study and of specialists’ discussions rather than as the Book that shows
us the way to attain life? I think, as I suggested in the Apostolic Exhortation
<i>Verbum Domini</i>, that profound willingness must ceaselessly be born within
them to see the words of the Bible interpreted in the Church’s living Tradition
(no. 18), as the truth that tells us what man is and how he can fulfill himself
totally, the truth that is the way to take every day, with others, if we wish to
build our lives on rock and not on sand. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And so we come to
the star. What kind of star was the star the Magi saw and followed? This question
has been the subject of discussion among astronomers down the centuries. Kepler,
for example, claimed that it was “new” or “super-new”, one of those stars that usually
radiates a weak light but can suddenly and violently explode, producing an exceptionally
bright blaze. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These are of course
interesting things but do not guide us to what is essential for understanding that
star. We must return to the fact that those men were seeking traces of God; they
were seeking to read his “signature” in creation; they knew that “the heavens are
telling of the glory of God” (Psalm 19 [18]:2); they were certain, that is, that
God can be perceived in creation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But, as sages, the
Magi also knew that it is not with any kind of telescope but rather with the profound
eyes of reason in search of the ultimate meaning of reality and with the desire
for God, motivated by faith, that it is possible to meet him, indeed, becomes possible
for God to come close to us.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The universe is not
the result of chance, as some would like to make us believe. In contemplating it,
we are asked to interpret in it something profound; the wisdom of the Creator, the
inexhaustible creativity of God, his infinite love for us.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We must not let our
minds be limited by theories that always go only so far and that — at a close look
— are far from competing with faith but do not succeed in explaining the ultimate
meaning of reality. We cannot but perceive in the beauty of the world, its mystery,
its greatness and its rationality, the eternal rationality; nor can we dispense
with its guidance to the one God, Creator of Heaven and of earth. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If we acquire this
perception we shall see that the One who created the world and the One who was born
in a grotto in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
and who continues to dwell among us in the Eucharist, are the same living God who
calls us, who loves us and who wants to lead us to eternal life.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Herod, the Scriptural
exegetes, the star: but let us follow the journey of the Magi to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>. Above the great
city the star disappears, it is no longer seen. What does this mean? In this case
too, we must interpret the sign in its depth. For those men it was logical to seek
the new king in the royal palace, where the wise court advisors were to be found.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet, probably to
their amazement, they were obliged to note that this newborn Child was not found
in the places of power and culture, even though in those places they were offered
precious information about him. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the other hand
they realized that power, even the power of knowledge, sometimes blocks the way
to the encounter with this Child. The star then guided them to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, a little town; it
led them among the poor and the humble to find the King of the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God’s criteria differ
from human criteria. God does not manifest himself in the power of this world but
in the humility of his love, the love that asks our freedom to be welcomed in order
to transform us and to enable us to reach the One who is Love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet, for us too things
are not so different from what they were for the Magi. If we were to be asked our
opinion on how God was to save the world, we might answer that he would have to
manifest all his power to give the world a fairer economic system in which each
person could have everything he wanted. Indeed, this would be a sort of violence
to man because it would deprive him of the fundamental elements that characterize
him. In fact neither our freedom nor our love would be called into question. God’s
power is revealed in quite a different way: in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, where we encounter the apparent powerlessness
of his love. And it is there that we must go and there that we find God’s star.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, a final important
element of the event of the Magi appears to us very clearly: the language of creation
enables us to make good headway on the path towards God but does not give us the
definitive light. In the end, it was indispensable for the Magi to listen to the
voice of the Sacred Scriptures: they alone could show them the way. The true star
is the word of God which, amidst of the uncertainty of human discourses, gives us
the immense splendor of the Divine Truth. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, let us allow ourselves to be guided by the star that is the word of God,
let us follow it in our lives, walking with the Church in which the Word has pitched
his tent. Our road will always be illumined by a light that no other sign can give
us. And we too shall become stars for others, a reflection of that light which Christ
caused to shine upon us. Amen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square</i>, <i>Friday, 6 January 2012 </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the Solemnity
of the Epiphany of the Lord, I have ordained two new bishops in St Peter’s Basilica,
so please forgive the delay. This Feast of the Epiphany is a very ancient Feast
whose origins date back to the Christian East and which highlights the mystery of
the manifestation of Jesus Christ to all peoples, represented by the Magi who came
to worship the King of the Jews just born in Bethlehem, as St Matthew’s Gospel recounts
(see 2:1-12). This “new light” that was lit on Christmas night (see <i>Preface of
Christmas</i> I) is beginning to shine on the world today, as the image of the star
suggests, a heavenly portent that attracted the attention of the Magi and guided
them on their journey to <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place>.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The entire season
of Christmas and Epiphany is marked by the theme of light. In the northern hemisphere
this is also linked to the fact that after the winter solstice the days begin to
lengthen in comparison with the nights. However, Christ’s word applies for all peoples,
over and above their geographical location: “I am the light of the world; he who
follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12).
Jesus is the sun that appeared on humanity’s horizon to illumine the personal existence
of every one of us and to guide us all together toward the destination of our pilgrimage,
toward the land of freedom and peace in which we shall live for ever in full communion
with God and with each other. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christ entrusted
the proclamation of this mystery of salvation to his Church. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> writes: “It has now
been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that is, how the
Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise
in Christ Jesus through the Gospel” (Eph 3:5-6). The invitation that the Prophet
Isaiah addressed to the Holy City Jerusalem may be applied to the Church: “Arise,
shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For
behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the
Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you” (Is 60:1-2). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And so it is, as
the Prophet tells us: the world, with all its resources is unable to give humanity
the light to guide it on its journey. We find this in our day too: the western civilization
seems to have lost its bearings and is navigating by sight. Nevertheless the Church,
thanks to the Word of God, sees through the fog. She has no technical solutions
but keeps her gaze fixed on the destination and offers the light of the Gospel to
all people of good will, whatever their nation and culture. And this is also the
mission of Papal Representatives to States and to International Organizations. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This very morning,
as I said, I have had the joy of conferring episcopal Ordination upon two new Apostolic
Nuncios. Let us entrust to the Virgin Mary their service and the evangelizing task
of the whole Church.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION
<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE
EPIPHANY OF THE LORD</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><em>Vatican</em></st1:place><em>
Basilica</em><i>, <em>Friday, 6 January 201</em></i><span class="style11">2</span></span></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters!</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Epiphany is a
feast of light. “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord
has risen upon you” (Is 60:1). With these words of the prophet Isaiah, the Church
describes the content of the feast. He who is the true light, and by whom we too
are made to be light, has indeed come into the world. He gives us the power to become
children of God (see Jn 1:9, 12). The journey of the wise men from the East is,
for the liturgy, just the beginning of a great procession that continues throughout
history. With the Magi, humanity’s pilgrimage to Jesus Christ begins – to the God
who was born in a stable, who died on the Cross and who, having risen from the dead,
remains with us always, until the consummation of the world (see Mt 28:20). The
Church reads this account from Matthew’s Gospel alongside the vision of the prophet
Isaiah that we heard in the first reading: the journey of these men is just the
beginning. Before them came the shepherds – simple souls, who dwelt closer to the
God who became a child, and could more easily “go over” to him (Lk 2:15) and recognize
him as Lord. But now the wise of this world are also coming. Great and small, kings
and slaves, men of all cultures and all peoples are coming. The men from the East
are the first, followed by many more throughout the centuries. After the great vision
of Isaiah, the reading from the Letter to the Ephesians expresses the same idea
in sober and simple terms: the Gentiles share the same heritage (see Eph 3:6). Psalm
2 puts it like this: “I shall bequeath you the nations, put the ends of the earth
in your possession” (v. 8).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The wise men from
the East lead the way. They open up the path of the Gentiles to Christ. During this
holy Mass, I will ordain two priests to the episcopate, I will consecrate them as
shepherds of God’s people. According to the words of Jesus, part of a shepherd’s
task is to go ahead of the flock (see Jn 10:4). So, allowing for all the differences
in vocation and mission, we may well look to these figures, the first Gentiles to
find the pathway to Christ, for indications concerning the task of bishops. What
kind of people were they? The experts tell us that they belonged to the great astronomical
tradition that had developed in <st1:place w:st="on">Mesopotamia</st1:place> over
the centuries and continued to flourish. But this information of itself is not enough.
No doubt there were many astronomers in ancient <st1:city w:st="on">Babylon</st1:city>, but only these few set off to follow
the star that they recognized as the star of the promise, pointing them along the
path towards the true King and Savior. They were, as we might say, men of science,
but not simply in the sense that they were searching for a wide range of knowledge:
they wanted something more. They wanted to understand what being human is all about.
They had doubtless heard of the prophecy of the Gentile prophet Balaam: “A star
shall come forth out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>” (Num 24:17).
They explored this promise. They were men with restless hearts, not satisfied with
the superficial and the ordinary. They were men in search of the promise, in search
of God. And they were watchful men, capable of reading God’s signs, his soft and
penetrating language. But they were also courageous, yet humble: we can imagine
them having to endure a certain amount of mockery for setting off to find the King
of the Jews, at the cost of so much effort. For them it mattered little what this
or that person, what even influential and clever people thought and said about them.
For them it was a question of truth itself, not human opinion. Hence they took upon
themselves the sacrifices and the effort of a long and uncertain journey. Their
humble courage was what enabled them to bend down before the child of poor people
and to recognize in him the promised King, the one they had set out, on both their
outward and their inward journey, to seek and to know.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, how
can we fail to recognize in all this certain essential elements of episcopal ministry?
The bishop too must be a man of restless heart, not satisfied with the ordinary
things of this world, but inwardly driven by his heart’s unrest to draw ever closer
to God, to seek his face, to recognize him more and more, to be able to love him
more and more. The bishop too must be a man of watchful heart, who recognizes the
gentle language of God and understands how to distinguish truth from mere appearance.
The bishop too must be filled with the courage of humility, not asking what prevailing
opinion says about him, but following the criterion of God’s truth and taking his
stand accordingly – “opportune – importune”. He must be able to go ahead and mark
out the path. He must go ahead, in the footsteps of him who went ahead of us all
because he is the true shepherd, the true star of the promise: Jesus Christ. And
he must have the humility to bend down before the God who made himself so tangible
and so simple that he contradicts our foolish pride in its reluctance to see God
so close and so small. He must devote his life to adoration of the incarnate Son
of God, which constantly points him towards the path.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgy of episcopal
ordination interprets the essential features of this ministry in eight questions
addressed to the candidates, each beginning with the word “<i>Vultis</i>? – Do you want?” These questions direct the will and mark out
the path to be followed. Here I shall briefly cite just a few of the most important
words of this presentation, where we find explicit mention of the elements we have
just considered in connection with the wise men of today’s feast. The bishops’ task
is <i>praedicare Evangelium Christi</i>, it is
<i>custodire et dirigere</i>, it is <i>pauperibus se misericordes praebere</i>, it is
<i>indesinenter orare</i>. Preaching the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, going ahead and leading, guarding the sacred heritage of our faith,
showing mercy and charity to the needy and the poor, thus mirroring God’s merciful
love for us, and finally, praying without ceasing: these are the fundamental features
of the episcopal ministry. Praying without ceasing means: never losing contact with
God, letting ourselves be constantly touched by him in the depths of our hearts
and, in this way, being penetrated by his light. Only someone who actually knows
God can lead others to God. Only someone who leads people to God leads them along
the path of life.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The restless heart
of which we spoke earlier, echoing <st1:place w:st="on">Saint
Augustine</st1:place>, is the heart that is ultimately satisfied with
nothing less than God, and in this way becomes a loving heart. Our heart is restless
for God and remains so, even if every effort is made today, by means of most effective
anaesthetizing methods, to deliver people from this unrest. But not only are we
restless for God: God’s heart is restless for us. God is waiting for us. He is looking
for us. He knows no rest either, until he finds us. God’s heart is restless, and
that is why he set out on the path towards us – to <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city>,
to Calvary, from <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> to <st1:place w:st="on">Galilee</st1:place>
and on to the very ends of the earth. God is restless for us, he looks out for people
willing to “catch” his unrest, his passion for us, people who carry within them
the searching of their own hearts and at the same time open themselves to be touched
by God’s search for us. Dear friends, this was the task of the Apostles: to receive
God’s unrest for man and then to bring God himself to man. And this is your task
as successors of the Apostles: let yourselves be touched by God’s unrest, so that
God’s longing for man may be fulfilled.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The wise men followed
the star. Through the language of creation, they discovered the God of history.
To be sure – the language of creation alone is not enough. Only God’s word, which
we encounter in sacred Scripture, was able to mark out their path definitively.
Creation and Scripture, reason and faith, must come together, so as to lead us forward
to the living God. There has been much discussion over what kind of star it was
that the wise men were following. Some suggest a planetary constellation, or a supernova,
that is to say one of those stars that is initially quite weak, in which an inner
explosion releases a brilliant light for a certain time, or a comet, etc. This debate
we may leave to the experts. The great star, the true supernova that leads us on,
is Christ himself. He is as it were the explosion of God’s love, which causes the
great white light of his heart to shine upon the world. And we may add: the wise
men from the East, who feature in today’s Gospel, like all the saints, have themselves
gradually become constellations of God that mark out the path. In all these people,
being touched by God’s word has, as it were, released an explosion of light, through
which God’s radiance shines upon our world and shows us the path. The saints are
stars of God, by whom we let ourselves be led to him for whom our whole being longs.
Dear friends: you followed the star Jesus Christ when you said “yes” to the priesthood
and to the episcopacy. And no doubt smaller stars have enlightened and helped you
not to lose your way. In the litany of saints we call upon all these stars of God,
that they may continue to shine upon you and show you the path. As you are ordained
bishops, you too are called to be stars of God for men, leading them along the path
towards the true light, towards Christ. So let us pray to all the saints at this
hour, asking them that you may always live up to this mission you have received,
to show God’s light to mankind.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 6 January 2013 </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Please excuse the
delay. I ordained four new Bishops in St Peter’s Basilica and the rite lasted a
little longer. But today we are celebrating above all the Epiphany of the Lord,
his manifestation to the nations, while many Eastern Churches, according to the
Julian Calendar, celebrate the Birth. This slight difference that makes these two
events overlap highlights that that Child, born in the humility of a grotto in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, is the light of
the world, who orients the path of all peoples.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is a juxtaposition
which also makes us reflect also from the viewpoint of faith: moreover, at Christmas
in front of Jesus, we see the faith of Mary, of Joseph and of the shepherds; and
today on the Epiphany the faith of the three Magi, come from the East to worship
the King of the Jews. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin Mary,
together with her husband, represents the “stump” of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>, the “remnant” foretold by the
prophets, from which the Messiah was to spring. Instead the Magi represent the peoples,
and we can say even civilizations, cultures, religions that are — so to speak —
on their way to God, searching for his kingdom of peace, justice, truth and freedom.
There was first a nucleus, embodied above all by Mary, the “daughter of <st1:city w:st="on">Zion</st1:city>”: a nucleus of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>, the people that know and have
faith in that God who revealed himself to the Patriarchs and on the path of history.
This faith is fulfilled in Mary, in the fullness of time; in her, “blessed because
she believed”, the Word was made flesh, God “appeared” in the world. Mary’s faith
becomes the first fruits and the model of the faith of the Church, the People of
the New Covenant. But from the beginning this people is universal and we can see
this today in the figures of the Magi who arrive in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, following the light of a star and the
instructions of Sacred Scripture. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Leo the Great
says: “A promise had been made to the holy Patriarch Abraham in regard to these
nations. He was to have a countless progeny, born not from his body but from the
seed of faith” (<i>Sermo 3 in Epiphania Domini</i>, 1: <i>PL </i>54, 240). Mary’s
faith can be compared to Abraham’s. It is a new beginning of the same promise, of
the same immutable plan of God which now finds fulfilment in Jesus Christ. And the
light of Christ is so clear and strong that it makes both the language of the cosmos
and of the Scriptures intelligible, so that all those who, like the Magi, are open
to the truth can recognize it and come to contemplate the Savior of the world. St
Leo continues: “Let the full number of the nations now take their place in the family
of the patriarchs... let all people adore the Creator of the universe; let God be
known, not only in <st1:place w:st="on">Judaea</st1:place>, but in the whole world”
(<i>ibid</i>.). In this perspective we can also look at the episcopal ordinations
which I had the joy of conferring this morning in St Peter’s Basilica: two new bishops
will remain at the service of the Holy See, and the other two will be leaving to
serve as Pontifical Representatives to two nations. Let us pray for each one of
the them, for their ministry, and that the light of Christ may shine throughout
the world.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC
CELEBRATION<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ON THE
SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><em>Vatican</em></st1:place><em> Basilica</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 6 January
201</em></i>3</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<em><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></em></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For the Church which
believes and prays, the Wise Men from the East who, guided by the star, made their
way to the manger of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
are only the beginning of a great procession which winds throughout history. Thus
the liturgy reads the Gospel which relates the journey of the Wise Men, together
with the magnificent prophetic visions of the sixtieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah
and Psalm 71, which depict in bold imagery the pilgrimage of the peoples to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>. Like the shepherds,
who as the first visitors to the newborn Child in the manger, embodied the poor
of Israel and more generally those humble souls who live in deep interior closeness
to Jesus, so the men from the East embody the world of the peoples, the Church of
the Gentiles – the men and women who in every age set out on the way which leads
to the Child of Bethlehem, to offer him homage as the Son of God and to bow down
before him. The Church calls this feast “Epiphany” – the appearance of the Godhead.
If we consider the fact that from the very beginning men and women of every place,
of every continent, of all the different cultures, mentalities and lifestyles, have
been on the way to Christ, then we can truly say that this pilgrimage and this encounter
with God in the form of a Child is an epiphany of God’s goodness and loving kindness
for humanity (see <em>Tit </em>3:4).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Following a tradition
begun by Pope John Paul II, we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany of the Lord also
as the day when episcopal ordination will be conferred on four priests who will
now cooperate in different ways in the ministry of the Pope for the unity of the
one Church of Jesus Christ in the multiplicity of the Particular Churches. The connection
between this episcopal ordination and the theme of the pilgrimage of the peoples
to Jesus Christ is evident. It is the task of the Bishop in this pilgrimage not
merely to walk beside the others, but to go before them, showing the way. But in
this liturgy I would like to reflect with you on a more concrete question. Based
on the account of Matthew, we can gain a certain idea of what sort of men these
were, who followed the sign of the star and set off to find that King who would
establish not only for Israel but for all mankind a new kind of kingship. What kind
of men were they? And we can also ask whether, despite the difference of times and
tasks, we can glimpse in them something of what a Bishop is and how he is to carry
out his task.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These men who set
out towards the unknown were, in any event, men with a restless heart. Men driven
by a restless quest for God and the salvation of the world. They were filled with
expectation, not satisfied with their secure income and their respectable place
in society. They were looking for something greater. They were no doubt learned
men, quite knowledgeable about the heavens and probably possessed of a fine philosophical
formation. But they desired more than simply knowledge about things. They wanted
above all else to know what is essential. They wanted to know how we succeed in
being human. And therefore they wanted to know if God exists, and where and how
he exists. Whether he is concerned about us and how we can encounter him. Nor did
they want just to know. They wanted to understand the truth about ourselves and
about God and the world. Their outward pilgrimage was an expression of their inward
journey, the inner pilgrimage of their hearts. They were men who sought God and
were ultimately on the way towards him. They were seekers after God.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here we come to the
question: What sort of man must he be, upon whom hands are laid in episcopal ordination
in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Jesus Christ</st1:placename></st1:place>? We can say that he must above
all be a man concerned for God, for only then will he also be truly concerned about
men. Inversely, we could also say that a Bishop must be a man concerned for others,
one who is concerned about what happens to them. He must be a man for others. But
he can only truly be so if he is a man seized by God, if concern for God has also
become for him concern for God’s creature who is man. Like the Wise Men from the
East, a Bishop must not be someone who merely does his job and is content with that.
No, he must be gripped by God’s concern for men and women. He must in some way think
and feel with God. Human beings have an innate restlessness for God, but this restlessness
is a participation in God’s own restlessness for us. Since God is concerned about
us, he follows us even to the crib, even to the Cross. “Thou with weary steps hast
sought me, crucified hast dearly bought me, may thy pains not be in vain”, the Church
prays in the <em>Dies Irae</em>. The restlessness of men for God and hence the restlessness
of God for men must unsettle the Bishop. This is what we mean when we say that,
above all else, the Bishop must be a man of faith. For faith is nothing less than
being interiorly seized by God, something which guides us along the pathways of
life. Faith draws us into a state of being seized by the restlessness of God and
it makes us pilgrims who are on an inner journey towards the true King of the world
and his promise of justice, truth and love. On this pilgrimage the Bishop must go
ahead, he must be the guide pointing out to men and women the way to faith, hope
and love.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Faith’s inner pilgrimage
towards God occurs above all in prayer. <st1:place w:st="on">Saint
Augustine</st1:place> once said that prayer is ultimately nothing more
than the realization and radicalization of our yearning for God. Instead of “yearning”,
we could also translate the word as “restlessness” and say that prayer would detach
us from our false security, from our being enclosed within material and visible
realities, and would give us a restlessness for God and thus an openness to and
concern for one another. The Bishop, as a pilgrim of God, must be above all a man
of prayer. He must be in constant inner contact with God; his soul must be open
wide to God. He must bring before God his own needs and the needs of others, as
well as his joys and the joys of others, and thus in his own way establish contact
between God and the world in communion with Christ, so that Christ’s light can shine
in the world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us return to
the Wise Men from the East. These were also, and above all, men of courage, the
courage and humility born of faith. Courage was needed to grasp the meaning of the
star as a sign to set out, to go forth – towards the unknown, the uncertain, on
paths filled with hidden dangers. We can imagine that their decision was met with
derision: the scorn of those realists who could only mock the reveries of such men.
Anyone who took off on the basis of such uncertain promises, risking everything,
could only appear ridiculous. But for these men, inwardly seized by God, the way
which he pointed out was more important than what other people thought. For them,
seeking the truth meant more than the taunts of the world, so apparently clever.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How can we not think,
in this context, of the task of a Bishop in our own time? The humility of faith,
of sharing the faith of the Church of every age, will constantly be in conflict
with the prevailing wisdom of those who cling to what seems certain. Anyone who
lives and proclaims the faith of the Church is on many points out of step with the
prevalent way of thinking, even in our own day. Today’s regnant agnosticism has
its own dogmas and is extremely intolerant regarding anything that would question
it and the criteria it employs. Therefore the courage to contradict the prevailing
mindset is particularly urgent for a Bishop today. He must be courageous. And this
courage or forcefulness does not consist in striking out or in acting aggressively,
but rather in allowing oneself to be struck and to be steadfast before the principles
of the prevalent way of thinking. The courage to stand firm in the truth is unavoidably
demanded of those whom the Lord sends like sheep among wolves. “Those who fear the
Lord will not be timid”, says the Book of Sirach (34:16). The fear of God frees
us from the fear of men. It liberates.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here I am reminded
of an episode at the very beginning of Christianity which Saint Luke recounts in
the Acts of the Apostles. After the speech of Gamaliel, who advised against violence
in dealing with the earliest community of believers in Jesus, the Sanhedrin summoned
the Apostles and had them flogged. It then forbade them from preaching in the name
of Jesus and set them free. Saint Luke continues: “As they left the council, they
rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus.
And every day… they did not cease to teach and proclaim Jesus as the Messiah” (<em>Acts
</em>5:40ff.). The successors of the Apostles must also expect to be repeatedly
beaten, by contemporary methods, if they continue to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus
Christ in a way that can be heard and understood. Then they can rejoice that they
have been considered worthy of suffering for him. Like the Apostles, we naturally
want to convince people and in this sense to obtain their approval. Naturally, we
are not provocative; on the contrary we invite all to enter into the joy of that
truth which shows us the way. The approval of the prevailing wisdom, however, is
not the criterion to which we submit. Our criterion is the Lord himself. If we defend
his cause, we will constantly gain others to the way of the Gospel. But, inevitably,
we will also be beaten by those who live lives opposed to the Gospel, and then we
can be grateful for having been judged worthy to share in the passion of Christ.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Wise Men followed
the star, and thus came to Jesus, to the great Light which enlightens everyone coming
into this world (see <em>Jn </em>1:9). As pilgrims of faith, the Wise Men themselves
became stars shining in the firmament of history and they show us the way. The saints
are God’s true constellations, which light up the nights of this world, serving
as our guides. <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:place>,
in his Letter to the Philippians, told his faithful that they must shine like stars
in the world (see 2:15).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, this holds true for us too. It holds
true above all for you who are now to be ordained Bishops of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Jesus Christ</st1:placename></st1:place>. If you live with Christ, bound
to him anew in this sacrament, then you too will become wise men. Then you will
become stars which go before men and women, pointing out to them the right path
in life. All of us here are now praying for you, that the Lord may fill you with
the light of faith and love. That that restlessness of God for man may seize you,
so that all may experience his closeness and receive the gift of his joy. We are
praying for you, that the Lord may always grant you the courage and humility of
faith. We ask Mary, who showed to the Wise Men the new King of the world (see <em>Mt
</em>2:11), as a loving mother, to show Jesus Christ also to you and to help you
to be guides along the way which leads to him. Amen. </span></div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACTUS-ESSENDI-PRINCIPLE-THOMAS-AQUINAS/dp/0578522179" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Actus essendi and the Habit of the First Principle in Thomas Aquinas</span></a></i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;"> </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-88977152612004378122023-12-31T01:30:00.004-05:002023-12-31T01:30:00.177-05:00Reflections on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0321: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the S</b><b>olemnity of Mary,
Mother of God,</b><b> </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI </b><b> </b></span>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">
</span>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight occasions during his pontificate,
Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections
on the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, on December 31 and January 1 of the academic years 2005-2006,
2006-2007, 2007-2008, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2011, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013.
Here are the texts of the 24 reflections
delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>TE
DEUM</i> AND FIRST VESPERS </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF THE
SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saturday,
31 December 2005</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</i> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of a year
which has been particularly eventful for the Church and for the world, mindful of
the Apostle’s order, “walk... established in the faith... abounding in thanksgiving”
(cf. <st1:place w:st="on">Col</st1:place> 2: 6-7),
we are gathered together this evening to raise a hymn of thanksgiving to God, Lord
of time and of history. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am thinking with
a profound and spiritual sentiment of 12 months ago, when for the last time beloved
Pope John Paul II made himself the voice of the People of God to give thanks to
the Lord, like this evening, for the numerous benefits granted to the Church and
to humanity. In the same evocative setting of the Vatican Basilica, it is now my
turn to ideally gather from every corner of the earth the praise and thanksgiving
raised to God at the end of 2005 and on the eve of 2006. Yes, it is our duty, as
well as a need of our hearts, to praise and thank the eternal One who accompanies
us through time, never abandoning us, and who always watches over humanity with
the fidelity of his merciful love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We may well say that
the Church lives to praise and thank God. She herself has been an “action of grace”
down the ages, a faithful witness of a love that does not die, of a love that embraces
people of every race and culture, fruitfully disseminating principles of true life.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As the Second Vatican
Council recalls, “the Church prays and likewise labors so that into the People of
God, the Body of the Lord and the Temple of the Holy Spirit, may pass the fullness
of the whole world, and that in Christ, the head of all things, all honor and glory
may be rendered to the Creator, the Father of the universe”<b><i> </i></b>(<i>Lumen
Gentium, </i>no. 17). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sustained by the
Holy Spirit, she “presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations
of God” (<st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>,
<i>De Civitate Dei, </i>XVIII, 51, 2), drawing strength from the Lord’s help. Thus,
in patience and in love, she overcomes “her sorrows and her difficulties, both those
that are from within and those that are from without”, and reveals “in the world,
faithfully, however darkly, the mystery of her Lord until, in the consummation,
it shall be manifested in full light” (<i>Lumen Gentium, </i>no. 8). The Church
lives from Christ and with Christ. He offers her his spousal love, guiding her through
the centuries; and she, with the abundance of her gifts, accompanies men and women
on their journey so that those who accept Christ may have life and have it abundantly.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This evening I make
myself first of all the voice of the Church of Rome to raise to Heaven our common
hymn of praise and thanksgiving. In the past 12 months, our Church of Rome has been
visited by many other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, to deepen the dialogue
of truth in charity that unites all the baptized, and together to experience more
keenly the desire for full communion. Many believers of other religions, however,
also wanted to testify to their cordial and brotherly esteem for this Church and
her Bishop, aware that the serene and respectful encounter conceals the heart of
a harmonious action in favor of all humanity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And what can be said
of the many people of good will who have turned their gaze to this See in order
to build up a fruitful dialogue on the great values concerning the truth about man
and life to be defended and promoted? The Church always desires to be welcoming,
in truth and in charity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As regards the journey
of the Diocese of Rome, I wish to reflect briefly on the diocesan pastoral programme,
which this year has focused attention on the family, choosing as a theme: “<i>Family
and Christian community: formation of the
person and transmission of the faith</i>”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">My venerable Predecessors
always made the family the centre of their attention<i>, </i>especially John Paul
II, who dedicated numerous Interventions to it. He was convinced, and said so on
many occasions, that the crisis of the family is a serious threat to our civilization
itself. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Precisely to underline
the importance of the family based on marriage in the life of the Church and of
society, I also wished to make my contribution by speaking at the Diocesan Congress
in St John Lateran last 6 June. I am delighted because the diocesan programme is
going smoothly with a far-reaching apostolic action which is carried out in the
parishes, at the prefectures and in the various ecclesial associations. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the Lord grant
that the common effort lead to an authentic renewal of Christian families. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I take this opportunity
to greet the representatives of the religious and civil Communities of Rome present
at this end-of-year celebration. I greet in the first place the Cardinal Vicar,
the Auxiliary Bishops, priests, Religious and lay faithful from various parishes
who have gathered here; I also greet the City Mayor and the other Authorities. I
extend my thoughts to the entire Roman community whose Pastor the Lord called me
to be, and I renew to everyone the expression of my spiritual closeness. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the beginning
of this celebration, enlightened by the Word of God, we sang the “Te Deum” with
faith. There are so many reasons that render our thanksgiving intense, making it
a unanimous prayer. While we consider the many events that have marked the succession
of months in this year that is coming to its end, I would like to remember especially
those who are in difficulty: the poorest
and the most abandoned people, those who have lost hope in a well-grounded sense
of their own existence, or who involuntarily become the victims of selfish interests
without being asked for their support or their opinion. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Making their sufferings
our own, let us entrust them all to God, who knows how to bring everything to a
good end; to him let us entrust our aspiration that every person’s dignity as a
child of God be respected. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us ask the Lord
of life to soothe with his grace the sufferings caused by evil, and to continue
to fortify our earthy existence by giving us the Bread and Wine of salvation to
sustain us on our way towards the Heavenly Homeland. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">While we take our
leave of the year that is drawing to a close and set out for the new one, the liturgy
of this First Vespers ushers us into the Feast of Mary, Mother of God, <i>Theotokos.
</i>Eight days after the birth of Jesus, we will be celebrating the one whom God
chose in advance to be the Mother of the Savior “when the fullness of time had come”
(Gal 4: 4). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The mother is the
one who gives life but also who helps and teaches how to live. Mary is a Mother,
the Mother of Jesus, to whom she gave her blood and her body. And it is she who
presents to us the eternal Word of the Father, who came to dwell among us. Let us
ask Mary to intercede for us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May her motherly
protection accompany us today and for ever, so that Christ will one day welcome
us into his glory, into the assembly of the Saints: <i>Aeterna fac cum sanctis tuis in gloria numerari</i>.
Amen! </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"> XXXIX WORLD PEACE DAY </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 1 January 2006 </span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this first day
of the year, the Church fixes her gaze on the heavenly Mother of God, who embraces
the Child Jesus, source of every blessing. “Hail, Holy Mother”, the liturgy sings,
“the Child to whom you gave birth is the King of Heaven and Earth for ever”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Angels’ proclamation
at <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city> resounds
in Mary’s motherly heart, filling it with wonder: “Glory to God in high heaven,
peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests” (Lk 2: 14). And the Gospel adds
that Mary “treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart” (Lk 2:
19).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Like Mary, the Church
also treasures and reflects upon the Word of God, comparing it to the various changing
situations she encounters on her way. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Looking at Christ,
who came to earth to give us his peace, we celebrate on New Year’s Day the “World
Day of Peace”, begun by Pope Paul VI 38 years ago. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In my first Message
for this occasion, I wanted to take up once more this year a recurring theme in
the <i>Magisterium</i> of my venerable Predecessors, beginning with the memorable
Encyclical <i>Pacem in Terris </i>of Bl. John XXIII: the theme of truth as the foundation of authentic
peace. “In truth, peace”: this is the motto
that I propose for the reflection of every person of good will. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When man allows himself
to be enlightened by the splendor of truth, he inwardly becomes a courageous peacemaker.
We learn a great lesson from this liturgical season that we are living: to welcome the gift of peace, we must open ourselves
to the truth that is revealed in the person of Jesus, who taught us the “content”
and “method” of peace, that is, love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, God, who
is perfect and subsisting Love, has revealed himself in Jesus, embracing our human
condition. In this way he has also pointed out to us the way of peace: dialogue, forgiveness, solidarity. This is the
only path that leads to true peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us turn our gaze
to Mary Most Holy, who today blesses the entire world, pointing out her divine Son,
the “Prince of Peace” (Is 9: 5). Let us trustfully invoke her powerful intercession
so that the human family, opening itself to the evangelical message, may fraternally
and peacefully pass the year which begins today. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With these sentiments,
I address my most heartfelt best wishes of peace and goodness to everyone present
here in St Peter’s Square, and to those who are joined by way of radio and television.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD AND </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">39th
WORLD DAY OF PEACE </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Sunday, 1 January 2006</i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s liturgy
our gaze continues to be turned to the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son
of God, while with particular emphasis we contemplate the Motherhood of the Virgin
Mary. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Pauline passage
we have heard (see Gal 4: 4), the Apostle very discreetly points to the One through
whom the Son of God enters the world: Mary
of Nazareth, Mother of God, <i>Theotokos.</i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the beginning
of a new year, we are invited, as it were, to attend her school, the school of the
faithful disciple of the Lord, in order to learn from her to accept in faith and
prayer the salvation God desires to pour out upon those who trust in his merciful
love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Salvation is a gift
of God; in the first reading, it was presented as a blessing: “The Lord bless you and keep you!... The Lord
look upon you kindly and give you peace!” (Nm 6: 24, 26). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is the blessing
that priests used to invoke upon the people at the end of the great liturgical feasts,
particularly the feast of the New Year. We are in the presence of a text packed
with meaning, punctuated by the Name of the Lord which is repeated at the beginning
of every verse. This text is not limited to the mere enunciation of principles but
strives to realize what it says.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, as is widely
known, in Semitic thought the blessing of the Lord produces well-being and salvation
through its own power, just as cursing procures disgrace and ruin. The effectiveness
of blessing is later more specifically brought about by God, who protects us (v.
24), favors us (v. 25) and gives us peace, which is to say in other words, he offers
us an abundance of happiness. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">By having us listen
once again to this ancient blessing at the beginning of a new solar year, the liturgy,
as it were, encourages us in turn to invoke the Lord’s blessing upon the New Year
that is just beginning, so that it may be a year of prosperity and peace for us
all. It is precisely this wish that I would like to address to the distinguished
Ambassadors of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See who are taking part
in today’s liturgical celebration. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, my Secretary of State. With him, I greet Cardinal Renato Raffaele
Martino and all the members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. I am
particularly grateful to them for their commitment to disseminating the annual Message
for the World Day of Peace, addressed to Christians and to all men and women of
good will. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I also offer a cordial
greeting to the many <i>choirboys </i>who with their singing add to the solemnity
of this Holy Mass, during which we ask God for the gift of peace for the whole world.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">By choosing the theme
“<i>In truth, peace</i>” as the Message for the World Day of Peace, I wanted to
express the conviction that “<i>whenever men and women are enlightened by the splendor
of truth, they naturally set out on the path of peace</i>” (no. 3). How can we not
see in this an effective and appropriate realization of the Gospel just proclaimed,
in which we contemplated the scene of the shepherds on their way to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> to adore the Child?
(see Lk 2: 16). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Are not those shepherds,
whom the Evangelist Luke describes to us in their poverty and simplicity, obedient
to the Angel’s order and docile to God’s will, perhaps the image most easily accessible
to each one of us of the person who allows himself to be enlightened by the truth
and is thereby enabled to build a world of peace? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Peace! This great,
heartfelt aspiration of every man and every woman is built day after day by the
contribution of all and by treasuring the wonderful heritage passed down to us by
the Second Vatican Council with the Pastoral Constitution <i>Gaudium et Spes, </i>which
says, among other things, that humanity will not succeed in “the establishment of
a truly human world for all men over the entire earth, unless everyone devotes himself
to the cause of true peace with renewed vigor” (no. 77). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The time in history
when the Constitution <i>Gaudium et Spes </i>was promulgated, 7 December 1965, was
not very different from our time. Then, as unfortunately also in our day and age,
tensions of various kinds were looming on the world horizon. In the face of the
lasting situations of injustice and violence that continue to oppress various parts
of the earth, in the face of those that are emerging as new and more insidious threats
to peace - terrorism, nihilism and fanatical fundamentalism - it is becoming more
necessary than ever to work together for peace! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A “start” of courage
and trust in God and man is necessary if we are to choose the path of peace. And
it must be on the part of all: individuals
and peoples, international organizations and world powers. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Message for
today’s event, I wanted in particular to call the United Nations Organization to
a renewed awareness of its responsibilities in encouraging the values of justice,
solidarity and peace in a world that is ever more marked by the vast phenomenon
of globalization. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If peace is the aspiration
of every person of good will, for Christ’s disciples it is a permanent mandate that
involves all; it is a demanding mission that impels them to announce and witness
to “the Gospel of Peace”, proclaiming that recognition of God’s full truth is an
indispensable pre-condition for the consolidation of the truth of peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May this awareness
continue to grow so that every Christian community becomes the “leaven” of a humanity
renewed by love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“<i>And Mary kept
all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” </i>(Lk 2: 19). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first day of
the year is placed under the sign of a woman, Mary. The Evangelist Luke describes
her as the silent Virgin who listens constantly to the eternal Word, who lives in
the Word of God. Mary treasures in her heart the words that come from God and, piecing
them together as in a mosaic, learns to understand them. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us too, at her
school, learn to become attentive and docile disciples of the Lord. With her motherly
help, let us commit ourselves to working enthusiastically in the “workshop” of peace,
following Christ, the Prince of Peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">After the example
of the Blessed Virgin, may we let ourselves be guided always and only by Jesus Christ,
who is the same yesterday, today, and for ever! (Heb 13: 8). Amen. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>TE
DEUM</i> AND FIRST VESPERS</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Sunday, 31 December 2006</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your
Eminences, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Distinguished
Authorities, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We are gathered
in the Vatican Basilica to give thanks to the Lord at the end of the year and
to sing the<b><i> </i></b><i>Te Deum </i>together. I cordially thank all of you
for wishing to join me on such an important occasion. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the first
place, I greet the Cardinals, my venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in
the Priesthood, the men and women Religious, the consecrated persons and all
the lay faithful who represent the entire Ecclesial Community of Rome. In
particular I greet the Mayor of Rome and the other Authorities present. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this evening
of 31 December, two different perspectives intersect: one is linked to the end
of the civil year, the other to the liturgical Solemnity of Mary Most Holy,
Mother of God, which concludes the Octave of Holy Christmas. The first event is
common to all, the second concerns believers. Their intersection confers a
special character upon this evening celebration, in a particular spiritual
atmosphere that is conducive to reflection. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first, most
evocative, theme is linked to the dimension of <i>time.</i> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the last hours
of every solar year we participate in some worldly “rites” which in the
contemporary context are mainly marked by amusement and often lived as an
evasion from reality, as it were, to exorcise the negative aspects and
propitiate improbable good luck. How different the attitude of the Christian
Community must be! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church is
called to live these hours, making the Virgin Mary’s sentiments her own. With
her, the Church is invited to keep her gaze fixed on the Infant Jesus, the new
Sun rising on the horizon of humanity and, comforted by his light, to take care
to present to him “the joy and the hope, the grief and the anguish of the
people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted” (<i>Gaudium
et Spes</i>, no. 1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Consequently,
two different evaluations of the dimension of “time” confront each other, one
quantitative and the other qualitative. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the one hand,
the solar cycle with its rhythms; on the other, what St Paul called the “fullness
of time” (see Gal 4: 4), that is, the culminating moment of the history of the
universe and of the human race when the Son of God was born in the world. The
time of the promises was fulfilled and, when Mary’s pregnancy reached its term,
“the earth”, a Psalm says, “yielded its increase” (Ps 67[66]: [7]6) </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The coming of
the Messiah, foretold by the Prophets, is qualitatively the most important
event of all history, on which it confers its ultimate and full meaning. It is
not historical and political coordinates that condition God’s choice, but on
the contrary, the event of the Incarnation that “fills” history with value and
meaning. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We, who come
2,000 years after that event, can affirm this, so to speak, also <i>a
posteriori, </i>after having known the whole life of Jesus, until his death and
Resurrection. We are witnesses at the same time of his glory and his humility,
of the immense value of his coming and of God’s infinite respect for us human
beings and for our history. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He did not fill
time by pouring himself into it from on high, but “from within”, making himself
a tiny seed to lead humanity to its full maturation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God’s style
required a long period of preparation to reach from Abraham to Jesus Christ,
and after the Messiah’s coming, history did not end but continued its course,
apparently the same but in reality visited by God and oriented to the Lord’s
second and definitive Coming at the end of time. We might say that Mary’s
Motherhood is a real symbol and sacrament of all this, an event at the same
time human and divine. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the passage
from the Letter to the Galatians that we have just heard, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> said: “God sent forth his Son, born
of woman” (Gal 4: 4). Origen commented: “Note well that he did not say, “born <i>by
means of </i>a woman’ but “born <i>of </i>a woman’“ (<i>Comment on the Letter
to the Galatians, PG </i>14, 1298). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This acute
observation of the great exegete and ecclesiastical writer is important: in
fact, if the Son of God had been born only “by means of” a woman, he would not
truly have taken on our humanity, something which instead he did by taking
flesh “of” Mary. Mary’s motherhood, therefore, is true and fully human. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The fundamental
truth about Jesus as a divine Person who fully assumed our human nature is
condensed in the phrase: “God sent forth his Son born of woman”. He is the Son
of God, he is generated by God and <i>at the same time </i>he is the son of a
woman, Mary. He comes from her. He is <i>of </i>God and <i>of </i>Mary. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason
one can and must call the Mother of Jesus the Mother of God. This title,
rendered in Greek as <i>Theotokos, </i>probably appeared for the first time in
the very region of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Alexandria</st1:city>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Egypt</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
precisely where Origen lived in the first half of the third century. However,
she was dogmatically defined as such only two centuries later, in 431 by the
Council of Ephesus, a city to which I had the joy of going on pilgrimage a
month ago during my Apostolic Visit to <st1:place w:st="on">Turkey</st1:place>. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, thinking
back to that unforgettable Visit, how could I fail to express all my filial
gratitude to the Holy Mother of God for the special protection which she
granted to me in those days of grace? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Theotokos, </i>Mother
of God: every time we recite the <i>Hail Mary </i>we address the Virgin with
this title, imploring her to pray “for us sinners”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of a
year, we feel a special need to call on the motherly intercession of Mary Most
Holy for the city of <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>, for <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>, for <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>
and for the whole world. Let us entrust to Mary, who is the Mother of Mercy
incarnate, particularly those situations to which the Lord’s grace alone can
bring peace, comfort and justice. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin heard
the Angel announcing her divine Motherhood say to her: “With God nothing will
be impossible” (Lk 1: 37). Mary believed and for this reason she is blessed
(see Lk 1: 45). What is impossible to man becomes possible to the one who
believes (see Mk 9: 23). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, as 2006
draws to a close and the dawn of 2007 can already be glimpsed, let us ask the
Mother of God to obtain for us the gift of a mature faith: a faith that we
would like to resemble hers as far as possible, a clear, genuine, humble and at
the same time courageous faith, steeped in hope and enthusiasm for the Kingdom
of God, a faith devoid of all fatalism and wholly set on cooperating with the
divine will in full and joyful obedience and with the absolute certainty that
God wants nothing but love and life, always and for everyone. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Obtain for us, O
Mary, an authentic, pure faith. May you always be thanked and blessed, Holy
Mother of God! Amen! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">XL WORLD
DAY OF PEACE</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Monday, 1 January 2007 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the beginning
of the New Year I am happy to greet all of you present here in St Peter’s Square,
and to those who are joined with us by radio and television, the most cordial wishes
of peace and goodness. Congratulations to all of you: peace and goodness! May the
light of Christ, the Sun that appeared on the horizon of humanity, illuminate your
way and accompany you throughout the whole of 2007! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With fortunate intuition,
my venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God Paul VI, wished the year to open under
the protection of Mary Most Holy, venerated as the Mother of God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Christian community,
which in these days has remained in prayerful adoration before the crib, looks with
particular love to the Virgin Mary, identifying itself with her while contemplating
the newborn Baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Like Mary, the Church
also remains in silence in order to welcome and keep the interior resonances of
the Word made flesh and in order not to lose the divine-human warmth that radiates
from his presence. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church, like
the Virgin, does none other than show Jesus, the Savior, to everyone, and reflects
to each one the light of his face, the splendor of goodness and truth. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, we contemplate
Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary, in his prerogative of true “Prince of Peace” (Is
9: 6). He “is our peace”, come to break down the “wall of separation” that divides
humanity and peoples, which is “enmity” (Eph 2: 14). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason,
Paul VI, of venerable memory, also wanted 1 January to become the <i>World Day of
Peace</i>: so that each new year begins in the light of Christ, the great peacemaker
of humanity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">True foundations
of peace </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, I renew my
wish for peace to those governing and leading the nations and international organizations
and to all men and women of good will. I do this particularly with the special Message
that I have prepared, together with my collaborators of the Pontifical Council for
Justice and Peace, and whose theme this year is: “The human person, heart of peace”.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It touches on an
essential point, <i>the value of the human person</i>, which is the supporting column
of the entire, great edifice of peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, much is spoken
of human rights, but it is often forgotten that they need a stable, not relative,
not optional, foundation. And this can be none other than the dignity of the human
person. Respect for this dignity begins with the recognition and protection of the
person’s right to life and to freely profess his or her own religion. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To the Most Holy
Mother of God we confidently address our prayer, so that sacred respect for each
human person and the firm refusal of war and violence may develop in consciences.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary, you who have
given Jesus to the world, help us to welcome his gift of peace and to be sincere
and courageous builders of peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD AND </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">40th
WORLD DAY OF PEACE </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Monday, 1 January 2007</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As in a mosaic, today’s
liturgy contemplates different events and messianic situations, but attention is
especially focused on <i>Mary, Mother of God. </i>Eight days after Jesus’ birth,
we commemorate the Mother, the <i>Theotokos, </i>the one who gave birth to the Child
who is King of Heaven and earth for ever (see <i>Entrance Antiphon; Sedulius</i>).
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgy today
meditates on the Word made man and repeats that he is born of the Virgin. It reflects
on the circumcision of Jesus as a rite of admission to the community and contemplates
God who, by means of Mary, gave his Only-Begotten Son to lead the “new people”.
It recalls the name given to the Messiah and listens to it spoken with tender sweetness
by his Mother. It invokes peace for the world, Christ’s peace, and does so through
Mary, Mediatrix and Cooperator of Christ (see <i>Lumen Gentium, </i>nos. 60-61).
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We are beginning
<i>a new solar year </i>which is a further period of time offered to us by divine
<st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place> in the
context of the salvation inaugurated by Christ. But did not the eternal Word enter
time precisely through Mary? In the Second Reading we have just listened to, the
Apostle Paul recalls this by saying that Jesus was born “of woman” (Gal 4: 4). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s liturgy
<i>the figure of Mary, </i>true Mother of Jesus, God-man, <i>stands out</i>. Thus,
today’s Solemnity is not celebrating an abstract idea but a mystery and an historic
event: Jesus Christ, a divine Person, is born of the Virgin Mary who is his Mother
in the truest sense. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today too, <i>Mary’s
virginity </i>is highlighted, in addition to her motherhood. These are two prerogatives
that are always proclaimed together, inseparably, because they complement and qualify
each other. Mary is Mother, but a Virgin Mother; Mary is a virgin, but a Mother
Virgin. If either of these aspects is ignored, the mystery of Mary as the Gospels
present her to us, cannot be properly understood. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As Mother of Christ,
Mary is also <i>Mother of the Church, </i>which my venerable Predecessor, the Servant
of God Paul VI chose to proclaim on 21 November 1964 at the Second Vatican Council.
Lastly, Mary is the <i>Spiritual Mother of all humanity</i>, because Jesus on the
Cross shed his blood for all of us and from the Cross he entrusted us all to her
maternal care. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us begin this
new year, therefore, by looking at Mary whom we received from God’s hands as a precious
“talent” to be made fruitful, a providential opportunity to contribute to bringing
about the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this atmosphere
of prayer and gratitude to the Lord for the gift of a new year, I am pleased to
address my respectful thoughts to the distinguished Ambassadors of the Diplomatic
Corps accredited to the Holy See who have desired to take part in today’s solemn
Celebration. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I cordially greet
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, my Secretary of State. I greet Cardinal Renato Raffaele
Martino and the members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and express
to them my deep gratitude for the commitment with which they daily promote these
values, so fundamental to social life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this World Day
of Peace, I addressed the customary Message to the Governors and Leaders of Nations,
as well as to all men and women of good will. Its theme this year is: <i>The human
person, the heart of peace. </i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am deeply convinced
that “respect for the person promotes peace and that, in building peace, the foundations
are laid for an authentic integral humanism” (<i>Message for World Peace Day</i>,
1 January 2007, no. 1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This commitment is
especially incumbent on every Christian who is called “to be committed to tireless
peace-making and strenuous defence of the dignity of the human person and his inalienable
rights” (<i>Message, </i>no. 16). Precisely because he is created in the image and
likeness of God (see Gn 1: 27), every human individual without distinction of race,
culture or religion,<i> as a person is clothed in God’s same dignity. </i>For this
reason he should be respected, nor can any reason ever justify an arbitrary use
of him, as if he were an object. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the face of the
threats to peace that are unfortunately ever present, the situations of injustice
and violence that persist in various areas of the earth and the continuing armed
conflicts often overlooked by the majority of public opinion, as well as the danger
of terrorism that clouds the serenity of peoples, it is becoming more necessary
than ever <i>to work for peace together. </i>This, as I recalled in my <i>Message,
</i>is “both gift and task” (no. 3): a gift to implore with prayer and a task to
be carried out with courage, never tiring. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel narrative
we have heard portrays the scene of the shepherds of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, who after hearing the Angel’s announcement
go to the grotto to worship the Child (see Lk 2: 16). Should we not look again at
the dramatic situation marking the very Land in which Jesus was born? How can we
not entreat God with insistent prayers for the day of peace to arrive as soon as
possible in that region too, the day on which the current conflict that has lasted
far too long will be resolved? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If a peace agreement
is to endure, it must be based on respect for the dignity and rights of every person.
I express to the representatives of the nations present here my hope that the International
Community will muster its forces so that a world may be built in God’s Name in which
the essential human rights are respected by all. For this to happen, people must
recognize that these rights are not only based on human agreements but “on man’s
very nature and his inalienable dignity as a person created by God” (<i>Message,
</i>no. 13). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, were the
constitutive elements of human dignity entrusted to changeable human opinions, even
solemnly proclaimed human rights would end by being weakened and variously interpreted.
“Consequently, it is important for international agencies not to lose sight of the
natural foundation of human rights. This would enable them to avoid the risk, unfortunately
ever-present, of sliding towards a merely positivistic interpretation of those rights”
(<i>ibid</i>.). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>“The Lord bless
you and keep you... lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” </i>(Nm
6: 24, 26). This is the formula of the Blessing we heard in the First Reading, taken
from the Book of Numbers. The Lord’s Name is repeated in it three times. This gives
one an idea of the intensity and power of the Blessing, whose last word is “peace”.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The biblical term
<i>shalom, </i>which we translate as “peace”, implies that accumulation of good
things in which consists the “salvation” brought by Christ, the Messiah announced
by the Prophets. We Christians therefore recognize him as the Prince of Peace. He
became a man and was born in a grotto in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
to bring peace to people of good will, to all who welcome him with faith and love.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, peace is truly
the gift and commitment of Christmas: <i>the gift </i>that must be accepted with
humble docility and constantly invoked with prayerful trust, <i>the task </i>that
makes every person of good will a “channel of peace”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us ask Mary,
Mother of God, to help us to welcome her Son and, in him, true peace. Let us ask
her to sharpen our perception so that we may recognize in the face of every human
person, the Face of Christ, the heart of peace! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>TE
DEUM</i> AND FIRST VESPERS</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Monday, 31 December 2007</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As this year is
also ending, we are gathered in the Vatican Basilica to celebrate First Vespers
of the Solemnity of Mary Most Holy, Mother of God. The liturgy makes this
important Marian feast coincide with the end and the beginning of the solar year.
Our hymn of gratitude for 2007 which is drawing to a close and for 2008 which
we are already glimpsing is therefore combined with contemplation of the
mystery of the divine motherhood. Time passes and its inexorable passing
induces us to raise our gaze in deep gratitude to the One who is eternal, to
the Lord of time. Let us thank him together, dear brothers and sisters, on
behalf of the entire diocesan community of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>. I address my greeting to each one of
you. In the first place, I greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishops, the
priests and consecrated persons as well as all the lay faithful who are
gathered here. I greet Mr Mayor and the Authorities present, and I extend my
thoughts to the entire population of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
and in a special way to all those in conditions of difficulty and hardship. I
assure them all of my cordial closeness, strengthened by constant remembrance
in prayer. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the short
Reading from the Letter to the Galatians that we have just heard, speaking of
the liberation of man brought about by God with the mystery of the Incarnation,
St Paul very discreetly mentions the One through whom the Son of God entered
the world: “when the time had fully come”, he wrote, “God sent forth his Son,
born of woman” (<i>Gal</i> 4: 4). The Church contemplates in the “woman” the
features of Mary of Nazareth, a unique woman because she was called to carry
out a mission that brought her into very close contact with Christ: indeed, it
was an absolutely unique relationship, because Mary is Mother of the Savior. Just
as obviously, however, we can and must affirm that she is our Mother because,
by living her very special maternal relationship with the Son, she shared in
his mission<b> </b><i>for us</i> and <i>for the salvation of all people</i>. In
contemplating her, the Church makes out her own features: Mary lives faith and
charity; Mary is also a creature saved by the one Savior; Mary collaborates in
the initiative of the salvation of all humanity. Thus, Mary constitutes for the
Church her truest image: she in whom the Ecclesial Community must continually
discover the authentic sense of its own vocation and its own mystery. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This short but
intense Pauline passage then continues, showing how the fact that the Son
assumed human nature unfolds the perspective of a radical change of the actual
human condition. Paul says in it that “God sent forth his Son... to redeem
those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (<i>Gal</i>
4: 4-5). The Incarnate Word transforms human life from within, sharing with us
his being as Son of the Father. He became like us in order for us to become
like him: children of the Son, hence, people free from the law of sin. Is this
not a fundamental reason to raise our thanksgiving to God? A thanksgiving which
can only be even more motivated at the end of a year, considering the many
benefits and his constant assistance that we have experienced over the period
of the past 12 months. This is why every Christian community gathers together
this evening and sings the <i>Te Deum, </i>a traditional hymn of praise and
thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity. This is what we shall also do at the end
of this liturgical meeting of ours, before the Most Blessed Sacrament. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As we sing we
will pray: <i>“Te ergo, quæsumus, tuis famulis subveni, quos pretioso sanguine
redemisti: </i>Come then, Lord, and help your people, bought with the price of
your own blood”. This is our prayer this evening: Come with your mercy, Lord,
to the aid of the inhabitants of our City in which, as elsewhere, serious needs
and poverty weigh on the lives of people and families, preventing them from
looking with trust to the future. Many, especially young people, are attracted
by a false exaltation or rather, by the profanation of the body and the
trivialization of sexuality; so it is difficult to list the many challenges
bound up with consumerism and secularism which call into question believers and
people of good will. To say it in a word, in Rome one also notes that lack of
hope and trust in life that constitutes the “obscure” evil of modern Western
society. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But if the
deficiencies are evident, there is no lack of light and reasons for hope on
which to implore special divine blessings. Precisely in this perspective, in
singing the <i>Te Deum </i>we shall pray: <i>“Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine,
et benedic hereditati tuæ - </i>Save your people, Lord, and bless your
inheritance”. O Lord, look upon and protect the diocesan community in
particular, committed on the educational front to responding ever more
vigorously to that great “educational emergency” of which I spoke last 11 June
when I met the participants in the diocesan convention, or in other words, the
increasing difficulty encountered in transmitting the basic values of life and
upright conduct to the new generations (see <i>Address to the Diocese of Rome
Convention, </i>11 June 2007; <i>L’Osservatore Romano </i>English edition,<i> </i>20
June, p. 3). Let us calmly and with patient trust face this emergency first of
all in the context of the family. Moreover, it is certainly comforting to note
that the work undertaken in recent years by parishes, movements and
associations for the pastoral care of the family is continuing to develop and
bear fruit. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Also protect,
Lord, the missionary initiatives which involve the world of youth: they are
increasing and there are now an important number of young people who are
assuming responsibility and the joy of proclamation and Gospel witness in the
first person. In this context, how can we fail to thank God for the precious
pastoral service offered to the world by the Roman universities? It would be
appropriate to start something similar in schools, despite the numerous
difficulties. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Bless, Lord, the
many young men and adults who in recent decades have been ordained to the
priesthood for the Diocese of Rome. At the present time there are 28 deacons
who are awaiting priestly ordination, scheduled for next April. Thus, the
average age of the clergy is rejuvenated and it is also possible to respond to
the increase in pastoral needs, such as going to the help of other dioceses.
Especially in the suburbs, the need for new parish complexes is growing, and
there are eight currently under construction, after I myself had the pleasure
not long ago of consecrating the one most recently completed: the Parish of <i>Santa
Maria del Rosario ai Martiri Portuensi</i>. It is lovely to be able to tangibly
feel the joy and gratitude of the inhabitants of a neighborhood as they enter
their own new church for the first time. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>“In te,
Domine, speravi: non confundar in æternum - </i>Lord, show us your love and
mercy; for we put our trust in you”. The majestic hymn of the <i>Te Deum </i>ends
with this cry of faith, of total trust in God, with this solemn proclamation of
our hope. Christ is our “trustworthy” hope, and to this theme I dedicated my
recent Encyclical entitled <i><a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20071130_spe-salvi_en.html"><span style="color: black;">Spe Salvi</span></a></i>. But our hope is always
essentially also hope for others, and only thus is it truly hope for each one
of us (see no. 48). Dear brothers and sisters of the Church of Rome, let us ask
the Lord to make each one of us authentic leaven of hope in our various
milieus, so that it will be possible to build a better future for the whole
city. This is my wish for everyone on the eve of a New Year, a wish that I
entrust to the motherly intercession of Mary, Mother of God and Star of Hope.
Amen! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">XLI WORLD
DAY OF PEACE</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Tuesday, 1 January 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have begun a new
year and I hope that it may be serene and profitable for all. I entrust it to the
heavenly protection of Mary, whom we invoke in today’s liturgy with her most ancient
and important title, that of Mother of God. With her “yes” to the Angel on the day
of the Annunciation, the Virgin conceived in her womb, through the work of the Holy
Spirit, the Eternal Word, and on Christmas Night gave birth to him. At <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, in the fullness
of time, Jesus was born of Mary; the Son of God was made man for our salvation,
and the Virgin became the true Mother of God. This immense gift that Mary has received
is not reserved to her alone, but is for us all. In her fruitful virginity, in fact,
God has given “to men the goods of eternal salvation..., because by means of her
we have received the Author of Life” (see <i>Collect Prayer</i>). Mary, therefore,
after having given flesh to the Only-Begotten Son of God, became the mother of believers
and of all humanity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And it is precisely
in the name of Mary, Mother of God and of humanity, that we have been celebrating
for 40 years on the first day of the year the World Day of Peace. The theme I selected
for this year’s celebration is: <i>“The human family, a community of peace”</i>.<i>
</i>The same love that builds and unites the family, the vital cell of society,
supports the construction between the peoples of the earth of those relationships
of solidarity and collaboration that are suitable to members of the one human family.
Vatican Council II recalls this when it affirms that “all people comprise a single
community, and have a single origin.... One also is their final goal: God” (see
<i>Nostra Aetate, </i>no. 1). A strict bond therefore exists between families, society
and peace. “Consequently, whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution
of the family”, I note in the Message for this year’s World Day of Peace, “undermines
peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what
is in effect <i>the primary “agency’ of peace” </i>(no. 5). And then, “We do not
live alongside one another purely by chance; all of us are progressing along a common
path as men and women, and thus as brothers and sisters” (no. 6). It is thus truly
important that each one assumes the appropriate responsibilities before God and
recognizes in him the original source of his own existence and that of others. From
this knowledge flows a duty to make humanity into a true community of peace, based
on a “common law..., one which would foster true freedom... and protect the weak
from oppression by the strong” (no. 11). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May Mary, Mother
of the Prince of Peace, sustain the Church in her tireless work at the service of
peace, and help the community of peoples, which celebrates in 2008 the 60th anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to travel a road of authentic solidarity
and stable peace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">AND 41st
WORLD DAY OF PEACE </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Tuesday, 1st January 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, we are beginning
a new year and Christian hope takes us by the hand; let us begin it by invoking
divine Blessings upon it and imploring, through the intercession of Mary, Mother
of God, the gift of peace: for our families, for our cities, for the whole world.
With this hope, I greet all of you present here, starting with the distinguished
Ambassadors of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See who have gathered
at this celebration on the occasion of the World Day of Peace. I greet Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone, my Secretary of State, and Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and
all members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. I am particularly grateful
to them for their commitment to spread the Message for the World Day of Peace whose
theme this year is: “The human family, a community of peace”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Peace. In the First
Reading from the Book of Numbers we heard the invocation: “The Lord... give you
peace” (6: 26); may the Lord grant peace to each one of you, to your families and
to the whole world. We all aspire to live in peace but true peace, the peace proclaimed
by the Angels on Christmas night, is not merely a human triumph or the fruit of
political agreements; it is first and foremost a divine gift to be ceaselessly implored,
and at the same time a commitment to be carried forward patiently, always remaining
docile to the Lord’s commands. This year, in my Message for today’s World Day of
Peace, I wanted to highlight the close relationship that exists between the family
and building peace in the world. The natural family, founded on the marriage of
a man and a woman, is “a “cradle of life and love’“ and “the first and indispensable
teacher of peace”. For this very reason the family is “the primary “agency’ of peace”,
and “the denial or even the restriction of the rights of the family, by obscuring
the truth about man, threatens the very foundations of peace” (see nos. 1-5). Since
humanity is a “great family”, if it wants to live in peace it cannot fail to draw
inspiration from those values on which the family community is based and stands.
The providential coincidence of various recurrences spur us this year to make an
even greater effort to achieve peace in the world. Sixty years ago, in 1948, the
General Assembly of the United Nations published the “Universal Declaration of Human
Rights”; 40 years ago my venerable Predecessor Paul VI celebrated the first World
Day of Peace; this year, in addition, we will be commemorating the 25th anniversary
of the Holy See’s adoption of the “Charter of the Rights of the Family”. “In the
light of these significant anniversaries” - I am repeating here what I wrote precisely
at the end of the Message - “I invite every man and woman to have a more lively
sense of belonging to the one human family, and to strive to make human coexistence
increasingly reflect this conviction, which is essential for the establishment of
true and lasting peace” [no. 15]. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Our thoughts now
turn spontaneously to Our Lady, whom we invoke today as the Mother of God. It was
Pope Paul VI who moved to 1 January the Feast of the Divine Motherhood of Mary,
which was formerly celebrated on 11 October. Indeed, even before the liturgical
reform that followed the Second Vatican Council, the memorial of the circumcision
of Jesus on the eighth day after his birth - as a sign of submission to the law,
his official insertion in the Chosen People - used to be celebrated on the first
day of the year and the Feast of the Name of Jesus was celebrated the following
Sunday. We perceive a few traces of these celebrations in the Gospel passage that
has just been proclaimed, in which St Luke says that eight days after his birth
the Child was circumcised and was given the name “Jesus”, “the name given by the
Angel before he was conceived in [his Mother’s]... womb” (Lk 2: 21). Today’s feast,
therefore, as well as being a particularly significant Marian feast, also preserves
a strongly Christological content because, we might say, before the Mother, it concerns
the Son, Jesus, true God and true <st1:place w:st="on">Man.</st1:place>
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Apostle Paul
refers to the mystery of the divine motherhood of Mary,<i> </i>the<i> Theotokos,
</i>in his Letter to the Galatians. “When the time had fully come”, he writes, “God
sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (4: 4). We find the mystery
of the Incarnation of the Divine Word and the Divine Motherhood of Mary summed up
in a few words: the Virgin’s great privilege is precisely to be Mother of the Son
who is God. The most logical and proper place for this Marian feast is therefore
eight days after Christmas. Indeed, in the night of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, when “she gave birth to her first-born
son” (Lk 2: 7), the prophesies concerning the Messiah were fulfilled. “The virgin
shall be with child and bear a son”, Isaiah had foretold (7: 14); “Behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son”, the Angel Gabriel said to Mary (Lk 1: 31);
and again, an Angel of the Lord, the Evangelist Matthew recounts, appeared to Joseph
in a dream to reassure him and said: “Do not fear to take Mary for your wife, for
that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son” (Mt 1:
20-21). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The title “Mother
of God”, together with the title “Blessed Virgin”, is the oldest on which all the
other titles with which Our Lady was venerated are based, and it continues to be
invoked from generation to generation in the East and in the West. A multitude of
hymns and a wealth of prayers of the Christian tradition refer to the mystery of
her divine motherhood, such as, for example, a Marian antiphon of the Christmas
season, <i>Alma Redemptoris mater</i>, with which we pray in these words: <i>“Tu
quae genuisti, natura mirante, tuum sanctum Genitorem, Virgo prius ac posterius
- </i>You, in the wonder of all creation, have brought forth your Creator, Mother
ever virgin”. Dear brothers and sisters, let us today contemplate Mary, ever-virgin
Mother of the Only-Begotten Son of the Father; let us learn from her to welcome
the Child who was born for us in Bethlehem. If we recognize in the Child born of
her the Eternal Son of God and accept him as our one Savior, we can be called and
we really are children of God: sons in the Son. The Apostle writes: “God sent forth
his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4: 4). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Evangelist Luke
repeats several times that Our Lady meditated silently on these extraordinary events
in which God had involved her. We also heard this in the short Gospel passage that
the Liturgy presents to us today. “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in
her heart” (Lk 2: 19). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Greek verb used,
<i>sumbállousa,</i> literally means “piecing together” and makes us think of a great
mystery to be discovered little by little. Although the Child lying in a manger
looks like all children in the world, at the same time he is totally different:
he is the Son of God, he is God, true God and true man. This mystery - the Incarnation
of the Word and the divine Motherhood of Mary - is great and certainly far from
easy to understand with the human mind alone. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet, by learning
from Mary, we can understand with our hearts what our eyes and minds do not manage
to perceive or contain on their own. Indeed, this is such a great gift that only
through faith are we granted to accept it, while not entirely understanding it.
And it is precisely on this journey of faith that Mary comes to meet us as our support
and guide. She is mother because she brought forth Jesus in the flesh; she is mother
because she adhered totally to the Father’s will. <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> wrote: “The divine motherhood would
have been of no value to her had Christ not borne her in his heart, with a destiny
more fortunate than the moment when she conceived him in the flesh” (<i>De Sancta
Virginitate</i>,<i> </i>3, 3). And in her heart Mary continued to treasure, to “piece
together” the subsequent events of which she was to be a witness and protagonist,
even to the death on the Cross and the Resurrection of her Son Jesus. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, it is only by pondering in the heart, in other words, by piecing together
and finding unity in all we experience, that, following Mary, we can penetrate the
mystery of a God who was made man out of love and who calls us to follow him on
the path of love; a love to be expressed daily by generous service to the brethren.
May the new year which we are confidently beginning today be a time in which to
advance in that knowledge of the heart, which is the wisdom of saints. Let us pray,
as we heard in the First Reading, that the Lord may “make his face to shine” upon
us, “and be gracious” to us (see Nm 6: 24-7) and bless us. We may be certain of
it: if we never tire of seeking his Face, if we never give in to the temptation
of discouragement and doubt, if also among the many difficulties we encounter we
always remain anchored to him, we will experience the power of his love and his
mercy. May the fragile Child who today the Virgin shows to the world make us peacemakers,
witnesses of him, the Prince of Peace. Amen! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>TE
DEUM</i> AND FIRST VESPERS</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Wednesday, 31 December 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The year that is
ending and that which is approaching on the horizon are both under the blessed
gaze of the Most Holy Mother of God. The artistic polychrome sculpture set here
next to the altar, which portrays her on a throne with the Child giving his
Blessing, also recalls her motherly presence. We are celebrating the First
Vespers of this Marian Solemnity, in which there are numerous liturgical
references to the mystery of the Virgin’s divine motherhood. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“<i>O admirabile
commercium! </i>O marvelous exchange!” Thus begins the Antiphon of the first
Psalm, to then continue: “man’s Creator has become man, born of a virgin”. “By
your miraculous birth of the Virgin you have fulfilled the Scriptures”,
proclaims the Antiphon of the Second Psalm, which is echoed by the words of the
third Antiphon that introduce us to the canticle taken from the Letter of Paul
to the Ephesians: “Your blessed and fruitful virginity is like the bush,
flaming yet unburned, which Moses saw on Sinai. Pray for us, Mother of God”.
Mary’s divine motherhood is also highlighted in the brief Reading proclaimed
shortly beforehand, which proposes anew the well-known verses of the Letter to
the Galatians: “When the designated time had come, God sent forth his Son, born
of woman... so that we might our status as adopted sons” (Gal 4: 4-5). And
again, in the traditional <i>Te Deum </i>that we will raise at the end of our
celebration before the Most Holy Sacrament solemnly exposed for our adoration
singing, “<i>Tu, ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis
uterum”</i>, in English: “when you, O Christ, became man to set us free you did
not spurn the Virgin’s womb”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus everything
this evening invites us to turn our gaze to the one who “received the Word of
God in her heart and in her body and gave Life to the world”, and for this very
reason the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council recalls “is acknowledged and
honored as being truly the Mother of God” (<i>Lumen gentium, </i>no. 53).
Christ’s Nativity, which we are commemorating in these days, is entirely
suffused with the light of Mary and, while we pause at the manger to
contemplate the Child, our gaze cannot fail to turn in gratitude also to his
Mother, who with her “yes” made possible the gift of Redemption. This is why
the Christmas Season brings with it a profoundly Marian connotation; the birth
of Jesus as God and man and Mary’s divine motherhood are inseparable realities;
the mystery of Mary and the mystery of the Only-Begotten Son of God who was
made man form a single mystery, in which the one helps to better understand the
other. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary Mother of
God <i>Theotokos, Dei Genetrix. </i>Since ancient times Our Lady has been honored
with this title. However, for many centuries in the West there was no feast
specifically dedicated to the divine Motherhood of Mary. It was introduced into
the Latin Church by Pope Pius XI in 1931 on the occasion of the 15th centenary
of the Council of Ephesus, and he chose to establish it on 11 October. On that
date, in 1962, the Second Vatican Council was inaugurated. It was then the
Servant of God Paul VI who restored an ancient tradition in 1969, fixing this
Solemnity on 1 January. In the Apostolic Exhortation <i>Marialis cultus </i>of
2 February 1974, he explained the reason for his decision and its connection
with the World Day of Peace. “In the revised ordering of the Christmas period
it seems to us that the attention of all should be directed towards the
restored Solemnity of Mary the holy Mother of God,” Paul VI wrote. “This
celebration... is meant to commemorate the part played by Mary in this mystery
of salvation. It is meant also to exalt the singular dignity which this mystery
brings to the “holy Mother’.... It is likewise a fitting occasion for renewing
adoration to the newborn Prince of Peace, for listening once more to the glad
tidings of the angels (see Lk 2: 14), and for imploring from God, through the
Queen of Peace, the supreme gift of peace” (no. 5). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This evening,
let us place in the hands of the heavenly Mother of God our choral hymn of
thanksgiving to the Lord for the gifts he has generously granted us during the
past 12 months. The first sentiment which spontaneously rises in our hearts
this evening is precisely that of praise and thanksgiving to the One who gave
us time, a precious opportunity to do good; let us combine with it our request
for forgiveness for perhaps not always having spent it usefully. I am glad to
share this thanksgiving with you, dear brothers and sisters who represent the
whole of our diocesan community to which I address my cordial greeting,
extending it to all the inhabitants of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>.
I extend a particular greeting to the Cardinal Vicar and to the Mayor, both of
whom have begun their different missions this year one spiritual and religious,
the other civil and administrative at the service of this city of ours. I
extend my greeting to the Auxiliary Bishops, priests, consecrated people and
the very many lay faithful who have gathered here, as well as to the
authorities present. By coming into the world, the eternal Word of the Father
revealed to us God’s closeness and the ultimate truth about man and his eternal
destiny; he came to stay with us to be our irreplaceable support, especially in
the inevitable daily difficulties. And this evening the Virgin herself reminds
us of what a great gift Jesus gave us with his Birth, of what a precious “treasure”
his Incarnation constitutes for us. In his Nativity Jesus comes to offer us his
Word as a lamp to guide our steps; he comes to offer us himself and we must
always affirm him as our unfailing hope in our daily life, aware that “it is
only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly
becomes clear” (<i>Gaudium et spes, </i>no. 22). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christ’s
presence is a gift that we must be able to share with everyone. It is for this
purpose that the diocesan community is making an effort to form pastoral
workers, so as to equip them to respond to the challenges modern culture poses
to the Christian faith. The presence of numerous highly qualified academic
institutions in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
and the many initiatives promoted by the parishes enable us to look confidently
to the future of Christianity in this city. As you well know, encountering
Christ renews our personal life and helps us to contribute to building a just
and fraternal society. This is why we as believers can also make a great
contribution to overcoming the current educational emergency. Thus, for a
profound evangelization and a courageous human promotion that can communicate
the riches that derive from the encounter with Christ to as many people as
possible, an increase in synergy among families, school and parishes is more
important than ever. For this I encourage each member of our diocese to
continue on the journey they have undertaken, together carrying out the
programme for the current pastoral year which aims precisely to “educate to
hope through prayer, action and suffering”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In our times,
marked by uncertainty and concern for the future, it is necessary to experience
the living presence of Christ. It is Mary, Star of Hope who leads us to him. It
is she, with her maternal love, who can guide young people especially who bear
in their hearts an irrepressible question about the meaning of human existence
to Jesus. I know that various groups of parents, meeting in order to deepen
their vocation, are seeking new ways to help their children respond to the big
existential questions. I cordially urge them, together with the whole Christian
community, to bear witness to the new generations of the joy that stems from
encountering Jesus, who was born in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
and did not come to take something from us but rather to give us everything. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On Christmas
night I had a special thought for children; instead, this evening it is young
people above all on whom I wish to focus my attention. Dear young people,
responsible for the future of this our city, do not be afraid of the apostolic
task that the Lord is entrusting to you. Do not hesitate to choose a lifestyle
that does not follow the current hedonistic mindset. The Holy Spirit assures
you of the strength you need to witness to the joy of faith and the beauty of
being Christian. The growing need for evangelization requires many laborers in
the Lord’s vineyard; do not hesitate to respond to him promptly if he calls
you. Society needs citizens who are not concerned solely with their own
interests because, as I recalled on Christmas Day, “If people look only to
their own interests, our world will certainly fall apart”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, this year is ending with an awareness of the spreading social and
financial crisis that now involves the whole world; a crisis that asks for
greater moderation and solidarity from all, so that they may go to the aid
especially of the individuals and families who are in the most serious
difficulty. The Christian community is already making efforts toward this and I
know that the diocesan <i>Caritas </i>and other relief agencies are doing their
utmost. Nonetheless, everyone’s collaboration is necessary, for no one can
think of building his own happiness alone. Although many clouds are gathering
on the horizon of our future, we must not be afraid. Our great hope as
believers is eternal life in communion with Christ and the whole family of God.
This great hope gives us the strength to face and to overcome the difficulties
of life in this world. This evening the motherly presence of Mary assures us
that God never abandons us if we entrust ourselves to him and follow his
teachings. Therefore, while we take our leave of 2008 and prepare to welcome
2009, let us present to Mary our expectations and hopes, as well as our fears
and the difficulties that dwell in our hearts, with filial affection and trust.
She, the Virgin Mother, offers us the Child who lies in the manger as our sure
hope. Full of trust, we shall then be able to sing at the end of the <i>Te
Deum: “In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in aeternum - </i>In you, Lord, is
our hope: and we shall never hope in vain”. Yes, Lord, in you we hope, today
and for ever; you are our hope. Amen! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER
OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">XLII WORLD DAY OF PEACE
</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Thursday, 1 January 2009 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this first day
of the year, I am pleased to extend my very best wishes for peace and every good
to all of you present in St Peter’s Square and to those linked to us through radio
and television. They are wishes that the Christian faith renders, so to speak, “reliable”,
anchoring them in the event that we are celebrating in these days: the Incarnation
of the Word of God, born of the Virgin Mary. In effect, with and only with the grace
of the Lord can we always hope anew that the future will be better than the past.
This does not in fact mean to trust in a more fortunate destiny, or in the modern
trends of markets and of finance, but rather to make the effort ourselves to be
a little better and more responsible, to be able to count on the kindness of the
Lord. And this is always possible, because “[God] has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb
1: 2) and speaks to us continually, through the preaching of the Gospel and through
the voice of our conscience. In Jesus Christ the road to salvation has been shown
to all people a salvation that is first of all spiritual redemption but that involves
the entire human, including the social and historical, dimensions. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason,
while the Church celebrates the divine Motherhood of Mary Most Holy on this day
that has been for more than 40 years the World Day of Peace, she points to Jesus
Christ as Prince of Peace to all. According to the tradition begun by the Servant
of God Pope Paul VI, I have written for this occasion a special Message, choosing
as its theme: <i>“Fighting poverty to build peace”</i>.<i> </i>In this way I wish
to place myself in dialogue once again with the leaders of nations and of international
institutions, offering the Catholic Church’s contribution for the promotion of a
world order worthy of man. At the beginning of a new year, my first goal is precisely
that of inviting all political leaders and ordinary citizens to not be discouraged
in the face of difficulties and failures, but instead to renew their efforts. In
the second half of 2008 an economic crisis of vast proportions emerged. That crisis
must be studied in depth, like a grave symptom whose cause requires investigation.
It is not enough as Jesus would say to sew new patches onto an old garment (see
Mk 2: 21). To put the poor in first place means to decisively implement that
kind of global solidarity that John Paul II had already indicated as necessary,
uniting market potential with that of civil society (cf. <i>Message</i>, 12),
in constant respect for the law and always in view of the common good. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus Christ did
not organize campaigns against poverty, but he proclaimed the Gospel to the poor,
providing an integral redemption from moral and material misery. The Church does
the same, with its tireless work of evangelization and of human advancement. Let
us invoke the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, so that she may help all peoples to walk
together on the Way of peace. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER
OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">AND 42nd WORLD DAY OF
PEACE <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>
</i></b></span>
<br />
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b></span></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Thursday, 1st January 2009
</span></i></div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable Brothers,
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mr Ambassadors,
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the first day
of the year, divine Providence brings us together for a celebration that moves us
each time because of the riches and beauty of its correspondence: the civil New
Year converges with the culmination of the Octave of Christmas on which the divine
Motherhood of Mary is celebrated, and this gathering is summed up felicitously in
the World Day of Peace. In the light of Christ’s Nativity, I am pleased to address
my best wishes to each one for the year that has just begun. I address them in particular
to Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and his collaborators of the Pontifical Council
for Justice and Peace, with special gratitude for their precious service. I also
address them to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and to the entire
Secretariat of State; and likewise, with deep cordiality, I address them to the
large number of Ambassadors present today. My good wishes echo the good wishes that
the Lord himself has just addressed to us in the liturgy of the Word. A Word which,
starting with the event in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
recalled in its historical actuality by the Gospel of Luke (2: 16-21) and reinterpreted
in all its saving importance by the Apostle Paul (Gal 4: 4-7), becomes a Blessing
for the People of God and for all humanity. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus the ancient
Jewish tradition of blessing is brought to completion (Nm 6: 22-27): the priests
of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> blessed the people
by putting the Lord’s Name upon them: “so shall they put my name upon the people
of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>”.
With a triple formula present in the First Reading the sacred Name was invoked upon
the faithful three times, as a wish for grace and peace. This remote custom brings
us back to an essential reality: to be able to walk on the way of peace, men and
women and peoples need to be illumined by the “Face” of God and to be blessed by
his “Name”. Precisely this came about definitively with the Incarnation: the coming
of the Son of God in our flesh and in history brought an irrevocable blessing, a
light that is never to be extinguished and offers believers and people of good-will
alike the possibility of building the civilization of love and peace. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Second Vatican
Council said in this regard that “by his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has in
a certain way united himself with each man” (<i>Gaudium et spes</i>, no. 22). This
union confirms the original design of a humanity created in the “image and likeness”
of God. In fact, the Incarnate Word is the one, perfect and consubstantial image
of the invisible God. Jesus Christ is the perfect man. “Human nature”, the Council
reaffirms: “by the very fact that it was assumed... in him, has been raised in us
also to a dignity beyond compare” (<i>ibid.</i>). For this reason the earthly history
of Jesus that culminated in the Paschal Mystery is the beginning of a new world,
because he truly inaugurated a new humanity, ever and only with Christ’s grace,
capable of bringing about a peaceful “revolution”. This revolution was not an ideological
but spiritual revolution, not utopian but real, and for this reason in need of infinite
patience, sometimes of very long periods, avoiding any short cuts and taking the
hardest path: the path of the development of responsibility in consciences. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, this
is the Gospel way to peace, the way that the Bishop of Rome is called to reproprose
with constancy every time that he sets his hand to writing the annual <i>Message
for the World Day of Peace. </i>In taking this path it is at times necessary to
review aspects and problems that have already been faced but that are so important
that they constantly require fresh attention. This is the case of the theme I have
chosen for the Message this year: “Fighting poverty to build peace”. This is a theme
that lends itself to a dual order of considerations which I can only mention briefly
here. On the one hand the poverty Jesus chose and proposed and on the other, the
poverty to be combated in order to bring the world greater justice and solidarity.
</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first aspect
acquires its ideal context during these days in the Christmas Season. The Birth
of Jesus in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
reveals to us that God chose poverty for himself in coming among us. The scene that
the shepherds were the first to see and that confirmed the angel’s announcement
to them, was a stable in which Mary and Joseph had found shelter, and a manger in
which the Virgin had laid the newborn Child wrapped in swaddling clothes (see Lk
2: 7, 12, 16). <i>God chose this poverty. </i>He wanted to be born thus but we can
immediately add: he wanted to live and also to die in this condition. Why? St Alphonsus
Maria Liguori explains it in a Christmas carol that is known all over <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>:
“You, Creator of the world had no clothes, no fire, O my Lord. My dear Divine Child,
how I love this poverty, since for love you made yourself poorer still”. This is
the answer: love for us impelled Jesus not only to make himself man, but also to
make himself poor. Along these same lines we can quote St Paul’s words in the Second
Letter to the Corinthians: “For you are well acquainted”, he writes, with “the favor
shown you by our Lord Jesus Christ: how for your sake he made himself poor though
he was rich, so that you might become rich by his poverty” (8: 9). St Francis of
<st1:place w:st="on">Assisi</st1:place> was an exemplary
witness of this poverty chosen for love. The Franciscan charism, in the history
of the Church and of Christian civilization, constitutes a widespread trend of evangelical
poverty which has done and continues to do such great good for the Church and for
the human family. Returning to <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>’s
wonderful synthesis on Jesus, it is significant also for our reflection today that
it was inspired in the Apostle precisely while he was urging the Christians of Corinth
to be generous in collecting money for the poor. He explains: “I do not mean that
others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance
at the present time should supply their want” (2 Cor 8: 13). </span></div>
</div>
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</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is a crucial
point that brings us to the second aspect: there is a poverty, a deprivation, which
God does not desire and which should be “fought” as the theme of this World Day
of Peace says; a poverty that prevents people and families from living as befits
their dignity; a poverty that offends justice and equality and that, as such, threatens
peaceful co-existence. This negative acceptation also includes all the non-material
forms of poverty that are also to be found in the rich and developed societies:
marginalization, relational, moral and spiritual poverty (see <i>Message for the
World Day of Peace 2009, </i>no. 2). In my Message I wanted once again, following
in the wake of my Predecessors, to consider attentively the complex phenomenon of
globalization and its relation to widespread poverty. In the face of widespread
scourges such as pandemic diseases (<i>ibid., </i>no. 4), child poverty (<i>ibid</i>.,
no. 5), the food crisis (<i>ibid., </i>no. 7), I have unfortunately had to return
to denouncing the unacceptable arms race. On the one hand the <i>Universal Declaration
of Human Rights </i>is being celebrated, and on the other, military expenditure
is increasing, thereby violating the <i>Charter of the United Nations, </i>which
endeavors to reduce this expenditure to the minimum (see art. 26). Furthermore,
globalization eliminates certain barriers but it can build others (<i>op. cit. Message
for the World Day of Peace 2009, </i>no. 8). The international community and the
individual States must therefore always be alert; they must never lose sight of
the dangers of conflict. On the contrary, they must strive to keep the level of
solidarity high. The current global financial crisis must be seen in this regard
also as a bench test: are we ready to interpret it, in its complexity, as a challenge
for the future and not only as an emergency to which we must find short-term solutions?
Are we prepared to undertake a profound revision of the prevalent model of development
in order to correct it with concerted, far-sighted interventions? In reality, this
is required by the state of the planet’s ecological health and especially the cultural
and moral crisis whose symptoms have been visible for some time in every part of
the world, far more than by the immediate financial problems. </span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus it is necessary
to seek to establish a “virtuous circle” between the poverty “to be chosen” and
the poverty “to be fought”. This gives access to a path rich in fruits for humanity’s
present and future and which could be summarized thus: to fight the evil poverty
that oppresses so many men and women and threatens the peace of all, it is necessary
to rediscover moderation and solidarity as evangelical, and at the same time universal,
values. More practically, it is impossible to combat poverty effectively unless
one does what St Paul wrote to the Corinthians, in other words if one does not seek
“to create equality”, reducing the gap between those who waste the superfluous and
those who lack what they need. This entails just and sober decisions, which are
moreover made obligatory by the need to administer the earth’s limited resources
wisely. When he says that Jesus Christ “for [our] sake became poor”, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> offers an important
indication not only from the theological point of view but also at the sociological
level; not in the sense that poverty is a value in itself, but because it is a condition
that demonstrates solidarity. When Francis of Assisi stripped himself of his possessions,
it was a decision to witness that was inspired in him directly by God, but at the
same time it shows everyone the way of trust in <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place>. Thus, in the Church, the vow of poverty
is the commitment of some, but it reminds all of the need to be detached from material
goods and of the primacy of spiritual riches. This is therefore the message for
us today: the poverty of Christ’s Birth in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, as well as being the subject of adoration
for Christians, is also a school of life for every man. It teaches us that to fight
both material and spiritual poverty, the path to take is the path of solidarity
that impelled Jesus to share our human condition. </span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, I believe that the Virgin Mary must have asked herself this question several
times: why did Jesus choose to be born of a simple, humble girl like me? And then,
why did he want to come into the world in a stable and have his first visit from
the shepherds of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>?
Mary received her answer in full at the end, having laid in the tomb the Body of
Jesus, dead and wrapped in a linen shroud (see Lk 23: 53). She must then have fully
understood the mystery of the poverty of God. She understood that God made himself
poor for our sake, to enrich us with his poverty full of love, to urge us to impede
the insatiable greed that sparks conflicts and divisions, to invite us to moderate
the mania to possess and thus to be open to reciprocal sharing and acceptance. Let
us trustingly address to Mary, Mother of the Son of God who made himself our brother,
our prayer that she will help us follow in his footsteps, to fight and overcome
poverty, to build true peace, which is <i>opus iustitiae. </i>Let us entrust to
her the profound desire to live in peace that wells up in the hearts of the vast
majority of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples, once again jeopardized by the outbreak
of violence on a massive scale in the Gaza Strip, in response to other violent incidents.
Even violence, even hatred and distrust are forms of poverty perhaps the most appalling
“to fight”. May they not get the upper hand! In this regard the Pastors of those
Churches, in these distressing days, have made their voices heard. Together with
them and their beloved faithful, especially those of the small but fervent parish
of Gaza, let us place at Mary’s feet our anxieties for the present and our fears
for the future, and likewise the well-founded hope that with the wise and far-sighted
contribution of all it will not be impossible to listen to one another, to come
to one another’s help and to give concrete responses to the widespread aspiration
to live in peace, safety and dignity. Let us say to Mary: accompany us, heavenly
Mother of the Redeemer, throughout the year that begins today, and obtain from God
the gift of peace for the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy Land</st1:place> and for all
humanity. Holy Mother of God, pray for us. Amen. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>TE
DEUM</i> AND FIRST VESPERS</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Thursday, 31 December 2009</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of a
year full of events for both the Church and the world we are meeting this
evening in the Vatican Basilica to celebrate First Vespers of the Solemnity of
Mary Mother of God and to raise a hymn of thanksgiving to the Lord of time and
history. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is first of
all the words of the Apostle Paul that we have just heard which shed a special
light on the conclusion of the year: “When the time had fully come, God sent
forth his Son, born of woman... so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal
4: 4-5). </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The concentrated
Pauline passage speaks to us of “time... fully come”, and enlightens us as to
the content of these words. In the history of the human family, God wanted to
introduce his eternal Word, making him take on a humanity like our own. With
the Incarnation of the Son of God, eternity entered time and human history was
opened to absolute fulfilment in God. Time was, so to speak, “touched” by
Christ, the Son of God and of Mary, and received from him new and surprising
significance: it became a time of salvation and grace. In this same
perspective, we must consider the time of the year that is ending and of that
which is beginning so that we may put the most different events of our life
important or small, simple or undecipherable, joyful or sad under the sign of
salvation and hear the call God is addressing to us in order to lead us toward
a goal that lies beyond time itself: eternity. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Pauline text
also means to underline the mystery of God’s closeness to all humankind. It is
the closeness proper to the mystery of Christmas: God makes himself man and man
is given the unheard-of possibility to be a son of God. All this fills us with
great joy and leads us to offer praise to God. We are called to say with our
voices, our hearts and our lives “thank you” to God for the gift of the Son,
the source and fulfilment of all the other gifts with which divine love fills
the existence of each one of us, of families, of communities, of the Church and
of the world. The hymn of the <i>Te Deum </i>which today rings out in churches
in every corner of the earth is intended as a sign of the joyful gratitude with
which we address God for all that he has offered us in Christ. Truly “from his
fullness have we all received, grace upon grace” (Jn 1: 16). </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In keeping with
a happy custom, this evening I would like to thank the Lord with you in
particular for the superabundance of graces he has lavished upon our diocesan
community of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
in the course of the year that is coming to a close. I would like first of all
to address a special greeting to the Cardinal Vicar, to the Auxiliary Bishops,
to the priests, to the consecrated people, as well as to the many lay faithful
who are gathered here. I likewise greet the Mayor and Authorities present with
respectful cordiality. I then extend my thoughts to all who live in our city,
particularly those who are in situations of difficulty and hardship: I assure
to each and every one my spiritual closeness, strengthened by constant
remembrance in prayer. </span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As regards the
progress of the Diocese of Rome, I renew my appreciation of the pastoral
decision to dedicate time to review the ground covered in order to increase the
sense of belonging to the Church and to foster pastoral co-responsibility. To
emphasize the importance of this reappraisal, I too wished to make my own contribution
by addressing the Diocesan Convention at St John Lateran, in the afternoon of
last 26 May. I rejoice because the diocesan programme is proceeding positively,
with a far-reaching apostolic action. It is being carried out in the parishes,
the prefectures and the various ecclesial associations in two essential
contexts for the life and mission of the Church: the celebration of the Sunday
Eucharist and the witness of charity. I would like to encourage the faithful to
participate in large numbers in the assemblies that will be held in the various
parishes so as to make an effective contribution to building up the Church.
Today too, the Lord wants to make his love for humanity known to the
inhabitants of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
and entrusts to each one, in the diversity of ministries and responsibilities,
the mission of proclaiming his word of truth and of witnessing to charity and
solidarity. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Only by
contemplating the mystery of the Incarnate Word can human beings find the
answer to the great questions of human existence and thus discover the truth of
their own identity. For this reason the Church, throughout the world and also
here in the City, is working to promote the integral development of the human
person. I was therefore pleased to learn that a series of “cultural meetings in
the Cathedral” have been planned, whose theme will be my recent Encyclical <i>Caritas
in Veritate</i>. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For some years
many families, numerous teachers and parish communities have been dedicated to
helping young people build their future on firm foundations, especially on the
rock that is Jesus Christ. I hope that this renewed educational commitment may
increasingly achieve a fertile synergy between the ecclesial community and the
City so as to help young people plan their own lives. I likewise express the
wish that a precious contribution in this important area may come from the
Convention promoted by the Vicariate that will be held next March. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To be
authoritative witnesses of the truth about the human being prayerful listening
to the word of God is essential. In this regard, I would like above all to
recommend the ancient tradition of <i>lectio divina. </i>The parishes and the
various ecclesial realities, also thanks to the booklet prepared by the
Vicariate, will be able to promote this ancient practice and put it to good use
so that it becomes an essential part of ordinary pastoral care. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The word,
believed, proclaimed and lived impels us to acts of solidarity and sharing. In
praising the Lord for the help that the Christian communities have been able to
offer generously to all who have knocked at their door, I would like to
encourage all to persevere in their commitment to alleviating the difficulties
besetting many families, sorely tried by the economic crisis and unemployment.
May the Nativity of the Lord which reminds us of how God came to save us of his
own free will, taking on our humanity and giving us his divine life help every
person of good will to understand that it is only by opening oneself to God’s
love that human action is changed and transformed, becoming the leaven of a
better future for all. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
needs priests who are courageous heralds of the Gospel and, at the same time,
reveal the merciful face of the Father. I invite young people not to be afraid
to respond with the complete gift of their lives to the call that the Lord
addresses to them to follow him on the path of priesthood or of consecrated
life. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I hope, from
this moment, that the meeting next 25 March, the 25th anniversary of the
institution of the World Youth Day and the 10th anniversary of the
unforgettable Day at Tor Vergata, may be for all the parish and religious
communities, and for the movements and associations, a strong moment of
reflection and invocation, to obtain from the Lord the gift of numerous
vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. </span></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As we take our
leave of the year that is ending and set out towards the new one, today’s
Liturgy ushers us into the Solemnity of Mary Most Holy, Mother of God. The
Blessed Virgin is Mother of the Church and Mother of each one of her members,
that is, Mother of each of us, in Christ. Let us ask her to accompany us with
her caring protection, today and for ever, so that Christ may one day welcome
into his glory, into the assembly of the Saints: <i>Aeterna fac cum sanctis
tuis in gloria numerari. </i>Alleluia! Amen! </span></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER
OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">43rd WORLD DAY OF PEACE
</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Friday, 1st January 2010 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today the Lord grants
us to begin a new year in his Name and under the gaze of Mary Most Holy, the Solemnity
of whose Divine Motherhood we are celebrating today. I am glad to meet you for this
first <i>Angelus</i> of 2010. I address those of you who have gathered in large
numbers in St Peter’s Square and also those who have joined us in our prayer via
radio and television. I wish for you all that the year which has just begun may
be a time in which, with the Lord’s help, we may satisfy Christ and God’s will,
and thus also improve this world of ours. </span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">One objective that
may be shared by everyone, an indispensable condition for peace, is the administration
of the earth’s natural resources fairly and wisely. “If You Want to Cultivate Peace,
Protect Creation”, is the timely theme to which I have dedicated my Message for
today’s 43rd World Day of Peace. When the Message was published, the Heads of State
and Government were meeting in <st1:city w:st="on">Copenhagen</st1:city> for the
<st1:place w:st="on">Summit</st1:place> on the climate
at which, once again, the urgent need for concerted approaches at the global level
became apparent. At this moment, however, I would like to stress the importance
that the decisions of individuals, families and local administrations also have
in the preservation of the environment. “We can no longer do without a real change
of outlook which will result in new life-styles” (see <i>Message</i>, no. 11). In
fact we are all responsible for the protection and care of creation. Therefore in
this field too education is fundamental; to learn to respect nature, to be increasingly
disposed; to begin building peace “with far-reaching decisions on the part of individuals,
families, communities and states” (<i>ibid.</i>). </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If we must care for
the creatures that surround us, what consideration we should have for people, our
brothers and sisters! What respect for human life! On the first day of the year
I would like to address an appeal to the consciences of all who belong to armed
groups of any kind. I say to each and every one: stop, think and abandon the path
of violence! At the moment this step might seem impossible to you; but if you have
the courage to take it, God will assist you and you will feel returning to your
hearts the joy of peace which perhaps you have forgotten for some time. I entrust
this appeal to the intercession of Mary, the Most Holy Mother of God. The Liturgy
today reminds us that eight days after the birth of the Child, together with Joseph
her husband she had him circumcised, in accordance with Mosaic law, and called him
Jesus, the name given to him by the Angel (see Lk 2: 21). This name, which means
“God saves”, is the fulfilment of God’s revelation. Jesus is the Face of God, he
is the blessing for every person and for all peoples, he is peace for the world.
Thank you, Blessed Mother, who gave birth to the Savior, the Prince of Peace! </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER
OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">43rd WORLD DAY OF PEACE
<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Friday, 1st January 2010<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable Brothers,
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Distinguished
Ladies and Gentlemen, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the first day
of the New Year we have the joy and the grace of celebrating the Most Holy Mother
of God and, at the same time, the World Day of Peace. In both these events we are
celebrating Christ, Son of God, born of the Virgin Mary and our true peace! To all
of you who are gathered here: representatives of the world’s peoples, of the Roman
and universal Church, priests and faithful; and to all who are connected via radio
and television, I repeat the words of the ancient Blessing: “The Lord lift up his
countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Nm 6: 26). Today I wish to develop precisely
the theme of the Face and of faces, in the light of the word of God the Face of
God and human faces a theme that also gives us a key to the interpretation of the
problem of peace in the world. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We heard in both
the First Reading from the Book of Numbers and in the Responsorial Psalm, several
expressions with reference to God that contain the metaphor of the face: “The Lord
make his face to shine upon you, / and be gracious to you” (Nm 6: 25). “May God
be gracious to us and bless us /and make his face to shine upon us / that your way
may be known upon earth, / your saving power among all nations” (Ps 67[66]: 1-3).
The face is the expression of the person par excellence. It is what makes him or
her recognizable and from it transpire sentiments, thoughts and heartfelt intentions.
God by his nature is invisible, yet the Bible applies this image to him too. Showing
his face is an expression of his benevolence, whereas hiding it indicates his anger
and indignation. The Book of Exodus says that “The Lord used to speak to Moses face
to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Ex 33: 11), and again it was to Moses that
the Lord promised his closeness with a very unusual formula: “my presence [face]
will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex 33: 14). The Psalms show believers
to us as those who seek God’s Face (see Ps 27[26]: 8); 105[104]: 4), and who, in
worship, long to see him (Ps 42[41]: 3) and tell us that “the upright” shall “behold
his face” (Ps 11[10]: 7). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">One may interpret
the whole biblical narrative as the gradual revelation of the Face of God, until
it reaches his full manifestation in Jesus Christ. “When the time had fully come”,
the Apostle Paul has reminded us today too, “God sent forth his Son”, (Gal 4: 4),
immediately adding, “born of woman, born under the law”. God’s Face took on a human
face, letting itself be seen and recognized in the Son of the Virgin Mary, who for
this reason we venerate with the loftiest title of “Mother of God”. She, who had
preserved in her heart the secret of the divine motherhood, was the first to see
the face of God made man in the small fruit of her womb. The Mother had a very special,
unique and, in a certain way, exclusive relationship with the newborn Son. The first
face a child sees is that of his mother and this gaze is crucial for his relationship
with life, with himself, with others and with God; it is also crucial if he is to
become a “son of peace” (Lk 10: 6). Among the many typologies of icons of the Virgin
Mary in the Byzantine tradition is the one called “of tenderness” that portrays
the Child Jesus with his face resting, cheek to cheek, against his Mother’s. The
Child gazes at the Mother and she is looking at us, almost as if to mirror for those
who are observing and praying the tenderness of God who came down to her from Heaven
and was incarnate in the Son of man, whom she holds in her arms. We can contemplate
in this Marian image something of God himself: a sign of the ineffable love that
impelled him “to give his Only Son” (see Jn 3: 16). But that same icon also shows
us, in Mary, the face of the Church which reflects Christ’s light upon us and upon
the whole world, the Church through which the Good News reaches every person: “You
are no longer a slave but a son” (Gal 4: 7), as once again we read in St Paul. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Brothers in the Episcopate
and in the Priesthood, Mr Ambassadors, dear friends, meditating on the mystery of
the Face of God and on the human face is a privileged path that leads to peace.
It starts, in fact, with a respectful look that recognizes a person in the face
of the other, whatever the color of his skin, whatever his nationality, language
or religion. But who, other than God, can guarantee, so to speak, the “depth” of
the human face? In fact, only if we have God in our hearts are we able to perceive
in the face of the other a brother in humanity, not a means but an end, not a rival
or enemy but another self, another facet of the infinite mystery of the human being.
Our perception of the world and, in particular, of our fellows, depends essentially
on the presence within us of God’s Spirit. It is a sort of “resonance”: those whose
hearts are empty only perceive flat images lacking in depth. On the other hand,
the more we are inhabited by God the more we are sensitive to his presence in our
surroundings: in all creatures and especially in other human beings, although the
human face, in turn marked by the trials of life and by evil, may be difficult to
appreciate and accept as an epiphany of God. With all the more reason then, to recognize
and respect each other as we really are, in other words as brothers and sisters,
we need to refer to the Face of a common Father who loves us all despite our limitations
and failings. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is important to
be taught respect for others, even when they are different from us, from an early
age. Increasingly today classes in schools consist of children of various nationalities
but even when this is not the case their faces are a prophecy of the humanity we
are called to form: a family of families and peoples. The smaller these children
are, the more they awaken in us tenderness and joy at an innocence and brotherhood
that seem obvious to us despite their differences, they cry and laugh in the same
way, they have the same needs, they communicate spontaneously, they play together....
Children’s faces are like a reflection of God’s gaze on the world. So why extinguish
their smiles? Why poison their hearts? Unfortunately the icon of the Mother of the
God of Tenderness finds its tragic opposite in the sorrowful images of so many children
and their mothers at the mercy of war and violence, refugees, asylum seekers and
forced migrants. Faces hollowed by hunger and disease, faces disfigured by suffering
and desperation and the faces of little innocents are a silent appeal to our responsibility:
before their helpless plight, all the false justifications of war and violence fall
away. We must simply convert to projects of peace, lay down every kind of weapon
and strive all together to build a world that is worthier of the human being. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">My <i>Message </i>for
today’s 43rd World Day of Peace, “If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation”,
fits within the perspective of God’s Face and of human faces. Indeed, we can say
that the human being is capable of respecting creatures insofar as he bears in his
mind a full sense of life, otherwise he will be inclined to despise himself and
all that surrounds him, to have no respect for the environment in which he lives
and no respect for Creation. Those who can recognize in the cosmos the reflections
of the Creator’s invisible face, tend to have greater love for creatures and greater
sensitivity to their symbolic value. The Book of Psalms is especially rich in testimonies
of this truly human way of relating to nature: to the sky, the sea, mountains, hills,
rivers, animals.... “O Lord, how manifold are your works!” the Psalmist explains:
“In wisdom have you made them all; / the earth is full of your creatures” (Ps 104[103]:
24). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The perspective of
the “face” in particular invites us to reflect on what, also in this <i>Message,
</i>I have called “human ecology”. In fact there is a very close connection between
respect for the human being and the safeguard of creation. “Our duties towards the
environment flow from our duties towards the person, considered both individually
and in relation to others” (no. 12). If the person becomes degenerate the environment
in which he lives deteriorates; if culture is inclined to nihilism if not theoretical
practical nature cannot but pay the consequences. In fact, it is possible to note
a reciprocal influence between the human face and the “face” of the environment:
“when “human ecology’ is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits”
(Encyclical <i>Caritas in Veritate, </i>no. 51). I therefore renew my appeal to
invest in education, proposing as an objective, in addition to the necessary transmission
of technical and scientific notions, a broader and deeper “ecological responsibility”,
based on respect for human beings and their fundamental rights and duties. Only
in this way can the commitment to the environment truly become an education in peace
and in building peace. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, a Psalm recurs in the Christmas Season that contains, amongst other things,
a wonderful example of how God’s coming will transfigure the creation and give rise
to a sort of cosmic celebration. This hymn begins with an invitation to all peoples
to praise: “Sing to the Lord a new song; / sing to the Lord, all the earth! / Sing
to the Lord, bless his Name” (Ps 96[95]: 1). Yet at a certain point this appeal
for exultation is extended to the whole of creation: “Let the Heavens be glad, and
let the earth rejoice; / let the sea roar, and all that fills it; / let the field
exalt, and everything in it! / Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy”
(vv. 11-12). The celebration of faith becomes a celebration of the human being and
of creation: that celebration which is also expressed at Christmas in decorations
on trees, in streets and in houses. Everything flourishes anew because God has appeared
in our midst. The Virgin Mother shows the Infant Jesus to the shepherds of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, who rejoice and
praise the Lord (see Lk 2: 20). The Church renews the mystery for people of every
generation, she shows them God’s Face so that, with his Blessing, they may walk
on the path of peace. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>TE
DEUM</i> AND FIRST VESPERS<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Friday, 31 December 20<em>10</em></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of a
year we meet this evening in the Vatican Basilica to celebrate First Vespers of
the Solemnity of Mary Most Holy Mother of God and to raise a hymn of
thanksgiving for the innumerable graces she has given us, but also and above
all for Grace in person, namely for the living and personal Gift of the Father
which is his beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is this
gratitude for the gifts received from God in the time we are granted to live
that helps us to discover a great value inscribed in time: marked in its
annual, monthly, weekly and daily seasons, it is inhabited by the love of God,
by his gifts of grace; it is the time of salvation. Yes, eternal God has
entered and remains in human time. He has entered and remains in it with the
Person of Jesus, the Son of God made man, the Savior of the world. It is of
this that the Apostle Paul has reminded us in the brief <st1:place w:st="on">Reading</st1:place> just proclaimed: “When the time had
fully come, God sent forth his Son… so that we might receive adoption as sons”
(Gal 4:4-5).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus the Eternal
enters time and renews it from the roots, freeing man from sin and making him a
son of God. Already “in the beginning”, that is, with the creation of the world
and of man in the world, the eternity of God caused time — in which human
history takes place from generation to generation — to unfold. With the coming
of Christ and with his redemption, we are now in the time that has “fully come”.
</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> points out, with
Jesus time fully comes, it reaches fulfilment, acquiring that meaning of
salvation and grace for which it was desired by God before the creation of the
world. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christmas
reminds us of this “fullness” of time, in other words of the renewing salvation
which Jesus brought to all mankind. It reminds us of it and, mysteriously but
really, gives it to us ever anew. Our human time is full of evil, of suffering,
every kind of tragedy — from those caused by the wickedness of human beings to
those that derive from inauspicious natural events, — but henceforth and in a
definitive and indelible manner it contains the joyful and liberating newness
of Christ the Savior. Precisely in the Child of Bethlehem we can contemplate in
a particularly luminous and eloquent way the encounter of eternity with time,
as the Church’s Liturgy likes to express it. Christmas makes us rediscover God
in the humble, frail flesh of a Child. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Is this not
perhaps an invitation to rediscover God’s presence and his love which gives
salvation even in the brief and stressful hours of our daily life? Is it not
perhaps an invitation to discover that our human time — even in difficult and
demanding moments — is ceaselessly enriched by the Lord’s grace, indeed by
Grace, which is the Lord himself?</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of
this year 2010, before consigning the days and hours to God and to his just and
merciful judgment, I feel the need in my heart to raise our “thank you” to him
for his love for us. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
atmosphere of gratitude, I would like to address a special greeting to the
Cardinal Vicar, to the Auxiliary Bishops, to the priests, to the consecrated
people, as well as to the many lay faithful who are gathered here. I greet Hon.
Mr Mayor and the Authorities present. A special remembrance goes to all those
who are in difficulty and are spending these days of festivity in hardship and
suffering. I assure each and every one of my affectionate thoughts, which I
accompany with prayer.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, our Church of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
is committed to helping all the baptized to live faithfully the vocation they
have received and to witness to the beauty of faith. In order to be authentic
disciples of Christ, an essential aid comes to us in the daily meditation of
the word of God which “is the basis”, as I wrote in my recent Apostolic
Exhortation <i>Verbum Domini</i> “of all authentic Christian spirituality” (no.
86).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason
I wish to encourage everyone to cultivate an intense relationship with it, in
particular through the <i>lectio divina, </i>in order to have that light we
need to discern the signs of God in the present time and to proclaim the Gospel
effectively. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place> too, in fact, there
is an ever greater need for a renewed proclamation of the Gospel so that the
hearts of our city’s inhabitants may be opened to the encounter with that
Child, who was born for us, with Christ, Redeemer of man. For, as the Apostle
Paul recalls: “faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the
preaching of Christ” (Rom 10:17), a useful help in this evangelizing action can
come — as was previously experienced during the City Mission in preparation for
the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 — from “Centers for listening to the Gospel”,
whose refoundation or revitalization I encourage, not only in condominiums but
also in hospitals, in work places and in those where the new generations are
formed and where culture is elaborated. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, the Word
of God became flesh for all and his truth is accessible to every human being
and to every culture.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I learned with
appreciation of the most recent commitment of the Vicariate in organizing the “Dialogues
in the Cathedral”, which have been held in the Basilica of St John Lateran.
These important meetings express the Church’s desire to encounter all those who
are in search of answers to the deep questioning of human life.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The privileged
place for listening to the Word of God is the celebration of the Eucharist. The
Diocesan Convention last June, in which I took part, wanted to highlight the
centrality of Holy Mass on Sundays in the life of every Christian community and
offered guidelines so that the beauty of the divine mysteries might be more
resplendent in the celebrative act and in the spiritual fruits that derive from
it. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I encourage
parish priests and priests to put into practice what was pointed out in the
pastoral programme: the formation of a liturgical group to animate the
celebration and a catechesis that helps everyone to become better acquainted
with the Eucharistic Mystery from which flows the witness of charity. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Nourished by
Christ, we too are attracted by the very act of total giving that impelled the
Lord to give his life itself, revealing in this way the immense love of the
Father. The witness of charity therefore possesses an essential theological
dimension and is profoundly united with the proclamation of the word. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At this
celebration of thanksgiving to God for the gifts received during the year, I
remember in particular the Visit I made to the <i>Caritas </i>Hostel at Termini
Station, where, through the service and generous dedication of numerous
volunteers, so many men and women can tangibly feel God’s love. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The present time
is still giving rise to anxiety about the precarious plight of many families
and asks the entire diocesan community to be close to those who are living in
conditions of poverty and hardship. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May God,
infinite Love, enflame the heart of each one of us with that love which
impelled him to give us his Only-Begotten Son.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, we are asked to look to the future and to look to it with that
hope [trust] which is the last word of the “Te Deum”: “<i>In te, Domine,
speravi: non confundar in aeternum! —</i> O Lord, in you have I trusted, let me
never be confounded”. It is always Mary Most Holy, Mother of God, who gives us
Christ our Hope. May her arms, and especially her heart, continue to offer to
the world Jesus, her Son and our Savior, as they did to the shepherds and to
the Magi. All our hope is in him, because salvation and peace came from him for
every human being. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">44th
WORLD DAY OF PEACE </span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Saturday, 1st January 2011 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this first Angelus
of 2011, I offer everyone my good wishes for peace and well-being as I entrust them
to Mary Most Holy, whom we celebrate today as Mother of God. At the beginning of
a new year the Christian people gathers in spirit at the Grotto in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, where the Virgin
Mary gave birth to Jesus. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We ask the Mother
for her Blessing and she blesses us by showing us the Son: indeed, he in person,
is the Blessing. In giving us Jesus God has given us everything: his love, his life,
the light of truth, the forgiveness of sins; he has given us peace. Yes, Jesus Christ
is our peace (<i>see</i> Eph 2:14). He brought into the world the seed of love and
peace, that is stronger than the seed of hatred and violence; stronger, because
the Name of Jesus is superior to any other name, it contains the whole Lordship
of God, as the Prophet Micah announced: “But you, O Bethlehem... from you shall
come forth for me one who is to be ruler.... He shall stand and feed his flock in
the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.... And
this shall be peace” (5:1-4).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is why on this
day, in front of the icon of the Virgin Mother, the Church invokes from God, through
Jesus Christ, the gift of peace: the World Day of Peace is a favorable opportunity
to reflect together on the great challenges our epoch confronts humanity with.</span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">One such is religious
freedom, dramatically urgent in our day. For this reason, this year I have chosen
to dedicate my Message to the theme: “<i>Religious freedom, the path to peace</i>”.</span></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today we are witnessing
two opposing trends, two extremes, both negative: on the one hand secularism, which
marginalizes religion in order to confine it to the private sphere; and on the other,
fundamentalism which, on the contrary, would like to impose it upon everyone by
force.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In reality, “God
beckons humanity with a loving plan that, while engaging the whole person in his
or her natural and spiritual dimensions, calls for a free and responsible answer
which engages the whole heart and being, individual and communitarian” (<i>Message
for the World Day of Peace 2011</i>, no. 8).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Wherever religious
freedom is effectively acknowledged the dignity of the human person is respected
at its root, and through a sincere search for the true and the good, the moral conscience
and the institutions and civil coexistence themselves are strengthened (<i>see ibid.,</i>
no. 5). Religious freedom is therefore a privileged path for building peace.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, let
us once again turn our gaze to Jesus in the arms of Mary, his Mother. In looking
at the One who is the “Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6), we understand that peace is not
obtained with weapons nor with the power of economics, politics, culture or the
media. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Peace is achieved
by consciences that are open to the truth and to love. May God help us to progress
on this path in the New Year he is granting us to live.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER
OF GOD <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">44th WORLD DAY OF PEACE
<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Saturday, 1st January 2011<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Still immersed in
the spiritual atmosphere of Christmas, in which we have contemplated the mystery
of Christ’s birth, today we are celebrating the Virgin Mary, whom the Church venerates
as Mother of God with the same sentiments since she gave flesh to the Son of the
Eternal Father. The biblical <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place>
of this Solemnity put the emphasis mainly on the Son of God made man and on the
“Name” of the Lord. The First Reading presents to us the solemn Blessing that the
priests pronounced over the Israelites on the great religious feasts: it is marked,
precisely, by the Name of the Lord, repeated three times, as if to express the fullness
and power that derive from this invocation. This text of liturgical Blessing, in
fact, calls to mind the riches of grace and peace that God gives to man, with a
benevolent attitude to him, and which is expressed by the “shining” of the divine
face and his “turning” it to us.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today the Church
listens once again to these words, while she asks the Lord to bless the New Year
that has just begun, in the awareness that in the face of the tragic events that
mark history, in the face of the logistics of war that unfortunately have not yet
been fully overcome, God alone can move the human spirit in its depths and assure
hope and peace to humanity. By now it is a firm tradition, on the first day of the
year that, the Church throughout the world raise a unanimous prayer to invoke peace.
It is good to begin a new stretch of the journey by setting out with determination
on the path of peace. Today let us respond to the cry of so many men, women, children
and elderly people who are the victims of war, which is the most appalling and violent
face of history. Let us pray today that peace, which the Angels announced to the
shepherds on Christmas night, may reach everywhere:<i> “super terram pax in hominibus
bonae voluntatis” </i>(Lk 2:14). For this reason, especially with our prayers, we
wish to help every person and every people, in particular all those who have the
responsibility of government, to walk with ever grater determination on the path
of peace. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Second Reading
St Paul sums up in the adoption as sons the work of salvation brought about by Christ
in which the figure of Mary is honored. Thanks to her the Son of God, “born of woman”
(Gal 4:4), was able to come into the world as a real man, in the fullness of time.
This fulfilment, this fullness, concerns the past and the messianic expectations,
which were brought about, but at the same time also refers to fullness in the absolute
sense: in the Word made flesh, God said his ultimate and definitive word. Thus on
the threshold of a new year, the invitation to walk joyfully towards the light of
the “day that shall dawn... from on high” (Lk 1:78) resounds in this way, because
in the Christian perspective all time is inhabited by God, there is no future that
is not oriented to Christ and no fullness exists outside that of Christ. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Gospel passage
ends with the imposition of the Name of Jesus, while Mary participates in silence,
meditating in her heart upon the mystery of this Son of hers who in a completely
unique way is a gift of God. But the Gospel passage we have heard particularly highlights
the shepherds who returned “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and
seen” (Lk 2:20). The Angel had announced to them that in the city of David, that
is, Bethlehem, the Savior was born and that they would find the sign: a babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (see Lk 2:11-12). Having left in haste,
they had found Mary and Joseph and the Child. Let us note that the Evangelist speaks
of Mary’s motherhood starting with the Son, with that “babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes”, because it is he — the Word of God (Jn 1:14) — who is the reference point,
the centre of the event that is being brought about, and it is he who ensures that
Mary’s motherhood is described as “divine”.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This priority attention
that today’s <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place>
pay to the “Son”, to Jesus, does not lessen the Mother’s role, on the contrary,
it puts it in the right perspective: Mary, in fact, is the true Mother of God precisely
by virtue of her total relationship to Christ. Therefore, in glorifying the Son
one honors the Mother and in honoring the Mother one glorifies the Son. The title
of “Mother of God” which the Liturgy highlights today, stresses the unique mission
of the Blessed Virgin in the history of salvation: a mission that is at the root
of the worship and devotion which the Christian people reserve for her. Indeed,
Mary did not receive God’s gift for herself alone, but in order to bring him into
the world: in her fruitful virginity, God gave men and women the gifts of eternal
salvation (see <i>Collect</i>). And Mary continually offers her mediation to the
People of God, on pilgrimage through history towards eternity, just as she once
offered it to the shepherds of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>.
She, who gave earthly life to the Son of God, continues to give human beings divine
life, which is Jesus himself and his Holy Spirit. For this reason she is considered
the Mother of every human being who is born to Grace and at the same time is invoked
as Mother of the Church.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is in the name
of Mary, Mother of God and of men, that since 1 January 1968 the World Day of Peace
has been celebrated throughout the world. Peace is a gift of God, as we heard in
the First Reading: May “the Lord… give you peace” (Nm 6:26). It is a messianic gift
par excellence, the first fruit of the love that Jesus gave us, it is our reconciliation
and pacification with God. Peace is also a human value to be achieved at the social
and political levels, but it is rooted in the mystery of Christ (see Second Vatican
Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, <i>Gaudium et
Spes</i>, nos. 77-90). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this solemn celebration,
on the occasion of the 44th World Day of Peace, I am glad to address my respectful
greeting to the distinguished Ambassadors to the Holy See, with my best wishes for
their mission. Then a cordial brotherly greeting goes to my Secretary of State and
to the Heads of the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, with a special thought for the
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and for his collaborators.
I would like to express to them my deep gratitude for their daily commitment to
promote peaceful coexistence among the peoples and arouse an ever deeper awareness
of peace in the Church and in the world. In this perspective, the ecclesial community
is ever more committed to working, in accordance with the instructions of the Magisterium,
to provide a reliable spiritual patrimony of values and principles in the continuous
quest for peace. </span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I wished to recall
in my Message for today’s Day, entitled “Religious freedom, the path to peace”:
“The world needs God. It needs universal, shared ethical and spiritual values, and
religion can offer a precious contribution to their pursuit, for the building of
a just and peaceful social order at the national and international levels” (no.
15). I therefore stressed that “religious freedom… is an essential element of a
constitutional State; it cannot be denied without at the same time encroaching on
all fundamental rights and freedoms, since it is their synthesis and keystone” (no.
5).</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Humanity cannot appear
to be resigned to the negative power of selfishness and violence; it must not become
accustomed to conflicts that claim victims and jeopardize the future of peoples.
Before the threatening tensions of the moment and, especially, before the discrimination,
abuse and religious intolerance that today are striking Christians in particular
(see ibid., no. 1), I once again address a pressing invitation not to give in to
discouragement and resignation. I urge everyone to pray so that the efforts made
by various parties to promote and build peace in the world may be successful. For
this difficult task words do not suffice; what is needed is the practical and constant
effort of the leaders of Nations, and it is necessary above all that every person
be motivated by the authentic spirit of peace, to be implored ever anew in prayer
and to be lived in daily relations in every environment.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Eucharistic
celebration we have before our eyes, for our veneration, the image of Our Lady of
the Sacro Monte di Viggiano, so dear to the peoples of <st1:place w:st="on">Basilicata</st1:place>. May the Virgin Mary give us her Son,
may she show us the Face of her Son, the Prince of Peace. May she help us to remain
in the light of this face that shines upon us (see Nm 6:25), in order to rediscover
all the tenderness of God the Father; may it be she who supports us in invoking
the Holy Spirit, so that he will renew the face of the earth and transform hearts,
dissolving their hardness in the face of the disarming goodness of the Child who
was born for us. May the Mother of God accompany us in this New Year; may she obtain
for us and for the whole world the desired gift of peace. Amen.</span></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>TE
DEUM</i> AND FIRST VESPERS<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, 31 December 20<em>11</em></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Cardinals,</em><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Brother
Bishops and Priests,</em><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Distinguished
Authorities,</em><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
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<em><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
Brothers and Sisters!</span></em></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have come
together in the Vatican Basilica to celebrate First Vespers of the Solemnity of
Mary, Mother of God, and to give thanks to the Lord at the end of the year by
singing the <em>Te Deum</em> together. I thank all of you for choosing to join
me for this occasion that is always so poignant and significant. In the first
place I greet the Cardinals, my brother Bishops and Priests, men and women
religious, consecrated persons and members of the lay faithful representing the
entire ecclesial community of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>.
In a particular way I greet the Authorities present, beginning with the Mayor
of Rome, and I thank him for the gift of a chalice, a gift that is renewed
every year, in accordance with a fine tradition. I hope and pray that all will
remain committed to making this City ever more in tune with the values of
faith, culture and civilization that form an integral part of its vocation and
its thousands of years of history.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Another year is
drawing to a close, as we await the start of a new one: with some trepidation,
with our perennial desires and expectations. Reflecting on our life experience,
we are continually astonished by how ultimately short and ephemeral life is. So
we often find ourselves asking: what meaning can we give to our days? What
meaning, in particular, can we give to the days of toil and grief? This is a
question that permeates history, indeed it runs through the heart of every
generation and every individual. But there is an answer: it is written on the
face of a Child who was born in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
two thousand years ago, and is today the Living One, risen for ever from the
dead. From within the fabric of humanity, rent asunder by so much injustice,
wickedness and violence, there bursts forth in an unforeseen way the joyful and
liberating novelty of Christ our Savior, who leads us to contemplate the
goodness and tenderness of God through the mystery of his Incarnation and Birth.
The everlasting God has entered our history and he remains present in a unique
way in the person of Jesus, his incarnate Son, our Savior, who came down to
earth to renew humanity radically and to free us from sin and death, to raise
us to the dignity of God’s children. Christmas not only recalls the historical
fulfilment of this truth that concerns us directly, but in a mysterious and
real way, gives it to us afresh.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How evocative it
is, at this close of a year, to listen again to the joyful message addressed by
Saint Paul to the Christians of Galatia: “when the time had fully come, God
sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were
under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (<em>Gal </em>4:4-5).
These words penetrate the heart of the history of us all and illumine it, or
rather, they save it, because since the Day of the Lord’s Nativity, the
fullness of time has reached us. So there is no more room for anxiety in the
face of time that passes, never to return; now there is room for unlimited
trust in God, by whom we know we are loved, for whom we live and to whom our
life is directed as we await his definitive return. Since the Savior came down
from heaven, man has ceased to be the slave of time that passes to no avail,
marked by toil, sadness and pain. Man is son of a God who has entered time so
as to redeem it from meaninglessness and negativity, a God who has redeemed all
humanity, giving it everlasting love as a new perspective of life.</span></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church lives
and professes this truth and intends to proclaim it today with fresh spiritual vigor.
In tonight’s celebration we have special reasons to praise God for his mystery
of salvation, active in the world through the ministry of the Church. We have
so many reasons to thank the Lord for what our ecclesial community, at the
heart of the universal Church, is accomplishing in the service of the Gospel in
this City. In that regard, together with the Vicar General, Cardinal Agostino
Vallini, the Auxiliary Bishops, parish priests and the whole diocesan
presbyterate, I would like to thank the Lord especially for the promising
communal project aimed at tailoring day-to-day pastoral work to the demands of
our time, through the programme “Belonging to the Church and Pastoral Co-responsibility”.
The aim is give first priority to evangelization, so as to make the
participation of the faithful in the sacraments more responsible and more
fruitful, so that every person can speak of God to modern man and proclaim the
Gospel incisively to those who have never known it or have forgotten it.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Diocese
of Rome, as elsewhere, the most urgent pastoral challenge facing us is the <em>quaestio
fidei</em>. Christ’s disciples are called to reawaken in themselves and in
others the longing for God and the joy of living him and bearing witness to
him, on the basis of what is always a deeply personal question: why do I
believe? We must give primacy to truth, seeing the combination of faith and
reason as two wings with which the human spirit can rise to the contemplation
of the Truth (see <em>Fides et Ratio</em>, Prologue); we must ensure that the
dialogue between Christianity and modern culture bears fruit; we must see to it
that the beauty and contemporary relevance of the faith is rediscovered, not as
an isolated event, affecting some particular moment in our lives, but as a
constant orientation, affecting even the simplest choices, establishing a
profound unity within the person, so that he becomes just, hard-working,
generous and good. What is needed is to give new life to a faith that can serve
as a basis for a new humanism, one that is able to generate culture and social
commitment.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Within this
framework, at the Diocesan Conference held last June, the Diocese of Rome
launched a programme which sets out to explore more deeply the meaning of
Christian initiation and the joy of bringing new Christians into the faith. To
proclaim faith in the Word made flesh is, after all, at the heart of the Church’s
mission, and the entire ecclesial community needs to rediscover this
indispensable task with renewed missionary zeal. Young generations have an
especially keen sense of the present disorientation, magnified by the crisis in
economic affairs which is also a crisis of values, and so they in particular
need to recognize in Jesus Christ “the key, the centre and the purpose of the
whole of human history” (<em>Gaudium et Spes</em>, 10).</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Parents are the
first educators in faith of their children, starting from a most tender age,
and families must therefore be supported in their educational mission by
appropriate initiatives. At the same time it is desirable that the baptismal
journey, the first stage along the formative path of Christian initiation, in
addition to fostering conscious and worthy preparation for the celebration of
the Sacrament, should devote adequate attention to the years following Baptism,
with appropriate programmes that take account of the life conditions that
families must address. I therefore encourage parish communities and other
ecclesial groupings to engage in continuing reflection on ways to promote a
better understanding and reception of the sacraments, by which man comes to
share in the very life of God. May the Church of Rome have no shortage of lay
faithful who are ready to make their own contribution to building living
communities that allow the Word of God to burst forth in the hearts of those
who have not yet known the Lord or have moved away from him. At the same time,
it is appropriate to create opportunities to encounter the City, giving rise to
fruitful dialogue with those who are searching for Truth.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
ever since God sent his only-begotten Son, so that we might obtain adoptive
sonship (see <em>Gal </em>4:5), we can have no greater task than to be totally
at the service of God’s plan. And so I would like to encourage and thank all
the faithful from the Diocese of Rome who feel a responsibility to restore our
society’s soul. Thank you, Roman families, the first and fundamental cells of
society! Thank you, members of the many Communities, Associations and Movements
that are committed to animating the Christian life of our City.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Te Deum
laudamus!</em> We praise you, O God! The Church suggests that we should not end
the year without expressing our thanks to the Lord for all his benefits. It is
in God that our last hour must come to a close, the last hour of time and
history. To overlook this goal of our lives would be to fall into the void, to
live without meaning. Hence the Church places on our lips the ancient hymn Te
Deum. It is a hymn filled with the wisdom of many Christian generations, who
feel the need to address on high their heart’s desires, knowing that all of us
are in the Lord’s merciful hands.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Te Deum
laudamus!</em> This is also the song of the Church in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>, for the wonders that God has worked and
continues to work in her. With hearts full of thanksgiving, let us prepare to
cross the threshold of 2012, remembering that the Lord is watching over us and
guarding us. To him this evening we wish to entrust the whole world. Let us
place in his hands the tragedies of this world and let us also offer him our
hopes for a brighter future. And let us place these prayers in the hands of
Mary, Mother of God, <em>Salus Populi Romani</em>. Amen.</span></div>
</div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">45th
WORLD DAY OF PEACE </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 1st January 2012 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The triple biblical
blessing rings out in the liturgy on this first day of the year. “The Lord bless
you and keep you; The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Num 6:24-26). We
can contemplate the Face of God he himself made visible, he revealed himself in
Jesus; he is the visible image of the invisible God. And this is also thanks to
the Virgin Mary, whose greatest title we celebrate today; the title with which she
plays a unique role in the history of salvation, as Mother of God. In her womb the
Son of the Most High took our flesh and we can contemplate his glory (see Jn 1:14),
and feel his presence as God-with-us.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus we begin the
New Year 2012 by fixing our gaze on the Face of God, who is revealed in the Child
of Bethlehem, and on his Mother Mary who accepted the divine plan with humble abandonment.
Thanks to her generous “yes”, the true light that enlightens every man appeared
in the world (see Jn 1:9) and the way of peace was reopened to us. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and
sisters, today, by now a felicitous custom, we are celebrating the 45th World Day
of Peace. In the Message I addressed to Heads of State, Representatives of Nations
and to all people of good will whose theme is “Educating Young People in Justice
and Peace”, I wished to recall the need to offer the future generations suitable
educational curricula for an integral formation of the person which includes the
moral and spiritual dimension (see no. 3). </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I wished to underline
in particular the importance of teaching
the values of justice and peace. Young people today look to the future with
a certain apprehension, drawing attention to certain aspects of their life that
need to be addressed, for example: “they want to receive an education which prepares
them more fully to deal with the real world, they see how difficult it is to form
a family and to find stable employment; they wonder if they can really contribute
to political, cultural and economic life in order to build a society with a more
human and fraternal face” (no. 1).</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I ask you all to
have the patience and perseverance to seek justice and peace, to cultivate the taste
for what is just and true (see no. 5). Peace is never a good fully achieved, but
a goal for which we must all strive and for which we must all work.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us therefore
pray, despite the difficulties that sometimes make our way arduous, that this profound
aspiration may be expressed in concrete gestures of reconciliation, justice and
peace. Let us also pray that the leaders of nations may renew their readiness and
commitment to accept and encourage this irrepressible longing of humanity. Let us
entrust these wishes to the intercession of the Mother of the “King of Peace”, so
that the year which is beginning may be a time of hope and of peaceful coexistence
for the whole world. </span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER
OF GOD <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">45th WORLD DAY OF PEACE
<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="style2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="style2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i>
Basilica, Sunday, 1st January 201<em>2</em></i></span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<em><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters!</span></em></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the first day
of the year, the liturgy resounds in the Church throughout the world with the ancient
priestly blessing that we heard during today’s first reading: “The Lord bless you
and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (<em>Num </em>6:24-26).
This blessing was entrusted by God, through Moses, to Aaron and his sons, that is,
to the priests of the people of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>.
It is a triple blessing filled with light, radiating from the repetition of the
name of God, the Lord, and from the image of his face. In fact, in order to be blessed,
we have to stand in God’s presence, take his Name upon us and remain in the cone
of light that issues from his Face, in a space lit up by his gaze, diffusing grace
and peace.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This was the very
experience that the shepherds of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
had, who reappear in today’s Gospel. They had the experience of standing in God’s
presence, they received his blessing not in the hall of a majestic palace, in the
presence of a great sovereign, but in a stable, before a “babe lying in a manger”
(<em>Lk </em>2:16). From this child, a new light issues forth, shining in the darkness
of the night, as we can see in so many paintings depicting Christ’s Nativity. Henceforth,
it is from him that blessing comes, from his name – Jesus, meaning “God saves” –
and from his human face, in which God, the almighty Lord of heaven and earth, chose
to become incarnate, concealing his glory under the veil of our flesh, so as to
reveal fully to us his goodness (see <em>Tit </em>3:4). </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first to be swept
up by this blessing was Mary the virgin, the spouse of Joseph, chosen by God from
the first moment of her existence to be the mother of his incarnate Son. She is
the “blessed among women” (<em>Lk </em>1:42) – in the words of Saint Elizabeth’s
greeting. Her whole life was spent in the light of the Lord, within the radius of
his name and of the face of God incarnate in Jesus, the “blessed fruit of her womb”.
This is how Luke’s Gospel presents her to us: fully intent upon guarding and meditating
in her heart upon everything concerning her son Jesus (see <em>Lk </em>2:19, 51).
The mystery of her divine motherhood that we celebrate today contains in superabundant
measure the gift of grace that all human motherhood bears within it, so much so
that the fruitfulness of the womb has always been associated with God’s blessing.
The Mother of God is the first of the blessed, and it is she who bears the blessing;
she is the woman who received Jesus into herself and brought him forth for the whole
human family. In the words of the liturgy: “without losing the glory of virginity,
[she] brought forth into the world the eternal light, Jesus Christ our Lord” (<em>Preface
I of the Blessed Virgin Mary</em>).</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary is the mother
and model of the Church, who receives the divine Word in faith and offers herself
to God as the “good soil” in which he can continue to accomplish his mystery of
salvation. The Church also participates in the mystery of divine motherhood, through
preaching, which sows the seed of the Gospel throughout the world, and through the
sacraments, which communicate grace and divine life to men. The Church exercises
her motherhood especially in the sacrament of Baptism, when she generates God’s
children from water and the Holy Spirit, who cries out in each of them: “Abba, Father!”
(<em>Gal </em>4:6). Like Mary, the Church is the mediator of God’s blessing for
the world: she receives it in receiving Jesus and she transmits it in bearing Jesus.
He is the mercy and the peace that the world, of itself, cannot give, and which
it needs always, at least as much as bread.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, peace,
in the fullest and highest sense, is the sum and synthesis of all blessings. So
when two friends meet, they greet one another, wishing each other peace. The Church
too, on the first day of the year, invokes this supreme good in a special way; she
does so, like the Virgin Mary, by revealing Jesus to all, for as Saint Paul says,
“He is our peace” (<em>Eph </em>2:14), and at the same time the “way” by which individuals
and peoples can reach this goal to which we all aspire. With this deep desire in
my heart, I am glad to welcome and greet all of you who have come to Saint Peter’s
Basilica on this 45th World Day of Peace: Cardinals, Ambassadors from so many friendly
countries, who more than ever on this happy occasion share with me and with the
Holy See the desire for renewed commitment to the promotion of peace in the world;
the President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who with the Secretary
and the officials of the Dicastery work in a particular way towards this goal; the
other Bishops and Authorities present; the representatives of ecclesial Associations
and Movements and all of you, brothers and sisters, especially those among you who
work in the field of educating the young. Indeed – as you know – the role of education
is what I highlighted in my Message for this year.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Educating Young
People in Justice and Peace” is a task for every generation, and thanks be to God,
after the tragedies of the two great world wars, the human family has shown increasing
awareness of it, as we can witness, on the one hand, from international statements
and initiatives, and on the other, from the emergence among young people themselves,
in recent decades, of many different forms of social commitment in this field. For
the ecclesial community, educating men and women in peace is part of the mission
received from Christ, it is an integral part of evangelization, because the Gospel
of Christ is also the Gospel of justice and peace. But the Church, in recent times,
has articulated a demand that affects everyone with a sensitive and responsible
conscience regarding humanity’s future; the demand to respond to a decisive challenge
that consists precisely in education. Why is this a “challenge”? For at least two
reasons: in the first place, because in the present age, so strongly marked by a
technological mentality, the desire to <em>educate </em>and not merely to <em>instruct
</em>cannot be taken for granted, it is a choice; in the second place, because the
culture of relativism raises a radical question: does it still make sense to educate?
And then, to educate for what?</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Naturally now is
not the time to address these fundamental questions, which I have tried to answer
on other occasions. Instead I would like to underline the fact that, in the face
of the shadows that obscure the horizon of today’s world, to assume responsibility
for educating young people in knowledge of the truth, in fundamental values and
virtues, is to look to the future with hope. And in this commitment to a holistic
education, formation in justice and peace has a place. Boys and girls today are
growing up in a world that has, so to speak, become smaller, where contacts between
different cultures and traditions, even if not always direct, are constant. For
them, now more than ever, it is indispensable to learn the importance and the art
of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, dialogue and understanding. Young people
by their nature are open to these attitudes, but the social reality in which they
grow up can lead them to think and act in the opposite way, even to be intolerant
and violent. Only a solid education of their consciences can protect them from these
risks and make them capable of carrying on the fight, depending always and solely
on the power of truth and good. This education begins in the family and is developed
at school and in other formative experiences. It is essentially about helping infants,
children and adolescents to develop a personality that combines a profound sense
of justice with respect for their neighbour, with a capacity to address conflicts
without arrogance, with the inner strength to bear witness to good, even when it
involves sacrifice, with forgiveness and reconciliation. Thus they will be able
to become people of peace and builders of peace.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this task of educating
young generations, a particular responsibility lies with religious communities.
Every pathway of authentic religious formation guides the person, from the most
tender age, to know God, to love him and to do his will. God is love, he is just
and peaceable, and anyone wishing to honor him must first of all act like a child
following his father’s example. One of the Psalms says: “The Lord does deeds of
justice, gives judgment for all who are oppressed ... The Lord is compassion and
love, slow to anger and rich in mercy” (<em>Ps</em> 102:6,8). In God, justice and
mercy come together perfectly, as Jesus showed us through the testimony of his life.
In Jesus, “love and truth” have met, “justice and peace” have embraced (see <em>Ps
</em>84:11). In these days, the Church is celebrating the great mystery of the Incarnation:
God’s truth has sprung from the earth and justice looks down from heaven, the earth
has yielded its fruit (see <em>Ps </em>84:12,13). God has spoken to us in his Son
Jesus. Let us hear what God has to say: “a voice that speaks of peace” (<em>Ps </em>84:9).
Jesus is a way that can be traveled, open to everyone. He is the path of peace.
Today the Virgin Mary points him out to us, she shows us the Way: let us walk in
it! And you, Holy Mother of God, accompany us with your protection. Amen.</span></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>TE
DEUM</i> AND FIRST VESPERS<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Monday, 31 December 20<em>12</em></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your
Eminences,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Presbyterate,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Distinguished
Authorities,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I thank all of
you who have wished to take part in this liturgy of the last hour of the year
of the Lord 2012. This “hour” has a special intensity and in a certain way sums
up all the hours of the year that is about to end. I cordially greet the
cardinals, bishops, priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful, especially
those who represent the ecclesial community of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>. In a special way I greet all the
authorities present, starting with the mayor of the city, and I thank them for
having come to share with us this moment of prayer and thanksgiving to God.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The <i>Te Deum</i>
we are raising to the Lord this evening, at the end of a solar year, is a hymn
of thanksgiving that opens with praise: “We praise you, O God: We acclaim you
as Lord” — and ends with a profession of trust — “in you, Lord, we put our
trust; we shall not be put to shame”. However the year went, whether it was
easy or difficult, barren or fruitful, let us give thanks to God. Indeed the <i>Te
Deum</i> contains deep wisdom, that wisdom which makes us say that in spite of
all good exists in the world and that this good is bound to win thanks be to
God, the God of Jesus Christ, who was born, died and rose again. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At times of
course it is hard to understand this profound reality, because evil is noisier
than goodness; an atrocious murder, widespread violence, grave forms of
injustice hit the headlines; whereas acts of love and service, the daily effort
sustained with fidelity and patience are often left in the dark, they pass
unnoticed. For this reason too, we cannot stop at reading the news if we wish
to understand the world and life; we must be able to pause in silence, in
meditation, in calm, prolonged reflection; we must know how to stop and think.
In this way our mind can find healing from the inevitable wounds of daily life,
it can penetrate the events that occur in our life and in the world and can
attain that wisdom which makes it possible to see things with new eyes.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is above all
in the recollection of the conscience that God speaks to us, so that we can
learn to evaluate truthfully our own actions and also the evil present within
us and around us. In this way we are able to start out afresh on a journey of
conversion that makes us wiser and better people, more capable of generating
solidarity and communion and of overcoming evil with good. Christians are
people of hope, even and above all when they face the darkness that often
exists in the world and has nothing to do with God’s plan but is the result of
the erroneous choices of human beings, for Christians know that the power of
faith can move mountains (see Mt 17:20): The Lord can illuminate even the
thickest darkness. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Year of
Faith, which the Church is living, aims to inspire in every believer’s heart a
greater awareness that the encounter with Christ is the fount of true life and
of sound hope. Faith in Jesus makes possible a constant renewal in goodness, as
well as the ability to extricate ourselves from the quicksands of sin and to
start out afresh. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Word made
flesh it is possible, ever anew, to find the true identity of the human being
who realizes that he or she is the recipient of God’s infinite love and is
called to personal communion with him. The truth that Jesus Christ came to
reveal is the certainty that urges us to look with trust to the year we are
about to begin.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church,
which received the mission to evangelize from her Lord, knows well that the
Gospel is destined for all people — and in particular for the new generations —
to quench that thirst for truth which all people carry in their heart and which
is all too often obscured by the many things that fill life. This apostolic
commitment is all the more necessary when faith risks being clouded over in
cultural contexts that prevent it from taking root in individuals and from
being present in society. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place> too is a city where
the Christian faith must be proclaimed ever anew and demands a credible
witness. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the one hand,
the growing number of believers of other religions, the difficulty of parish
communities in approaching youth and the spread of lifestyles impressed with
individualism and ethical relativism; and, on the other, the search of so many
people for meaning in their life and for a hope that does not disappoint cannot
leave us indifferent. Like the Apostle Paul (see Rom 1:14-15), each and every
member of the faithful in this city must feel that they owe it to the other
inhabitants to spread the Gospel!</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this very
reason, our Diocese has been committed for several years now to highlighting
the missionary dimension of ordinary pastoral care, so that believers,
sustained especially by the Sunday Eucharist, may become consistent disciples
and witnesses of Jesus Christ. Christian parents, who are the first to
inculcate the faith in their children, are called in a very special way to this
consistency of life. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The complexity
of life in a large city like Rome and in a culture that frequently seems
indifferent to God, makes it obligatory not to leave fathers and mothers alone
in this most crucial task; on the contrary, it obliges us to sustain them and
to accompany them in their spiritual life.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With this in
mind I encourage all those who work in family ministry to implement the
pastoral guidelines that resulted from the last Diocesan Convention dedicated
to baptismal and post-baptismal pastoral care. To keep the flame of faith alive
we need a generous commitment to developing programmes of spiritual formation
to accompany parents after the Baptism of their children and to offer them
practical suggestions so that, from the most tender age, the Gospel of Jesus
may be proclaimed. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The creation of
family groups in which people listen to the word of God and share their
experiences of Christian life helps to reinforce their feeling of belonging to
the ecclesial community and helps them to develop in friendship with the Lord.
It is likewise important also to build a relationship of cordial friendship
with those members of the faithful who, having had their child baptized,
distracted by the pressing needs of daily life, do not show much interest in
following up this experience: thus they will be able to feel the affection of
the Church which, like a caring mother, sets herself beside them to encourage
them in their spiritual life.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In order to
proclaim the Gospel and to enable all who do not yet know Jesus, or who have
abandoned him, to cross the threshold of the door of faith once again and to
live communion with God, it is indispensable to know in depth the meaning of
the truths contained in the Profession of Faith. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore the
commitment to provide pastoral workers with a systematic formation that has
existed in the various Prefectures of the Diocese of Rome is a precious means
that must be pursued with commitment in the future too, to form lay people who
can readily echo the Gospel in every home and in every walk of life. This may
also be done through “listening centers” which proved so effective at the time
of the City Mission. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this regard
the “Dialogues in the Cathedral” which have been held for years in the Basilica
of St John Lateran are an especially appropriate experience for meeting the
city and for having a dialogue with all those in search of God and of the truth
who are wondering about the great questions of human life. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As in past
centuries, so today too the Church of Rome is called to proclaim and to witness
tirelessly to the riches of Christ’s Gospel. Moreover she is called to do this
by supporting those who live in situations of poverty and marginalization, as
well as families in difficulty, especially when they have to help sick and
disabled people. I feel confident that the institutions, at their various
levels, will not fail in their action to ensure that all citizens have access
to what they need to live a dignified life.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, on
the last evening of the year which is coming to its end and on the threshold of
the new one, let us praise the Lord! Let us express to “the Lord God, who is
and who was and who is to come” (Rev 1:8), repentance and the request for
forgiveness for our shortcomings, as well as sincere gratitude for the
innumerable benefits granted to us by the divine Good. In particular, let us
thank him for the grace and truth that have come to us through Jesus Christ. In
him lies the fullness of all human time. In him lies the future of every human
being. In him will be brought about the fulfilment of the hopes of the Church
and of the world. Amen.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">46th
WORLD DAY OF PEACE </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Tuesday, 1st January 2013 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A happy New Year
to you all! On the first day of 2013 I would like the blessing of God to reach each
and every man and woman of the world. I bless you with the ancient formula contained
in Sacred Scripture: “The Lord bless you and keep you: The Lord make his face to
shine upon you, and be gracious to you: The Lord lift up his countenance upon you,
and give you peace” (Num 6:24-26).</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Just as the light
and the warmth of the sun are a blessing for the earth, so the light of God is for
humanity, when he causes his countenance to shine upon it: and this came about with
the birth of Jesus Christ! God has caused his face to shine upon us: in the beginning
in a very humble, hidden manner — at <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
only Mary and Joseph and some shepherds were witnesses of this revelation; but little
by little, just as the early morning sun reaches midday, the light of Christ has
increased and spread everywhere. Already during the short time of his earthly life,
Jesus of Nazareth caused God’s countenance to shine upon the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy
Land</st1:place>; and then, through the Church enlivened by his Spirit, he bestowed
the Gospel of peace on all the nations. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace among men with whom he is pleased” (Lk 2:14). This is the song of angels at
Christmas, and it is the song of the Christians under every sky; a song which flows
from hearts and lips into practical actions and gestures of love that build dialogue,
understanding and reconciliation.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this reason,
eight days after the Nativity, when the Church — like the Virgin Mother Mary — shows
the newborn Jesus, Prince of Peace, to the world we celebrate the World Day of Peace.
Yes, that Child, who is the Word of God made flesh, came to bring a peace to men
that the world cannot give (see Jn 14:27). His mission is to break down the “dividing
wall of hostility” (see Eph 2:14); and when, on the shores of the <st1:place w:st="on">Sea of Galilee</st1:place>, he proclaims his “Beatitudes”, among them
is also “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Mt
5:9). Who are the peacemakers? They are all those who, day after day, seek to conquer
evil with good, with the strength of the truth, with the arms of prayer and of forgiveness,
with honest work well-done, with scientific research that is at the service of life,
with the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The peacemakers are many, but they
make not a sound. Like the yeast in dough, they cause humanity to rise according
to God’s plan.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this first Angelus<i>
</i>of the new year, let us ask Mary Most Holy, the Mother of God, to bless us,
just as the mother blesses her children who must leave on a journey. A new year
is like a journey: with the light and grace of God, may it be a path of peace for
every person and for every family, for every country and for the entire world.</span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">46th
WORLD DAY OF PEACE </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Tuesday, 1st January 201<em>3</em></i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<em><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></em></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“May God bless us
and make his face to shine upon us.” We proclaimed these words from Psalm 66 after
hearing in the first reading the ancient priestly blessing upon the people of the
covenant. It is especially significant that at the start of every new year God sheds
upon us, his people, the light of his Holy Name, the Name pronounced three times
in the solemn form of biblical blessing. Nor is it less significant that to the
Word of God – who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (<em>Jn</em> 1:14) as “the true
light that enlightens every man” (1:9) – is given, as today’s Gospel tells us, the
Name of Jesus eight days after his birth (see <em>Lk</em> 2:21).</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is in this Name
that we are gathered here today. I cordially greet all present, beginning with the
Ambassadors of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. I greet with affection
Cardinal Bertone, my Secretary of State, and Cardinal Turkson, with all the officials
of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; I am particularly grateful to them
for their effort to spread the Message for the World Day of Peace, which this year
has as its theme “Blessed are the Peacemakers”. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Although the world
is sadly marked by “hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances
of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic
mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism,” as
well as by various forms of terrorism and crime, I am convinced that “the many different
efforts at peacemaking which abound in our world testify to mankind’s innate vocation
to peace. In every person the desire for peace is an essential aspiration which
coincides in a certain way with the desire for a full, happy and successful human
life. In other words, the desire for peace corresponds to a fundamental moral principle,
namely, the duty and right to an integral social and communitarian development,
which is part of God’s plan for mankind. Man is made for the peace which is God’s
gift. All of this led me to draw inspiration for this Message from the words of
Jesus Christ: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of
God’ (<em>Mt</em> 5:9)” (<em>Message</em>, 1). This beatitude “tells us that peace
is both a messianic gift and the fruit of human effort … It is peace with God through
a life lived according to his will. It is interior peace with oneself, and exterior
peace with our neighbors and all creation” (<em>ibid.</em>, 2, 3). Indeed, peace
is the supreme good to ask as a gift from God and, at the same time, that which
is to be built with our every effort. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We may ask ourselves:
what is the basis, the origin, the root of peace? How can we experience that peace
within ourselves, in spite of problems, darkness and anxieties? The reply is given
to us by the readings of today’s liturgy. The biblical texts, especially the one
just read from the Gospel of Luke, ask us to contemplate the interior peace of Mary,
the Mother of Jesus. During the days in which “she gave birth to her first-born
son” (<em>Lk</em> 2:7), many unexpected things occurred: not only the birth of the
Son but, even before, the tiring journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, not finding
room at the inn, the search for a chance place to stay for the night; then the song
of the angels and the unexpected visit of the shepherds. In all this, however, Mary
remains even tempered, she does not get agitated, she is not overcome by events
greater than herself; in silence she considers what happens, keeping it in her mind
and heart, and pondering it calmly and serenely. This is the interior peace which
we ought to have amid the sometimes tumultuous and confusing events of history,
events whose meaning we often do not grasp and which disconcert us.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel passage
finishes with a mention of the circumcision of Jesus. According to the Law of Moses,
eight days after birth, baby boys were to be circumcised and then given their name.
Through his messenger, God himself had said to Mary – as well as to Joseph – that
the Name to be given to the child was “Jesus” (see <em>Mt </em>1:21;<em> Lk </em>1:31);
and so it came to be. The Name which God had already chosen, even before the child
had been conceived, is now officially conferred upon him at the moment of circumcision.
This also changes Mary’s identity once and for all: she becomes “the mother of Jesus”,
that is the mother of the Savior, of Christ, of the Lord. Jesus is not a man like
any other, but the Word of God, one of the Divine Persons, the Son of God: therefore
the Church has given Mary the title <em>Theotokos</em> or Mother of God. </span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first reading
reminds us that peace is a gift from God and is linked to the splendor of the face
of God, according to the text from the Book of Numbers, which hands down the blessing
used by the priests of the People of Israel in their liturgical assemblies. This
blessing repeats three times the Holy Name of God, a Name not to be spoken, and
each time it is linked to two words indicating an action in favor of man: “The Lord
bless you and keep you: the Lord make his face to shine upon you: the Lord lift
up his countenance upon you, and give you peace” (6:24-26). So peace is the summit
of these six actions of God in our favor, in which he turns towards us the splendor
of his face. </span></div>
</div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For sacred Scripture,
contemplating the face of God is the greatest happiness: “You gladden him with the
joy of your face” (<em>Ps</em> 21:7). From the contemplation of the face of God
are born joy, security and peace. But what does it mean concretely to contemplate
the face of the Lord, as understood in the New Testament? It means knowing him directly,
in so far as is possible in this life, through Jesus Christ in whom he is revealed.
To rejoice in the splendor of God’s face means penetrating the mystery of his Name
made known to us in Jesus, understanding something of his interior life and of his
will, so that we can live according to his plan of love for humanity. In the second
reading, taken from the Letter to the Galatians (4:4-7), <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:place> says as much as he describes the Spirit
who, in our inmost hearts, cries: “Abba! Father!” It is the cry that rises from
the contemplation of the true face of God, from the revelation of the mystery of
his Name. Jesus declares, “I have manifested thy name to men” (<em>Jn</em> 17:6).
God’s Son made man has let us know the Father, he has let us know the hidden face
of the Father through his visible human face; by the gift of the Holy Spirit poured
into our hearts, he has led us to understand that, in him, we too are children of
God, as Saint Paul says in the passage we have just heard: “The proof that you are
sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that
cries, ‘Abba, Father’” (<em>Gal</em> 4:6). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here, dear brothers
and sisters, is the foundation of our peace: the certainty of contemplating in Jesus
Christ the splendor of the face of God the Father, of being sons in the Son, and
thus of having, on life’s journey, the same security that a child feels in the arms
of a loving and all-powerful Father. The splendor of the face of God, shining upon
us and granting us peace, is the manifestation of his fatherhood: the Lord turns
his face to us, he reveals himself as our Father and grants us peace. Here is the
principle of that profound peace – “peace with God” – which is firmly linked to
faith and grace, as <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:place>
tells the Christians of Rome (see <em>Rom</em> 5:2). Nothing can take this peace
from believers, not even the difficulties and sufferings of life. Indeed, sufferings,
trials and darkness do not undermine but build up our hope, a hope which does not
deceive because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
which has been given to us” (5:5). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the Virgin Mary, whom today we venerate with
the title of Mother of God, help us to contemplate the face of Jesus, the Prince
of Peace. May she sustain us and accompany us in this New Year: and may she obtain
for us and for the whole world the gift of peace. Amen! </span>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-91613042664453908312023-12-26T01:30:00.004-05:002023-12-26T01:30:00.128-05:00Reflections on the Feast of the Holy Family by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0320: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the F</b><b>east of </b><b>the Holy Family</b><b> </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI </b><b> </b></span><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">
</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On six
occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Feast of the Holy Family, on 31 December 2006, 30 December
2007, 28 December 2008, 27 December 2009, 26 December 2010, and 30 December
2012. Here are the texts of the six
brief reflections delivered prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 31 December 2006<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this
last Sunday of the year we are celebrating the <i>Feast of the Holy Family of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:city></st1:place>. </i>I address
with joy all the families of the world, wishing them the peace and love that
Jesus brought us in coming among us at Christmas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
Gospel we do not find discourses on the family but an <i>event </i>which is
worth more than any words: God <i>wanted to be born and to grow up in a
human family. </i>In this way he consecrated the family as the first and
ordinary means of his encounter with humanity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In his
life spent at <st1:city w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:city>,
Jesus honored the Virgin Mary and the righteous Joseph, remaining under their
authority throughout the period of his childhood and his adolescence (see Lk
2: 41-52). In this way he shed light on the primary value of the family in
the education of the person. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus
was introduced by Mary and Joseph into the religious community and frequented
the synagogue of <st1:place w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:place>.
With them, he learned to make the pilgrimage to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, as the Gospel passage offered for
our meditation by today’s liturgy tells us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When he
was 12 years old, he stayed behind in the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
and it took his parents all of three days to find him. With this act he made them
understand that he “had to see to his Father’s affairs”, in other words, to the
mission that God had entrusted to him (see Lk 2: 41-52). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
Gospel episode reveals the most authentic and profound vocation of the family:
that is, to accompany each of its members on the path of the discovery of God
and of the plan that he has prepared for him or her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary
and Joseph taught Jesus primarily by their example: in his parents he came to
know the full beauty of faith, of love for God and for his Law, as well as the
demands of justice, which is totally fulfilled in love (see Rom 13: 10). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From
them he learned that it is necessary first of all to do God’s will, and that
the spiritual bond is worth more than the bond of kinship. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Holy Family of Nazareth is truly the “prototype” of every Christian family
which, united in the Sacrament of Marriage and nourished by the Word and the
Eucharist, is called to carry out the wonderful vocation and mission of being
the living cell not only of society but also of the Church, a sign and
instrument of unity for the entire human race. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us
now invoke for every family, especially families in difficulty, the protection
of Mary Most Holy and of <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place>.
May they sustain such families so that they can resist the disintegrating
forces of a certain contemporary culture which undermines the very foundations
of the family institution. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May
they help Christian families to be, in every part of the world, living images
of God’s love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>BENEDICT XVI </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 30 December 2007 </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today,
we are celebrating the Feast of the Holy Family. As we follow the Gospels of
Matthew and Luke, let us fix our gaze on Jesus, Mary and Joseph and adore the
mystery of a God who chose to be born of a woman, the Blessed Virgin, and to
enter this world in the way common to all humankind. By so doing he sanctified
the reality of the family, filling it with divine grace and fully revealing its
vocation and mission. The Second Vatican Council dedicated much attention to
the family. Married partners, it said, must be witnesses of faith to each other
and to their children (see<b> </b><i>Lumen Gentium</i>, no. 35). The Christian
family thus shares in the Church’s prophetic vocation: with its way of
living it “proclaims aloud both the present power of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>
and the hope of the blessed life” (<i>ibid</i>.). Then, as my venerable
Predecessor John Paul II tirelessly repeated, the good of the person and of
society is closely connected to the “healthy state” of the family (see <i>Gaudium
et Spes</i>, no. 47). The Church, therefore, is committed to defending and to
fostering “the dignity and supremely sacred value of the married state” (<i>ibid</i>.).<i>
</i>To this end, an important event is being held in <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place> this very day, whose participants I
now address in Spanish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
the participants in the Meeting for Families that is taking place in <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place> this Sunday,
together with the Cardinals, Bishops and priests who have accompanied them. In
contemplating the mystery of the Son of God who came into the world surrounded
by the love of Mary and Joseph, I ask Christian families to experience the
loving presence of the Lord in their lives. I likewise encourage them, drawing
inspiration from Christ’s love for humanity, to bear witness to the world of
the beauty of human love, marriage and the family. Founded on the indissoluble
union between a man and a woman, the family constitutes the privileged context
in which human life is welcomed and protected from its beginning to its natural
end. Thus, parents have the right and the fundamental obligation to raise their
children in the faith and values which give dignity to human life. It is
worthwhile working for the family and marriage because it is worthwhile working
for the human being, God’s most precious creature. I have a special word for
children, so that they may love and pray for their fathers and mothers and
their siblings; to young people, so that encouraged by their parents’ love,
they may follow generously their own vocation to marriage, priestly or
religious life; to the elderly and the sick, so that they may find needed help
and understanding. And you, dear spouses, may you always count on God’s grace
so that your love may be increasingly fruitful and faithful every day. I
entrust the outcome of this celebration to the hands of Mary, who “<i>with her “yes’
she opened the door of our world to God” </i>(<i>Spe Salvi</i>, no. 49). Many
thanks and happy holidays! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us
now turn to the Blessed Virgin, praying for the good of the family and for all
the families in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>BENEDICT XVI </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 28 December 2008<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this
Sunday following the Nativity of the Lord we are joyfully celebrating the Holy
Family of Nazareth. It is a most suitable context because Christmas is the
Feast of the family <i>par excellence</i>. This is demonstrated by numerous
traditions and social customs, especially the practice of gathering together as
a family for festive meals and for greetings and the exchange of gifts; and how
can the hardship and suffering caused by certain family wounds which on these
occasions are amplified go unnoticed? Jesus willed to be born and to grow up in
a human family; he had the Virgin Mary as his mother and Joseph who acted as
his father; they raised and educated him with immense love. Jesus’ family truly
deserves the title “Holy”, for it was fully engaged in the desire to do the
will of God, incarnate in the adorable presence of Jesus. On the one hand, it
was a family like all others and as such, it is a model of conjugal love,
collaboration, sacrifice and entrustment to divine <st1:city w:st="on">Providence</st1:city>, hard work and solidarity in
short, of all those values that the family safeguards and promotes, making an
important contribution to forming the fabric of every society. At the same
time, however, the Family of Nazareth was unique, different from all other
families because of its singular vocation linked to the mission of the Son of
God. With precisely this uniqueness it points out to every family and in the
first place to Christian families God’s horizon, the sweet and demanding
primacy of his will, the prospect of Heaven to which we are all destined. For
all this, today we thank God, but also the Virgin Mary and <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place>, who with much faith and
willingness cooperated in the Lord’s plan of salvation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thousands
of people are meeting in <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place>
today to express the beauty and value of the family. I would now like to speak
to them in Spanish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I now
address a cordial greeting to the participants gathered at this moving
celebration in <st1:state w:st="on">Madrid</st1:state>
to pray for the family and to commit with fortitude and hope to work in its favor.
The family is certainly a grace of God through which transpires what God
himself is: Love an entirely free love that sustains boundless fidelity, even
in times of difficulty or dejection. These qualities are reflected eminently in
the Holy Family in which Jesus came into the world, was raised and was filled
with wisdom, with Mary’s thoughtful care and <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city>’s faithful custody. Dear families,
do not let the love, openness to life and incomparable ties that unite your
home weaken. Ask God for this constantly, pray together so that your
resolutions may be enlightened by faith and strengthened by divine grace on the
path to holiness. Thus, with the joy of sharing all things in love, you will
give the world a beautiful witness to how important the family is for the human
person and for society. The Pope is beside you, praying the Lord especially for
those in every family who are most in need of health, work, comfort and
company. In this Angelus prayer, I entrust you all to our Mother in Heaven, the
Most Blessed Virgin Mary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
brothers and sisters, in speaking of the family, I cannot then omit to recall
that from 14 to 18 January 2009 the Sixth World Meeting of Families will be
taking place in <st1:place w:st="on">Mexico City</st1:place>.
Let us pray from this moment for this important ecclesial event and entrust
every family to the Lord, especially those families most sorely tried by life’s
difficulties and by the scourges of misunderstanding and division. May the
Redeemer, born in <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city>,
give to all of them serenity and the strength to walk united on the path of
good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FEAST
OF THE HOLY FAMILY</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 27 December 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today is Holy
Family Sunday. We can still identify ourselves with the shepherds of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> who hastened to
the grotto as soon as they had received the Angel’s announcement and found “Mary
and Joseph, and the Babe lying in the manger” (Lk 2: 16). Let us too pause to
contemplate this scene and reflect on its meaning. The first witnesses of
Christ’s birth, the shepherds, found themselves not only before the Infant
Jesus but also a small family: mother, father and newborn son. God had chosen
to reveal himself by being born into a human family and the human family thus
became an icon of God! God is the Trinity, he is a communion of love; so is the
family despite all the differences that exist between the Mystery of God and
his human creature, an expression that reflects the unfathomable Mystery of God
as Love. In marriage the man and the woman, created in God’s image, become “one
flesh” (Gen 2: 24), that is a communion of love that generates new life. The
human family, in a certain sense, is an icon of the Trinity because of its
interpersonal love and the fruitfulness of this love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Liturgy
presents the famous Gospel episode of the 12-year-old Jesus who stays behind in
the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> unbeknown to his parents who,
surprised and anxious, discover him three days later conversing with the
teachers. Jesus answers his Mother who asks for an explanation that he must “be
in his Father’s house” that is God’s house (see Lk 2: 49). In this episode the
boy Jesus appears to us full of zeal for God and for the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city>. Let us ask ourselves: from whom did
Jesus learn love for his Father’s affairs? As Son he certainly had an intimate
knowledge of his Father, of God, and a profound and permanent relationship with
him but, in his own culture he had of course learned prayers and love for the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> and for the
Institutions of Israel from his parents. We may therefore say that Jesus’
decision to stay on at the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
was above all the result of his close relationship with the Father, but it was
also a result of the education he had received from Mary and Joseph. Here we
can glimpse the authentic meaning of Christian education: it is the fruit of a
collaboration between educators and God that must always be sought. The
Christian family is aware that children are a gift and a project of God.
Therefore it cannot consider that it possesses them; rather, in serving God’s
plan through them, the family is called to educate them in the greatest
freedom, which is precisely that of saying “yes” to God in order to do his
will. The Virgin Mary is the perfect example of this “yes”. Let us entrust all
families to her, praying in particular for their precious educational mission. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And I now
address in Spanish all those who are taking part in the Feast of the Holy
Family in <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place>.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I cordially
greet the Pastors and faithful who have gathered in <st1:place w:st="on">Madrid</st1:place> to celebrate joyfully the Sacred
Family of Nazareth. How is it possible not to remember the true meaning of this
feast? Having come into the world, into the heart of a family, God shows that
this institution is a sure path on which to encounter and come to know him, as
well as an ongoing call to work for the unity of all people centered on love.
Hence one of the greatest services that we Christians can render our fellow
human beings is to offer them our serene and unhesitating witness as a family
founded on the marriage of a man and a woman, safeguarding and promoting the
family, since it is of supreme importance for the present and future of
humanity. Indeed, the family is the best school at which to learn to live out
those values which give dignity to the person and greatness to peoples. In the
family sorrows and joys are shared, since all feel enveloped in the love that
prevails at home, a love that stems from the mere fact of belonging to the same
family. I ask God that in your homes you may always breathe this love of total
self-giving and faithfulness which Jesus brought to the world with his birth,
nurturing and strengthening it with daily prayer, the constant practice of the
virtues, reciprocal understanding and mutual respect. I then encourage you so
that, trusting in the motherly intercession of Mary Most Holy, Queen of
Families, and under the powerful protection of St Joseph, her spouse, you may
dedicate yourselves tirelessly to this beautiful mission which the Lord has
placed in your hands. In addition you may count on my closeness and affection,
and I ask you to convey to your loved ones who are in the greatest need or find
themselves in difficulty a very special greeting from the Pope. I warmly bless
you all.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FEAST
OF THE HOLY FAMILY</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 26 December 2010</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel
according to Luke recounts that when the shepherds of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> had received the Angel’s
announcement of the Messiah’s birth “they went with haste, and found Mary and
Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger” (2:16). The first eyewitnesses of Jesus’
birth therefore beheld a family scene: a mother, a father and a newborn son.
For this reason the Liturgy has us celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family on
the First Sunday after Christmas. This year it occurred the very day after
Christmas, and, taking precedence over the Feast of St Stephen, invites us
to contemplate this “icon” in which the little Jesus appears at the centre of
his parents’ affection and care. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the poor
grotto of Bethlehem — the Fathers of the Church wrote — shines a very bright
light, a reflection of the profound mystery which envelopes that
Child, which Mary and Joseph cherish in their hearts and which can
be seen in their expression, in their actions, and
especially in their silence. Indeed, they preserve in their inmost depths the
words of the Angel’s Annunciation to Mary: “the Child to be born will be called
holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet every child’s
birth brings something of this mystery with it! Parents who receive a child as
a gift know this well and often speak of it in this way. We have all heard
people say to a father and a mother: “this child is a gift, a miracle!” Indeed,
human beings do not experience procreation merely as a reproductive act but
perceive its richness and intuit that every human creature who is born on earth
is the “sign” par excellence of the Creator and Father who is in Heaven. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How important it
is, therefore, that every child coming into the world be welcomed by the warmth
of a family! External comforts do not matter: Jesus was born in a stable and
had a manger as his first cradle, but the love of Mary and of Joseph made him
feel the tenderness and beauty of being loved. Children need this: the love of
their father and mother. It is this that gives them security and, as they grow,
enables them to discover the meaning of life. The Holy Family of Nazareth went
through many trials, such as the “massacre of the innocents” — as recounted in
the Gospel according to Matthew — which obliged Joseph and Mary to flee to <st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place>
(<i>see</i> 2:13-23). Yet, trusting in divine <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place>, they found their stability and
guaranteed Jesus a serene childhood and a sound upbringing.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
the Holy Family is of course unique and unrepeatable, but at the same time it
is a “model of life” for every family because Jesus, true man, chose to be born
into a human family and thereby blessed and consecrated it. Let us therefore
entrust all families to Our Lady and to <st1:city w:st="on">St
Joseph</st1:city>, so that they do not lose heart in the face of
trials and difficulties but always cultivate conjugal love and devote
themselves with trust to the service of life and education.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FEAST
OF THE HOLY FAMILY OF <st1:city w:st="on">NAZARETH</st1:city></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 30 December 2012</em></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today is the
Feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth. In the liturgy the passage from Luke’s
Gospel presents to us the Virgin Mary and <st1:place w:st="on">St
Joseph</st1:place>. Faithful to the tradition, they go to <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city> for the
Passover taking the 12-year-old Jesus with them. The first time that Jesus had
entered the Temple of the Lord was 40 days after his birth, when his parents
had offered on his behalf “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons” (Lk
2:24) on his behalf, that is, the sacrifice offered by the poor.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Luke, whose
entire Gospel is shot through with a theology of the poor and a theology of
poverty, is once again making it abundantly clear that Jesus’ family belongs to
the<i> poor of Israel</i>, and that it was among such as them that the promises
would be fulfilled” (<i>Jesus of Nazareth:</i> <i>The Infancy Narratives</i>,
p. 81). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today Jesus is
once again in the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>,
but this time he has a different role, which involves him in the first person.
He makes the pilgrimage, with Mary and Joseph, to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> as prescribed by the Law (see Ex
23:17, 34:23 ff) even though he was not yet in his thirteenth year: a sign of
the Holy Family’s deep devotion. Yet, when his parents set out on their return
to <st1:city w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:city>,
something unexpected happens. Without saying a word Jesus remains in the city. Mary
and Joseph search for him for three days and find him in the Temple, conversing
with the teachers of the Law (Lk 2: 46, 47); and when they ask him for an
explanation, Jesus answers that they should not be surprised since this is his
place, the house of his Father, who is God (<i>The Infancy Narratives</i>, p.
123). “He”, Origen writes, “professes to be in the temple of his Father, the
Father who has revealed himself to us and whose Son he says he is” (<i>Homilies
on the Gospel of Luke</i>, 18, 5).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary and Joseph’s
anxiety about Jesus is the same as that of every parent who educates a child,
introduces him or her to life and to understanding reality. Today, therefore,
it is only right to say a special prayer to the Lord for all the families of
the world. Emulating the Holy Family of Nazareth, may parents be seriously
concerned with the development and upbringing of their children so that they
grow up to be responsible and honest citizens, never forgetting that faith is a
precious gift to be nurtured in their children by their own example.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the same time
let us pray that every child be welcomed as a gift of God and be supported by
the love of both parents in order to increase, like the Lord Jesus “in wisdom
and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Lk 2:52). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the love,
loyalty and dedication of Mary and Joseph be an example to all Christian
couples who are not the friends or masters of their children’s lives, but
rather are custodians of this incomparable gift of God.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The silence of Joseph, a just man (see Mt 1:19), and
the example of Mary who kept all these things in her heart (see Lk 2:51), usher
us into the mystery of the Holy Family, full of faith and humanity. I hope that
all Christian families will live in God’s presence with the same love and the
same joy as the family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. </span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-53329611502249078192023-12-24T01:30:00.000-05:002023-12-24T01:30:00.320-05:00Reflections on the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0318: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Solemnity of the </b><b>Nativity of the Lord</b><b> </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI </b><b> </b></span>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, on 24 December 2005, 24 December
2006, 24 December 2007, 24 December 2008, 24 December 2009, 24 December 2010,
24 December 2011, and 24 December 2012. Here
are the texts of eight homilies that the Pope delivered on these
occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MIDNIGHT
MASS </span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Saturday, 24 December 2005 </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“The Lord said
to me: You are my son; this day I have begotten you”. With these words of the
second Psalm, the Church begins the Vigil Mass of Christmas, at which we
celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ our Redeemer in a stable in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>. This Psalm was
once a part of the coronation rite of the kings of <st1:place w:st="on">Judah</st1:place>. The People of Israel, in
virtue of its election, considered itself in a special way a son of God,
adopted by God. Just as the king was the personification of the people, his
enthronement was experienced as a solemn act of adoption by God, whereby the
King was in some way taken up into the very mystery of God. At <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> night, these
words, which were really more an expression of hope than a present reality,
took on new and unexpected meaning. The Child lying in the manger is truly God’s
Son. God is not eternal solitude but rather a circle of love and mutual
self-giving. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But there is
more: in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God himself, God from God, became man.
To him the Father says: “You are my son”. God’s everlasting “today” has come
down into the fleeting today of the world and lifted our momentary today into
God’s eternal today. God is so great that he can become small. God is so
powerful that he can make himself vulnerable and come to us as a defenseless
child, so that we can love him. God is so good that he can give up his divine splendor
and come down to a stable, so that we might find him, so that his goodness
might touch us, give itself to us and continue to work through us. This is
Christmas: “You are my son, this day I have begotten you”. God has become one
of us, so that we can be with him and become like him. As a sign, he chose the
Child lying in the manger: this is how God is. This is how we come to know him.
And on every child shines something of the splendor of that “today”, of that
closeness of God which we ought to love and to which we must yield – it shines
on every child, even on those still unborn.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us listen to
a second phrase from the liturgy of this holy Night, one taken from the Book of
the Prophet Isaiah: “Upon the people who walked in darkness a great light has
shone” (<i>Is</i> 9:1). The word “light” pervades the entire liturgy of tonight’s
<st1:place w:st="on">Mass.</st1:place> It is
found again in the passage drawn from <st1:city w:st="on">Saint
Paul</st1:city>’s letter to Titus: “The grace of God has appeared”
(2:11). The expression “has appeared”, in the original Greek says the same
thing that was expressed in Hebrew by the words “a light has shone”: this “apparition”
– this “epiphany” – is the breaking of God’s light upon a world full of
darkness and unsolved problems. The Gospel then relates that the glory of the
Lord appeared to the shepherds and “shone around them” (<i>Lk</i> 2:9).
Wherever God’s glory appears, light spreads throughout the world. <st1:place w:st="on">Saint John</st1:place> tells us that “God
is light and in him is no darkness” (<i>1 Jn</i> 1:5). The light is a source of
life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But first, light
means knowledge; it means truth, as contrasted with the darkness of falsehood
and ignorance. Light gives us life, it shows us the way. But light, as a source
of heat, also means love. Where there is love, light shines forth in the world;
where there is hatred, the world remains in darkness. In the stable of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> there appeared
the great light which the world awaits. In that Child lying in the stable, God
has shown his glory – the glory of love, which gives itself away, stripping
itself of all grandeur in order to guide us along the way of love. The light of
<st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> has
never been extinguished. In every age it has touched men and women, “it has
shone around them”. Wherever people put their faith in that Child, charity also
sprang up – charity towards others, loving concern for the weak and the
suffering, the grace of forgiveness. From <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
a stream of light, love and truth spreads through the centuries. If we look to
the Saints – from Paul and Augustine to Francis and Dominic, from Francis
Xavier and Teresa of Avila to Mother Teresa of <st1:city w:st="on">Calcutta</st1:city>
– we see this flood of goodness, this path of light kindled ever anew by the
mystery of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
by that God who became a Child. In that Child, God countered the violence of
this world with his own goodness. He calls us to follow that Child.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Along with the
Christmas tree, our Austrian friends have also brought us a small flame lit in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, as if to say
that the true mystery of Christmas is the inner brightness radiating from this
Child. May that inner brightness spread to us, and kindle in our hearts the
flame of God’s goodness; may all of us, by our love, bring light to the world!
Let us keep this light-giving flame, lit in faith, from being extinguished by
the cold winds of our time! Let us guard it faithfully and give it to others!
On this night, when we look towards <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
let us pray in a special way for the birthplace of our Redeemer and for the men
and women who live and suffer there. We wish to pray for peace in the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy Land</st1:place>: Look, O Lord, upon this corner of the earth,
your Homeland, which is so very dear to you! Let your light shine upon it! Let
it know peace!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The word “peace”
brings us to a third key to the liturgy of this holy Night. The Child foretold
by Isaiah is called “Prince of Peace”. His kingdom is said to be one “of
endless peace”. The shepherds in the Gospel hear the glad tidings: “Glory to
God in the highest” and “on earth, peace...”. At one time we used to say: “to
men of good will”. Nowadays we say “to those whom God loves”. What does this
change mean? Is good will no longer important? We would do better to ask: who
are those whom God loves, and why does he love them? Does God have favorites?
Does he love only certain people, while abandoning the others to themselves?
The Gospel answers these questions by pointing to some particular people whom
God loves. There are individuals, like Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zechariah,
Simeon and Anna. But there are also two groups of people: the shepherds and the
Wise Men from the East, the “Magi”. Tonight let us look at the shepherds. What
kind of people were they? In the world of their time, shepherds were looked
down upon; they were considered untrustworthy and not admitted as witnesses in
court. But really, who were they? To be sure, they were not great saints, if by
that word we mean people of heroic virtue. They were simple souls. The Gospel
sheds light on one feature which later on, in the words of Jesus, would take on
particular importance: they were people who were watchful. This was chiefly
true in a superficial way: they kept watch over their flocks by night. But it
was also true in a deeper way: they were ready to receive God’s Word through
the Angel’s proclamation. Their life was not closed in on itself; their hearts
were open. In some way, deep down, they were waiting for something; they were
waiting for God. Their watchfulness was a kind of readiness – a readiness to
listen and to set out. They were waiting for a light which would show them the
way. That is what is important for God. He loves everyone, because everyone is
his creature. But some persons have closed their hearts; there is no door by
which his love can enter. They think that they do not need God, nor do they
want him. Other persons, who, from a moral standpoint, are perhaps no less
wretched and sinful, at least experience a certain remorse. They are waiting
for God. They realize that they need his goodness, even if they have no clear
idea of what this means. Into their expectant hearts God’s light can enter, and
with it, his peace. God seeks persons who can be vessels and heralds of his
peace. Let us pray that he will not find our hearts closed. Let us strive to be
active heralds of his peace – in the world of today.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Among
Christians, the word “peace” has taken on a very particular meaning: it has
become a word to designate communion in the Eucharist. There Christ’s peace is
present. In all the places where the Eucharist is celebrated, a great network
of peace spreads through the world. The communities gathered around the
Eucharist make up a kingdom of peace as wide as the world itself. When we
celebrate the Eucharist we find ourselves in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, in the “house of bread”. Christ
gives himself to us and, in doing so, gives us his peace. He gives it to us so
that we can carry the light of peace within and give it to others. He gives it
to us so that we can become peacemakers and builders of peace in the world. And
so we pray: Lord, fulfill your promise! Where there is conflict, give birth to
peace! Where there is hatred, make love spring up! Where darkness prevails, let
light shine! Make us heralds of your peace! Amen</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MIDNIGHT
MASS </span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Sunday, 24 December 2006 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters</i>,</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have just
heard in the Gospel the message given by the angels to the shepherds during
that Holy Night, a message which the Church now proclaims to us: “To you is
born this day in the city of <st1:city w:st="on">David</st1:city>
a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will
find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (<i>Lk</i>
2:11-12). Nothing miraculous, nothing extraordinary, nothing magnificent is
given to the shepherds as a sign. All they will see is a child wrapped in
swaddling clothes, one who, like all children, needs a mother’s care; a child
born in a stable, who therefore lies not in a cradle but in a manger. God‘s
sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Only in their hearts will the
shepherds be able to see that this baby fulfils the promise of the prophet
Isaiah, which we heard in the first reading: “For to us a child is born, to us
a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder” (<i>Is</i> 9:5).
Exactly the same sign has been given to us. We too are invited by the angel of
God, through the message of the Gospel, to set out in our hearts to see the
child lying in the manger.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God’s sign is simplicity.
God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This
is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendor. He comes as
a baby – defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us
with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our
love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our
love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his
thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practice with him that
humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made
himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him. The
Fathers of the Church, in their Greek translation of the Old Testament, found a
passage from the prophet Isaiah that Paul also quotes in order to show how God’s
new ways had already been foretold in the Old Testament. There we read: “God
made his Word short, he abbreviated it” (<i>Is</i> 10:23; <i>Rom</i> 9:28). The
Fathers interpreted this in two ways. The Son himself is the Word, the <i>Logos</i>;
the eternal Word became small – small enough to fit into a manger. He became a
child, so that the Word could be grasped by us. In this way God teaches us to
love the little ones. In this way he teaches us to love the weak. In this way
he teaches us respect for children. The child of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> directs our gaze towards all
children who suffer and are abused in the world, the born and the unborn.
Towards children who are placed as soldiers in a violent world; towards
children who have to beg; towards children who suffer deprivation and hunger;
towards children who are unloved. In all of these it is the Child of Bethlehem
who is crying out to us; it is the God who has become small who appeals to us.
Let us pray this night that the brightness of God’s love may enfold all these
children. Let us ask God to help us do our part so that the dignity of children
may be respected. May they all experience the light of love, which mankind
needs so much more than the material necessities of life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And so we come
to the second meaning that the Fathers saw in the phrase: “God made his Word
short”. The Word which God speaks to us in Sacred Scripture had become long in
the course of the centuries. It became long and complex, not just for the
simple and unlettered, but even more so for those versed in Sacred Scripture,
for the experts who evidently became entangled in details and in particular
problems, almost to the extent of losing an overall perspective. Jesus “abbreviated”
the Word – he showed us once more its deeper simplicity and unity. Everything
taught by the Law and the Prophets is summed up – he says – in the command: “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind… You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (<i>Mt</i>
22:37-40). This is everything – the whole faith is contained in this one act of
love which embraces God and humanity. Yet now further questions arise: how are
we to love God with all our mind, when our intellect can barely reach him? How
are we to love him with all our heart and soul, when our heart can only catch a
glimpse of him from afar, when there are so many contradictions in the world
that would hide his face from us? This is where the two ways in which God has “abbreviated”
his Word come together. He is no longer distant. He is no longer unknown. He is
no longer beyond the reach of our heart. He has become a child for us, and in
so doing he has dispelled all doubt. He has become our neighbour, restoring in
this way the image of man, whom we often find so hard to love. For us, God has
become a gift. He has given himself. He has entered time for us. He who is the
Eternal One, above time, he has assumed our time and raised it to himself on
high. Christmas has become the Feast of gifts in imitation of God who has given
himself to us. Let us allow our heart, our soul and our mind to be touched by
this fact! Among the many gifts that we buy and receive, let us not forget the
true gift: to give each other something of ourselves, to give each other
something of our time, to open our time to God. In this way anxiety disappears,
joy is born, and the feast is created. During the festive meals of these days
let us remember the Lord’s words: “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not
invite those who will invite you in return, but invite those whom no one
invites and who are not able to invite you” (see <i>Lk</i> 14:12-14). This also
means: when you give gifts for Christmas, do not give only to those who will
give to you in return, but give to those who receive from no one and who cannot
give you anything back. This is what God has done: he invites us to his wedding
feast, something which we cannot reciprocate, but can only receive with joy.
Let us imitate him! Let us love God and, starting from him, let us also love
man, so that, starting from man, we can then rediscover God in a new way!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And so, finally,
we find yet a third meaning in the saying that the Word became “brief” and “small”.
The shepherds were told that they would find the child in a manger for animals,
who were the rightful occupants of the stable. Reading Isaiah (1:3), the
Fathers concluded that beside the manger of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> there stood an ox and an ass. At
the same time they interpreted the text as symbolizing the Jews and the pagans
– and thus all humanity – who each in their own way have need of a Savior: the
God who became a child. Man, in order to live, needs bread, the fruit of the
earth and of his labor. But he does not live by bread alone. He needs
nourishment for his soul: he needs meaning that can fill his life. Thus, for
the Fathers, the manger of the animals became the symbol of the altar, on which
lies the Bread which is Christ himself: the true food for our hearts. Once
again we see how he became small: in the humble appearance of the host, in a
small piece of bread, he gives us himself.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">All this is
conveyed by the sign that was given to the shepherds and is given also to us:
the child born for us, the child in whom God became small for us. Let us ask
the Lord to grant us the grace of looking upon the crib this night with the
simplicity of the shepherds, so as to receive the joy with which they returned
home (see <i>Lk</i> 2:20). Let us ask him to give us the humility and the faith
with which <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Joseph</st1:place>
looked upon the child that Mary had conceived by the Holy Spirit. Let us ask
the Lord to let us look upon him with that same love with which Mary saw him.
And let us pray that in this way the light that the shepherds saw will shine
upon us too, and that what the angels sang that night will be accomplished
throughout the world: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among
men with whom he is pleased.” Amen!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MIDNIGHT
MASS </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 </span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters</i>,</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“The time came
for Mary to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped
him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room
for them in the inn” (<i>Lk</i> 2:6f.). These words touch our hearts every time
we hear them. This was the moment that the angel had foretold at <st1:place w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:place>: “you will bear a
son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called
the Son of the Most High” (<i>Lk</i> 1:31). This was the moment that <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
had been awaiting for centuries, through many dark hours – the moment that all
mankind was somehow awaiting, in terms as yet ill-defined: when God would take
care of us, when he would step outside his concealment, when the world would be
saved and God would renew all things. We can imagine the kind of interior
preparation, the kind of love with which Mary approached that hour. The brief
phrase: “She wrapped him in swaddling clothes” allows us to glimpse something
of the holy joy and the silent zeal of that preparation. The swaddling clothes
were ready, so that the child could be given a fitting welcome. Yet there is no
room at the inn. In some way, mankind is awaiting God, waiting for him to draw
near. But when the moment comes, there is no room for him. Man is so
preoccupied with himself, he has such urgent need of all the space and all the
time for his own things, that nothing remains for others – for his neighbour,
for the poor, for God. And the richer men become, the more they fill up all the
space by themselves. And the less room there is for others.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint John, in
his Gospel, went to the heart of the matter, giving added depth to Saint Luke’s
brief account of the situation in Bethlehem: “He came to his own home, and his
own people received him not” (<i>Jn</i> 1:11). This refers first and foremost
to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>:
the Son of David comes to his own city, but has to be born in a stable, because
there is no room for him at the inn. Then it refers to <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>: the one who is sent comes
among his own, but they do not want him. And truly, it refers to all mankind:
he through whom the world was made, the primordial Creator-Word, enters into
the world, but he is not listened to, he is not received.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These words refer
ultimately to us, to each individual and to society as a whole. Do we have time
for our neighbour who is in need of a word from us, from me, or in need of my
affection? For the sufferer who is in need of help? For the fugitive or the
refugee who is seeking asylum? Do we have time and space for God? Can he enter
into our lives? Does he find room in us, or have we occupied all the available
space in our thoughts, our actions, our lives for ourselves?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thank God, this
negative detail is not the only one, nor the last one that we find in the
Gospel. Just as in <i>Luke</i> we encounter the maternal love of Mary and the
fidelity of Saint Joseph, the vigilance of the shepherds and their great joy,
just as in <i>Matthew</i> we encounter the visit of the wise men, come from afar,
so too <i>John</i> says to us: “To all who received him, he gave power to
become children of God” (<i>Jn</i> 1:12). There are those who receive him, and
thus, beginning with the stable, with the outside, there grows silently the new
house, the <st1:place w:st="on">new city</st1:place>,
the new world. The message of Christmas makes us recognize the darkness of a
closed world, and thereby no doubt illustrates a reality that we see daily. Yet
it also tells us that God does not allow himself to be shut out. He finds a
space, even if it means entering through the stable; there are people who see
his light and pass it on. Through the word of the Gospel, the angel also speaks
to us, and in the sacred liturgy the light of the Redeemer enters our lives.
Whether we are shepherds or “wise men” – the light and its message call us to
set out, to leave the narrow circle of our desires and interests, to go out to
meet the Lord and worship him. We worship him by opening the world to truth, to
good, to Christ, to the service of those who are marginalized and in whom he
awaits us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In some
Christmas scenes from the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, the
stable is depicted as a crumbling palace. It is still possible to recognize its
former splendor, but now it has become a ruin, the walls are falling down – in
fact, it has become a stable. Although it lacks any historical basis, this
metaphorical interpretation nevertheless expresses something of the truth that
is hidden in the mystery of Christmas. David’s throne, which had been promised
to last for ever, stands empty. Others rule over the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy
Land</st1:place>. Joseph, the descendant of David, is a simple artisan; the
palace, in fact, has become a hovel. David himself had begun life as a
shepherd. When Samuel sought him out in order to anoint him, it seemed
impossible and absurd that a shepherd-boy such as he could become the bearer of
the promise of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>.
In the stable of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
the very town where it had all begun, the Davidic kingship started again in a
new way – in that child wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. The
new throne from which this David will draw the world to himself is the Cross.
The new throne – the Cross – corresponds to the new beginning in the stable.
Yet this is exactly how the true Davidic palace, the true kingship is being built.
This new palace is so different from what people imagine a palace and royal
power ought to be like. It is the community of those who allow themselves to be
drawn by Christ’s love and so become one body with him, a new humanity. The
power that comes from the Cross, the power of self-giving goodness – this is
the true kingship. The stable becomes a palace – and setting out from this
starting-point, Jesus builds the great new community, whose key-word the angels
sing at the hour of his birth: “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth
to those whom he loves” – those who place their will in his, in this way
becoming men of God, new men, a new world.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Gregory of
Nyssa, in his Christmas homilies, developed the same vision setting out from
the Christmas message in the <i>Gospel of John</i>: “He pitched his tent among
us” (<i>Jn</i> 1:14). Gregory applies this passage about the tent to the tent
of our body, which has become worn out and weak, exposed everywhere to pain and
suffering. And he applies it to the whole universe, torn and disfigured by sin.
What would he say if he could see the state of the world today, through the
abuse of energy and its selfish and reckless exploitation? Anselm of
Canterbury, in an almost prophetic way, once described a vision of what we witness
today in a polluted world whose future is at risk: “Everything was as if dead,
and had lost its dignity, having been made for the service of those who praise
God. The elements of the world were oppressed, they had lost their splendor
because of the abuse of those who enslaved them for their idols, for whom they
had not been created” (<i>PL</i> 158, 955f.). Thus, according to Gregory’s
vision, the stable in the Christmas message represents the ill-treated world.
What Christ rebuilds is no ordinary palace. He came to restore beauty and
dignity to creation, to the universe: this is what began at Christmas and makes
the angels rejoice. The Earth is restored to good order by virtue of the fact
that it is opened up to God, it obtains its true light anew, and in the harmony
between human will and divine will, in the unification of height and depth, it
regains its beauty and dignity. Thus Christmas is a feast of restored creation.
It is in this context that the Fathers interpret the song of the angels on that
holy night: it is an expression of joy over the fact that the height and the
depth, Heaven and Earth, are once more united; that man is again united to God.
According to the Fathers, part of the angels’ Christmas song is the fact that
now angels and men can sing together and in this way the beauty of the universe
is expressed in the beauty of the song of praise. Liturgical song – still
according to the Fathers – possesses its own peculiar dignity through the fact
that it is sung together with the celestial choirs. It is the encounter with
Jesus Christ that makes us capable of hearing the song of the angels, thus
creating the real music that fades away when we lose this singing-with and
hearing-with.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the stable at
<st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
Heaven and Earth meet. Heaven has come down to Earth. For this reason, a light
shines from the stable for all times; for this reason joy is enkindled there;
for this reason song is born there. At the end of our Christmas meditation I
should like to quote a remarkable passage from <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Augustine</st1:place>. Interpreting the invocation
in the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art in Heaven”, he asks: what is this –
Heaven? And where is Heaven? Then comes a surprising response: “… who art in
Heaven – that means: in the saints and in the just. Yes, the heavens are the
highest bodies in the universe, but they are still bodies, which cannot exist
except in a given location. Yet if we believe that God is located in the
heavens, meaning in the highest parts of the world, then the birds would be
more fortunate than we, since they would live closer to God. Yet it is not
written: ‘The Lord is close to those who dwell on the heights or on the
mountains’, but rather: ‘the Lord is close to the brokenhearted’ (<i>Ps</i>
34:18[33:19]), an expression which refers to humility. Just as the sinner is
called ‘Earth’, so by contrast the just man can be called ‘Heaven’” (<i>Sermo
in monte</i> II 5, 17). Heaven does not belong to the geography of space, but
to the geography of the heart. And the heart of God, during the Holy Night,
stooped down to the stable: the humility of God is Heaven. And if we approach
this humility, then we touch Heaven. Then the Earth too is made new. With the
humility of the shepherds, let us set out, during this Holy Night, towards the
Child in the stable! Let us touch God’s humility, God’s heart! Then his joy
will touch us and will make the world more radiant. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MIDNIGHT
MASS </span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Thursday, 25 December 2008 </span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Who is like the
Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down upon the heavens and
the earth?” This is what <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
sings in one of the Psalms (113 [112], 5ff.), praising God’s grandeur as well
as his loving closeness to humanity. God dwells on high, yet he stoops down to
us… God is infinitely great, and far, far above us. This is our first
experience of him. The distance seems infinite. The Creator of the universe,
the one who guides all things, is very far from us: or so he seems at the
beginning. But then comes the surprising realization: The One who has no equal,
who “is seated on high”, looks down upon us. He stoops down. He sees us, and he
sees me. God’s looking down is much more than simply seeing from above. God’s
looking is active. The fact that he sees me, that he looks at me, transforms me
and the world around me. The Psalm tells us this in the following verse: “He
raises the poor from the dust…” In looking down, he raises me up, he takes me
gently by the hand and helps me – me! – to rise from depths towards the
heights. “God stoops down”. This is a prophetic word. That night in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, it took on a
completely new meaning. God’s stooping down became real in a way previously
inconceivable. He stoops down – he himself comes down as a child to the lowly
stable, the symbol of all humanity’s neediness and forsakenness. God truly
comes down. He becomes a child and puts himself in the state of complete
dependence typical of a newborn child. The Creator who holds all things in his
hands, on whom we all depend, makes himself small and in need of human love.
God is in the stable. In the Old Testament the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place> was considered almost as God’s
footstool; the sacred ark was the place in which he was mysteriously present in
the midst of men and women. Above the temple, hidden, stood the cloud of God’s
glory. Now it stands above the stable. God is in the cloud of the poverty of a
homeless child: an impenetrable cloud, and yet – a cloud of glory! How, indeed,
could his love for humanity, his solicitude for us, have appeared greater and
more pure? The cloud of hiddenness, the cloud of the poverty of a child totally
in need of love, is at the same time the cloud of glory. For nothing can be
more sublime, nothing greater than the love which thus stoops down, descends,
becomes dependent. The glory of the true God becomes visible when the eyes of
our hearts are opened before the stable of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint Luke’s
account of the Christmas story, which we have just heard in the Gospel, tells
us that God first raised the veil of his hiddenness to people of very lowly
status, people who were looked down upon by society at large – to shepherds
looking after their flocks in the fields around <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>. Luke tells us that they were “keeping
watch”. This phrase reminds us of a central theme of Jesus’s message, which
insistently bids us to keep watch, even to the Agony in the Garden – the
command to stay awake, to recognize the Lord’s coming, and to be prepared. Here
too the expression seems to imply more than simply being physically awake
during the night hour. The shepherds were truly “watchful” people, with a
lively sense of God and of his closeness. They were waiting for God, and were
not resigned to his apparent remoteness from their everyday lives. To a
watchful heart, the news of great joy can be proclaimed: for you this night the
Savior is born. Only a watchful heart is able to believe the message. Only a
watchful heart can instill the courage to set out to find God in the form of a
baby in a stable. Let us now ask the Lord to help us, too, to become a “watchful”
people.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint Luke tells
us, moreover, that the shepherds themselves were “surrounded” by the glory of
God, by the cloud of light. They found themselves caught up in the glory that
shone around them. Enveloped by the holy cloud, they heard the angels’ song of
praise: “Glory to God in the highest heavens and peace on earth to people of
his good will”. And who are these people of his good will if not the poor, the
watchful, the expectant, those who hope in God’s goodness and seek him, looking
to him from afar?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Fathers of
the Church offer a remarkable commentary on the song that the angels sang to
greet the Redeemer. Until that moment – the Fathers say – the angels had known
God in the grandeur of the universe, in the reason and the beauty of the cosmos
that come from him and are a reflection of him. They had heard, so to speak,
creation’s silent song of praise and had transformed it into celestial music.
But now something new had happened, something that astounded them. The One of
whom the universe speaks, the God who sustains all things and bears them in his
hands – he himself had entered into human history, he had become someone who
acts and suffers within history. From the joyful amazement that this
unimaginable event called forth, from God’s new and further way of making
himself known – say the Fathers – a new song was born, one verse of which the
Christmas Gospel has preserved for us: “Glory to God in the highest heavens and
peace to his people on earth”. We might say that, following the structure of
Hebrew poetry, the two halves of this double verse say essentially the same
thing, but from a different perspective. God’s glory is in the highest heavens,
but his high state is now found in the stable – what was lowly has now become
sublime. God’s glory is on the earth, it is the glory of humility and love. And
even more: the glory of God is peace. Wherever he is, there is peace. He is
present wherever human beings do not attempt, apart from him, and even
violently, to turn earth into heaven. He is with those of watchful hearts; with
the humble and those who meet him at the level of his own “height”, the height
of humility and love. To these people he gives his peace, so that through them,
peace can enter this world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The medieval
theologian William of Saint Thierry once said that God – from the time of Adam
– saw that his grandeur provoked resistance in man, that we felt limited in our
own being and threatened in our freedom. Therefore God chose a new way. He
became a child. He made himself dependent and weak, in need of our love. Now –
this God who has become a child says to us – you can no longer fear me, you can
only love me.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With these
thoughts, we draw near this night to the child of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> – to the God who for our sake chose
to become a child. In every child we see something of the Child of Bethlehem.
Every child asks for our love. This night, then, let us think especially of
those children who are denied the love of their parents. Let us think of those
street children who do not have the blessing of a family home, of those
children who are brutally exploited as soldiers and made instruments of
violence, instead of messengers of reconciliation and peace. Let us think of
those children who are victims of the industry of pornography and every other
appalling form of abuse, and thus are traumatized in the depths of their soul.
The Child of Bethlehem summons us once again to do everything in our power to
put an end to the suffering of these children; to do everything possible to
make the light of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
touch the heart of every man and woman. Only through the conversion of hearts,
only through a change in the depths of our hearts can the cause of all this
evil be overcome, only thus can the power of the evil one be defeated. Only if
people change will the world change; and in order to change, people need the
light that comes from God, the light which so unexpectedly entered into our
night.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And speaking of
the Child of Bethlehem, let us think also of the place named <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, of the land in which Jesus lived,
and which he loved so deeply. And let us pray that peace will be established
there, that hatred and violence will cease. Let us pray for mutual
understanding, that hearts will be opened, so that borders can be opened. Let
us pray that peace will descend there, the peace of which the angels sang that
night.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In Psalm 96
[95], <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>,
and the Church, praises God’s grandeur manifested in creation. All creatures
are called to join in this song of praise, and so the Psalm also contains the
invitation: “Let all the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord, for he
comes” (v. 12ff.). The Church reads this Psalm as a prophecy and also as a
task. The coming of God to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
took place in silence. Only the shepherds keeping watch were, for a moment,
surrounded by the light-filled radiance of his presence and could listen to
something of that new song, born of the wonder and joy of the angels at God’s
coming. This silent coming of God’s glory continues throughout the centuries.
Wherever there is faith, wherever his word is proclaimed and heard, there God
gathers people together and gives himself to them in his Body; he makes them
his Body. God “comes”. And in this way our hearts are awakened. The new song of
the angels becomes the song of all those who, throughout the centuries, sing
ever anew of God’s coming as a child – and rejoice deep in their hearts. And
the trees of the wood go out to him and exult. The tree in Saint Peter’s Square
speaks of him, it wants to reflect his splendor and to say: Yes, he has come,
and the trees of the wood acclaim him. The trees in the cities and in our homes
should be something more than a festive custom: they point to the One who is
the reason for our joy – the God who comes, the God who for our sake became a
child. In the end, this song of praise, at the deepest level, speaks of him who
is the very tree of new-found life. Through faith in him we receive life. In
the Sacrament of the Eucharist he gives himself to us – he gives us a life that
reaches into eternity. At this hour we join in creation’s song of praise, and
our praise is at the same time a prayer: Yes, Lord, help us to see something of
the splendor of your glory. And grant peace on earth. Make us men and women of
your peace. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MIDNIGHT
MASS </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Thursday, 24 December 2009</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters!</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“A child is born
for us, a son is given to us” (Is 9:5). What Isaiah prophesied as he gazed into
the future from afar, consoling Israel amid its trials and its darkness, is now
proclaimed to the shepherds as a present reality by the Angel, from whom a
cloud of light streams forth: “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
who is Christ the Lord” (Lk 2:11). The Lord is here. From this moment, God is
truly “God with us”. No longer is he the distant God who can in some way be
perceived from afar, in creation and in our own consciousness. He has entered
the world. He is close to us. The words of the risen Christ to his followers
are addressed also to us: “Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age”
(Mt 28:20). For you the Savior is born: through the Gospel and those who
proclaim it, God now reminds us of the message that the Angel announced to the
shepherds. It is a message that cannot leave us indifferent. If it is true, it
changes everything. If it is true, it also affects me. Like the shepherds,
then, I too must say: Come on, I want to go to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> to see the Word that has occurred
there. The story of the shepherds is included in the Gospel for a reason. They
show us the right way to respond to the message that we too have received. What
is it that these first witnesses of God’s incarnation have to tell us? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first thing
we are told about the shepherds is that they were on the watch – they could
hear the message precisely because they were awake. We must be awake, so that
we can hear the message. We must become truly vigilant people. What does this
mean? The principal difference between someone dreaming and someone awake is
that the dreamer is in a world of his own. His “self” is locked into this
dreamworld that is his alone and does not connect him with others. To wake up
means to leave that private world of one’s own and to enter the common reality,
the truth that alone can unite all people. Conflict and lack of reconciliation
in the world stem from the fact that we are locked into our own interests and
opinions, into our own little private world. Selfishness, both individual and
collective, makes us prisoners of our interests and our desires that stand
against the truth and separate us from one another. Awake, the Gospel tells us.
Step outside, so as to enter the great communal truth, the communion of the one
God. To awake, then, means to develop a receptivity for God: for the silent
promptings with which he chooses to guide us; for the many indications of his
presence. There are people who describe themselves as “religiously tone deaf”.
The gift of a capacity to perceive God seems as if it is withheld from some.
And indeed – our way of thinking and acting, the mentality of today’s world,
the whole range of our experience is inclined to deaden our receptivity for
God, to make us “tone deaf” towards him. And yet in every soul, the desire for
God, the capacity to encounter him, is present, whether in a hidden way or
overtly. In order to arrive at this vigilance, this awakening to what is
essential, we should pray for ourselves and for others, for those who appear “tone
deaf” and yet in whom there is a keen desire for God to manifest himself. The
great theologian Origen said this: if I had the grace to see as Paul saw, I
could even now (during the Liturgy) contemplate a great host of angels (see in
Lk 23:9). And indeed, in the sacred liturgy, we are surrounded by the angels of
God and the saints. The Lord himself is present in our midst. Lord, open the
eyes of our hearts, so that we may become vigilant and clear-sighted, in this
way bringing you close to others as well!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us return to
the Christmas Gospel. It tells us that after listening to the Angel’s message,
the shepherds said one to another: “‘Let us go over to <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city>’ … they went at once” (Lk 2:15f.). “They
made haste” is literally what the Greek text says. What had been announced to
them was so important that they had to go immediately. In fact, what had been
said to them was utterly out of the ordinary. It changed the world. The Savior
is born. The long-awaited Son of David has come into the world in his own city.
What could be more important? No doubt they were partly driven by curiosity,
but first and foremost it was their excitement at the wonderful news that had
been conveyed to them, of all people, to the little ones, to the seemingly
unimportant. They made haste – they went at once. In our daily life, it is not
like that. For most people, the things of God are not given priority, they do
not impose themselves on us directly. And so the great majority of us tend to
postpone them. First we do what seems urgent here and now. In the list of
priorities God is often more or less at the end. We can always deal with that
later, we tend to think. The Gospel tells us: God is the highest priority. If
anything in our life deserves haste without delay, then, it is God’s work
alone. The Rule of Saint Benedict contains this teaching: “Place nothing at all
before the work of God (i.e. the divine office)”. For monks, the Liturgy is the
first priority. Everything else comes later. In its essence, though, this
saying applies to everyone. God is important, by far the most important thing
in our lives. The shepherds teach us this priority. From them we should learn
not to be crushed by all the pressing matters in our daily lives. From them we
should learn the inner freedom to put other tasks in second place – however
important they may be – so as to make our way towards God, to allow him into
our lives and into our time. Time given to God and, in his name, to our
neighbour is never time lost. It is the time when we are most truly alive, when
we live our humanity to the full.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Some
commentators point out that the shepherds, the simple souls, were the first to
come to Jesus in the manger and to encounter the Redeemer of the world. The
wise men from the East, representing those with social standing and fame,
arrived much later. The commentators go on to say: this is quite natural. The
shepherds lived nearby. They only needed to “come over” (see Lk 2:15), as we do
when we go to visit our neighbors. The wise men, however, lived far away. They
had to undertake a long and arduous journey in order to arrive in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>. And they needed
guidance and direction. Today too there are simple and lowly souls who live
very close to the Lord. They are, so to speak, his neighbors and they can
easily go to see him. But most of us in the world today live far from Jesus
Christ, the incarnate God who came to dwell amongst us. We live our lives by
philosophies, amid worldly affairs and occupations that totally absorb us and
are a great distance from the manger. In all kinds of ways, God has to prod us
and reach out to us again and again, so that we can manage to escape from the
muddle of our thoughts and activities and discover the way that leads to him.
But a path exists for all of us. The Lord provides everyone with tailor-made
signals. He calls each one of us, so that we too can say: “Come on, ‘let us go
over’ to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
– to the God who has come to meet us. Yes indeed, God has set out towards us.
Left to ourselves we could not reach him. The path is too much for our
strength. But God has come down. He comes towards us. He has traveled the
longer part of the journey. Now he invites us: come and see how much I love
you. Come and see that I am here. <i>Transeamus usque Bethlehem</i>, the Latin
Bible says. Let us go there! Let us surpass ourselves! Let us journey towards
God in all sorts of ways: along our interior path towards him, but also along
very concrete paths – the Liturgy of the Church, the service of our neighbour,
in whom Christ awaits us.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us once
again listen directly to the Gospel. The shepherds tell one another the reason
why they are setting off: “Let us see this thing that has happened.” Literally
the Greek text says: “Let us see this Word that has occurred there.” Yes
indeed, such is the radical newness of this night: the Word can be seen. For it
has become flesh. The God of whom no image may be made – because any image
would only diminish, or rather distort him – this God has himself become
visible in the One who is his true image, as Saint Paul puts it (see 2 Cor 4:4;
Col 1:15). In the figure of Jesus Christ, in the whole of his life and
ministry, in his dying and rising, we can see the Word of God and hence the
mystery of the living God himself. This is what God is like. The Angel had said
to the shepherds: “This will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in
swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Lk 2:12; see 2:16). God’s sign, the
sign given to the shepherds and to us, is not an astonishing miracle. God’s
sign is his humility. God’s sign is that he makes himself small; he becomes a
child; he lets us touch him and he asks for our love. How we would prefer a
different sign, an imposing, irresistible sign of God’s power and greatness!
But his sign summons us to faith and love, and thus it gives us hope: this is
what God is like. He has power, he is Goodness itself. He invites us to become
like him. Yes indeed, we become like God if we allow ourselves to be shaped by
this sign; if we ourselves learn humility and hence true greatness; if we
renounce violence and use only the weapons of truth and love. Origen, taking up
one of John the Baptist’s sayings, saw the essence of paganism expressed in the
symbol of stones: paganism is a lack of feeling, it means a heart of stone that
is incapable of loving and perceiving God’s love. Origen says of the pagans: “Lacking
feeling and reason, they are transformed into stones and wood” (in Lk 22:9).
Christ, though, wishes to give us a heart of flesh. When we see him, the God
who became a child, our hearts are opened. In the Liturgy of the holy night,
God comes to us as man, so that we might become truly human. Let us listen once
again to Origen: “Indeed, what use would it be to you that Christ once came in
the flesh if he did not enter your soul? Let us pray that he may come to us
each day, that we may be able to say: I live, yet it is no longer I that live,
but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20)” (in Lk 22:3).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yes indeed, that
is what we should pray for on this Holy Night. Lord Jesus Christ, born in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, come to us!
Enter within me, within my soul. Transform me. Renew me. Change me, change us
all from stone and wood into living people, in whom your love is made present
and the world is transformed. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MIDNIGHT
MASS </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Friday, 24 December 2010</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters!</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“You are my son,
this day I have begotten you” – with this passage from Psalm 2 the Church
begins the liturgy of this holy night. She knows that this passage originally
formed part of the coronation rite of the kings of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>. The king, who in himself is
a man like others, becomes the “Son of God” through being called and installed
in his office. It is a kind of adoption by God, a decisive act by which he
grants a new existence to this man, drawing him into his own being. The reading
from the prophet Isaiah that we have just heard presents the same process even
more clearly in a situation of hardship and danger for Israel: “To us a child
is born, to us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulder” (Is
9:6). Installation in the office of king is like a second birth. As one newly
born through God’s personal choice, as a child born of God, the king embodies
hope. On his shoulders the future rests. He is the bearer of the promise of
peace. On that night in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
this prophetic saying came true in a way that would still have been
unimaginable at the time of Isaiah. Yes indeed, now it really is a child on
whose shoulders government is laid. In him the new kingship appears that God
establishes in the world. This child is truly born of God. It is God’s eternal
Word that unites humanity with divinity. To this child belong those titles of honor
which Isaiah’s coronation song attributes to him: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Is 9:6). Yes, this king does not need
counselors drawn from the wise of this world. He bears in himself God’s wisdom
and God’s counsel. In the weakness of infancy, he is the mighty God and he
shows us God’s own might in contrast to the self-asserting powers of this
world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Truly, the words
of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’s
coronation rite were only ever rites of hope which looked ahead to a distant
future that God would bestow. None of the kings who were greeted in this way
lived up to the sublime content of these words. In all of them, those words
about divine sonship, about installation into the heritage of the peoples,
about making the ends of the earth their possession (Ps 2:8) were only pointers
towards what was to come – as it were signposts of hope indicating a future
that at that moment was still beyond comprehension. Thus the fulfilment of the
prophecy, which began that night in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
is both infinitely greater and in worldly terms smaller than the prophecy
itself might lead one to imagine. It is greater in the sense that this child is
truly the Son of God, truly “God from God, light from light, begotten not made,
of one being with the Father”. The infinite distance between God and man is
overcome. God has not only bent down, as we read in the Psalms; he has truly “come
down”, he has come into the world, he has become one of us, in order to draw
all of us to himself. This child is truly Emmanuel – God-with-us. His kingdom
truly stretches to the ends of the earth. He has truly built islands of peace
in the world-encompassing breadth of the holy Eucharist. Wherever it is
celebrated, an island of peace arises, of God’s own peace. This child has
ignited the light of goodness in men and has given them strength to overcome
the tyranny of might. This child builds his kingdom in every generation from
within, from the heart. But at the same time it is true that the “rod of his
oppressor” is not yet broken, the boots of warriors continue to tramp and the “garment
rolled in blood” (Is 9:4f) still remains. So part of this night is simply joy
at God’s closeness. We are grateful that God gives himself into our hands as a
child, begging as it were for our love, implanting his peace in our hearts. But
this joy is also a prayer: Lord, make your promise come fully true. Break the
rods of the oppressors. Burn the tramping boots. Let the time of the garments
rolled in blood come to an end. Fulfill the prophecy that “of peace there will
be no end” (Is 9:7). We thank you for your goodness, but we also ask you to
show forth your power. Establish the dominion of your truth and your love in
the world – the “kingdom of righteousness, love and peace”.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Mary gave birth
to her first-born son” (Lk 2:7). In this sentence Saint Luke recounts quite
soberly the great event to which the prophecies from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’s history had pointed. Luke
calls the child the “first-born”. In the language which developed within the
sacred Scripture of the Old Covenant, “first-born” does not mean the first of a
series of children. The word “first-born” is a title of honor, quite
independently of whether other brothers and sisters follow or not. So <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> is designated by God in the <i>Book of
Exodus</i> (4:22) as “my first-born Son”, and this expresses <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’s
election, its singular dignity, the particular love of God the Father. The
early Church knew that in Jesus this saying had acquired a new depth, that the
promises made to <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
were summed up in him. Thus the <i>Letter to the Hebrews </i>calls Jesus “the
first-born”, simply in order to designate him as the Son sent into the world by
God (see 1:5-7) after the ground had been prepared by Old Testament prophecy.
The first-born belongs to God in a special way – and therefore he had to be
handed over to God in a special way – as in many religions – and he had to be
ransomed through a vicarious sacrifice, as Saint Luke recounts in the episode
of the Presentation in the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>.
The first-born belongs to God in a special way, and is as it were destined for
sacrifice. In Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross this destiny of the first-born is
fulfilled in a unique way. In his person he brings humanity before God and
unites man with God in such a way that God becomes all in all. <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:place> amplified and
deepened the idea of Jesus as first-born in the <i>Letters to the Colossians </i>and<i>
to the Ephesians</i>: Jesus, we read in these letters, is the first-born of all
creation – the true prototype of man, according to which God formed the human
creature. Man can be the image of God because Jesus is both God and man, the
true image of God and of man. Furthermore, as these letters tell us, he is the
first-born from the dead. In the resurrection he has broken down the wall of
death for all of us. He has opened up to man the dimension of eternal life in
fellowship with God. Finally, it is said to us that he is the first-born of
many brothers. Yes indeed, now he really is the first of a series of brothers
and sisters: the first, that is, who opens up for us the possibility of
communing with God. He creates true brotherhood – not the kind defiled by sin
as in the case of Cain and Abel, or <st1:place w:st="on">Romulus</st1:place>
and Remus, but the new brotherhood in which we are God’s own family. This new
family of God begins at the moment when Mary wraps her first-born in swaddling
clothes and lays him in a manger. Let us pray to him: Lord Jesus, who wanted to
be born as the first of many brothers and sisters, grant us the grace of true
brotherhood. Help us to become like you. Help us to recognize your face in
others who need our assistance, in those who are suffering or forsaken, in all
people, and help us to live together with you as brothers and sisters, so as to
become one family, your family.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of
the Christmas Gospel, we are told that a great heavenly host of angels praised
God and said: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with
whom he is pleased!” (Lk 2:14). The Church, in the <i>Gloria</i>, has extended
this song of praise, which the angels sang in response to the event of the holy
night, into a hymn of joy at God’s glory – “we praise you for your glory”. We
praise you for the beauty, for the greatness, for your goodness, which becomes
visible to us this night. The appearing of beauty, of the beautiful, makes us
happy without our having to ask what use it can serve. God’s glory, from which
all beauty derives, causes us to break out in astonishment and joy. Anyone who
catches a glimpse of God experiences joy, and on this night we see something of
his light. But the angels’ message on that holy night also spoke of men: “Peace
among men with whom he is pleased”. The Latin translation of the angels’ song
that we use in the liturgy, taken from <st1:place w:st="on">Saint
Jerome</st1:place>, is slightly different: “peace to men of good
will”. The expression “men of good will” has become an important part of the
Church’s vocabulary in recent decades. But which is the correct translation? We
must read both texts together; only in this way do we truly understand the
angels’ song. It would be a false interpretation to see this exclusively as the
action of God, as if he had not called man to a free response of love. But it
would be equally mistaken to adopt a moralizing interpretation as if man were
so to speak able to redeem himself by his good will. Both elements belong together:
grace and freedom, God’s prior love for us, without which we could not love
him, and the response that he awaits from us, the response that he asks for so
palpably through the birth of his son. We cannot divide up into independent
entities the interplay of grace and freedom, or the interplay of call and
response. The two are inseparably woven together. So this part of the angels’
message is both promise and call at the same time. God has anticipated us with
the gift of his Son. God anticipates us again and again in unexpected ways. He
does not cease to search for us, to raise us up as often as we might need. He
does not abandon the lost sheep in the wilderness into which it had strayed.
God does not allow himself to be confounded by our sin. Again and again he
begins afresh with us. But he is still waiting for us to join him in love. He
loves us, so that we too may become people who love, so that there may be peace
on earth.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint Luke does
not say that the angels sang. He states quite soberly: the heavenly host
praised God and said: “Glory to God in the highest” (Lk 2:13f.). But men have
always known that the speech of angels is different from human speech, and that
above all on this night of joyful proclamation it was in song that they
extolled God’s heavenly glory. So this angelic song has been recognized from
the earliest days as music proceeding from God, indeed, as an invitation to
join in the singing with hearts filled with joy at the fact that we are loved
by God. <i>Cantare amantis est</i>, says <st1:place w:st="on">Saint
Augustine</st1:place>: singing belongs to one who loves. Thus,
down the centuries, the angels’ song has again and again become a song of love
and joy, a song of those who love. At this hour, full of thankfulness, we join
in the singing of all the centuries, singing that unites heaven and earth,
angels and men. Yes, indeed, we praise you for your glory. We praise you for
your love. Grant that we may join with you in love more and more and thus
become people of peace. Amen.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MIDNIGHT
MASS </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, 24 December 2011</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters!</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The reading from
<st1:city w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:city>’s
Letter to Titus that we have just heard begins solemnly with the word “<i>apparuit</i>”,
which then comes back again in the reading at the Dawn Mass: <i>apparuit</i> – “there
has appeared”. This is a programmatic word, by which the Church seeks to
express synthetically the essence of Christmas. Formerly, people had spoken of
God and formed human images of him in all sorts of different ways. God himself
had spoken in many and various ways to mankind (see <i>Heb</i> 1:1 – Mass
during the Day). But now something new has happened: he has appeared. He has
revealed himself. He has emerged from the inaccessible light in which he
dwells. He himself has come into our midst. This was the great joy of Christmas
for the early Church: God has appeared. No longer is he merely an idea, no
longer do we have to form a picture of him on the basis of mere words. He has “appeared”.
But now we ask: how has he appeared? Who is he in reality? The reading at the
Dawn Mass goes on to say: “the kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind
were revealed” (<i>Tit</i> 3:4). For the people of pre-Christian times, whose
response to the terrors and contradictions of the world was to fear that God
himself might not be good either, that he too might well be cruel and
arbitrary, this was a real “epiphany”, the great light that has appeared to us:
God is pure goodness. Today too, people who are no longer able to recognize God
through faith are asking whether the ultimate power that underpins and sustains
the world is truly good, or whether evil is just as powerful and primordial as
the good and the beautiful which we encounter in radiant moments in our world. “The
kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed”: this is the
new, consoling certainty that is granted to us at Christmas.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In all three
Christmas Masses, the liturgy quotes a passage from the Prophet Isaiah, which
describes the epiphany that took place at Christmas in greater detail: “A child
is born for us, a son given to us and dominion is laid on his shoulders; and
this is the name they give him: Wonder-Counselor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father,
Prince-of-Peace. Wide is his dominion in a peace that has no end” (<i>Is</i>
9:5f.). Whether the prophet had a particular child in mind, born during his own
period of history, we do not know. But it seems impossible. This is the only
text in the Old Testament in which it is said of a child, of a human being: his
name will be Mighty-God, Eternal-Father. We are presented with a vision that
extends far beyond the historical moment into the mysterious, into the future.
A child, in all its weakness, is Mighty God. A child, in all its neediness and
dependence, is Eternal Father. And his peace “has no end”. The prophet had
previously described the child as “a great light” and had said of the peace he
would usher in that the rod of the oppressor, the footgear of battle, every
cloak rolled in blood would be burned (<i>Is </i>9:1, 3-4).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God has appeared
– as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and
brings a message that is peace. At this hour, when the world is continually
threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways, when
over and over again there are oppressors’ rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cry
out to the Lord: O mighty God, you have appeared as a child and you have
revealed yourself to us as the One who loves us, the One through whom love will
triumph. And you have shown us that we must be peacemakers with you. We love
your childish estate, your powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing
presence of violence in the world, and so we also ask you: manifest your power,
O God. In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors’ rods,
the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that
your peace may triumph in this world of ours.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Christmas is an
epiphany – the appearing of God and of his great light in a child that is born for
us. Born in a stable in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
not in the palaces of kings. In 1223, when Saint Francis of <st1:place w:st="on">Assisi</st1:place> celebrated Christmas in Greccio with
an ox and an ass and a manger full of hay, a new dimension of the mystery of
Christmas came to light. Saint Francis of <st1:place w:st="on">Assisi</st1:place>
called Christmas “the feast of feasts” – above all other feasts – and he
celebrated it with “unutterable devotion” (<i>2 Celano</i> 199; <i>Fonti
Francescane</i>, 787). He kissed images of the Christ-child with great devotion
and he stammered tender words such as children say, so Thomas of Celano tells
us (<i>ibid</i>.). For the early Church, the feast of feasts was Easter: in the
Resurrection Christ had flung open the doors of death and in so doing had
radically changed the world: he had made a place for man in God himself. Now,
Francis neither changed nor intended to change this objective order of
precedence among the feasts, the inner structure of the faith centered on the
Paschal Mystery. And yet through him and the character of his faith, something
new took place: Francis discovered Jesus’ humanity in an entirely new depth.
This human existence of God became most visible to him at the moment when God’s
Son, born of the Virgin Mary, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a
manger. The Resurrection presupposes the Incarnation. For God’s Son to take the
form of a child, a truly human child, made a profound impression on the heart
of the Saint of Assisi, transforming faith into love. “The kindness and love of
God our Savior for mankind were revealed” – this phrase of <st1:city w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:city> now acquired an entirely new
depth. In the child born in the stable at <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
we can as it were touch and caress God. And so the liturgical year acquired a
second focus in a feast that is above all a feast of the heart.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This has nothing
to do with sentimentality. It is right here, in this new experience of the
reality of Jesus’ humanity that the great mystery of faith is revealed. Francis
loved the child Jesus, because for him it was in this childish estate that God’s
humility shone forth. God became poor. His Son was born in the poverty of the
stable. In the child Jesus, God made himself dependent, in need of human love,
he put himself in the position of asking for human love – our love. Today
Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the
mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity.
Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this
season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, so as to find true joy and true
light.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Francis arranged
for Mass to be celebrated on the manger that stood between the ox and the ass (see
<i>1 Celano</i> 85; <i>Fonti</i> 469). Later, an altar was built over this
manger, so that where animals had once fed on hay, men could now receive the
flesh of the spotless lamb Jesus Christ, for the salvation of soul and body, as
Thomas of Celano tells us (see <i>1 Celano</i> 87; <i>Fonti</i> 471). Francis
himself, as a deacon, had sung the Christmas Gospel on the holy night in
Greccio with resounding voice. Through the friars’ radiant Christmas singing,
the whole celebration seemed to be a great outburst of joy (<i>1 Celano</i>
85.86; <i>Fonti</i> 469, 470). It was the encounter with God’s humility that
caused this joy – his goodness creates the true feast.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, anyone
wishing to enter the Church of Jesus’ Nativity in Bethlehem will find that the
doorway five and a half meters high, through which emperors and caliphs used to
enter the building, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one and a half
meters has remained. The intention was probably to provide the church with
better protection from attack, but above all to prevent people from entering
God’s house<i> </i>on horseback. Anyone wishing to enter the place of Jesus’
birth has to bend down. It seems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here,
which should touch our hearts on this holy night: if we want to find the God
who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from the high horse of our “enlightened”
reason. We must set aside our false certainties, our intellectual pride, which
prevents us from recognizing God’s closeness. We must follow the interior path
of Saint Francis – the path leading to that ultimate outward and inward
simplicity which enables the heart to see. We must bend down, spiritually we
must as it were go on foot, in order to pass through the portal of faith and
encounter the God who is so different from our prejudices and opinions – the
God who conceals himself in the humility of a newborn baby. In this spirit let
us celebrate the liturgy of the holy night, let us strip away our fixation on
what is material, on what can be measured and grasped. Let us allow ourselves
to be made simple by the God who reveals himself to the simple of heart. And
let us also pray especially at this hour for all who have to celebrate
Christmas in poverty, in suffering, as migrants, that a ray of God’s kindness
may shine upon them, that they – and we – may be touched by the kindness that
God chose to bring into the world through the birth of his Son in a stable.
Amen.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MIDNIGHT
MASS </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Monday, 24 December 2012</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters!</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Again and again
the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendor of
truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that
we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly
lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that
my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face
of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me
and love me.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am also
repeatedly struck by the Gospel writer’s almost casual remark that there was no
room for them at the inn. Inevitably the question arises, what would happen if
Mary and Joseph were to knock at my door. Would there be room for them? And
then it occurs to us that Saint John takes up this seemingly chance comment
about the lack of room at the inn, which drove the Holy Family into the stable;
he explores it more deeply and arrives at the heart of the matter when he
writes: “he came to his own home, and his own people received him not” (<i>Jn</i>
1:11). The great moral question of our attitude towards the homeless, towards
refugees and migrants, takes on a deeper dimension: do we really have room for
God when he seeks to enter under our roof? Do we have time and space for him?
Do we not actually turn away God himself? We begin to do so when we have no
time for God. The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving
appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never
seems urgent. Our time is already completely full. But matters go deeper still.
Does God actually have a place in our thinking? Our process of thinking is
structured in such a way that he simply ought not to exist. Even if he seems to
knock at the door of our thinking, he has to be explained away. If thinking is
to be taken seriously, it must be structured in such a way that the “God
hypothesis” becomes superfluous. There is no room for him. Not even in our
feelings and desires is there any room for him. We want ourselves. We want what
we can seize hold of, we want happiness that is within our reach, we want our
plans and purposes to succeed. We are so “full” of ourselves that there is no
room left for God. And that means there is no room for others either, for
children, for the poor, for the stranger. By reflecting on that one simple
saying about the lack of room at the inn, we have come to see how much we need
to listen to <st1:city w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:city>’s
exhortation: “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (<i>Rom</i> 12:2).
Paul speaks of renewal, the opening up of our intellect (<i>nous</i>), of the
whole way we view the world and ourselves. The conversion that we need must
truly reach into the depths of our relationship with reality. Let us ask the
Lord that we may become vigilant for his presence, that we may hear how softly
yet insistently he knocks at the door of our being and willing. Let us ask that
we may make room for him within ourselves, that we may recognize him also in
those through whom he speaks to us: children, the suffering, the abandoned,
those who are excluded and the poor of this world.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">There is another
verse from the Christmas story on which I should like to reflect with you – the
angels’ hymn of praise, which they sing out following the announcement of the
new-born Savior: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with
whom he is pleased.” God is glorious. God is pure light, the radiance of truth
and love. He is good. He is true goodness, goodness <i>par excellence</i>. The
angels surrounding him begin by simply proclaiming the joy of seeing God’s
glory. Their song radiates the joy that fills them. In their words, it is as if
we were hearing the sounds of heaven. There is no question of attempting to
understand the meaning of it all, but simply the overflowing happiness of
seeing the pure splendor of God’s truth and love. We want to let this joy reach
out and touch us: truth exists, pure goodness exists, pure light exists. God is
good, and he is the supreme power above all powers. All this should simply make
us joyful tonight, together with the angels and the shepherds.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Linked to God’s
glory on high is peace on earth among men. Where God is not glorified, where he
is forgotten or even denied, there is no peace either. Nowadays, though,
widespread currents of thought assert the exact opposite: they say that
religions, especially monotheism, are the cause of the violence and the wars in
the world. If there is to be peace, humanity must first be liberated from them.
Monotheism, belief in one God, is said to be arrogance, a cause of intolerance,
because by its nature, with its claim to possess the sole truth, it seeks to
impose itself on everyone. Now it is true that in the course of history,
monotheism has served as a pretext for intolerance and violence. It is true
that religion can become corrupted and hence opposed to its deepest essence,
when people think they have to take God’s cause into their own hands, making
God into their private property. We must be on the lookout for these
distortions of the sacred. While there is no denying a certain misuse of
religion in history, yet it is not true that denial of God would lead to peace.
If God’s light is extinguished, man’s divine dignity is also extinguished. Then
the human creature would cease to be God’s image, to which we must pay honor in
every person, in the weak, in the stranger, in the poor. Then we would no
longer all be brothers and sisters, children of the one Father, who belong to
one another on account of that one Father. The kind of arrogant violence that
then arises, the way man then despises and tramples upon man: we saw this in
all its cruelty in the last century. Only if God’s light shines over man and
within him, only if every single person is desired, known and loved by God is
his dignity inviolable, however wretched his situation may be. On this Holy
Night, God himself became man; as Isaiah prophesied, the child born here is “Emmanuel”,
God with us (<i>Is</i> 7:14). And down the centuries, while there has been
misuse of religion, it is also true that forces of reconciliation and goodness
have constantly sprung up from faith in the God who became man. Into the
darkness of sin and violence, this faith has shone a bright ray of peace and
goodness, which continues to shine.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So Christ is our
peace, and he proclaimed peace to those far away and to those near at hand (see
<i>Eph</i> 2:14, 17). How could we now do other than pray to him: Yes, Lord,
proclaim peace today to us too, whether we are far away or near at hand. Grant
also to us today that swords may be turned into ploughshares (<i>Is</i> 2:4),
that instead of weapons for warfare, practical aid may be given to the
suffering. Enlighten those who think they have to practice violence in your
name, so that they may see the senselessness of violence and learn to recognize
your true face. Help us to become people “with whom you are pleased” – people
according to your image and thus people of peace.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Once the angels
departed, the shepherds said to one another: Let us go over to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place> and see this
thing that has happened for us (see <i>Lk</i> 2:15). The shepherds went with
haste to <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city>,
the Evangelist tells us (see 2:16). A holy curiosity impelled them to see this
child in a manger, who the angel had said was the Savior, Christ the Lord. The
great joy of which the angel spoke had touched their hearts and given them
wings. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us go over
to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
says the Church’s liturgy to us today. <i>Trans-eamus</i> is what the Latin
Bible says: let us go “across”, daring to step beyond, to make the “transition”
by which we step outside our habits of thought and habits of life, across the
purely material world into the real one, across to the God who in his turn has
come across to us. Let us ask the Lord to grant that we may overcome our
limits, our world, to help us to encounter him, especially at the moment when
he places himself into our hands and into our heart in the Holy Eucharist.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us go over
to Bethlehem: as we say these words to one another, along with the shepherds,
we should not only think of the great “crossing over” to the living God, but
also of the actual town of Bethlehem and all those places where the Lord lived,
ministered and suffered. Let us pray at this time for the people who live and
suffer there today. Let us pray that there may be peace in that land. Let us
pray that Israelis and Palestinians may be able to live their lives in the
peace of the one God and in freedom. Let us also pray for the countries of the
region, for <st1:country-region w:st="on">Lebanon</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Syria</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and their neighbors: that
there may be peace there, that Christians in those lands where our faith was
born may be able to continue living there, that Christians and Muslims may
build up their countries side by side in God’s peace.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The shepherds made haste. Holy curiosity and
holy joy impelled them. In our case, it is probably not very often that we make
haste for the things of God. God does not feature among the things that require
haste. The things of God can wait, we think and we say. And yet he is the most
important thing, ultimately the one truly important thing. Why should we not
also be moved by curiosity to see more closely and to know what God has said to
us? At this hour, let us ask him to touch our hearts with the holy curiosity
and the holy joy of the shepherds, and thus let us go over joyfully to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place></st1:city>, to the Lord
who today once more comes to meet us. Amen. </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-69749142228503661942023-12-18T20:30:00.004-05:002023-12-18T20:30:00.364-05:00Reflections on the Fourth Sunday of Advent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0317: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Fourth Sunday of
Advent</b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI </b><b>during His Pontificate</b><b> </b></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, on 18 December 2005, 24 December
2006, 23 December 2007, 21 December 2008, 20 December 2009, 19 December 2010,
18 December 2011, and 23 December 2012. Here
are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the </span><i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">Angelus</i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">
and one homily delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Advent, 18 December 2005</span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In these last
days of Advent the liturgy invites us to contemplate in a special way the
Virgin Mary and <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place>,
who lived with unique intensity the period of expectation and preparation for
Jesus’ birth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, I would
like to turn my gaze to the figure of <st1:place w:st="on">St
Joseph</st1:place>. In today’s Gospel St Luke presents the Virgin
Mary as “a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David” (see
Lk 1: 27). The Evangelist Matthew, however, places a greater emphasis on the
putative father of Jesus, stressing that through him the Child belonged legally
to the lineage of David and thus fulfilled the Scriptural prophecy that the
Messiah would be a “son of David”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But Joseph’s
role cannot be reduced to this legal aspect. He was the model of a “just” man
(Mt 1: 19) who, in perfect harmony with his wife, welcomed the Son of God made
man and watched over his human growth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is therefore
particularly appropriate in the days that precede Christmas to establish a sort
of spiritual conversation with <st1:place w:st="on">St
Joseph</st1:place>, so that he may help us live to the full this
great mystery of faith. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Beloved Pope
John Paul II, who was very devoted to <st1:place w:st="on">St
Joseph</st1:place>, left us a wonderful meditation dedicated to
him in the Apostolic Exhortation <i>Redemptoris Custos, </i>“The Guardian of
the Redeemer”. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Among the many
aspects on which this Document sheds light, the silence of <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place> is given a special emphasis. His
silence is steeped in contemplation of the mystery of God in an attitude of
total availability to the divine desires. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In other words, <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city>’s silence does
not express an inner emptiness but, on the contrary, the fullness of the faith
he bears in his heart and which guides his every thought and action. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is a silence
thanks to which Joseph, in unison with Mary, watches over the Word of God,
known through the Sacred Scriptures, continuously comparing it with the events
of the life of Jesus; a silence woven of constant prayer, a prayer of blessing
of the Lord, of the adoration of his holy will and of unreserved entrustment to
his providence. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is no
exaggeration to think that it was precisely from his “father” Joseph that Jesus
learned - at the human level - that steadfast interiority which is a
presupposition of authentic justice, the “superior justice” which he was one
day to teach his disciples (see Mt 5: 20). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us allow
ourselves to be “filled” with <st1:city w:st="on">St
Joseph</st1:city>’s silence! In a world that is often too noisy,
that encourages neither recollection nor listening to God’s voice, we are in
such deep need of it. During this season of preparation for Christmas, let us
cultivate inner recollection in order to welcome and cherish Jesus in our own
lives.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">VISIT
TO THE ROMAN PARISH OF “<st1:place w:st="on">SANTA MARIA</st1:place>
CONSOLATRICE”</span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Fourth
Sunday of Advent, 18 December 2005 </span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It really is a
great joy for me to be with you this morning and to celebrate Holy Mass with
you and for you. Indeed, my Visit to <i>Santa Maria Consolatrice, </i>the first
Roman parish I have been to since the Lord wished to summon me to be Bishop of
Rome, is for me, in a very real and concrete sense, a return home. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I remember very
well that 15 October 1977 on which I took possession of this titular church of
mine. Fr Ennio Appignanesi was parish priest and Fr Enrico Pomili and Fr Franco
Camaldo were the parochial vicars. The master of ceremonies assigned to me was <st1:city w:st="on">Mons</st1:city>. Piero Marini. Well,
here we all are together again! This is truly a great joy to me. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Since then, our
reciprocal bond has grown gradually stronger and deeper. It is a bond in the
Lord Jesus Christ, whose Eucharistic Sacrifice I have so often celebrated and
whose Sacraments I have so often administered in this church. It is a bond of
affection and friendship that truly warmed my heart and still warms it today.
It is a bond that has bound me to you all, and especially to your parish priest
and the other priests of the parish. It is a bond that did not weaken when I
became titular Cardinal of the suburbicarian Diocese of Velletri-Segni; a bond
that has acquired a new and deeper dimension because I am now Bishop of Rome
and your Bishop. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover, I am
particularly glad that my visit today, as Fr Enrico has already said, is taking
place in the year in which you are celebrating the 60th anniversary of your
parish, the 50th anniversary of the ordination to the priesthood of our beloved
parish priest, <st1:place w:st="on">Mons</st1:place>.
Enrico Pomili, and lastly, the 25th anniversary of the episcopal ordination of
Archbishop Ennio Appignanesi. It is a year, therefore, in which we have special
reasons for thanking the Lord. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I now greet with
affection <st1:place w:st="on">Mons</st1:place>.
Enrico himself and thank him for his very kind words to me. I greet Cardinal
Camillo Ruini, Vicar, Cardinal Ricardo María Carles Gordò, titular of this
church, hence, my successor to this Title, Cardinal Giovanni Canestri, formerly
your deeply loved parish priest, Archbishop Luigi Moretti, Vicegerent and
Bishop of the Eastern Sector of Rome; we have already greeted Archbishop Ennio
Appignanesi, your former parish priest, and Bishop Massimo Giustetti, your
former parochial vicar. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I extend an
affectionate greeting to your current parochial vicars and to the women
religious of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><i>Santa Maria</i></st1:city></st1:place><i>
Consolatrice. </i>They have been in Casalbertone since 1932 as precious
collaborators of the parish and true messengers of mercy and consolation in
this neighbourhood, especially for the poor and for children. With the same
sentiments, I greet each one of you, all the families in the parish and all
who, in their various capacities, work in the parish services. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us now
meditate briefly on the most beautiful Gospel of this Fourth Sunday of Advent,
which for me is one of the loveliest passages of Sacred Scripture. And so as
not to take too long, I would like to reflect on only three words from this
rich Gospel. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first word
on which I would like to meditate with you is the Angel’s greeting to Mary. In
the Italian translation the Angel says: “Hail, Mary”. But the Greek word below,
“Kaire”, means in itself “be glad” or “rejoice”. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And here is the
first surprising thing: the greeting among the Jews was “Shalom”, “peace”,
whereas the greeting of the Greek world was “Kaire”, “be glad”. It is
surprising that the Angel, on entering Mary’s house, should have greeted her
with the greeting of the Greeks: “Kaire”, “be glad, rejoice”. And when, 40
years later, the Greeks had read this Gospel, they were able to see an
important message in it: they realized that the beginning of the New Testament,
to which this passage from Luke referred, was bringing openness to the world of
peoples and to the universality of the People of God, which by then included
not only the Jewish people but also the world in its totality, all peoples. The
new universality of the Kingdom of the true son of David appears in this Greek
greeting of the Angel. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, it is
appropriate to point out straightaway that the Angel’s words took up a
prophetic promise that is found in the Book of the Prophet Zephaniah. We find
the same greeting almost literally. Inspired by God, the Prophet Zephaniah says
to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>: “Shout for joy, O
daughter <st1:place w:st="on">Zion</st1:place>!...
the Lord [is with you and] is in your midst”. We know that Mary was very
familiar with the Sacred Scriptures. Her <i>Magnificat </i>is a fabric woven of
threads from the Old Testament. We may thus be certain that the Blessed Virgin
understood straightaway that these were the words of the Prophet Zephaniah
addressed to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>, to the “daughter
<st1:city w:st="on">Zion</st1:city>”,
considered as a dwelling place of God. And now the surprising thing, which must
have given Mary food for thought, is that these words, addressed to all <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>, were
being specifically addressed to her, Mary. And thus, it must clearly have
appeared to her that she herself was the “daughter Zion” of whom the Prophet
spoke, and that the Lord, therefore, had a special intention for her, that she
was called to be the true dwelling place of God, a dwelling place not built of
stones but of living flesh, of a living heart, that God was really intending to
take her, the Virgin, as his own true temple. What an intention! And as a
result, we can understand that Mary began to think with special intensity about
what this greeting meant. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However, let us
now reflect in particular on the first word: “Rejoice, be glad”. This is the
first word that resounds in the New Testament as such, because the Angel’s
announcement to Zechariah of the birth of John the Baptist is the word that
still rings out on the threshold between the two Testaments. It is only with
this dialogue which the Angel Gabriel has with Mary that the New Testament
really begins. We can therefore say that the first word of the New Testament is
an invitation to joy: “rejoice, be glad!”. The New Testament is truly “Gospel”,
the “Good News” that brings us joy. God is not remote from us, unknown,
enigmatic or perhaps dangerous. God is close to us, so close that he makes
himself a child and we can informally address this God. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It was the Greek
world above all that grasped this innovation, that felt this joy deeply, for it
had been unclear to the Greeks whether there was a good God, a wicked God or
simply no God. Religion at that time spoke to them of so many divinities:
therefore, they had felt they were surrounded by very different divinities that
were opposed to one another; thus, they were afraid that if they did something
for one of these divinities, another might be offended and seek revenge. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So it was that
they lived in a world of fear, surrounded by dangerous demons, never knowing
how to save themselves from these forces in conflict with one another. It was a
world of fear, a dark world. Then they heard: “Rejoice, these demons are
nothing; the true God exists and this true God is good, he loves us, he knows
us, he is with us, with us even to the point that he took on flesh!”.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is the
great joy that Christianity proclaims. Knowing this God is truly “Good News”, a
word of redemption. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Perhaps we
Catholics who have always known it are no longer surprised and no longer feel
this liberating joy keenly. However, if we look at today’s world where God is
absent, we cannot but note that it is also dominated by fears and
uncertainties: is it good to be a person or not? Is it good to be alive or not?
Is it truly a good to exist? Or might everything be negative? And they really
live in a dark world, they need anaesthetics to be able to live. Thus, the
words: “Rejoice, because God is with you, he is with us”, are words that truly
open a new epoch. Dear friends, with an act of faith we must once again accept
and understand in the depths of our hearts this liberating word: “Rejoice!”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We cannot keep
solely for ourselves this joy that we have received; joy must always be shared.
Joy must be communicated. Mary went without delay to communicate her joy to her
cousin Elizabeth. And ever since her Assumption into Heaven she has showered
joy upon the whole world, she has become the great Consoler: our Mother who
communicates joy, trust and kindness and also invites us to spread joy. This is
the real commitment of Advent: to bring joy to others. Joy is the true gift of
Christmas, not expensive presents that demand time and money. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We can transmit
this joy simply: with a smile, with a kind gesture, with some small help, with
forgiveness. Let us give this joy and the joy given will be returned to us. Let
us seek in particular to communicate the deepest joy, that of knowing God in
Christ. Let us pray that this presence of God’s liberating joy will shine out
in our lives. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The second word
on which I would like to meditate is another word of the Angel’s: “Do not fear,
Mary”, he says. In fact, there was reason for her to fear, for it was a great
burden to bear the weight of the world upon herself, to be the Mother of the
universal King, to be the Mother of the Son of God: what a burden that was! It
was too heavy a burden for human strength to bear! But the Angel said: “Do not
fear! Yes, you are carrying God, but God is carrying you. Do not fear!”.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These words, “Do
not fear”, must have deeply penetrated Mary’s heart. We can imagine how in
various situations the Virgin must have pondered on those words, she must have
heard them again. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the moment
when Simeon said to her: “This child is destined to be the downfall and the
rise of many in Israel, a sign that will be opposed - and you yourself will be
pierced with a sword”, at that very moment in which she might have succumbed to
fear, Mary returned to the Angel’s words and felt their echo within her: “Do
not fear, God is carrying you”. Then, when contradictions were unleashed
against Jesus during his public life and many said, “He is crazy”, she thought
once again of the Angel’s words in her heart; “Do not fear”, and went ahead.
Lastly, in the encounter on the way to <st1:place w:st="on">Calvary</st1:place>
and then under the Cross, when all seemed to be destroyed, she again heard the
Angel’s words in her heart: “Do not fear”. Hence, she stood courageously beside
her dying Son and, sustained by faith, moved towards the Resurrection, towards
Pentecost, towards the foundation of the new family of the Church. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Do not fear”:
Mary also addresses these words to us. I have already pointed out that this
world of ours is a world of fear: the fear of misery and poverty, the fear of
illness and suffering, the fear of solitude, the fear of death. We have in this
world a widely developed insurance system; it is good that it exists. But we
know that at the moment of deep suffering, at the moment of the ultimate
loneliness of death, no insurance policy will be able to protect us. The only
valid insurance in those moments is the one that comes to us from the Lord, who
also assures us: “Do not fear, I am always with you”. We can fall, but in the
end we fall into God’s hands, and God’s hands are good hands. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The third word:
at the end of the colloquium, Mary answered the Angel, “I am the servant of the
Lord. Let it be done to me as you say”. Thus, Mary anticipated the “Our Father’s”
third invocation: “Your will be done”. She said “yes” to God’s great will, a
will apparently too great for a human being; Mary said “yes” to this divine
will, she placed herself within this will, placed her whole life with a great “yes”
within God’s will, and thus opened the world’s door to God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Adam and Eve,
with their “no” to God’s will, had closed this door. “Let God’s will be done”:
Mary invites us too to say this “yes” which sometimes seems so difficult. We
are tempted to prefer our own will, but she tells us: “Be brave, you too say: “Your
will be done’, because this will is good”. It might at first seem an unbearable
burden, a yoke impossible to bear; but in reality, God’s will is not a burden,
God’s will gives us wings to fly high and thus we too can dare, with Mary, to
open the door of our lives to God, the doors of this world, by saying “yes” to
his will, aware that this will is the true good and leads us to true happiness.
Let us pray to Mary, Comfort of the Afflicted, our Mother, the Mother of the
Church, to give us the courage to say this “yes” and also to give us this joy
of being with God and to lead us to his Son, to true life. Amen!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Advent, 24 December 2006 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The celebration of
the Holy Birth is at hand. Today’s vigil prepares us to live intensely the
mystery that tonight’s Liturgy will invite us to contemplate with the eyes of
faith. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Divine
Newborn, whom we will place in the manger, our Salvation is made manifest. In
the God who makes himself man for us, we all feel loved and welcomed, we
discover that we are precious and unique in the eyes of the Creator. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The birth of
Christ helps us to become aware of the value of human life, the life of every
human being, from the first instant to natural death. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To those who
open their heart to this “baby wrapped in swaddling clothes” and lying “in a
manger” (see Lk 2: 12), he offers the possibility of seeing with new eyes the
realities of every day. He can taste the power of the interior fascination of
God’s love and is able to transform even sorrow into joy. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us prepare
ourselves, dear friends, to meet Jesus, the Emmanuel, God with us. Born in the
poverty of <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
he wants to be the travelling companion of each one of us on our life’s
journey. In this world, from the very moment when he decided to pitch his “tent”,
no one is a stranger. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is true, we
are all here in passing, but it is precisely Jesus who makes us feel at home on
this earth, sanctified by his presence. He asks us, however, to make it a home
in which all are welcome. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The surprising
gift of Christmas is exactly this: Jesus came for each one of us and in him we
have become brothers. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
corresponding duty is to increasingly overcome preconceptions and prejudices,
to break down barriers and eliminate the differences that divide us, or worse,
that set individuals and peoples against one another, in order to build
together a world of justice and peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With these
sentiments, dear brothers and sisters, let us live the last hours that separate
us from Christmas, preparing ourselves spiritually to welcome the Child Jesus.
In the heart of the night he will come for us. It is his desire, however, also
to come in us, to dwell in the heart of every one of us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So that this may
occur, it is indispensable that we are open and that we prepare ourselves to
receive him, ready to make room for him within ourselves, in our families, in
our cities. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May his birth
not find us unprepared to celebrate Christmas, forgetting that the protagonist
of the celebration is precisely him! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May Mary help us
to maintain the interior recollection so necessary to taste the profound joy
that the Redeemer’s birth brings. To her we address our prayer, thinking
particularly of those who are prepared to celebrate Christmas in sadness and
solitude, in sickness and in suffering: to all may the Virgin bring comfort and
consolation.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>BENEDICT
XVI</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Advent, 23 December 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Only one day
separates this Fourth Sunday of Advent from Holy Christmas. Tomorrow night we
will gather together to celebrate the great mystery of love which never ceases
to amaze us: God became the Son of Man so that we might become children of God.
During Advent, a frequent entreaty has risen from the heart of the Church: “Come,
Lord, visit us with your peace, your presence will fill us with joy”. The
Church’s evangelizing mission is the response to the cry “Come, Lord Jesus”
that pervades all of salvation history and continues to rise from believers’
lips. Come, Lord, transform our hearts, so that justice and peace may be spread
in the world! The<i> Doctrinal Note on some aspects of evangelization, </i>recently
published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, intends to recall
this. In fact, the Document sets out to remind all Christians - in a situation
in which the actual reason why evangelization exists is often no longer clear
even to many of the faithful - that “the acceptance of the Good News in faith
is thus dynamically ordered to” (no. 7) communicating salvation received as a
gift. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, “The
truth which saves one’s life inflames the heart of the one who has received it
with a love of neighbour that motivates him to pass on to others in freedom
what he has freely been given” (<i>ibid</i>.) Being reached by the presence of
God who makes himself close to us at Christmas is a priceless gift. It is a
gift that can make us <i>“live within the universal embrace of the friends of
God” </i>(<i>ibid.</i>), in that “network of friendship with Christ which
connects heaven and earth” (<i>ibid., </i>no. 9), which directs human freedom
towards its fulfilment and, if it is lived in its truth, blossoms “in a love
that is freely given and which overflows with care for the good of all people”
(<i>ibid., </i>no. 7). Nothing is more beautiful, urgent and important than
freely offering to men and women, in turn, what we ourselves have freely
received from God! Nothing can dispense or relieve us from this burdensome but
fascinating commitment. While the joy of Christmas that we already anticipate
fills us with hope, it spurs us at the same time to proclaim to everyone God’s
presence in our midst. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin Mary,
who did not communicate to the world an idea but Jesus, the Incarnate Word, is
an unparalleled model of evangelization. Let us invoke her with trust so that,
in our time too, the Church may proclaim Christ, the Saviour. May every
Christian and every community feel the joy of sharing with others the Good News
that “God so loved the world that he gave his Only Son... that the world might
be saved through him” (Jn 3: 16-17). This is the authentic meaning of
Christmas, which we must rediscover and live intensely.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Advent, 21 December 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel of
this Fourth Sunday of Advent proposes to us the account of the Annunciation (Lk
1: 26-38), the mystery to which we return every day in reciting the <i>Angelus</i>.
This prayer makes us relive the decisive moment at which God knocked at Mary’s
heart and, having received her “yes”, began to take flesh, in her and from her.
The Collect of today’s Mass is the same as the one we recite at the end of the <i>Angelus</i>
that in Italian, says: <i>“Infondi nel nostro spirito la tua grazia, O Padre.
Tu che all’annunzio dell’Angelo ci hai rivelato l’incarnazione del tuo Figlio,
per la sua passione e la sua croce guidaci alla gloria della risurrezione” </i>[Fill
our hearts with your love, and as you revealed to us by an angel the coming of your
Son as man, so lead us through his suffering and death to the glory of his
Resurrection]. With only a few days until the Feast of Christmas, we are
invited to fix our gaze on the ineffable mystery that Mary treasured for nine
months in her virginal womb: the mystery of God who is made man. This is the
first foundation of the redemption. The second is the death and Resurrection of
Jesus and these two inseparable aspects express a single divine plan: to save
humanity and its history, assuming them fully by taking on the entire burden of
all the evil that oppresses it. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Beyond its
historical dimension, this mystery of salvation also has a cosmic dimension:
Christ is the sun of grace who, with his life, “transfigures and enflames the
expectant universe” (see Liturgy). The Christmas festivity is placed within and
linked to the winter solstice when, in the northern hemisphere, the days begin
once again to lengthen. In this regard perhaps not everyone knows that in St
Peter’s Square there is also a meridian; in fact, the great obelisk casts its
shadow in a line that runs along the paving stones toward the fountain beneath
this window and in these days, the shadow is at its longest of the year. This
reminds us of the role of astronomy in setting the times of prayer. The <i>Angelus</i>,
for example, is recited in the morning, at noon and in the evening, and clocks
were regulated by the meridian which in ancient times made it possible to know
the “exact midday”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The fact that
the winter solstice occurs exactly today, 21 December, and at this very time,
offers me the opportunity to greet all those who will be taking part in various
capacities in the initiatives for the World Year of Astronomy, 2009,
established on the fourth centenary of Galileo Galilei’s first observations by
telescope. Among my Predecessors of venerable memory there were some who
studied this science, such as Sylvester II who taught it, Gregory XIII to whom
we owe our calendar, and St Pius X who knew how to build sundials. If the
heavens, according to the Psalmist’s beautiful words, “are telling the glory of
God” (Ps 19[18]: 1), the laws of nature which over the course of centuries many
men and women of science have enabled us to understand better are a great
incentive to contemplate the works of the Lord with gratitude. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us now turn
our gaze again to Mary and Joseph who were awaiting the birth of Jesus and
learn from them the secret of reflection in order to taste the joy of
Christmas. Let us prepare ourselves to welcome with faith the Redeemer who comes
to be with us, the Word of God’s love for humanity of every epoch.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Advent, 20 December 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With the Fourth
Sunday of Advent, the Lord’s Birth is at hand. With the words of the Prophet
Micah, the Liturgy invites us to look at Bethlehem, the little town in Judea
that witnessed the great event: “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, / too small to
be among the clans of Judah,/ From you shall come forth for me / one who is to
be ruler in Israel; / Whose origin is from of old, / from ancient times” (Mic
5: 1). One thousand years before Christ <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city>
had given birth to the great King David, with whose presentation as an ancestor
of the Messiah the Scriptures agree. The Gospel according to Luke tells that
Jesus was born in Bethlehem because Joseph, Mary’s husband, being “of the house
and lineage of David”, was obliged to go to that town for the census, and in
those very days Mary gave birth to Jesus (see Lk 2: 1-7). In fact, Micah’s
prophecy continues precisely by mentioning the mysterious birth: “Therefore the
Lord will give them up, until the time / when she who is to give birth has
borne, / And the rest of his brethren shall return to the children of <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>”
(Mic 5: 2). Thus there is a divine plan that apprehends and explains the times
and places of the coming into the world of the Son of God. It is a plan of
peace, as the Prophet announces further, speaking of the Messiah: “He shall
stand firm and shepherd his flock by the strength of the Lord, / in the
majestic name of the Lord, his God; / And they shall remain, for now his
greatness / shall reach to the ends of the earth; / he shall be peace” (Mic 5:
3). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Precisely this
aspect of the prophecy, that of messianic peace, leads us naturally to
emphasize that the city of <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city> is also a
symbol of peace, in the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy Land</st1:place> and in the
world. Unfortunately, in our day, it does not represent an attained and stable
peace, but rather a peace sought with effort and hope. Yet God is never
resigned to this state of affairs, so that this year too, in <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city> and throughout the world, the
mystery of Christmas will be renewed in the Church. A prophecy of peace for
every person which obliges Christians to immerse themselves in the closures,
tragedies, that are often unknown and hidden, and in the conflicts of the
context in which they live, with the sentiments of Jesus so that they may
become everywhere instruments and messengers of peace, to sow love where there
is hatred, pardon where there is injury, joy where there is sadness and truth
where there is error, according to the beautiful words of a well-known
Franciscan prayer. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, as in the
times of Jesus, Christmas is not a fairy-tale for children but God’s response
to the drama of humanity in search of true peace. “He shall be peace”, says the
Prophet referring to the Messiah. It is up to us to open, to fling open wide
the doors to welcome him. Let us learn from Mary and Joseph: let us place
ourselves with faith at the service of God’s plan. Even if we do not understand
it fully, let us entrust ourselves to his wisdom and goodness. Let us seek
first of all the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename>, and <st1:city w:st="on">Providence</st1:city>
will help us. A Happy Christmas to you all!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Advent, 19 December 2010</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this Fourth
Sunday of Advent the Gospel according to St Matthew recounts the birth of Jesus
from <st1:city w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:city>’s
viewpoint. He was betrothed to Mary who, “before they came together… was found
to be with child of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 1:18). The Son of God, fulfilling an
ancient prophecy (<i>see</i> Is 7:14), became man in the womb of a virgin and
this mystery at the same time expressed the love, wisdom and power of God for
mankind, wounded by sin. <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place>
is presented as “a just man” (Mt 1:19), faithful to God’s law and ready to do
his will. For this reason he enters the mystery of the Incarnation after an
Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, announcing: “Joseph, son of
David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus,
for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:20-21). Having given up the
idea of divorcing Mary secretly, Joseph took her to himself because he then saw
God’s work in her with his own eyes.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Ambrose
comments that “Joseph had the amiability and stature of a just man, to make his
capacity as a witness worthier” (<i>Exp. Ev. sec. Lucam </i>II, 5: <i>CCL </i>14,32-33).
St Ambrose continues: “He could not have contaminated the temple of the Holy
Spirit, the Mother of the Lord, the womb rendered fertile by the mystery” (<i>ibid</i>.,
II, 6: <i>CCL</i> 14,33). Although he had felt distressed, Joseph “did as the
Angel of the Lord commanded him”, certain that he was doing the right thing.
And in giving the name of “Jesus” to the Child who rules the entire universe,
he placed himself among the throng of humble and faithful servants, similar to
the Angels and Prophets, similar to the Martyrs and to the Apostles — as the
ancient Eastern hymns sing. In witnessing to Mary’s virginity, to God’s
gratuitous action and in safeguarding the Messiah’s earthly life <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place> announces the
miracle of the Lord. Therefore let us venerate the legal father of Jesus (<i>see</i>
<i>Catechism of the Catholic Church</i>, no. 532), because the new man is
outlined in him, who looks with trust and courage to the future. He does not
follow his own plans but entrusts himself without reserve to the infinite mercy
of the One who will fulfil the prophecies and open the time of salvation.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, I
would like to entrust all Pastors to St Joseph, universal Patron of the Church,
while I urge them to offer “Christ’s [humble] words and actions each day to the
faithful and to the whole world”, (<i>Letter Proclaiming the Year for Priests</i>,
16 June 2009). May our life adhere ever more closely to the Person of Jesus,
precisely because “the One who is himself the Word takes on a body, he comes
from God as a man, and draws the whole of man’s being to himself, bearing it
into the Word of God” (<i>Jesus of Nazareth,</i> New York 2007, p. 334). Let us
invoke with trust the Virgin Mary, full of grace, “adorned by God”, so that at
Christmas, which is now at hand, our eyes may be opened and see Jesus, and our
hearts rejoice in this wonderful encounter of love.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Fourth Sunday of Advent, 18 December 201<em>1</em></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this fourth
and last Sunday of Advent, this year the liturgy presents the narrative of the
Angel’s announcement to Mary. Contemplating the amazing icon of the Blessed
Virgin at the moment when she receives the divine message and gives her answer,
we are enlightened within by the light of truth that shines from that mystery
ever new. In particular I would like to reflect briefly on the importance of
Mary’s virginity, namely that she conceived Jesus while remaining a virgin</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Against the
background of the event of <st1:place w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:place>
is the prophecy of Isaiah. “Behold, a young virgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Is 7:14). This ancient promise found
superabundant fulfilment in the Incarnation of the Son of God. Indeed, not only
did the Virgin Mary conceive, but she did so through the work of the Holy
Spirit, that is, God himself. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The human being
who came to life in her womb took Mary’s flesh, but his existence derived
totally from God. He is fully man, made of clay — to use the biblical symbol —
but comes from on high, from Heaven. The fact that Mary conceived while
remaining a virgin is thus essential to the knowledge of Jesus and to our
faith, because it testifies that it was God’s initiative and, above all, it
reveals <i>wh</i>o the conceived being <i>was</i>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As the Gospel
says: “the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). In
this sense, the <i>virginity </i>of Mary and the <i>divinity</i> of Jesus
guarantees each other. This is what makes that single question so important
that Mary, “greatly troubled”, asks the Angel: “How can this be, since I have
no husband?” (Lk 1:34). Mary was very wise in her simplicity. She did not doubt
God’s power, but she wanted to better understand his will, in order to conform
herself completely to this will. Mary was infinitely overcome by the Mystery,
yet she occupied perfectly the place which, in its centre had been assigned to
her. Her heart and her mind are fully humble and precisely because of her
unique humility, God awaits this young woman’s “yes” in order to carry out his
plan. He respects her dignity and her freedom. Mary’s “yes” entailed motherhood
and virginity as a whole. She wanted everything in her to glorify God and he
wanted the Son, born of her, to be totally a gift of grace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
Mary’s virginity is unique and unrepeatable; but its spiritual meaning concerns
every Christian, who is essentially linked to faith. In fact, those who put
deep trust in God’s love welcome Jesus and his divine life within them through
the action of the Holy Spirit. This is the mystery of Christmas! I hope that
you will all experience it with deep joy.</span></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, Fourth Sunday of Advent<em>, 23 December 2012</em></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this Fourth
Sunday of Advent that comes just before the Nativity of the Lord, the Gospel
speaks of Mary’s visit to her kinswoman Elizabeth. This event is not merely a
courteous gesture but portrays with great simplicity the encounter of the Old
Testament with the New. Indeed the two women, both of them then pregnant,
embody expectation and the Expected One. The elderly <st1:city w:st="on">Elizabeth</st1:city>
symbolizes <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
which is awaiting the Messiah, whereas the young Mary bears within her the
fulfilment of this expectation for the benefit of the whole of humanity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First of all in
the two women the fruit of their wombs, John and Christ, meet and recognize each
other. The Christian poet Prudentius comments: “the child imprisoned in the
aged womb greets by his mother’s lips his Lord, the maiden’s son” (<i>Apotheosis,
</i>590:<i> </i>pl 59, 970). John’s exultation in <st1:city w:st="on">Elizabeth</st1:city>’s womb is a sign of the fulfilment
of the expectation: God is about to visit his People. In the Annunciation the
Archangel Gabriel spoke to Mary of Elizabeth’s pregnancy (see 1:36) as proof of
God’s power; in spite of her old age her barren state was made fecund.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In her greeting
to Mary Elizabeth recognizes that God’s promise to humanity is being fulfilled
and exclaims: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
(Lk 1:42-43). In the Old Testament, the phrase “blessed are you among women”
refers both to Jael (Judg 5:24), and to Judith (Jud 13:18), two women warriors
who do their utmost to save <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Instead it is
used here to describe Mary, a peaceful young woman who is about to bring the
Saviour into the world. Thus John’s leap of joy (see Lk 1:44) also calls to
mind King David’s dancing when he accompanied the entry of the Ark of the
Covenant into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>
(see 1 Chron 15:29. The <st1:place w:st="on">Ark</st1:place>
that contained the Tablets of the Law, the manna and Aaron’s rod (see Heb 9:4)
was the sign of God’s presence among his People. The unborn John exults with
joy before Mary, the <st1:place w:st="on">Ark</st1:place>
of the New Covenant, who in her womb is carrying Jesus, the Son of God made
man. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The scene of the
Visitation also expresses the beauty of the greeting. Wherever there is
reciprocal acceptance, listening, making room for another, God is there, as
well as the joy that comes from him. At Christmas time let us emulate Mary,
visiting all those who are living in hardship, especially the sick, prisoners,
the elderly and children. And let us also imitate Elizabeth who welcomes the
guest as God himself: without wishing it, we shall never know the Lord, without
expecting him we shall not meet him, without looking for him we shall not find
him. Let us too go to meet the Lord who comes with the same joy as Mary, who
went with haste to <st1:place w:st="on">Elizabeth</st1:place>
(Lk 1:39). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pray that all men and women may seek God,
discovering that it is God himself who comes to visit us first. Let us entrust
our heart to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Mary</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">Ark</st1:state></st1:place> of the New and Eternal Covenant, so that
she may make it worthy to receive God’s visit in the mystery of his Birth. </span></div>
</div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACTUS-ESSENDI-PRINCIPLE-THOMAS-AQUINAS/dp/0578522179" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Actus essendi and the Habit of the First Principle in Thomas Aquinas</span></a></i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;"> </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-6854709969309603332023-12-11T01:30:00.004-05:002023-12-11T01:30:00.199-05:00Reflections on the Third Sunday of Advent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0316: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Third Sunday of
Advent</b><b> </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI </b><b> </b></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Third Sunday of Advent, on 11 December 2005, 17 December
2006, 16 December 2007, 14 December 2008, 13 December 2009, 12 December 2010,
11 December 2011, and 16 December 2012. Here
are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
and two homilies delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Advent, 11 December 2005</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">After
celebrating the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, we enter during
these days into the evocative atmosphere of immediate preparation for Holy
Christmas, and we already see the tree set up here. In today’s consumer
society, this period has unfortunately suffered a sort of commercial “pollution”
that risks changing its authentic spirit, marked by recollection, moderation
and joy, which is not external but intimate. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is thus
providential that almost as a portal to Christmas there should be the feast of
the one who is the Mother of Jesus and who, better than anyone else, can lead
us to know, love and adore the Son of God made man. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us therefore
allow her to accompany us; may her sentiments prompt us to prepare ourselves
with heartfelt sincerity and openness of spirit to recognize in the Child of
Bethlehem the Son of God who came into the world for our redemption. Let us
walk together with her in prayer and accept the repeated invitation that the
Advent liturgy addresses to us to remain in expectation - watchful and joyful expectation
-, for the Lord will not delay: he comes to set his people free from sin. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Following a
beautiful and firmly-rooted tradition, many families set up their Crib
immediately after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, as if to relive with
Mary those days full of trepidation that preceded the birth of Jesus. Putting
up the Crib at home can be a simple but effective way of presenting faith, to
pass it on to one’s children. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Crib helps
us contemplate the mystery of God’s love that was revealed in the poverty and
simplicity of the Bethlehem Grotto. St Francis of <st1:place w:st="on">Assisi</st1:place> was so taken by the mystery of the
Incarnation that he wanted to present it anew at Greccio in the living Nativity
scene, thus beginning an old, popular tradition that still retains its value
for evangelization today. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, the Crib
can help us understand the secret of the true Christmas because it speaks of
the humility and merciful goodness of Christ, who “though he was rich he made
himself poor” for us (II Cor 8: 9). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">His poverty
enriches those who embrace it and Christmas brings joy and peace to those who,
like the shepherds in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
accept the Angel’s words: “Let this be a sign to you: in a manger you will find
an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes” (Lk 2: 12). This is still the sign for
us too, men and women of the third millennium. There is no other Christmas. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Soon, as did
beloved John Paul II, I too will bless the figurines of the Baby Jesus that the
children of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
will place in the Crib in their homes. With this act of Blessing, I would like
to invoke the help of the Lord so that all Christian families will prepare to
celebrate the coming Christmas celebrations with faith. May Mary help us enter
into the true spirit of Christmas.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Advent, 17 December 2006 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this Third
Sunday of Advent, the liturgy invites us to the joy of the spirit. It does so
with the famous antiphon as part of an exhortation of the Apostle Paul:<i> “Gaudete
in Domino</i>”, “Rejoice in the Lord always... the Lord is at hand” (see Phil
4: 4, 5). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first
Reading of Mass is also an invitation to joy. The Prophet Zephaniah at the end
of the seventh century B.C. spoke to the city of Jerusalem and its people with
these words: ”Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and
exult with all your heart, O daughter of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>...!
[T]he Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory” (Zep
3: 14, 17). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God himself is
portrayed with similar sentiments, as the prophet says: ”The Lord... will
rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love... as on a day of
festival” (Zep 3: 17-18). This promise was fully brought about in the
mystery of Christmas, which we shall be celebrating in a week and which asks to
be renewed in the “today” of our lives and of history. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The joy that the
liturgy reawakens in the hearts of Christians is not reserved for us alone: it
is a prophetic proclamation destined for all humanity and for the poorest of
the poor in particular, in this case, <i>those poorest in joy!</i> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us think of
our brothers and sisters who, especially in the Middle East, in several regions
of Africa and other parts of the world, are experiencing the drama of
war: what joy can they live? What will their Christmas be like? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us think of
all the sick and lonely people who, in addition to being tried in their body,
are also sorely tried in their soul because they often feel abandoned:
how can we share joy with them without disrespecting their suffering? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But let us also
think of those people, especially the young, who have lost their sense of true
joy and seek it in vain where it is impossible to find it: in the
exasperated race to self-affirmation and success, in false amusements, in
consumerism, in moments of drunkenness, in the artificial paradise of drugs and
every form of alienation. We must obviously face the liturgy today and its “Rejoice”
with these tragic realities. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As in the times
of the Prophet Zephaniah, it is particularly to those being tested and to “life’s
wounded and orphans of joy” that God’s Word is being addressed in a special
way. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The invitation
to rejoice is not an alienating message nor a sterile palliative, but on the
contrary, it is a salvific prophecy, an appeal for rescue that starts with
inner renewal. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To transform the
world, God chose a humble young girl from a village in <st1:place w:st="on">Galilee</st1:place>,
Mary of Nazareth, and challenged her with this greeting: “Hail, full of grace,
the Lord is with you”. In these words lies the secret of an authentic
Christmas. God repeats them to the Church, to each one of us: Rejoice,
the Lord is close! With Mary’s help, let us offer ourselves with humility and
courage so that the world may accept Christ, who is the source of true joy.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Advent, 16 December 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>“Gaudete in
Domino semper - Rejoice in the Lord always </i>(Phil 4: 4). Holy Mass of the
Third Sunday of Advent opens with these words of <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> and is therefore called “<i>gaudete</i>”
Sunday. The Apostle urges Christians to rejoice because the Lord’s coming, that
is, his glorious return, is certain and will not be delayed. The Church makes
this invitation her own while she prepares to celebrate Christmas and her gaze
is focused ever more intently on <st1:city w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:city>.
Indeed, we wait with hope, certain of Christ’s second coming because we have
experienced his first. The mystery of Bethlehem reveals to us God-with-us, the
God close to us and not merely in the spatial and temporal sense; he is close
to us because he has, as it were, “espoused” our humanity; he has taken our
condition upon himself, choosing to be like us in all things save sin in order
to make us become like him. Christian joy thus springs from this certainty: God
is close, he is with me, he is with us, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and
in health, as a friend and faithful spouse. And this joy endures, even in
trials, in suffering itself. It does not remain only on the surface; it dwells
in the depths of the person who entrusts himself to God and trusts in him. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Some people ask:
but is this joy still possible today? Men and women of every age and social
condition, happy to dedicate their existence to others, give us the answer with
their lives! Was not Bl. Mother Teresa of <st1:city w:st="on">Calcutta</st1:city>
an unforgettable witness of true Gospel joy in our time? She lived in touch
daily with wretchedness, human degradation and death. Her soul knew the trials
of the dark night of faith, yet she gave everyone God’s smile. In one of her
writings, we read: “We wait impatiently for paradise, where God is, but it is
in our power to be in paradise even here on earth and from this moment. Being
happy with God means loving like him, helping like him, giving like him,
serving like him” (<i>The Joy of Giving to Others</i>,<i> </i>1987, p. 143).
Yes, joy enters the hearts of those who put themselves at the service of the
lowly and poor. God abides in those who love like this and their souls rejoice.
If, instead, people make an idol of happiness, they lose their way and it is
truly hard for them to find the joy of which Jesus speaks. Unfortunately, this
is what is proposed by cultures that replace God by individual happiness,
mindsets that find their emblematic effect in seeking pleasure at all costs, in
spreading drug use as an escape, a refuge in artificial paradises that later
prove to be entirely deceptive. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, one can lose the way even at Christmas, one can exchange the true
celebration for one that does not open the heart to Christ’s joy. May the
Virgin Mary help all Christians and people in search of God to reach <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, to encounter
the Child who was born for us, for salvation and for the happiness of all
humanity.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Advent, 14 December 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Sunday, the
Third Sunday in the Season of Advent, is called <i>“Gaudete </i>Sunday”: “rejoice”,
because the Entrance Antiphon of Holy Mass takes up <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>’s words in the Letter to the
Philippians where it says: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say,
Rejoice”. And immediately after he explains the reason, because “The Lord is at
hand” (Phil 4: 4-5). This is the reason for joy. But what does “the Lord is at
hand” mean? In what sense must we understand this “closeness” of God? The
Apostle Paul, writing to the Christians of Philippi, is evidently thinking of
Christ’s return and invites them to rejoice because it is certain. Yet, St Paul
in his Letter to the Thessalonians, warns that no one can know the moment of
the Lord’s coming (see 1 Thes 5: 1-2) and puts people on guard against any kind
of alarmism, as if Christ’s return were imminent (see 2 Thes 2: 1-2). Thus the
Church, illumined by the Holy Spirit, already at that time understood
increasingly better that God’s “closeness” is not a question of space and time
but rather of love: love brings people together! This coming Christmas will
remind us of this fundamental truth of our faith and in front of the manger we
shall be able to savour Christian joy contemplating in the newborn Jesus the
Face of God who made himself close to us out of love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this light,
it gives me real pleasure to renew the beautiful tradition of the Blessing of
the Christ Child figurines, the miniature statues of the Baby Jesus to be
placed in the manger. I address you in particular, dear boys and girls of <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>, who have come this
morning with your Baby Jesus figurines that I now bless. I invite you to join
me, following attentively this prayer: </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God, our Father </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">you so loved
humankind </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">that you sent us
your only Son Jesus, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">born of the
Virgin Mary, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">to save us and
lead us back to you. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We pray that
with your Blessing </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">these images of
Jesus, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">who is about to
come among us, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">may be a sign of
your presence and </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">love in our homes.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Good Father, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">give your
Blessing to us too, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">to our parents,
to our families and </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">to our friends. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Open our hearts,
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">so that we may
be able to </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">receive Jesus in
joy, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">always do what
he asks </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">and see him in
all those </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">who are in need
of our love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We ask you this
in the name of Jesus, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">your beloved Son
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">who comes to
give the world peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He lives and
reigns forever and ever. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Amen. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And now let us
recite together the prayer of the <i>Angelus Domini,</i> invoking Mary’s
intercession so that Jesus, whose birth brings God’s Blessing to mankind, may
be lovingly welcomed in all homes, in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
and throughout the world.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Advent, 13 December 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have now
reached the Third Sunday of Advent. Today in the liturgy the Apostle Paul’s
invitation rings out: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say,
Rejoice.... The Lord is at hand!” (Phil 4: 4-5). While <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Mother</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>
accompanies us towards Holy Christmas she helps us rediscover the meaning and
taste of Christian joy, so different from that of the world. On this Sunday,
according to a beautiful tradition, the children of <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city> come to have the Pope bless the Baby
Jesus figurines that they will put in their cribs. And in fact, I see here in
St Peter’s Square a great number of children and young people, together with
their parents, teachers and catechists. Dear friends, I greet you all with deep
affection and thank you for coming. It gives me great joy to know that the
custom of creating a crib scene has been preserved in your families. Yet it is
not enough to repeat a traditional gesture, however important it may be. It is
necessary to seek to live in the reality of daily life that the crib
represents, namely, the love of Christ, his humility, his poverty. This is what
St Francis did at Greccio: he recreated a live presentation of the nativity
scene in order to contemplate and worship it, but above all to be better able
to put into practice the message of the Son of God who for love of us emptied
himself completely and made himself a tiny child. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The blessing of
the “Bambinelli” [Baby Jesus figurines] as they are called in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>, reminds us that the crib is a school of
life where we can learn the secret of true joy. This does not consist in having
many things but in feeling loved by the Lord, in giving oneself as a gift for
others and in loving one another. Let us look at the crib. Our Lady and St
Joseph do not seem to be a very fortunate family; their first child was born in
the midst of great hardship; yet they are full of deep joy, because they love
each other, they help each other and, especially, they are certain that God,
who made himself present in the little Jesus, is at work in their story. And
the shepherds? What did they have to rejoice about? That Newborn Infant was not
to change their condition of poverty and marginalization. But faith helped them
recognize the “babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” as a “sign”
of the fulfilment of God’s promises for all human beings, “with whom he is
pleased” (Lk 2: 12, 14). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This, dear
friends, is what true joy consists in: it is feeling that our personal and
community existence has been visited and filled by a great mystery, the mystery
of God’s love. In order to rejoice we do not need things alone, but love and
truth: we need a close God who warms our hearts and responds to our deepest
expectations. This God is manifested in Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary.
Therefore that “Bambinello” which we place in a stable or a grotto is the
centre of all things, the heart of the world. Let us pray that every person,
like the Virgin Mary, may accept as the centre of his or her life the God who
made himself a Child, the source of true joy.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Advent, 12 December 2010</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this Third
Sunday of Advent, the Liturgy presents to us a passage from the Letter of St
James, which opens with this exhortation: “Be patient, therefore, brethren,
until the coming of the Lord” (Jas 5:7). It seems to me especially important,
in our day, to underline the value of constancy and persistence, virtues which
belonged to the normal baggage of our ancestors but today are less popular, in
a world which exalts, rather, the change and capacity to adapt oneself to ever
new and diverse situations. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Taking nothing
from these features, which are also human qualities, Advent calls us to develop
inner tenacity, resistance of the spirit, which enables us not to despair while
waiting for a good that is slow in coming, but on the contrary to prepare for
its coming with active trust. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Behold,” James
writes, “the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient
over it until it receives the early and the late rain. You also be patient.
Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand” (Jas 5:7-8). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The comparison
drawn with the farmer is very expressive, he has sown the field and has before
him several months of patient and constant waiting, but he knows that in the meantime
the seed completes its cycle, thanks to the autumn and spring rains. The farmer
is not a fatalist but the model of a mentality which unites faith and reason in
a balanced way. For on the one hand he knows the laws of nature and does his
work well, and on the other, he trusts in Providence, because certain
fundamental things are not in his hands but in the hands of God. Patience and
constancy are truly a synthesis between human commitment and confidence in God.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Establish your
hearts”, Scripture says. How can we do this? How can we strengthen our hearts,
already somewhat frail in themselves and rendered even more unstable by the
culture in which we are immersed. Help is not lacking; it is the Word of God.
In fact, while everything else passes and changes, the Word of the Lord is not
transient. If the events of life make us feel bewildered and every certainty
seems to crumble, we have a compass to guide us, we have an anchor to prevent
us from drifting away. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here the model
offered to us is that of the prophets, namely those people whom God called so
that they might speak in his name. The prophet finds his joy and strength in
the word of God and while humans often search for happiness in ways that prove
erroneous, he announces true hope, which does not disappoint because it is
founded on the fidelity of God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Every Christian,
by virtue of Baptism, has received prophetic dignity. May each one rediscover
and nourish it, by listening assiduously to the divine Word. May the Virgin
Mary, whom the Gospel calls blessed because she believed in the fulfilment of
the words of the Lord, obtain this for us (Lk 1:45).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL VISIT TO THE PARISH <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF SAINT MAXIMILIAN KOLBE IN <st1:place w:st="on">ROME</st1:place> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Third Sunday of Advent, 12 December 2010</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters of the Parish of San Massimiliano Kolbe,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">You are
deeply living your personal and community commitment to follow the Lord. Advent
is a strong invitation to everyone to let God come increasingly into our lives,
our houses, our neighbourhoods and our communities in order to have light in
the midst of the many shadows, in the numerous daily efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, I am very glad to be with you today to celebrate the Lord’s Day, the
Third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of joy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I
cordially greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Sector, your
Parish Priest, whom I thank for his words on behalf of you all, and the
Parochial Vicar. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
all those who are active in the parish context: the catechists and the members
of various groups including the <st1:street w:st="on">Neocatechumenal
Way</st1:street>. I deeply appreciate your decision to make
room for Eucharistic adoration and I thank you for the prayers you say for me
before the Most Blessed Sacrament. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would
like to extend my thoughts to all the inhabitants of the district, especially
the elderly, the sick and those who are alone or in difficulty. I remember each
and every one at this <st1:state w:st="on">Mass.</st1:state><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I join
you in admiring your new church and the parish buildings, and I wish to
encourage you by my presence to bring ever better into being that Church of
living stones which you yourselves are. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I know
of the many important evangelization projects that you are carrying out. I urge
all the faithful to make their own contribution to the edification of the
community, in particular in the field of catechesis, the liturgy and charity —
pillars of Christian life — in communion with the whole Diocese of Rome. No
community can live as a cell isolated from the diocesan context; instead the
community must be a living expression of the beauty of the Church which, under
the guidance of the Bishop — and in the parish, under the guidance of the
Parish Priest who acts in his place — journeys on in communion towards the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I
address a special thought to families, accompanying them with the wish that
they may totally fulfil their vocation to love, and with generosity and
perseverance. Even when difficulties arise in conjugal life and in the
relationship with their children, married couples must never cease to stay
faithful to that fundamental “yes” which they said before God and to each other
on their wedding day, remembering that faithfulness to one’s vocation demands
courage, generosity and sacrifice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your
community includes many families from Central and <st1:place w:st="on">Southern
Italy</st1:place> who have come in search of work and better standards of
living. As time has passed the community has grown and has changed, to a
certain extent, with the arrival of many people from the Eastern European
countries and from many other countries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the
basis of this practical situation in the parish, make an effort to grow
constantly in communion with all: it is important to create opportunities for
dialogue and to foster understanding among people from different cultures,
backgrounds and social conditions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet,
above all, it is necessary to try to involve them in Christian life, through a
pastoral care attentive to the true needs of each person. Here, as in every
parish, it is necessary to start with those who are “close” in order to reach
out to those who are “distant” so as to bring an evangelical presence to the
milieus of life and work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">All
must be able to find in the parish an adequate means of formation and must be
able to experience that community dimension which is a fundamental
characteristic of Christian life. In this way they will be encouraged to
rediscover the beauty of following Christ and of belonging to his Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May you
therefore be able to make a community with them all, united in listening to the
Word of God and in the celebration of the sacraments and of the Eucharist in
particular. In this regard the pastoral verification of the diocese that is
under way, on the theme: “Sunday Eucharist and the witness of charity”, is a
propitious opportunity to examine deeply and live better these two fundamental
components of the life and mission of the Church and of every individual
believer, that is, the Sunday Eucharist and the practice of charity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Gathered
round the Eucharist, it is easier to feel that the mission of every Christian
community is to take the message of God’s love to all human beings. This is why
it is important that the Eucharist always be at the heart of the faithful’s
life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would
also like to address a special word of affection and friendship to you, dear
children and young people who are listening to me, and to your peers who live
in this Parish. The Church expects much of you, of your enthusiasm, of your
capacity for looking ahead and of your desire for radicalism in life’s
decisions. May you feel you are real protagonists in the parish, putting your
fresh energies and your whole life at the service of God and of the brethren.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
brothers and sisters, next to the invitation to rejoice, today’s Liturgy, with
the words of St James that we have heard, also asks us to be constant and
patient in waiting for the Lord who comes and to be so together, as a
community, avoiding complaints and criticism (<i>see</i> Jas 5:7-10).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
Gospel we heard the question asked by John the Baptist who was in prison: John,
who had proclaimed the coming of the Judge who would change the world, and now
felt had that the world has remained the same. Thus he sends word to Jesus
asking: “Are you ‘He who is to come’, or shall we look for another?”. Is it you
or should we expect another? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
past two or three centuries many have asked: “But is it really you? Or must the
world be changed in a more radical manner? Will you not do it?”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And a
great tide of prophets, ideologists and dictators have come and said: “It is
not him! He did not change the world! It is we!”. And they created their
empires, their dictatorships, their totalitarianism which was supposed to
change the world. And they changed it, but in a destructive manner. Today we
know that of these great promises nothing remained but a great void and great
destruction. It was not they.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And
thus we must see Christ again and ask Christ: “Is it you?” The Lord, in his own
silent way, answers: “You see what I did, I did not start a bloody revolution,
I did not change the world with force; but lit many I, which in the meantime
form a pathway of light through the millenniums”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us
start here in our Parish with St Maximilian Kolbe, who offered to die of hunger
himself in order to save the father of a family. What a great light he became!
How much light shone from this figure and encouraged others to give themselves,
to be close to the suffering and the oppressed!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us
think of Damien de Veuster who was a father to lepers, and who lived and died <i>with
</i>and <i>for </i>lepers, and has thus brought light to this community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us
think of Mother Teresa, who gave so much light to people that, after a life
without light, they died with a smile because they were touched by the light of
God’s love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And
thus we shall be able to continue and we shall see, as the Lord said in his
answer to John, that it is not the violent revolution of the world, but rather
the silent light of the truth, of the goodness of God that is the sign of his
presence and gives us the certainty that we are loved to the end and are not
forgotten, that we are not a product of chance but of a will to love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus we
may live, we may feel God’s nearness. “God is close”, says today’s First
Reading, he is near us but we are often distant. Let us draw near, let us move
into the presence of his light, let us pray the Lord that through contact with
him in prayer we ourselves will become light for others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And
this is precisely also the meaning of the parish church: to enter here, to
enter into conversation, into contact with Jesus, with the Son of God, so that
we ourselves may become one of the smallest lights that he has lit to carry his
light into the world which feels it must be redeemed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Our
spirit must be open to this invitation and let us thus walk joyfully towards
Christmas, like the Virgin Mary who awaited the Redeemer’s birth in prayer,
with intimate and joyful trepidation. Amen!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Third Sunday of Advent, 11 December 201<em>1</em></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgical
texts for this Season of Advent renew the invitation to us to live in
expectation of Jesus and not to stop looking forward to his coming so as to
keep ourselves open and ready to encounter him. Heartfelt watchfulness, which
Christians are always called to practise in their daily life, characterizes in
particular this season in which we prepare joyfully for the mystery of
Christmas (see <i>Preface of Advent </i>II).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The external
environment proposes the usual commercial messages, although perhaps to a
lesser degree because of the economic crisis. Christians are asked to live
Advent without allowing themselves be distracted by the bright lights but
knowing how to give things their proper value and how to fix their inner gaze
on Christ. Indeed if we persevere in “watching in prayer, our hearts filled with
wonder and praise” (<i>ibid</i>.), our eyes will be able to recognize in him
the true light of the world that comes to dispel our gloom.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgy of
this Sunday, known as “<i>Gaudete</i>” Sunday, is a special invitation to us to
joyfulness, to a vigilance that is not sad but happy. “<i>Gaudete in Domino
semper</i>”, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
wrote: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4). True joy is not a fruit of “divertirsi”
[having a good time] understood in the etymological sense of the word <i>di-vertere</i>
(di-version), that is, shirking the commitments of life and one’s
responsibilities. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">True joy is
linked to something deeper. Of course, in the all too often frenetic pace of
daily life it is important to find time for rest and relaxation, but true joy
is linked to our relationship with God. Those who have encountered Christ in
their own lives feel a serenity and joy in their hearts that no one and no
situation can take from them. St Augustine understood this very well; in his
quest for truth, peace and joy, after seeking them in vain in many things he
concluded with his famous words: “and our heart is restless until it rests in
God” (see <i>Confessions</i>, I, 1, 1). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">True joy is not
merely a passing state of mind or something that can be achieved with the
person’s own effort; rather it is a gift, born from the encounter with the
living Person of Jesus and, making room within ourselves, from welcoming the
Holy Spirit who guides our lives. It is the invitation of the Apostle Paul who
says: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit
and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ (1 Thess 5:23). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Season
of Advent let us reinforce our conviction that the Lord has come among us and
ceaselessly renews his comforting, loving and joyful presence. We should trust
in him; as St Augustine says further, in the light of his own experience: the
Lord is closer to us than we are to ourselves: “<i>interior intimo meo et
superior summo meo”</i> (“higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost
self”) (<i>Confessions</i> III, 6, 11). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust
our journey to the Immaculate Virgin whose spirit is exulted in God our
Saviour. May she guide our hearts in joyful expectation of the coming of Jesus,
an expectation full of prayer and good works.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL VISIT TO THE ROMAN PARISH
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF “SANTA MARIA DELLE GRAZIE” IN
CASAL BOCCONE<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Third
Sunday of Advent, 11 December 201<em>1</em></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters of the Parish of Santa Maria della Grazie,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have heard
Isaiah’s prophesy, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has
anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted... to proclaim the year of
the Lord’s favour” (Is 61:1-2). These words spoken so many centuries ago, ring
out, in a very up-to-date way for us too, today, while we are halfway through
Advent and already look forward to the great Solemnity of Christmas. These are
words that revive hope, that prepare us to welcome the Lord’s salvation and
announce the inauguration of a season of grace and liberation.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Advent is
precisely a time of waiting, of hope and of preparation for the Lord’s coming.
The figure and preaching of John the Baptist invite us to make this commitment,
as we heard in the Gospel that has just been proclaimed (see Jn 1:6-8, 19-28).
John had withdrawn into the wilderness to live a very austere life and to
invite people to conversion, also by the example of his life. He conferred on
them a baptism of water, a single rite of penance which distinguished it from
the many rites of external purification of the sects of that time. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So who was this
man? Who was John the Baptist? The response he himself gave is surprisingly
humble. He was not the Messiah, he was not the light. He was neither Elijah
come back to the earth nor the great prophet awaited. He was the Forerunner, a
simple witness, totally subordinate to the One he proclaimed; a voice in the
wilderness, as in our day too, in the wilderness of the great cities of this
world, of the great absence of God, we need voices that simply announce to us “God
exists. He is always near, even if he seems absent”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">John the Baptist
was a voice in the wilderness and a witness to the light; and this moves our
hearts, for in this world where there are so many shadows, so much darkness, we
are all called to be witnesses of light. This is the mission of the Season of
Advent itself: to be witnesses of light, and we can only be this if we carry
the light within us, if we are not only certain that the light exists, but also
that we have seen a ray of light. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Church,
in God’s word, in the celebration of the sacraments, in the Sacrament of
Confession with the forgiveness that we receive, in the celebration of the
Blessed Eucharist where the Lord gives himself into our hands and hearts, we
touch the light and receive this mission: to bear witness today that there is
light, and to carry the light in our time. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, I am very glad to be with you on this beautiful, “<i>Gaudete</i>”
Sunday, the Sunday of joy that tells us that “even in the midst of so many
doubts and difficulties, joy exists because God exists and is with us!”.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I cordially
greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishop of the sector, your parish
priest, Fr Domenico Monteforte, whom I thank not only for his kind words to me
on behalf of you all, but also for the beautiful gift of the parish history.
And I greet the parochial vicar. I also greet the religious communities, the
Sisters, Apostles of the Consolata, the Religious Teachers Venerini and the
Guanellians; they are a precious presence in your parish and an important
spiritual and pastoral resource for the life of the community as witnesses of
light!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I also greet all
those who are involved in the parish context. I am referring to the catechists
— I thank them for their work — the members of the prayer group inspired by the
Renewal in the Holy Spirit and the young people of the Gioventù Ardente Mariana
Movement. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Next I would
like to extend my thoughts to all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood,
especially the elderly, the sick, those who are lonely or in difficulty,
without forgetting the large Filipino community which is well integrated and
plays an active part in the fundamental moments of community life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your parish came
into being in one of the typical suburbs of the Agro Romano. It was canonically
established in 1985 with this beautiful title: Santa Maria delle Grazie [St
Mary of Grace], it took its first steps in the 1960s when, at the initiative of
a group of Dominican Fathers led by the memorable Fr Gerard Reed, a small
chapel was set up in a family home that was later moved to larger premises and
served as the parish church until 2010, last year. In that year, in fact, as
you know the building in which we are celebrating the Eucharist was dedicated
precisely on 1 May. This new church is a privileged space for growing in the
knowledge and love of the One whom we shall welcome in a few days’ time in the
joy of his Birth.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As I look at
this church and at the parish buildings, I see them as the result of your patience,
dedication and love and I would like to encourage you with my presence to bring
into being, better and better, the Church of living stones which you yourselves
are. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Each one of you
must feel you are an element of this living building. The community is built
with the contribution that each one makes, with the commitment of all; and I am
thinking in a special way of the field of catechesis, that of the liturgy and
that of charity: pillars that support Christian life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yours is a young
community, I saw it in greeting your children. It is young because it is made
up of young families — especially with regard to the new settlements — and
because so many children and boys and girls live in it, thanks be to God! I
warmly hope that through the contribution of competent and generous people,
your educational commitment may develop ever better and that your parish, also
with the help of the Vicariate of Rome, may set up as soon as possible a
well-structured after-school recreation and prayer centre with sufficient space
for games and meeting-rooms, so as to meet the need of the young generations to
develop in faith and in a healthy sociability. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I congratulate
you on your work in preparing the boys and girls and young people to receive
the sacraments. The challenge we are facing consists in planning and proposing
a true and proper itinerary of formation in faith which involves all those who
are receiving Christian initiation, helping them not only to receive the
sacraments but to live them out, in order to be true Christians. This aim, <i>to
receive</i>, must be <i>to live</i>, as we heard in the First Reading: justice
must sprout, just as the seed sprouts from the ground. Live the sacraments so
that justice, law and love will sprout likewise.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this regard,
the diocesan pastoral work that is currently being reviewed and that concerns,
precisely, Christian initiation, is a favourable opportunity to deepen and live
the Sacraments we have already received — such as Baptism and Confirmation —
and those we continue to receive for nourishment on our journey of faith,
Penance and the Eucharist. For this reason, necessary in the first place is
attention to the relationship with God through listening to his word, through
your response to the word in prayer and through the gift of the Eucharist.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I know that in
your parish prayer meetings take place and <i>lectio divina</i> and that
Eucharistic adoration is organized. These are precious initiatives for
spiritual growth at the personal and community levels. I warmly urge more and
more of you to take part in them. In a special way I would like to recall the
importance and centrality of the Eucharist. May the centre of your Sunday be
Holy Mass which should be rediscovered and lived as a day of God and of the
community, a day on which to praise and celebrate the One who was born for us,
who died and rose for our salvation and asks us to live together joyfully and
to be a community open and ready to receive every person who is lonely or in
difficulty. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Do not lose your
sense of Sunday and be faithful to the Eucharistic gathering. The early
Christians were prepared to give their lives for this. They realized that this
is life and gives life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In coming to see
you I cannot but know that a great challenge is posed to your territory by
religious groups who claim to be the depositaries of the Gospel truth. In this
regard it is my duty to recommend you to be alert and to deepen your knowledge
of the reasons for faith and for the Christian message; so that you may
transmit it in a way that guarantees the authentic millenary tradition of the
Church. May you — as St Peter says — always be prepared “to make a defence to
any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet 3:15); put
into practice the language of love and brotherhood that is comprehensible to
all, but without forgetting the commitment to purifying and strengthening your
own faith in the face of the dangers and snares that may threaten it in these
times. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Overcome the
limitations of individualism, withdrawal into self and the fascination of
relativism that views any kind of behaviour as licit, and of the attraction
exercised by forms of religious sentiment that exploit the deepest needs and
aspirations of the human soul, offering prospects of easy but deceptive
gratification. Faith is a gift of God but demands of us a response, a decision
to follow Christ, not only when he heals and alleviates but also when he speaks
of love even to the point of self-gift.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Another point on
which I want to insist is the witnessing to charity that must characterize your
community life. In recent years you have seen it increase rapidly, in the
number of its members too, but you have also seen it help many people in
difficulty and in situations of hardship who need you, who need your material
aid, but also and above all need your faith and your testimony as believers.
Make sure that the face of your community is always able to express in practice
the love of God, who is rich in mercy, and invite people to approach him with
trust. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would like to
address a special word of affection and friendship to you, dear boys and girls
and young people who are listening to me, as well as to your peers who live in
this parish. History’s today and tomorrow and the future of faith are entrusted
especially to you who are the new generations. The Church expects much of your
enthusiasm, your ability to look ahead, to be inspired by ideals and your
desire for radicalism in the decisions of life. The parish is accompanying you
and I would like you also to feel my encouragement.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Brethren....
Rejoice always” (1 Thes 5:16). This invitation to joy which <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> addressed to the Christians of
Thessalonica in that time, also characterizes this Sunday, commonly known as “<i>Gaudete</i>”
Sunday. It resonates from the very first words of the Entrance Antiphon: “Rejoice
in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is at hand”; St Paul, in
prison, wrote these words to the Christians of Philippi (see Phil 4:4-5) and
also addresses them to us. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yes, we are glad
because the Lord is near us and in a few days, on Christmas night, we shall be
celebrating the mystery of his birth. Mary, who was the first to hear the Angel’s
invitation: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1:28), points out
to us the way to reach true joy, which comes from God. St Mary of Grace, Mother
of Divine Love, pray for us all. Amen!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, Third Sunday of Advent<em>, 16 December 2012</em></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel for
this Sunday of Advent presents once again the figure of John the Baptist, and
it depicts him while he is speaking to the people who come to him at the River
Jordan to be baptized. Since John, with incisive words, urges them all to
prepare themselves for the Messiah’s coming, some ask him, “What then shall we
do?” (Lk 3:10, 12, 14). These exchanges are very interesting and prove to be of
great timeliness.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first answer
is addressed to the crowd in general. The Baptist says, “He who has two coats,
let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise”
(v. 11). Here we can see a criterion of justice, motivated by charity. Justice
requires that the imbalance between the one who has more than enough and the
one who lacks the necessary be overcome; charity prompts us to be attentive to
others and to meet their needs, instead of seeking justification to defend one’s
own interests. Justice and charity are not in opposition, but are both
necessary and complete each other. “Love — <i>caritas </i>— will always prove
necessary, even in the most just society”, because “There will always be
situations of material need where help in the form of concrete love of
neighbour is indispensable” (Encyclical <i>Deus Caritas Est</i>, no. 28).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Then we see the
second answer, which is directed at some “publicans”, that is, tax-collectors
on behalf of the Romans. The publicans were already despised for this, and also
because they often made the most of their position to steal. The Baptist does
not ask them to change their profession, but to exact no more than what has been
established (see v. 13). The prophet, in the name of God, does not demand
exceptional acts, but first and foremost the just fulfilment of one’s duty. The
first step towards eternal life is always the observance of the Commandments;
in this case, the seventh one: You shall not steal (cf Ex. 20:15).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The third reply
concerns the soldiers, another class that enjoyed a certain authority, and was
thus tempted to abuse it. John says to the soldiers: “Rob no one by violence,
and be content with your wages” (v. 14). Here too the conversation begins with
honesty and with respect for others: an instruction that applies to everyone,
especially for those with greater responsibility.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On considering
this dialogue as a whole, we are struck by the great concreteness of John’s
words: since God will judge us according to our works, it is there, in our
behaviour, that we must show that we are doing his will. For this very reason,
the Baptist’s instructions are ever timely: even in our very complex world,
things would go much better if each person observed these rules of conduct.
Therefore let us pray to the Lord, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy,
that he may help us to prepare ourselves for Christmas, bearing the good fruits
of repentance (see Lk 3:8).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">VISIT
TO THE ROMAN PARISH OF</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“SAN
PATRIZIO AL COLLE PRENESTINO”</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Third
Sunday of Advent, 16 December 2012</i> </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters of San Patrizio,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am very happy
to visit you and to celebrate the Blessed Eucharist with you and for you. I
would first like to offer you a few thoughts in the light of the word of God
that we have heard. On this Third Sunday of Advent, known as “Gaudete” Sunday,
the Liturgy invites us to rejoice. Advent<i> </i>is a season of commitment and
conversion in preparation for the Lord’s coming, but today the Church gives us
a foretaste of the joy of Christmas that is now at hand. In fact Advent is also
a time of joy, because in this season expectation of the Lord’s coming is
awakened in the hearts of believers; looking forward to a person’s arrival is
always a cause of joy. This joyful dimension is present in the First of the
Bible Readings of this Sunday. The Gospel on the other hand, corresponds to the
other dimension that is characteristic of Advent: that of conversion with a
view to the epiphany of the Lord proclaimed by John the Baptist. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The First
Reading we have heard is an insistent invitation to rejoice. The passage begins
with the words “Sing aloud, O daughter of <st1:place w:st="on">Zion</st1:place>...
Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>” (Zeph 3:14); which is similar to
that of the Angel’s annunciation to Mary: “Hail, full of grace” (Lk 1:28). The
essential reason why the daughter of Zion can be joyful is expressed in the
affirmation we have just heard: “the Lord is in your midst” (Zeph
3:15, 17); this means literally “is in your womb”, with a clear reference
to the dwelling place of God in the Ark of the Covenant, always set in the
midst of the People of Israel. The prophet wishes to tell us that there is no
longer any reason for distrust, discouragement, sorrow, whatever the situation
that must be faced, because we are certain of the Lord’s presence which alone
suffices to calm and cheer hearts. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Prophet
Zephaniah, in addition, lets us know that this joy is reciprocal: we are
invited to rejoice, but the Lord also rejoices in his relationship with us;
indeed, the prophet writes: “he will exult over you with gladness, he will
renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (v. 17). The
joy that is promised in this prophetic text, will find its fulfilment in Jesus,
who is in the womb of Mary, the “Daughter of Zion”, and in this way dwelt among
us (cf Jn 1: 14). Indeed, in coming into the world he gives us his joy, just as
he himself confides to his disciples: “These things I have spoken to you, that
my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (Jn 15:11). Jesus brings
people salvation, a new relationship with God that overcomes evil and death,
and brings true joy in this presence of the Lord who comes to lighten our paths
that are all too often engulfed in shadows and in selfishness.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We can reflect
on whether we are really aware of this fact that the Lord is present among us,
that he is not a distant God but a God-with-us, a God in our midst who is with
us here, who is in the Blessed Eucharist, he is with us in the living Church
and we must be heralds of this presence of God. Thus God rejoices in us and we
can attain joy: God exists, God is good and God is close. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Second Reading
we have heard, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
invites the Christians of Philippi to rejoice in the Lord. Can we rejoice? And
why should we rejoice? <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
answers: because “the Lord is at hand” (Phil 4:5). In a few days we shall be
celebrating Christmas, the Feast of the coming of God who made himself a child
and our brother so as to be with us and to share in our human condition. We
must rejoice in his closeness, in his presence, and must seek ever better to
understand that he really is close, and thus be penetrated by the reality of
God’s goodness, joy at Christ being with us.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Paul says
forcefully in another of his Letters that nothing can separate us from the love
of God which was expressed in Christ. Sin alone can distance us from him, but
this is a factor of separation that we ourselves introduce into our
relationship with the Lord. Yet, even when we cut ourselves adrift, he does not
cease to love us and continues to be close with his mercy, with his readiness
to forgive and to embrace us in his love. Therefore, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> continues, we must never be anxious,
we can always set our requests, our needs, our worries before the Lord “by
prayer and supplication” (4:6). This is a great cause for joy: knowing that it
is always possible to pray to the Lord and that the Lord hears us, that God is
not distant, but really listens, he knows us; and knowing that he never rejects
our prayers even if he does not always answer as we would like, but that he
does answer. And the Apostle adds: pray “with thanksgiving” (<i>ibid</i>.). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The joy the Lord
communicates to us must encounter grateful love in us. Indeed, our joy is
complete when we recognize his mercy, when we become attentive to the signs of
his goodness, if we truly perceive that this goodness of God is with us and
thank him for all that we receive from him every day. Those who selfishly
welcome God’s gifts fail to find true joy; but the hearts of those who make God’s
gifts an opportunity to love him with sincere gratitude and to communicate his
love to others, are truly filled with joy. Let us remember that! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">After the two <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place>, let us come to
the Gospel. Today’s Gospel tells us that to receive the Lord who comes we must
prepare ourselves by looking clearly at our behaviour in life. John the Baptist
replies to the different people who ask him what they should do to be ready for
the Messiah’s coming (see Lk 3:10, 12, 14) that God asks for nothing
extraordinary but that each one live in accordance with the criteria of
solidarity and justice; without them we cannot prepare properly for the
encounter with the Lord. Therefore let us too ask the Lord what he expects of
us and what he wants us to do, and begin to understand that he does not demand
anything extraordinary but rather that we live our normal life with rectitude
and goodness.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Finally John the
Baptist points out that we must follow with faithfulness and courage. First of
all he denies that he himself is the Messiah and firmly proclaims: “I baptize
you with water; but he who is mightier than I is coming, the thong of whose
sandals I am not worthy to untie (v. 16). Here we note John’s deep humility in
recognizing that his mission is to prepare the way for Jesus. Saying “I baptize
you with water” cannot but make it clear that his action is symbolic. In fact
he cannot eliminate and forgive sins: baptizing with water can only indicate
that it is necessary to change one’s life. At the same time, John proclaims the
coming of the one who is “mightier than he” who “will baptize you with the Holy
Spirit and with fire” (<i>ibid</i>.). And, as we have heard, this great prophet
uses strong images to invite people to conversion; however this is not in order
to instil fear but rather to encourage them to receive God’s love in the best
possible way, as it alone can truly purify life. God makes himself a man like
us to give us a hope that is sure: if we follow him, if we are consistent in
living our Christian life, he will draw us to him, he will lead us to communion
with him; and there will be in our hearts true joy and true peace, even in
difficulty, even in moments of weakness.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, I
am glad to pray with you to the Lord who makes himself present in the Eucharist
to be with us always. I cordially greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary
Bishop of the Sector, Fr Fabio Fasciani, your parish priest, whom I thank for
his kind words to me on behalf of the community in which he explained to me the
situation of the parish and the spiritual wealth of parish life. I greet all
the priests present. I greet all those who promote the work of the parish: the
catechists, the choir members and the members of the various groups, and
likewise those who adhere to the <st1:street w:st="on">Neocatechumenal
Way</st1:street>, committed to the mission here. I see with joy
so many children who are following God’s word at various levels, preparing for
First Communion, for Confirmation and, after Confirmation, for life. Welcome! I
am happy to see a living Church here! I extend my thoughts to the Oblates of
Our Lady of the Rosary who live in the parish territory, and to all the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood, especially the elderly, the sick and those in
difficulty. I pray for each and every one in this Holy Mass.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your parish that
developed on the Prenestino Hill between the end of the 1960s and the
mid-1980s, after the initial difficulties due to the lack of structures and
services, equipped itself with a beautiful new church, inaugurated in 2007
after a long wait. May this sacred building therefore be a privileged space for
growing in knowledge and love of the One whom in a few days we shall welcome in
the joy of Christmas as Redeemer of the world and our Saviour. Do not fail to
come to see him often, to feel more forcefully his presence that gives
strength. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I rejoice in the
sense of belonging to your parish community which in the course of these years
has become ever more mature and consolidated. I encourage you to continue to
develop your pastoral co-responsibility in a perspective of authentic communion
among all those present, who are called to live complementarity in diversity.
In a special way I would like to remind you all of the importance and the
centrality of the Eucharist in personal and community life. May Holy Mass be
the centre of your Sunday. It should be rediscovered and lived as a day of God
and of the community, a day in which to praise and celebrate the One who died
and rose for our salvation and asks us to live together in the joy of a
community open and ready to accept every person who is lonely or in a difficult
situation. Likewise, I urge you to receive the sacrament of Reconciliation regularly,
especially in this season of Advent.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I know all that
you do to prepare children and young people for the sacraments of Christian
life. The Year of Faith, which we are living, must become an opportunity to
increase and consolidate the experience of catechesis, in such a way as to
permit the whole district to know and to deepen its knowledge of the Creed of
the Church and to meet the Lord as a living Person. I address a special thought
to families, in the hope that they may fulfil their vocation to love with
generosity and perseverance.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Pope also
wishes to address a special word of affection and friendship to you, dear boys
and girls and young people who are listening to me, and to your peers who live
in this parish. May you feel you have lead roles to play in the new
evangelization, putting your young energy, your enthusiasm and your talents at
the service of God and of others in the community.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and sisters, as we said at the beginning
of this celebration, today’s liturgy calls us to joy and conversion. Let us
open our spirit to this invitation; and let us hurry to meet the Lord who
comes, invoking and imitating St Patrick, a great evangelizer, and the Virgin
Mary who awaited and prepared silently and prayerfully for the Redeemer’s
birth. Amen! </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-16199208888807633422023-12-04T01:30:00.004-05:002023-12-04T01:30:00.150-05:00Reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0314: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Second Sunday of
Advent</b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI </b><b> </b></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Second Sunday of Advent, on 4 December 2005, 10 December
2006, 9 December 2007, 7 December 2008, 6 December 2009, 5 December 2010, 4
December 2011, and 9 December 2012. Here
are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
and one homily delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Advent, 4 December 2005 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this season
of Advent, while the Ecclesial Community is preparing for and celebrating the
great mystery of the Incarnation, it is invited to rediscover and deepen its
own personal relationship with God. The Latin word “<i>adventus</i>” refers to
the coming of Christ and brings to the fore God’s movement towards humanity, to
which each is called to respond with openness, expectation, seeking and
attachment. And as God is sovereignly free in revealing and giving himself
because he is motivated solely by love, so the human person is also free in
giving his or her own, even dutiful, assent: God expects a response of
love. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In these days,
the liturgy presents to us as a perfect model of this response the Virgin Mary,
whom this 8 December we will contemplate in the mystery of the Immaculate
Conception. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin is
the One who continues to listen, always ready to do the Lord’s will; she is an
example for the believer who lives in search of God. The Second Vatican Council
dedicated an attentive reflection to this topic as well as to the
relationship between truth and freedom. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In particular,
the Council Fathers approved, precisely 40 years ago, a Declaration on the
question of religious liberty, that is, the right of persons and of communities
to seek the truth and to profess their faith freely. The first words that give
this document its title are <i>“<span style="color: black;">dignitatis humanae</span>“: </i>religious liberty
derives from the special dignity of the human person, who is the only one of
all the creatures on this earth who can establish a free and conscious
relationship with his or her Creator. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“It is in
accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons, that is,
beings endowed with reason and free will..., are both impelled by their nature
and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth”
(<i>Dignitatis Humanae, </i>no. 2). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, the Second
Vatican Council reaffirms the traditional Catholic doctrine which holds that
men and women, as spiritual creatures, can know the truth and therefore have
the duty and the right to seek it (see <i>ibid., </i>no. 3). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Having laid
this foundation, the Council places a broad emphasis on religious liberty,
which must be guaranteed both to individuals and to communities with respect
for the legitimate demands of the public order. And after 40 years, this
conciliar teaching is still most timely. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Religious
liberty is indeed very far from being effectively guaranteed everywhere:
in certain cases it is denied for religious or ideological reasons; at other
times, although it may be recognizable on paper, it is hindered in effect by
political power or, more cunningly, by the cultural predomination of
agnosticism and relativism. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pray that
all human beings may completely fulfil the religious vocation they bear
engraved in their being. May Mary help us to recognize in the face of the Child
of Bethlehem, conceived in her virginal womb, the divine Redeemer who came into
the world to reveal to us the authentic face of God.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Advent, 10 December 2006 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This morning I
had the joy of dedicating a new parish church, which is named Our Lady Star of
Evangelization, in the <st1:place w:st="on">North Torrino</st1:place> district
of Rome. It is an event which, although in itself concerns that district,
acquires a symbolic significance within the liturgical season of Advent, while
we prepare to celebrate the Lord’s Birth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In these days
the liturgy constantly reminds us that “God comes” to visit his people, to
dwell in the midst of men and women and to form with them a communion of love
and life: a family. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">John’s Gospel
expresses the mystery of the Incarnation in this way: “And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us”; literally: “pitched his tent among us” (Jn 1: 14).
Does not perhaps the building of a church among the homes of a town or a city
district evoke this great gift and mystery? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The church
building is a concrete sign of the Church community, formed from the “living
stones” who are the believers, an image very dear to the Apostles. St Peter (see
I Pt 2: 4-5) and St Paul (see Eph 2: 20-22) emphasize how the “cornerstone” of
this spiritual temple is Christ and that, united to him and well compact, we
are also called to participate in the building of this living temple. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If God therefore
takes the initiative to come and dwell among men and it is always he who is the
principal author of this project, then it is true that he also does not want to
accomplish it without our active collaboration. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, to prepare
oneself for Christmas means to be committed to building the “dwelling of God
with men”. No one is excluded; everyone can and must contribute in order to
make this house of communion more spacious and beautiful. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of
time, it will be completed and it will be the “heavenly Jerusalem”: “Then I saw
a new heaven and a new earth”, one reads in the book of Revelation, “...I saw
the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband.... Behold, the dwelling of God is with men”
(Rv 21: 1-3). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Advent invites
us to cast a glance towards the “heavenly <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>”,
which is the goal of our earthly pilgrimage. At the same time, it exhorts us to
commit ourselves to prayer, conversion and good works, to welcome Jesus in our
life, to build together with him this spiritual edifice by which each one of us
- our families and our communities - is a precious stone. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Among all the
stones that form the heavenly <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>,
certainly the most resplendent and precious, because she is the closest of all
to Christ the cornerstone, is Mary Most Holy. Through her intercession, we pray
so that this Advent may be for the entire Church a time of spiritual
edification and therefore hasten the coming of God’s Kingdom.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL VISIT TO OUR LADY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">STAR OF EVANGELIZATION PARISH OF <st1:city w:st="on">ROME</st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Second Sunday of Advent, 10 December 2006<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
Brothers and Sisters of the <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Parish
of Our Lady Star of Evangelization, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am
pleased to be with you for the dedication of this beautiful new parish church:
the first that I have dedicated to the Lord since I took up office as Bishop of
Rome. The solemn liturgy for the dedication of a church is a moment of intense
and common spiritual joy for all God’s people who live in the area: I
wholeheartedly join in your joy today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
with affection the Cardinal Vicar of <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>,
Camillo Ruini, Bishop Paolino Schiavon, Auxiliary Bishop of the Southern
Sector, and Auxiliary Bishop Ernesto Mandara, Secretary of the Roman Commission
for the Preservation of Faith and for the Provision of New Churches in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>. I extend my deep
gratitude to them and to all who have contributed in various capacities to
making this new parish centre a reality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
church is being inaugurated during the Season of Advent, which the Diocese of
Rome for the past 16 years has dedicated to increasing awareness and collecting
funds in order to build new churches on the city’s outskirts. It comes in
addition to more than 50 parish complexes that have already been built in
recent years, thanks to the financial efforts of the Vicariate, the
contributions of numerous faithful and the attention of the civil Authorities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I ask
all the faithful and citizens of good will to persevere generously in this task
so that neighbourhoods that are still without a church may have their parish
centre as soon as possible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Especially
in our broadly secularized social context, the parish is a beacon that radiates
the light of the faith and thus responds to the deepest and truest desires of
the human heart, giving meaning and hope to the lives of individuals and
families. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet
your parish priest, the priests who work with him, the members of the Parish
Pastoral Council and the other lay people involved in the various pastoral
activities. I greet each one of you with affection. Your community is lively
and young! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is
young because it was founded in 1989, and especially because of the effective
beginning of its activities. It is young because in this <st1:place w:st="on">North
Torrino</st1:place> district the majority of families are young, so children
and young people abound. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus,
the laborious but fascinating task of educating children in the life and joy of
faith is incumbent on your community. I am confident that together, in a spirit
of sincere communion, you will be involved in preparation for the sacraments of
Christian initiation and will help your children, who from now on will find
here welcoming premises and adequate structures to grow in love and in fidelity
to the Lord. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
brothers and sisters, we have dedicated a church - a building in which God and
man desire to meet: a house that unites us, in which we are attracted to God,
and being with God unites us with one another. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
three <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place>
of this solemn liturgy are intended to show us under very different aspects the
meaning of a sacred building as a house of God and a house of men and women. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have
before us, in these three Readings that we have heard, three important
themes: the Word of God, which gathers people together, in the First
Reading; the city of God, which in the Second Reading appears at the same time
as a bride; and lastly, the profession of Jesus Christ as the Son of God Incarnate,
expressed first of all by Peter, who thus founded the living Church which is
manifest in the physical building of every church. Let us now listen more
attentively to what the three <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place>
tell us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First
of all, there is the account of the rebuilding of the People of Israel, of the
Holy City Jerusalem and of the temple subsequent to their return from the
Exile. After the great optimism of the homecoming, the people - on arrival -
found themselves facing a wasteland. How were they to rebuild it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
external rebuilding, so necessary, could not proceed unless the people were
first rebuilt as a people - unless a common criterion of justice was developed
that would unite them all and regulate the life and activity of each one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
people who had returned needed, so to speak, a “constitution”, a fundamental
law for their life. And they knew that this constitution, if it was to be just
and lasting, if it was to lead definitively to justice, could not be the result
of their own autonomous intention. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">True
justice cannot be invented by man: rather, it has to be discovered. In
other words, it must come from God, who is justice. The Word of God, therefore,
rebuilds the city. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What
the <st1:place w:st="on">Reading</st1:place>
tells us is a reminder of the Sinai event. It brings to life the event of
Sinai: the holy Word of God, which shows men and women the way of justice, is
solemnly read and explained. Thus, it becomes present as a force from within
which builds the country anew. This happens on New Year’s Day. God’s Word
ushers in a new year, it ushers in a period of history. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Word of God is always a renewing force which gives meaning and order to our
time. At the end of the <st1:place w:st="on">Reading</st1:place>
is joy: people are invited to the solemn banquet; they are urged to make
a gift to those who have nothing and thereby to unite everyone in the joyful
communion that is based on the Word of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This <st1:place w:st="on">Reading</st1:place> ends in these
beautiful words: the joy of the Lord is our strength. I believe that it is not
difficult to see that these words of the Old Testament are really true for us
today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
church building exists so that God’s Word may be listened to, explained and
understood by us; it exists so that God’s Word may be active among us as a
force that creates justice and love. It exists in particular so that in it the
celebration in which God wants humanity to participate may begin, not only at
the end of time but already today. It exists so that the knowledge of justice
and goodness may be awakened within us, and there is no other source for
knowing and strengthening this knowledge of justice and goodness other than the
Word of God. It exists so that we may learn to live the joy of the Lord who is
our strength. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us
pray to the Lord to gladden us with his Word; to gladden us with faith, so that
this joy may renew us and the world! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus,
may the reading of the Word of God, the renewal of the revelation of Sinai
after the Exile, serve then for communion with God and among men and women.
This communion is expressed in the rebuilding of the temple, the city and its
walls. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Word of God and the rebuilding of the city in the<i> Book of Nehemiah </i>are
closely connected: on the one hand, without the Word of God there is
neither city nor community; on the other, the Word of God does not remain only
a discourse but leads to constructing, it is a Word that builds. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
following texts from the Book of Nehemiah on the construction of city walls
seem at first reading to be very practical and even prosaic in their details.
However, they constitute a truly spiritual and theological theme. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A
prophetic word of that age states that God himself built a wall of fire to
encircle <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>
(see Zec 2: 8ff.). God himself is the city’s living defence, and not only
in that time but always. Thus, the Old Testament account introduces us into the
vision of <i>the Apocalypse, </i>which we heard as the Second Reading. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would
like to stress two aspects of this vision. The city is the bride. It is not
merely a building of stone. All that is said about the city in grandiose images
refers to something alive: to the Church of living stones, where even now
the future city is being formed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It
refers to the new people who, in the breaking of the bread, become one body
with Christ (see I Cor 10: 16ff.). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Just as
in their love man and woman become “one flesh”, so Christ and humanity gathered
in the Church become through Christ’s love “one spirit” (see I Cor 6: 17;
Eph 5: 29ff.). Paul calls Christ the new, the last Adam: definitive
man. And he calls him “a life-giving spirit” (I Cor 15: 45). With him, we
become one; with him, the Church becomes a life-giving spirit. The holy City,
where there is no longer a temple because it is inhabited by God, is the image
of this community that is formed from Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
other aspect that I wanted to mention are the 12 foundations of the city, above
which are the names of the Twelve Apostles. The foundations of the city are not
built of material stones but of living beings - they are the Apostles, with the
witness of their faith. The Apostles remain the pillars that support the new
city, the Church, through the ministry of Apostolic Succession: through
the Bishops. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
candles we light on the walls of the church in the places where anointings will
take place are reminiscent precisely of the Apostles: their faith is the true
light that illumines the Church and at the same time, the foundation that
supports the Church. The Apostles’ faith is not something antiquated. Since it
is a truth, it is the foundation on which we stand, the light by which we see. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We come
to the Gospel. How often have we heard it! Peter’s profession of faith is the
steadfast foundation of the Church. With Peter, let us say to Jesus: “You are
Christ, the Son of the living God”. The Word of God is not only a word. In
Jesus Christ it is present in our midst as a Person. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is
the deepest purpose of this sacred building’s existence: the church exists
so that in it we may encounter Christ, Son of the living God. God has a Face.
God has a Name. In Christ, God was made flesh and gave himself to us in the
mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Word is flesh. It is given to us under the appearances of bread and thus truly
becomes the Bread on which we live. We live on Truth. This Truth is a
Person: he speaks to us and we speak to him. The Church is the place of
our encounter with the Son of the living God and thus becomes the place for the
encounter among ourselves. This is the joy that God gives us: that he
made himself one of us, that we can touch him and that he dwells among us. The
joy of God is our strength. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus,
the Gospel finally introduces us into the period in which we live today. It
leads us towards Mary, whom we honour as the Star of Evangelization. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At a
crucial time in history, Mary offered herself, her body and soul, to God as a
dwelling place. In her and from her the Son of God took flesh. Through her the
Word was made flesh (see Jn 1: 14). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus,
it is Mary who tells us what Advent is: going forth to meet the Lord who
comes to meet us; waiting for him, listening to him, looking at him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary
tells us why church buildings exist: they exist so that room may be made
within us for the Word of God; so that within us and through us the Word may
also be made flesh today. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus,
we greet her as the Star of Evangelization: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray
for us so that we may live the Gospel. Help us not to hide the light of the
Gospel under the bushel of our meagre faith. Help us by virtue of the Gospel to
be the light of the world, so that men and women may see goodness and glorify
the Father who is in Heaven (see Mt 5: 14ff.). Amen!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Advent, 9 December 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yesterday, the
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the liturgy invited us to turn our gaze
to Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, Star of Hope for every person. Today,
the Second Sunday of Advent, it presents to us the austere figure of the
Precursor, whom the Evangelist Matthew introduces as follows: “In those days
came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of <st1:place w:st="on">Judea</st1:place>:
“Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand’“ (Mt 3: 1-2). His mission was to
prepare and clear the way for the Lord, calling the people of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region> to
repent of their sins and to correct every injustice. John the Baptist, with
demanding words, announced the imminent judgement: “Every tree, therefore, that
does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt 3: 10).
Above all, John put people on guard against the hypocrisy of those who felt
safe merely because they belonged to the Chosen People: in God’s eyes, he said,
no one has reason to boast but must bear “fruit that befits repentance”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">While the Advent
journey continues, while we prepare to celebrate the Birth of Christ, John the
Baptist’s appeal for conversion rings out in our communities. It is a pressing
invitation to open our hearts to receive the Son of God, who comes among us to
make manifest the divine judgement. The Father, writes John the Evangelist,
judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son because he is the Son of
Man (see Jn 5: 22, 27). And it is today, in the present, that our future
destiny is being played out. It is our actual conduct in this life that decides
our eternal fate. At the end of our days on earth, at the moment of death, we
will be evaluated on the basis of our likeness - or lack of it - to the Child
who is about to be born in the poor grotto of Bethlehem, because he is the
criterion of the measure that God has given to humanity. The Heavenly Father,
who expressed his merciful love to us through the birth of his Only-Begotten
Son, calls us to follow in his footsteps, making our existence, as he did, a
gift of love. And the fruit of love is that fruit which “befits repentance”, to
which John the Baptist refers while he addresses cutting words to the Pharisees
and Sadduccees among the crowds who had come for Baptism. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Through the
Gospel, John the Baptist continues to speak down the centuries to every
generation. His clear, harsh words are particularly salutary for us, men and
women of our time, in which the way of living and perceiving Christmas
unfortunately all too often suffers the effects of a materialistic mindset. The
“voice” of the great prophet asks us to prepare the way of the Lord, who comes
in the external and internal wildernesses of today, thirsting for the living
water that is Christ. May the Virgin Mary guide us to true conversion of heart,
so that we may make the necessary choices to harmonize our mentalities with the
Gospel.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Advent, 7 December 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For a week we
have been experiencing the liturgical Season of Advent: a season of openness to
the future of God, a time of preparation for holy Christmas when he, the Lord,
who is the absolute innovation, came to dwell among this fallen humanity to
renew it from within. A message full of hope resounds in the liturgy of Advent,
inviting us to raise our gaze to the ultimate horizon but at the same time to
recognize the signs of the God-with-us in the present. On this Second Sunday of
Advent the Word of God acquires the moving tones of the so-called “Second
Isaiah”, who announced to the Israelites, tried by decades of bitter exile in
Babylon, liberation at last: “Comfort, comfort my people”, the Prophet says in
God’s name. “Speak tenderly to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>,
and cry to her that her warfare is ended” (Is 40: 1-2). This is what the Lord
wishes to do in Advent: to speak to the heart of his people and through it to
the whole of humanity, to proclaim salvation. Today too the Church raises her
voice: “Make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Is 40: 3). For the
peoples worn out by poverty and hunger, for the hosts of refugees and for all
who are suffering grave and systematic violations of their rights, the Church
stations herself as a sentinel on the lofty mountain of faith and proclaims: “Behold
your God! Behold, the Lord God comes with might” (Is 40: 10). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This prophetic
announcement is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who with his preaching and, later,
with his death and Resurrection, brought the ancient promises to fulfilment,
revealing an even deeper and more universal perspective. He inaugurated an
exodus that was no longer solely earthly, in history, hence temporary, but
rather radical and definitive: the transition from the kingdom of evil to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, from the dominion of sin and death
to that of love and life. Therefore, human hope goes beyond the legitimate
expectations of social and political liberation because what Jesus began is a
new humanity that comes “from God” but, at the same, time germinates on our
earth, to the extent that it lets itself be fertilized by the Lord’s Spirit.
Thus it is a question of fully entering the logic of faith: believing in God,
in his plan of salvation, and at the same time, striving to build his Kingdom.
Justice and peace are in fact gifts of God, but require men and women to be the
“good ground” ready to receive the good seed of his Word. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first fruits
of this new humanity is Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary. She, the Virgin
Mother, is the “way” that God prepared for himself in order to come into the
world. With all her humility, Mary walks at the head of the new <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
in its exodus from all exile, from all oppression, from all moral and material
slavery, toward the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells”
(2 Pt 3: 13). Let us entrust to her maternal intercession the expectation of
peace and salvation of the people of our time.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Advent, 6 December 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this Second
Sunday of Advent the Liturgy presents to us the Gospel passage in which St
Luke, prepares the scene, so to speak, on which Jesus is about to enter and
begin his public ministry (see Lk 3: 1-6). The Evangelist focuses the spotlight
on to John the Baptist, who was the Precursor of the Messiah, and with great
precision outlines the space-time coordinates of his preaching. Luke writes “In
the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being
governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip
tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of
Abilene, in the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came
upon John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness” (Lk 3: 1-2). Two things
attract our attention. The first is the abundance of references to all the
political and religious authorities of <st1:city w:st="on">Palestine</st1:city>
in A.D. 27-28. The Evangelist evidently wanted to warn those who read or hear
about it that the Gospel is not a legend but the account of a true story, that
Jesus of Nazareth is a historical figure who fits into that precise context.
The second noteworthy element is that after this ample historical introduction,
the subject becomes “the word of God”, presented as a power that comes down
from Heaven and settles upon John the Baptist. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Tomorrow will be
the liturgical Memorial of St Ambrose, the great Bishop of Milan. I take from
him a comment on this Gospel text: “The Son of God”, he writes, “before
gathering the Church together, acts first of all in his humble servant. Thus St
Luke rightly says that the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the
wilderness, because the Church was not born from people, but from the Word” (<i>Espos.
on St Luke’s Gospel</i> 2, 67). Here then is the meaning: the Word of God is
the subject that moves history, inspires the prophets, prepares the way for the
Lord and convokes the Church. Jesus himself is the divine Word who was made
flesh in Mary’s virginal womb: in him God was fully revealed, he told us, and
gave us his all, offering to us the precious gifts of his truth and mercy. St
Ambrose then continues in his commentary: “Thus the Word came down so that the
earth, which was previously a desert, might produce its fruit for us” (<i>ibid.</i>).
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
the most beautiful flower that blossomed from the word of God is the Virgin
Mary. She is the first-fruit of the Church, God’s garden on this earth. However,
while Mary is Immaculate we shall celebrate her as such the day after tomorrow
the Church is continually in need of purification, because sin lays snares for
all her members. In the Church a conflict is always present between the desert
and the garden, between sin that renders the ground arid and grace that waters
it so that it may produce abundant fruits of holiness. Therefore let us pray to
the Mother of the Lord that she may help us, in this <span style="color: black;">Season of Advent</span>, to “rectify” our lives,
letting ourselves be guided by the word of God.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St Peter’s Square, Second Sunday of Advent, 5 December 2010</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Gospel of this Second Sunday of Advent (Mt 3:1-12), presents to us the figure
of St John the Baptist, who, a famous prophecy of Isaiah says (<i>see</i>
40:3), withdrew to the desert of Judaea and, with his preaching, called the
people to convert so as to be ready for the coming of the Messiah, now at hand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Gregory the Great commented that John the Baptist “preaches upright faith and
good works… so that the force of grace may penetrate, the light of the truth
shine out, the paths to God be straightened and honest thoughts be born in the
mind after hearing the word that guides us to goodness” (<i>Hom. in Evangelia</i>,
XX, 3, <i>CCL</i> 141, 155). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Precursor of Jesus, situated between the Old Covenant and the New, is like a
star that heralds the rising of the Sun, of Christ, the One, that is, upon whom
— according to another of Isaiah’s prophecies — “the Spirit of the Lord shall
rest... the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord” (Is 11:2).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
Season of Advent we too are called to listen to God’s voice, that cries out in
the desert of the world through the Sacred Scriptures, especially when they are
preached with the power of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, faith grows all the
stronger the more it allows itself to be illumined by the divine word, by “whatever”,
as the Apostle Paul reminds us, “was written in former days [and] written for
our instruction, that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the
Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom 15:4). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
model of listening is the Virgin Mary: “As we contemplate in the Mother of God
a life totally shaped by the word, we realize that we too are called to enter
into the mystery of faith, whereby Christ comes to dwell in our lives. Every
Christian believer, St Ambrose reminds us, in some way interiorly conceives and
gives birth to the word of God” (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation <i>Verbum
Domini, </i>no. 28).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, “Our salvation rests on a coming”, as Romano Guardini wrote (<i>La
santa notte. Dall’Avvento all’Epifania, </i><st1:place w:st="on">Brescia</st1:place> 1994, p. 13). “The Saviour came from
God’s freedom…. Thus the decision of faith consists... in welcoming the One who
draws near” (<i>ibid.,</i> p. 14). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“The
Redeemer”, he added, “comes to every human being: in his joy and his anguish,
in his clear knowledge, in his perplexities and temptations, in all that
constitutes his nature and his life” (<i>ibid., </i>p. 15).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us ask the Virgin Mary, in
whose womb the Son of the Most High dwelled and whom we shall be celebrating
next Wednesday, 8 December, on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, to
sustain us on this spiritual journey to welcome with faith and with love the
coming of the Saviour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>BENEDICT XVI</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 4 December 2011</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</i>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
Sunday marks the second stage of the Season of Advent. This period of the
liturgical year brings into the limelight the two figures who played a
preeminent role in the preparation for the historic coming of the Lord Jesus:
the Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist. Today’s text from Mark’s Gospel
focuses on the latter. Indeed, it describes the personality and mission of the
Precursor of Christ (see Mk 1:2-8). Starting with his external appearance, John
is presented as a very ascetic figure: he was clothed in camel-skin and his
food was locusts and wild honey that he found in the Judaean desert (see Mk
1:6).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus
himself once compared him to the people “in kings’ houses” who are “clothed in
soft raiment” (Mt 11:8). John the Baptist’s style must remind all Christians to
opt for a lifestyle of moderation, especially in preparation for the
celebration of the Christmas festivity, in which the Lord, as St Paul would
say, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his
poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With
regard to John’s mission, it was an extraordinary appeal to conversion: his
baptism “is connected with an ardent call to a new way of thinking and acting,
but above all with the proclamation of God’s judgment” (<i>Jesus of Nazaret</i>h,
I, p. 14; English translation, Doubleday, New York, 2007) and by the imminent
appearance of the Messiah, described as “he who is mightier than I”, who “will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1:7, 8).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">John’s
appeal therefore goes further and deeper than a lifestyle of moderation: it
calls for inner conversion, based on the individual’s recognition and
confession of his or her sin. While we are preparing for Christmas, it is
important that we reenter ourselves and make a sincere examination of our life.
Let us permit ourselves to be illuminated by a ray of light that shines from <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, the light of
the One who is “the Mightiest” who made himself lowly, “the Strongest” who made
himself weak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">All
four Evangelists describe John the Baptist’s preaching with reference to a
passage from the Prophet Isaiah: “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the
way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Is 40:3).
Mark also inserted a citation from another prophet, Malachi, who said: “Behold,
I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way” (Mk 1:2; see
Mal 3:1).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These
references to Old Testament Scriptures “envisage a saving intervention of God,
who emerges from his hiddenness to judge and to save; it is for this God that
the door is to be opened and the way made ready” (<i>Jesus of Nazareth, </i>I,<i>
op. cit</i>., p. 15). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us
entrust to Mary, the Virgin of expectation, our journey towards the Lord who
comes, as we continue on our Advent itinerary in order to prepare our hearts
and our lives for the coming of the Emmanuel, God-with-us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Second Sunday of Advent, 9 December 2012</em></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Season of
Advent the liturgy highlights in a special way two figures who prepare for the
coming of the Messiah: the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. Today St Luke
presents the latter to us and does so with characteristics that differ from
those of the other Evangelists. “All four Gospels place the figure of John the
Baptist at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and they reveal him as the one who
prepared the way for Jesus. St Luke presents the connection between the two
figures and their respective missions at an earlier stage.... Even in
conception and birth, Jesus and John are linked together” (<i>Jesus of
Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives</i>, p. 14). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This setting
helps us to realize that John, as the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, both from
priestly families, is not only the last of the prophets but also represents the
entire priesthood of the Old Covenant and thus prepares people for the
spiritual worship of the New Covenant inaugurated by Jesus (see <i>ibid</i>.,
pp. 18-19). In addition, Luke discredits all the mythical interpretations that
are often made of the Gospels, by putting the Baptist’s life in its historical
context and by writing: “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
Pontius Pilate being governor... in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas”
(Lk 3:1-2). The great event, the birth of Christ, which his contemporaries did
not even notice, fits into this historical framework. For God the great figures
of history serve as a frame for the lowly!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">John the Baptist
is described as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for
the Lord, make his paths straight” (Lk 3:4). The voice proclaims the word, but
in this case the Word of God comes first, since the word of God came to John,
the son of Zechariah, in the wilderness (see Lk 3:2). He therefore plays an
important role but always in terms of Christ. <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> comments: “John is the voice,
but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning (see Jn 1:1). John is the
voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives
for ever. Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there
is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the
word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart” (<i>In ev. Johannis
tractatus</i> 293, 3: pl 38, 1328).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today it is up
to us to listen to that voice so as to make room for Jesus, the Word who saves
us, and to welcome him into our hearts. Let us prepare ourselves in this Season
of Advent to see, with the eyes of faith in the humble Grotto of Bethlehem, God’s
salvation (see Lk 3:6). In the consumer society in which we are tempted to seek
joy in things, the Baptist teaches us to live in an essential manner, so that
Christmas may be lived not only as an external feast, but as the feast of the
Son of God who came to bring men and women peace, life and true joy.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust our journey to encounter the Lord who
comes, to the motherly intercession of Mary, the Virgin of Advent, in order to
be ready to receive, in our heart and in our whole life, the Emmanuel,
God-with-us. </span></div>
</div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACTUS-ESSENDI-PRINCIPLE-THOMAS-AQUINAS/dp/0578522179" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Actus essendi and the Habit of the First Principle in Thomas Aquinas</span></a></i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;"> </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-5192694278187939872023-11-27T01:30:00.004-05:002023-11-27T01:30:00.147-05:00Reflections on the First Sunday of Advent by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0313: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>First Sunday of
Advent</b><b> </b></span><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />by </b><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Pope Benedict XVI</b><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </b><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the First Sunday of Advent, on 27 November 2005, 3 December
2006, 2 December 2007, 30 November 2008, 29 November 2009, 28 November 2010, 27
November 2011, and 2 December 2012. Here
are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
and nine homilies delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 27 November 2005 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First
Sunday of Advent</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Advent begins
this Sunday. It is a very evocative religious season because it is interwoven
with hope and spiritual expectation: every time the Christian community
prepares to commemorate the Redeemer’s birth, it feels a quiver of joy which to
a certain extent it communicates to the whole of society. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In Advent,
Christians relive a dual impulse of the spirit: on the one hand, they raise
their eyes towards the final destination of their pilgrimage through history,
which is the glorious return of the Lord Jesus; on the other, remembering with
emotion his birth in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>,
they kneel before the Crib. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The hope of
Christians is turned to the future but remains firmly rooted in an event of the
past. In the fullness of time, the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary: “Born
of a woman, born under the law”, as the Apostle Paul writes (Gal 4:4). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Gospel
invites us to stay on guard as we await the final coming of Christ. “Look
around you!”, Jesus says. “You do not know when the master of the house is
coming” (Mk 13:35). The short parable of the master who went on a journey and
the servants responsible for acting in his place highlights how important it is
to be ready to welcome the Lord when he suddenly returns. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Christian
community waits anxiously for his “manifestation”, and the Apostle Paul,
writing to the Corinthians, urges them to trust in God’s fidelity and to live
so as to be found “blameless” (see 1 Cor 1:7-9) on the day of the Lord. Most
appropriately, therefore, the liturgy at the beginning of Advent puts on our
lips the Psalm: “Show us, O Lord, your kindness, and grant us your salvation” (see
Ps 85[84]:8). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We might say
that Advent is the season in which Christians must rekindle in their hearts the
hope that they will be able with God’s help to renew the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this regard I
would also like to remember today the Constitution of the Second Vatican
Council, <i>Gaudium et Spes,</i> on the Church in the Modern World: it is a
text deeply imbued with Christian hope. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am referring
in particular to no. 39, entitled “New Heavens and a New Earth”. In it we read:
“We are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new earth in which
righteousness dwells (see 2 Cor 5:2; II Pt 3:13).... Far from diminishing our
concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on,
for it is here that the body of a new human family grows”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, we will
find the good fruits of our hard work when Christ delivers to the Father his
eternal and universal Kingdom. May Mary Most Holy, Virgin of Advent, obtain
that we live this time of grace in a watchful and hardworking way while we
await the Lord. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FIRST
VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, 26 November 2005</i> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,<b> </b></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With the
celebration of First Vespers of the First Sunday in Advent we are beginning a
new liturgical year. In singing the Psalms together, we have raised our hearts
to God, placing ourselves in the spiritual attitude that marks this season of
grace: “vigilance in prayer” and “exultation in praise” (see<b><i> </i></b><i>Roman
Missal, </i>Advent Preface, II/A). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Taking as our model
Mary Most Holy, who teaches us to live by devoutly listening to the Word of
God, let us reflect on the short Bible Reading just proclaimed. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It consists of
two verses contained in the concluding part of the First Letter of St Paul to
the Thessalonians (I <i>Thes</i> 5: 23-24). The first expresses the Apostle’s
greeting to the community: the second
offers, as it were, the guarantee of its fulfilment. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The hope expressed
is that each one may be made holy by God and preserved irreproachable in his
entire person - “spirit, soul and body” - for the final coming of the Lord
Jesus; the guarantee that this can happen is offered by the faithfulness of God
himself, who will not fail to bring to completion the work he has begun in
believers. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This First
Letter to the Thessalonians is the first of all <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>’s Letters, written probably in the
year 51. In this first Letter we can feel, more than in the others, the Apostle’s
pulsating heart, his paternal, indeed we can say maternal, love for this new
community. And we also feel his anxious concern that the faith of this new
Church not die, surrounded as she was by a cultural context in many regards in
opposition to the faith. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, Paul ends
his Letter with a hope, or we might almost say with a prayer. The content of
the prayer we have heard is that they [the Thessalonians] should be holy and
irreproachable to the moment of the Lord’s coming. The central word of this
prayer is “coming”. We should ask ourselves what does “coming of the Lord”
mean? In Greek it is “parousia”, in Latin “adventus”, “advent”, “coming”. What
is this “coming”? Does it involve us or not? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To understand
the meaning of this word, hence, of the Apostle’s prayer for this community and
for communities of all times - also for us - we must look at the person through
whom the coming of the Lord was uniquely brought about: the Virgin Mary. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary belonged to
that part of the People of Israel who in Jesus’ time were waiting with
heartfelt expectation for the Saviour’s coming. And from the words and acts
recounted in the Gospel, we can see how she truly lived steeped in the Prophets’
words; she entirely expected the Lord’s coming. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">She could not,
however, have imagined how this coming would be brought about. Perhaps she
expected a coming in glory. The moment when the Archangel Gabriel entered her
house and told her that the Lord, the Saviour, wanted to take flesh in her,
wanted to bring about his coming through her, must have been all the more
surprising to her. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We can imagine
the Virgin’s apprehension. Mary, with a tremendous act of faith and obedience,
said “yes”: “I am the servant of the Lord”. And so it was that she became
the “dwelling place” of the Lord, a true “temple” in the world and a “door”
through which the Lord entered upon the earth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have said
that this coming was unique: “the” coming of the Lord. Yet there is not
only the final coming at the end of time: in a certain sense the Lord
always wants to come through us. And he knocks at the door of our hearts:
are you willing to give me your flesh, your time, your life? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is the
voice of the Lord who also wants to enter our epoch, he wants to enter human
life through us. He also seeks a living dwelling place in our personal lives.
This is the coming of the Lord. Let us once again learn this in the season of
Advent: the Lord can also come among us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore we can
say that this prayer, this hope, expressed by the Apostle, contains a fundamental
truth that he seeks to inculcate in the faithful of the community he founded
and that we can sum up as follows: God calls us to communion with him,
which will be completely fulfilled in the return of Christ, and he himself
strives to ensure that we will arrive prepared for this final and decisive
encounter. The future is, so to speak, contained in the present, or better, in
the presence of God himself, who in his unfailing love does not leave us on our
own or abandon us even for an instant, just as a father and mother never stop
caring for their children while they are growing up. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Before Christ
who comes, men and women are defined in the whole of their being, which the
Apostle sums up in the words “spirit, soul and body”, thereby indicating the
whole of the human person as a unit with somatic, psychic and spiritual
dimensions. Sanctification is God’s gift and his project, but human beings are
called to respond with their entire being without excluding any part of
themselves. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is the Holy
Spirit himself who formed in the Virgin’s womb Jesus, the perfect Man, who
brings God’s marvellous plan to completion in the human person, first of all by
transforming the heart and from this centre, all the rest. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, the entire
work of creation and redemption which God, Father and Son and Holy Spirit,
continues to bring about, from the beginning to the end of the cosmos and of
history, is summed up in every individual person. And since the first coming of
Christ is at the centre of the history of humanity and at its end, his glorious
return, so every personal existence is called to be measured against him - in a
mysterious and multiform way - during the earthly pilgrimage, in order to be
found “in him” at the moment of his return. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May Mary Most
Holy, the faithful Virgin, guide us to make this time of Advent and of the
whole new liturgical year a path of genuine sanctification, to the praise and
glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 3 December 2006 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would like
once again to thank the Lord, together with you, for the Apostolic Journey
which I made to <st1:place w:st="on">Turkey</st1:place>
in these past few days: I felt accompanied and sustained by the prayer of the
entire Christian community. My cordial thanks to all! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Next Wednesday,
at the General Audience, I will have the opportunity to speak more expansively
about this unforgettable spiritual and pastoral experience, which I hope will
bear fruits of good for an ever more sincere cooperation among all Christ’s
disciples and a profitable dialogue with Muslim believers. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am now eager
to renew my gratitude to all those who organized the Visit and helped in
various ways to ensure that it went peacefully and fruitfully. I address a special
thought to the Turkish Authorities and to the friendly Turkish People who gave
me a welcome worthy of their traditional spirit of hospitality. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I would like
here to recall above all the beloved Catholic community which lives on Turkish
territory. I am thinking of it this Sunday as we enter the Season of Advent. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I was able to
meet and celebrate Holy Mass with these brothers and sisters of ours who live
in conditions that are frequently difficult. It is truly a small flock,
variegated, rich in enthusiasm and faith, which we might say lives the Advent
experience constantly and vividly, sustained by hope. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In Advent, the
liturgy frequently repeats and assures us, as if to overcome our natural
diffidence, that God <i>“comes”</i>:<i> </i>he comes to be with us in every situation
of ours, he comes to dwell among us, to live with us and within us; he comes to
fill the gaps that divide and separate us; he comes to reconcile us with him
and with one another. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He comes into
human history to knock at the door of every man and every woman of good will,
to bring to individuals, families and peoples the gifts of brotherhood, harmony
and peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is why
Advent is par excellence the season of hope in which believers in Christ are
invited to remain in watchful and active waiting, nourished by prayer and by
the effective commitment to love. May the approaching Nativity of Christ fill
the hearts of all Christians with joy, serenity and peace!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To live this
Advent period more authentically and fruitfully, the liturgy urges us to look
at Mary Most Holy and to set out in spirit together with her towards the
Bethlehem Grotto. When God knocked at the door of her young life, she welcomed
him with faith and love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In a few days we
will contemplate her in the luminous mystery of her Immaculate Conception. Let
us allow ourselves to be attracted by her beauty, a reflection of divine glory,
so that “the God who comes” will find in each one of us a good and open heart
that he can fill with his gifts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF FIRST VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Saturday, 2 December 2006 </i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The first
antiphon of this evening’s celebration is presented as the opening of the
Advent Season and re-echoes as the antiphon of the entire liturgical year. Let
us listen to it again:<b> </b>“Proclaim to the peoples: God our Saviour is
coming”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the beginning
of a new yearly cycle, the liturgy invites the Church to renew her proclamation
to all the peoples and sums it up in two words <i>“God comes</i>”. These words,
so concise, contain an ever new evocative power. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pause a
moment to reflect: it is not used in the past tense - God has come, - nor in
the future - God will come, - but in the present: “God comes”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At a closer look,
this is a continuous present, that is, an ever-continuous action: it happened,
it is happening now and it will happen again. In whichever moment, “God comes”.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The verb “to
come” appears here as a theological verb, indeed theological, since it says something
about God’s very nature. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Proclaiming that
“God comes” is equivalent, therefore, to simply announcing God himself, through
one of his essential and qualifying features: his being the <i>God-who-comes. </i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Advent calls
believers to become aware of this truth and to act accordingly. It rings out as
a salutary appeal in the days, weeks and months that repeat: Awaken! Remember
that God comes! Not yesterday, not tomorrow, but today, now! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The one true
God, “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, is not a God who is there in
Heaven, unconcerned with us and our history, but he is the-God-who-comes. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He is a Father
who never stops thinking of us and, in the extreme respect of our freedom,
desires to meet us and visit us; he wants to come, to dwell among us, to stay
with us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">His “coming” is
motivated by the desire to free us from evil and death, from all that prevents
our true happiness. God comes to save us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Fathers of
the Church observe that the “coming” of God - continuous and, as it were,
co-natural with his very being - is centred in the <i>two principal comings of
Christ: </i>his Incarnation and his glorious return at the end of time (see
Cyril of Jerusalem, <i>Catechesis </i>15,1: <i>PG </i>33, 870). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Advent
Season lives the whole of this polarity. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the first days,
the accent falls on the expectation of the Lord’s Final Coming, as the texts of
this evening’s celebration demonstrate. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With Christmas
approaching, the dominant note instead is on the commemoration of the event at <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>, so that we may
recognize it as the “fullness of time”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Between these
two “manifested” comings it is possible to identify a third, which St Bernard
calls “intermediate” and “hidden”, and which occurs in the souls of believers
and, as it were, builds a “bridge” between the first and the last coming. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“In the first”,
St Bernard wrote, “Christ was our redemption; in the last coming he will reveal
himself to us as our life: in this lies our repose and consolation” (<i>Discourse
5 on Advent, </i>1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The archetype
for that coming of Christ, which we might call a “spiritual incarnation”, is
always Mary. Just as the Virgin Mother pondered in her heart on the Word made
flesh, so every individual soul and the entire Church are called during their
earthly pilgrimage to wait for Christ who comes and to welcome him with faith
and love ever new. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgy of
Advent thus casts light on how the Church gives voice to our expectation of
God, deeply inscribed in the history of humanity; unfortunately, this
expectation is often suffocated or is deviated in false directions. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As a Body
mystically united to Christ the Head, the Church is a sacrament, that is, a
sign and an effective instrument of this waiting for God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To an extent
known to him alone, the Christian community can hasten his Final Coming,
helping humanity to go forth to meet the Lord who comes. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And she does
this first of all, but not exclusively, with prayer. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Next, essential
and inseparable from prayer are “good works”, as the prayer for this First
Sunday of Advent declares, and in which we ask the Heavenly Father to inspire
in us “the desire to go with good works” to Christ who comes. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
perspective, Advent is particularly suited to being a season lived in communion
with all those who - and thanks be to God they are numerous - hope for a more
just and a more fraternal world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
commitment to justice, people of every nationality and culture, believers and
non-believers, can to a certain extent meet. Indeed, they are all inspired by a
common desire, even if their motivations are different, for a future of justice
and peace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Peace is the
goal to which the whole of humanity aspires! For believers “peace” is one of
the most beautiful names of God, who wants all his children to agree with one
another, as I also had the opportunity to recall on my Pilgrimage in <st1:place w:st="on">Turkey</st1:place>
in the past few days. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A hymn of peace
rang out in Heaven when God became man and was born of a woman in the fullness
of time (see Gal 4: 4). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us therefore
begin this new Advent - a time granted to us by the Lord of time - by
reawakening in our hearts the expectation of the God-who-comes and the hope
that his Name will be hallowed, that his Kingdom of justice and peace will
come, that his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us allow the
Virgin Mary, Mother of the God-who-comes and Mother of Hope, to guide us in
this waiting. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May she whom we
will celebrate as Immaculate in a few days obtain for us that we be found holy
and immaculate in love at the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom,
together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be praise and glory for ever and
ever. Amen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 2 December 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With this first
Sunday of Advent a new liturgical year begins: the People of God begin again on
the way to living the mystery of Christ in history. Christ is the same
yesterday, today and for ever (see Heb 13: 8); history, instead, changes and
requires constant evangelization; it needs to be renewed from within and the
only true novelty is Christ: he is its fulfilment, the luminous future of
humanity and of the world. Risen from the dead, Jesus is the Lord to whom God
subjects all enemies, including death itself (see 1 Cor 15: 25-28). Advent is
therefore the propitious time to awaken in our hearts the expectation of he “who
is and who was and who is to come” (Rv 1: 8). The Son of God has already come
to <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
about 20 centuries ago, he comes in each moment in the soul and in the
community disposed to receive him, he will come again at the end of time “to
judge the living and the dead”. The believer is therefore always vigilant,
inspired by the intimate hope of encountering the Lord, as the Psalm says: “I
wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the
Lord more than watchmen for the morning” (Ps 130[129]: 5-6). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Sunday is
therefore a day specially suited to offering the entire Church and to all men
and women of good will my second Encyclical, which I wanted to dedicate
precisely to the theme of Christian hope. It is entitled <i>Spe Salvi, </i>because
it opens with the expression <i>“Spe salvi facti sumus - </i>in hope we were
saved” (Rm 8: 24). In this, as in other passages of the New Testament, the word
“hope” is strictly connected with the word “faith”. It is a gift that changes
the life of the one who receives it, as the experience of so many men and women
saints demonstrates. In what does this hope consist, so great and so “trustworthy”,
to make us say that <i>in it </i>we have “salvation”? In essence it consists in
the knowledge of God, in the discovery of the heart of the good and merciful
Father. Jesus, with his death on the Cross and his Resurrection, has revealed
his Face to us, the face of a God so great in love as to communicate to us an uncrushable
hope that not even death can break, because the life of the one who entrusts
himself to this Father opens itself to the prospect of eternal beatitude. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The development
of modern science has always confined faith and hope to the private and individual
sphere, so that today it appears in a clear and sometimes dramatic way that man
and the world need God - the true God! - otherwise, they remain deprived of
hope. Science contributes much to the good of humanity, but it is not able to
redeem it. Man is redeemed by love, which makes one’s personal and social life
good and beautiful. This is why the great hope, the full and definitive one, is
guaranteed by God who is love, by God who has visited us and has given us life
in Jesus, and who will return at the end of time. We hope in Christ, we await
him! With Mary, his Mother, the Church goes to meet her Spouse: she does so
with works of charity, because hope, like faith, is demonstrated in love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A good Advent to
all!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF FIRST VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, 1st December 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Advent is, par
excellence, the season of hope. Every year this basic spiritual attitude is
reawakened in the hearts of Christians, who, while they prepare to celebrate
the great Feast of Christ the Saviour’s Birth, revive the expectation of his
glorious second coming at the end of time. The first part of Advent insists
precisely on the<i> parousia, </i>the final coming of the Lord. The antiphons
of these First Vespers are all oriented, with different nuances, to this
perspective. The short <st1:place w:st="on">Reading</st1:place>
from the <i>First Letter to the Thessalonians </i>(5: 23-34) refers explicitly
to the final coming of Christ using precisely the Greek term <i>parousia </i>(see
v. 23). The Apostle urges Christians to keep themselves sound and blameless,
but above all encourages them to trust in God, who “is faithful” (v. 24) and
will not fail to bring about this sanctification in all who respond to his
grace. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This entire
Vespers liturgy is an invitation to hope, pointing on the horizon of history to
the light of the Saviour who comes: “on that day a great light will appear”
(Antiphon 2); “the Lord will come with great might” (Antiphon 3); “his
splendour fills the whole world” (<i>Magnificat </i>Antiphon). This light,
which shines from the future of God, was already manifest in the fullness of
time; therefore, our hope does not lack a foundation but is supported by an
event situated in history, which at the same time exceeds history: the event
constituted by Jesus of Nazareth. The Evangelist John applies to Jesus the
title of “light”: it is a title that belongs to God. Indeed, in the Creed we
profess that Jesus Christ is “God from God, Light from Light”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I wanted to dedicate
my second Encyclical, which was published yesterday, to the theme of hope. I am
pleased to offer it in spirit to the entire Church on this First Sunday of
Advent, so that, during preparation for Holy Christmas, the communities and
individual faithful can read and meditate upon it to rediscover <i>the beauty
and depth of Christian hope</i>. This, in fact, is inseparably bound to
knowledge of the Face of God, the Face which Jesus, the Only-Begotten Son,
revealed to us with his Incarnation, his earthly life and his preaching, and
especially with his death and Resurrection. True and steadfast hope is founded
on faith in God Love, the Merciful Father who “so loved the world that he gave
his Only Son” (Jn 3: 16), so that men and women and with them all creatures might
have life in abundance (see Jn 10: 10). Advent, therefore, is a favourable time
for the rediscovery of a hope that is not vague and deceptive but certain and
reliable, because it is “anchored” in Christ, God made man, the rock of our
salvation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From the outset,
as becomes clear in the New Testament and especially in the Letters of the
Apostles, a new hope distinguishes Christians from those who live in pagan
religiosity. In writing to the Ephesians, <st1:place w:st="on">St
Paul</st1:place> reminds them that before embracing faith in
Christ, they had “no hope and [were] without God in the world” (2: 12). This
appears an especially apt description for the paganism of our day: in
particular, we might compare it with the contemporary nihilism that corrodes
the hope in man’s heart, inducing him to think that within and around him
nothingness prevails: nothing before birth and nothing after death. In fact, if
God is lacking, hope is lacking. Everything loses its “substance”. It is as if
the dimension of depth were missing and everything were flattened out and
deprived of its symbolic relief, its “projection” in comparison with mere
materiality. At stake is the relationship between existence here and now and
what we call the “hereafter”: this is not a place in which we end up after
death; on the contrary, it is the reality of God, the fullness of life towards
which every human being is, as it were, leaning. God responded to this human
expectation in Christ with the gift of hope. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Man is the one
creature free to say “yes” or “no” to eternity, that is, to God. The human
being is able to extinguish hope within him, eliminating God from his life. How
can this be? How can it happen that the creature “made for God”, intimately
oriented to him, the creature closest to the Eternal One, can deprive himself
of this richness? God knows the human heart. He knows that those who reject him
have not recognized his true Face, and so he never ceases to knock at our door
like a humble pilgrim in search of hospitality. This is why the Lord grants
humanity new time: so that everyone may manage to know him! This is also the
meaning of a new liturgical year which is beginning: it is a gift of God, who
once again wishes to reveal himself to us in the mystery of Christ, through the
Word and the Sacraments. He wants to speak to humanity and to save the people
of today through the Church. And he does so by going out to meet them in order “to
seek and to save the lost” (Lk 19: 10). In this perspective, the celebration of
Advent is the answer of the Church-Bride to the ever new initiative of God the
Bridegroom, “who is and who was and who is to come” (Rv 1: 8). God offers to
humanity, which no longer has time for him, further time, a new space in which
to withdraw into itself in order to set out anew on a journey to rediscover the
meaning of hope. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here, then, is
the surprising discovery: my, our hope is preceded by the expectation which God
cultivates in our regard! Yes, God loves us and for this very reason expects
that we return to him, that we open our hearts to his love, that we place our
hands in his and remember that we are his children. This attitude of God always
precedes our hope, exactly as his love always reaches us first (see I Jn 4:
10). In this sense Christian hope is called “theological”: God is its source,
support and end. What a great consolation there is in this mystery! My Creator
has instilled in my spirit a reflection of his desire of life for all. Every
person is called to hope, responding to the expectations that God has of him.
Moreover, experience shows us that it is exactly like this. What keeps the
world going other than God’s trust in humankind? It is a trust reflected in the
hearts of the lowly, the humble, when they strive daily to do their best
through difficulties and labours, to do that little bit of good which is
nonetheless great in God’s eyes: in the family, in the work place, at school,
in the various social contexts. Hope is indelibly engraved in the human heart
because God our Father is life, and for eternal life and beatitude we are made.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Every child born
is a sign of trust in God and man and a confirmation, at least implicit, of the
hope in a future open to God’s eternity that is nourished by men and women. God
has responded to this human hope, concealing himself in time as a tiny human
being. <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>
wrote: “We might have thought that your Word was far distant from union with
man, if this Word had not become flesh and dwelt among us” (Conf. X, 43, 69,
cited in<i> Spe Salvi,</i> no. 29). Thus, let us allow ourselves to be guided
by the One who in her heart and in her womb bore the Incarnate Word. O Mary,
Virgin of expectation and Mother of hope, revive the spirit of Advent in your
entire Church, so that all humanity may start out anew on the journey towards
Bethlehem, from which it came, and that the Sun that dawns upon us from on high
will come once again to visit us (see Lk 1: 78), Christ our God. Amen.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO “<st1:city w:st="on">ST JOHN</st1:city> THE BAPTIST” <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">ROMAN</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">HOSPITAL</st1:placename></st1:place></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SOVEREIGN MILITARY HOSPITALLER ORDER OF <st1:place w:st="on">MALTA</st1:place> <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First
Sunday of Advent, 2 December 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>“Let us go to
the house of the Lord!”. </i>These words that we repeated in the response of
the Responsorial Psalm clearly express the feelings that fill our hearts today,
the First Sunday of Advent. The reason why we can go ahead joyfully, as the
Apostle Paul has exhorted us, lies in the fact that our salvation is now at
hand. The Lord is coming! With this knowledge we set out on the journey of Advent,
preparing ourselves to celebrate with faith the extraordinary event of the Lord’s
birth. In the coming weeks, day after day the liturgy will offer for our
reflection Old Testament texts that recall the lively, constant desire that
kept alive in the Jewish people the expectation of the Messiah’s coming.
Watchful in prayer, let us too seek to prepare our hearts to receive the Lord,
who will come to show us his mercy and give us his salvation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Precisely during
this time of waiting, Advent is a season of hope, and it is to Christian hope
that I wished to dedicate my second Encyclical, officially presented the day
before yesterday; it begins with the words St Paul addressed to the Christians
of Rome: “<i>Spe salvi facti sumus </i>- in hope we were saved” (Rom 8: 24). In
the Encyclical, I write among other things that “we need the greater and lesser
hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great
hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who
encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by
ourselves, cannot attain” (no. 31). May the certainty that God alone can be our
steadfast hope enliven us all, gathered here this morning in this house where
illness is combated with the support of solidarity. And I would like to make
the most of my Visit to your hospital, managed by the Association of the
Italian Knights of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, to present the
Encyclical in spirit to the Christian community of Rome, and especially to
those who, like you, are in direct contact with suffering and illness, for
precisely through suffering like the sick do we have need of hope, the
certainty that God exists and does not abandon us, that he lovingly takes us by
the hand and accompanies us. It is a text I invite you to examine deeply, to
find in it the reasons for this “trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can
face our present: the present, even if it is arduous” (no. 1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, “May the God of hope who fills us with all joy and peace in faith
through the power of the Holy Spirit be with you all!”. With this wish which
the priest addresses to the assembly at the beginning of Holy Mass, I offer you
my cordial greeting. I greet first of all the Cardinal Vicar, Camillo Ruini,
and Cardinal Pio Laghi, Patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the
Prelates and priests present and the chaplains and Sisters who serve here. I
greet with respect His Most Eminent Highness Fra Andrew Bertie, Prince and
Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, whom I thank for the
sentiments he has expressed on behalf of the management, the administrative,
health-care and nursing staffs and all those who in their various capacities
work in this hospital. I extend my greeting to the distinguished Authorities,
with a special thought for the Health-care Director as well as the Patients’
Representative, whom I thank for the words they addressed to me at the
beginning of the Celebration. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But my most
affectionate greeting is for you, dear sick people, and for your relatives who
share your anxieties and hopes. The Pope is spiritually close to you and
assures you of his daily prayers; he invites you to find support and comfort in
Jesus and never to lose trust. The Advent liturgy will repeat to us throughout
the coming weeks not to tire of calling on him; it will exhort us to go forth
to meet him, knowing that he himself comes constantly to visit us. In trial and
in sickness, God mysteriously visits us, and if we abandon ourselves to his
will, we can experience the power of his love. Precisely because they are
inhabited by people troubled by suffering, hospitals and clinics can become
privileged places to witness to Christian love, which nourishes hope and
inspires resolutions of fraternal solidarity. In the Collect we prayed: “O God,
inspire in us the determination to meet with good works your Christ who comes”.
Yes! Let us open our hearts to every person, especially if he or she is in
difficulty, because by doing good to those in need we prepare to welcome Jesus,
who, in them, comes to visit us. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, this is what you seek to do in this hospital, where everyone’s
concern focuses on the professional and loving acceptance of the patients, the
preservation of their dignity and the commitment to improve the quality of
their life. Down the centuries the Church has made herself particularly “close”
to the suffering. Your praiseworthy Sovereign Military Order of Malta has
chosen to share in this spirit: from the very outset it was dedicated to the
assistance of pilgrims in the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy Land</st1:place> with a
Hospice-Infirmary. While it pursued its aim of the defence of Christianity, the
Sovereign Military Order of Malta spared no effort in treating the sick,
especially the poor and the outcast. This hospital is also a testimony of this
fraternal love. Having come into existence in the 1970s, it has today become a
stronghold with a high standard of technology and a home of solidarity, where
side by side with the health-care staff numerous volunteers work with generous
dedication. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Knights of
the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, dear doctors, nurses and all who work
here, you are all called to carry out an important service to the sick and to
society, a service that demands self-denial and a spirit of sacrifice. In every
sick person, whoever he or she may be, may you be able to recognize and serve
Christ himself; make them perceive with your acts and words the signs of his
merciful love. To carry out this “mission” well, endeavour, as St Paul
instructs us in the Second Reading, to “put on the armour of light” (Rom 13:
12), which consists in the Word of God, the gifts of the Spirit, the grace of
the Sacraments, the theological and cardinal virtues; fight evil and abandon
sin that darkens our life. At the beginning of a new liturgical year, let us
renew our good resolutions of evangelical life. “It is full time now for you to
wake from sleep” (Rom 13: 11), the Apostle urges; it is time to convert, to
throw off the lethargy of sin, to prepare ourselves confidently to welcome “the
Lord who comes”. It is for this reason that Advent is a season of prayer and
watchful waiting. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel
passage that has just been proclaimed exhorts us to be “watchful”, which is
among other things the key word of the whole of this liturgical period: “Watch,
therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming” (Mt 24: 42).
Jesus, who came among us at Christmas and will return in glory at the end of
time, does not tire of visiting us continuously in everyday events. He asks us
to be alert to perceive his presence, his advent, and recommends that we watch
and wait for him since his coming is not programmed or foretold but will be
sudden and unexpected. Only those who are alert are not taken by surprise. He
warns: may it not happen to you as in Noah’s day, when men ate and drank
heedlessly and were swept away unprepared by the flood (see Mt 24: 37-38). What
does the Lord want to make us understand with this warning, other than we must
not let ourselves be absorbed by material realities and concerns to the point
of being ensnared by them? We must live in the eyes of the Lord with the
conviction that he can make himself present. If we live in this way, the world
will become better. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Watch,
therefore”. Let us listen to Jesus’ Gospel invitation and prepare ourselves to
relive with faith the mystery of the Redeemer’s birth, which filled all the
world with joy; let us prepare ourselves to welcome the Lord in his constant
coming to us in the events of life, in joy and in pain, in health and in
sickness; let us prepare ourselves to meet him at his definitive coming. His
nearness is always a source of peace, and if suffering, a legacy of human
nature, sometimes becomes unbearable, with the Saviour’s advent “suffering -
without ceasing to be suffering - becomes, despite everything, a hymn of praise”
(<i>Spe Salvi, </i>no. 37). Comforted by these words, let us continue the
Eucharistic Celebration, invoking upon the sick, their relatives and all who
work in this hospital and in the entire Order of the Knights of Malta the
motherly protection of Mary, the Virgin of waiting and hope, as also of the joy
which already exists in this world, because when we feel the closeness of the
living Christ, there the remedy to suffering and his joy is already present.
Amen.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 30 November 2008</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, with the
First Sunday of Advent, we begin a new liturgical year. This season invites us
to reflect on the dimension of time, which always exerts great fascination over
us. However, after the example of what Jesus loved to do, I wish to start with
a very concrete observation: we all say that we do not have enough time,
because the pace of daily life has become frenetic for everyone. In this regard
too, the Church has “good news” to bring: God gives us <i>his</i> time. We
always have little time; especially for the Lord, we do not know how or,
sometimes, we do not want to find it. Well,<i> God has time for us! </i>This is
the first thing that the beginning of a liturgical year makes us rediscover
with ever new amazement. Yes, God gives us his time, because he entered history
with his Word and his works of salvation to open it to eternity, to make it
become a covenantal history. In this prospective, already in itself time is a
fundamental sign of God’s love: a gift that man, as with everything else, is
able to make the most of or, on the contrary, to waste; to take in its
significance or to neglect with obtuse superficiality. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Then there are
the three great “points” in time, which delineate the history of salvation: at
the beginning, Creation; the Incarnation-Redemption at the centre and at the
end the “parousia”, the final coming that also includes the Last Judgment. However,
these three moments should not be viewed merely in chronological succession. In
fact, Creation is at the origin of all things but it also continues and is
actuated through the whole span of cosmic becoming, until the end of time. So
too, although the Incarnation-Redemption occurred at a specific moment in
history the period of Jesus’ journey on earth it nevertheless extends its
radius of action to all the preceding time and all that is to come. And in
their turn, the final coming and the Last Judgment, which were decisively
anticipated precisely in the Cross of Christ, exercise their influence on the
conduct of the people of every age. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgical
season of Advent celebrates the coming of God in its two moments: it first
invites us to reawaken our expectation of Christ’s glorious return, then, as
Christmas approaches, it calls us to welcome the Word made man for our
salvation. Yet the Lord comes into our lives continually. How timely then, is
Jesus’ call, which on this First Sunday is powerfully proposed to us: “Watch!”
(Mk 13: 33, 35, 37). It is addressed to the disciples but also to everyone,
because each one, at a time known to God alone, will be called to account for
his life. This involves a proper detachment from earthly goods, sincere repentance
for one’s errors, active charity to one’s neighbour and above all a humble and
confident entrustment to the hands of God, our tender and merciful Father. The
icon of Advent is the Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus. Let us invoke her so that
she may help us also to become an extension of humanity for the Lord who comes.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF FIRST VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St
Peter’s Basilica, Saturday, 29 November 2008</i> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With this evening
liturgy, we begin the itinerary of a new liturgical year, entering into the
first of its seasons: Advent. In the biblical reading that we have just heard,
taken from the First Letter to the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul uses
precisely this word: “coming”, which in Greek is <i>parusia </i>and <i>adventus
</i>in Latin (1 Thes 5: 23). According to the common tradition of this text,
Paul urges the Christians of Thessalonica to keep themselves blameless “<i>for</i>
the coming” of the Lord. However, in the original text one reads <i>“in</i> the
coming” (εν τη παρουσια), almost as if the advent of the Lord were more so than
a future point in time a spiritual place in which to walk already in the
present, while waiting, and in which one is indeed perfectly preserved in every
personal dimension. In fact, it is exactly this that we live out in the
liturgy. By celebrating the liturgical seasons we actualize the mystery in this
case the Lord’s coming as it were “walking in it” towards its full realization
at the end of time, but already drawing sanctifying virtue from it, since the
last times have already begun with Christ’s death and Resurrection. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The word that
sums up this particular state, in which one awaits something that is to be
manifested but of which one also already has a glimpse and a foretaste, is “hope”.
Advent is the spiritual season of hope par excellence, and in it the whole
Church is called to become hope, for herself and for the world. The whole
organism of the Mystical Body acquires, so to speak, the “colour” of hope. The
whole People of God continue on their journey, attracted by this mystery: that
our God is “the God who comes” and calls us to go to meet him. How? In the
first place in that universal form of hope and expectation which is prayer,
which is eminently expressed in the Psalms, human words in which God himself
has placed and continually places the invocation of his coming on the lips and
in the hearts of believers. Let us therefore reflect for a few moments on two
of his Psalms which we have just prayed and which are consecutive in the
biblical Book: Psalms 141 and 142, according to the Jewish numbering. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“I have called
to you, Lord; make hasten to help me! / Hear my voice, when I cry to you. / Let
my prayer arise before you like incense, / the raising of my hands like an
evening oblation” (Ps 141[140]: 1-2). Thus begins the first Psalm of the First
Vespers for the first week of the Psalter: words which, at the beginning of
Advent, acquire a new “colour”, because the Holy Spirit makes them resound ever
anew within us in the Church on her way between the time of God and human
times. “Lord, hasten to help me!”. It is the cry of someone who feels he is in
grave danger but it is also the cry of the Church amid the many threats that
surround her, that threaten her holiness, the irreproachable integrity of which
the Apostle Paul speaks which instead must be preserved for the Lord’s coming.
And in this invocation the cry of all the just also resounds, of all those who
want to resist evil, the seduction of an iniquitous well-being, of pleasures
offensive to human dignity and to the condition of the poor. At the beginning
of Advent the Church’s liturgy once again makes this cry her own, and raises it
to God “like incense” (v. 2). The evening offering of incense is in fact a
symbol of prayer, of the outpouring of hearts turned to God, to the Most High,
as well as “the raising of... hands like an evening oblation” (v. 2). Material
sacrifices, as it also took place in the Jewish temple, are no longer offered
in the Church, but the spiritual offering of prayer is raised, joined to that
of Jesus Christ who is at the same time Sacrifice and Priest of the new and
eternal covenant. In the cry of the Mystical Body we recognize the very voice
of the Head: the Son of God who has taken upon himself our trials and our
temptations, to give us the grace of his victory. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
identification of Christ with the Psalmist is particularly evident in the
second Psalm (142). Here, every word, every invocation, makes one think of
Jesus in his passion, and in particular of his prayer to the Father in <st1:place w:st="on">Gethsemane</st1:place>. In his first coming, with the Incarnation,
the Son of God wanted to share fully in our human condition. Of course, he did
not share in sin, but for our salvation suffered all its consequences. In
praying Psalm 142 the Church relives every time the grace of this compassion,
of this “coming” of the Son of God in human anguish so deeply as to plumb its
depths. The Advent cry of hope then expresses from the outset and very
powerfully, the full gravity of our state, of our extreme need of salvation. It
is as if to say: we await the Lord not in the same way as a beautiful
decoration upon a world already saved, but as the only way of liberation from a
mortal danger and we know that he himself, the Liberator, had to suffer and die
to bring us out of this prison (see v. 8). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In short, these
two Psalms shelter us from any temptation to escape or flee from reality; they
preserve us from a false hope that might desire to enter Advent and move
towards Christmas forgetting the tragedy of our personal and collective
existence. In fact, a trustworthy hope that is not deceptive, can only be a “Paschal”
hope, as the canticle of the Letter to the Philippians reminds us every
Saturday evening, with which we praise the Incarnate Christ, crucified, Risen
and our universal Lord. Let us turn our gaze and our heart to him, in spiritual
union with the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Advent. Let us place our hand in hers
and enter joyfully into this new time of grace that God gives as a gift to his
Church for the good of all humanity. Like Mary and with her maternal help, let
us make ourselves docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, so that the God of
peace may sanctify us totally, and the Church become a sign and instrument of hope
for all men. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO
THE BASILICA OF SAINT LAWRENCE OUTSIDE THE WALLS</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ON
THE OCCASION OF THE 1750th ANNIVERSARY </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE MARTYRDOM OF THE HOLY DEACON<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">First
Sunday of Advent, 30 November 2008 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today on the
First Sunday of Advent, we enter that four-week Season with which a new
liturgical year begins and that immediately prepares us for the Feast of
Christmas, the memorial of the Incarnation of Christ in history. Yet, the
spiritual message of <span style="color: black;">Advent</span> is more profound and already orients us
to the glorious return of the Lord at the end of our history. Adventus is the
Latin word that could be translated by “arrival”, “coming” or “presence”. In
the language of the ancient world it was a technical term that indicated the
arrival of an official, and especially the visit of kings or emperors to the
provinces, but it could also be used for the appearance of a divinity, which
emerged from its hidden dwelling-place and thus manifested its divine power;
its presence was solemnly celebrated with worship. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">By using this
term, “Advent”, Christians wanted to express the special relationship that bound
them to the Crucified and Risen Christ. He is a King who, having entered this
poor province called earth, made us the gift of his visit and after his
Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven desired in any case to stay with us; we
perceive his mysterious presence in the liturgical assembly. Indeed, in
celebrating the Eucharist, we proclaim that he did not withdraw from the world,
that he did not leave us alone and, even though we cannot see and touch him as
with material and tangible realities, he is in any case with us and among us.
Indeed, he is in us, because he can attract to himself and communicate his life
to every believer who opens his/her heart to him. Thus, Advent means
commemorating the first coming of the Lord in the flesh, with his definitive return
already in mind, and, at the same time, it means recognizing that Christ
present in our midst makes himself our travelling companion in the life of the
Church who celebrates his mystery. This knowledge, dear brothers and sisters,
nourished by listening to the Word of God, must help us to see the world with
different eyes, to interpret the individual events of life and history as words
that God addresses to us, as signs of his love that assure us of his closeness
in every situation; this awareness, in particular, should prepare us to welcome
him when “he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his
kingdom will have no end”, as in a little while we shall repeat in the Creed.
In this perspective, Advent becomes for all Christians a time of expectation
and hope, a privileged time for listening and reflection, as long as we let
ourselves be guided by the liturgy, which invites us to advance to meet the
Lord who comes. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Come, Lord
Jesus”: dear friends, this ardent invocation of the Christian community of the
early days must also become our constant aspiration, the aspiration of the
Church in every epoch, which longs for and prepares herself for the encounter
with her Lord. Come today, Lord; enlighten us, give us peace, help us triumph over
violence. Come Lord, we pray precisely in these weeks: “Lord... let us see your
face and will shall be saved” (Ps 80[79]: 3), we have just prayed with the
words of the Responsorial Psalm. And the Prophet Isaiah revealed to us in the
First Reading that the Face of Our Saviour is that of a tender and merciful
father who cares for us in all circumstances because we are the work of his
hands: “You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name”
(63: 16). Our God is a father prepared to forgive repentant sinners and to
welcome those who trust in his mercy (see Is 64: 4). We had drifted away from
him because of sin, falling under the dominion of death, but he took pity on us
and, on his own initiative, without any merit on our part, decided to meet our
needs, sending his only Son as our Redeemer. As we face such a great mystery of
love, our thanksgiving rises spontaneously and our invocation becomes more
trusting: Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, today, in our time, in every
part of the world, let us feel your presence and grant us your salvation (see
Gospel acclamation). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, the thought of Christ’s presence and his return at the end of time
is particularly significant in this Basilica of yours beside the monumental <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">cemetery</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Verano</st1:placename></st1:place> where so many of our beloved
deceased rest while they await resurrection. How often are funerals celebrated
in this temple; how often do the works of the liturgy ring out full of comfort:
“In him who rose from the dead, our hope of resurrection dawned. The sadness of
death gives way to the bright promise of immortality” (see Preface for
Christian Death I). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet your
monumental Basilica, which makes us think back to the primitive Basilica built
by the Emperor Constantine and later transformed to acquire its present
appearance, speaks above all of the glorious martyrdom of St Lawrence,
Archdeacon of Pope St Sixtus II and his reliable steward in the administration
of the community’s goods. Today I have come to celebrate the Blessed Eucharist
to join you in paying homage to him in a most unusual circumstance, on the
occasion of the Jubilee Year of Lawrence, established to commemorate the
1,750th anniversary of holy Deacon’s birth in Heaven. History confirms to us
how glorious is the name of this Saint, by whose sepulchre we have gathered.
His concern for the poor, the generous service that he rendered to the Church
of Rome in the context of assistance and charity, his fidelity to the Pope
which he took to the point of desiring to follow him in the supreme trial of
martyrdom and the heroic witness of pouring out his blood, which he suffered
only a few days later, are facts well known to all. St Leo the Great, in a
beautiful homily, thus comments on the atrocious martyrdom of this “illustrious
hero”: “The flames could not overcome Christ’s love and the fire that burned
outside was less keen than that which blazed within”. And he adds: “The Lord
desired to spread abroad his glory throughout the world, so that from the East
to the West the dazzling brightness of his deacon’s light does shine, and Rome
is become as famous through Lawrence as Jerusalem was ennobled by Stephen”
(Homily 85, 4: PL 54, 486). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The 50th
anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Pope Pius XII falls this year
and this reminds us of a particularly dramatic event in the centuries-old
history of your Basilica. It took place during the Second World War, when,
exactly on 19 July 1943, a violent bombardment caused severe damage to the
building and to the whole neighbourhood, sowing death and destruction. The
generous gesture made by my venerable Predecessor can never be eradicated from
the memory of history: he hastened here immediately to help and to comfort the
people so badly hit, among the still smouldering ruins. Nor have I forgotten
that this same Basilica also contains the urns of two other great people: in
the hypogeum in fact, are placed for the veneration of the faithful the mortal
remains of Bl. Pius IX, while in the atrium is the tomb of Alcide De Gasperi,
who was a wise and balanced guide for Italy during the difficult years of the
post-war reconstruction and, at the same time, a distinguished statesman
capable of looking to Europe with a broad Christian vision. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">While we are
gathered here in prayer, I would like to greet you all with affection, starting
with the Cardinal Vicar, with Monsignor Vicegerent, who is also Commendatory
Abbot of the Basilica, with the Auxiliary Bishop of the Northern Sector of Rome
and with your Parish Priest, Fr Bruno Mustacchio, whom I thank for his kind
words at the beginning of the liturgical celebration. I greet the Minister
General of the Order of Capuchins and the Friars of the Community who carry out
their service with zeal and dedication, welcoming the many pilgrims, assisting
the poor with charity and witnessing to hope in the Risen Christ to all those
who visit the Cemetery of Verano. I would like to assure you of my
appreciation, and, above all, of my remembrance in prayer. I also greet the
various groups who are involved in the animation of the catechesis, the
liturgy, charity, the members of the two polyphonic choirs, the Franciscan
Third Order, local and regional. Then I have learned with pleasure that for
some years the “diocesan missionary laboratory” has been housed here, to inculcate
in the parish communities a missionary awareness, and I willingly join you in
expressing the hope that this initiative of our Diocese will help to inspire a
courageous missionary pastoral action that will bring the proclamation of God’s
merciful love to every corner of Rome, involving mainly young people and
families. Lastly, I would like to extend my thoughts to the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood, especially to the elderly, the sick and people who are lonely
and in difficulty. I remember all and each one at this Holy Mass. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, at the beginning of this Advent what better message can we glean
from St Lawrence than that of holiness? He repeats to us that holiness, that
is, going to meet Christ who comes ceaselessly to visit us, does not go out of
fashion, on the contrary as time passes it shines brightly and expresses the
perennial striving for God of humankind. May this Jubilee event therefore be an
occasion for your parish community of a renewed adherence to Christ, a further
deepening of the sense of belonging to his Mystical Body which is the Church,
and a constant commitment of evangelization through charity. May Lawrence, a
heroic witness of the Crucified and Risen Christ be for each person an example
of docile adherence to the divine will, so that, as we heard the Apostle Paul
remind the Corinthians, we too may live in such a way as to be found “guiltless”
in the day of Our Lord (see 1 Cor 1: 7-9). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To prepare
ourselves for Christ’s coming is also the exhortation we hear in today’s
Gospel: “Watch”, Jesus tells us in Luke’s short parable about the master of the
house who goes on a journey but the date of whose return is unknown (see Mk 13:
33-37). Watching means following the Lord, choosing what Christ chose, loving
what he loved, conforming one’s own life to his; watching means passing every
instant of our time in the sphere of his love without letting oneself be
disheartened by the inevitable difficulties and problems of daily life. This is
what St Lawrence did, this is what we must do and let us ask the Lord to grant
us his grace so that Advent may be an incentive for all to walk in this
direction. May Mary, the humble Virgin of Nazareth chosen by God to become
Mother of the Redeemer, St Andrew whose feast we are celebrating today, and St
Lawrence, an example of fearless Christian faithfulness to the point of
martyrdom, guide us and go with us. Amen!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 29 November 2009</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Sunday, by
the grace of God, a new Liturgical Year opens, of course, with Advent, a Season
of preparation for the birth of the Lord. The Second Vatican Council, in the
Constitution on the Liturgy, affirms that the Church “in the course of the
year... unfolds the whole mystery of Christ from the Incarnation and Nativity
to the Ascension, to Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope of the
Coming of the Lord”. In this way, “recalling the mysteries of the redemption,
she opens up to the faithful the riches of her Lord’s powers and merits, so
that these are in some way made present for all time; the faithful lay hold of
them and are filled with saving grace” (<i>Sacrosanctum Concilium</i>, no.
102). The Council insists on the fact that the centre of the Liturgy is Christ,
around whom the Blessed Virgin Mary, closest to him, and then the martyrs and
the other saints who “sing God’s perfect praise in Heaven and intercede for us”
(<i>ibid</i>., no. 104) revolve like the planets around the sun. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is the
reality of the Liturgical Year seen, so to speak, “from God’s perspective”. And
from the perspective, let us say, of humankind, of history and of society what
importance can it have? The answer is suggested to us precisely by the journey
through Advent on which we are setting out today. The contemporary world above
all needs hope; the developing peoples need it, but so do those that are
economically advanced. We are becoming increasingly aware that we are all on
one boat and together must save each other. Seeing so much false security
collapse, we realize that what we need most is a trustworthy hope. This is
found in Christ alone. As the Letter to the Hebrews says, he “is the same
yesterday and today and for ever (Heb 13: 8). The Lord Jesus came in the past,
comes in the present and will come in the future. He embraces all the
dimensions of time, because he died and rose; he is “the Living One”. While he
shares our human precariousness, he remains forever and offers us the stability
of God himself. He is “flesh” like us and “rock” like God. Whoever yearns for
freedom, justice, and peace may rise again and raise his head, for in Christ
liberation is drawing near (see Lk 21: 28) as we read in today’s Gospel. We can
therefore say that Jesus Christ is not only relevant to Christians, or only to
believers, but to all men and women, for Christ, who is the centre of faith, is
also the foundation of hope. And every human being is constantly in need of
hope. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, the Virgin Mary fully embodies a humanity that lives in hope based
on faith in the living God. She is the Virgin of Advent: she is firmly
established in the present, in the “today” of salvation. In her heart she
gathers up all past promises, and encompasses the future. Let us learn from her
in order to truly enter this Season of grace and to accept, with joy and
responsibility, the coming of God in our personal and social lives.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION
OF FIRST VESPERS OF ADVENT</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Saturday, 28 November 2009<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With this
celebration we are entering the liturgical season of Advent. In the biblical
Reading we have just heard, taken from the <i>First Letter to the Thessalonians</i>,
the Apostle Paul invites us to prepare for “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ”
(5: 23), with God’s grace keeping ourselves blameless. The exact word Paul uses
is “coming”, in Latin <i>adventus</i>, from which the term “Advent” derives. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us reflect
briefly on the meaning of this word, which can be rendered with “presence”, “arrival”
or “coming”. In the language of the ancient world it was a technical term used
to indicate the arrival of an official or the visit of the king or emperor to a
province. However, it could also mean the coming of the divinity that emerges
from concealment to manifest himself forcefully or that was celebrated as being
present in worship. Christians used the word “advent” to express their
relationship with Jesus Christ: Jesus is the King who entered this poor “province”
called “earth” to pay everyone a visit; he makes all those who believe in him
participate in his Coming, all who believe in his presence in the liturgical
assembly. The essential meaning of the word <i>adventus</i> was: God is here,
he has not withdrawn from the world, he has not deserted us. Even if we cannot
see and touch him as we can tangible realities, he is here and comes to visit
us in many ways. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The meaning of
the expression “advent” therefore includes that of <i>visitatio</i>, which
simply and specifically means “visit”; in this case it is a question of a visit
from God: he enters my life and wishes to speak to me. In our daily lives we
all experience having little time for the Lord and also little time for
ourselves. We end by being absorbed in “doing”. Is it not true that activities
often absorb us and that society with its multiple interests monopolizes our
attention? Is it not true that we devote a lot of time to entertainment and to
various kinds of amusement? At times we get carried away. Advent, this powerful
liturgical season that we are beginning, invites us to pause in silence to
understand a presence. It is an invitation to understand that the individual
events of the day are hints that God is giving us, signs of the attention he
has for each one of us. How often does God give us a glimpse of his love! To
keep, as it were, an “interior journal” of this love would be a beautiful and
salutary task for our life! Advent invites and stimulates us to contemplate the
Lord present. Should not the certainty of his presence help us see the world
with different eyes? Should it not help us to consider the whole of our life as
a “visit”, as a way in which he can come to us and become close to us in every
situation? </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Another
fundamental element of Advent is expectation, an expectation which is at the
same time hope. Advent impels us to understand the meaning of time and of
history as a kairós, as a favourable opportunity for our salvation. Jesus
illustrated this mysterious reality in many parables: in the story of the
servants sent to await the return of their master; in the parable of the
virgins who await the bridegroom; and in those of the sower and of the harvest.
In their lives human beings are constantly waiting: when they are children they
want to grow up, as adults they are striving for fulfilment and success and, as
they advance in age, they look forward to the rest they deserve. However, the
time comes when they find they have hoped too little if, over and above their
profession or social position, there is nothing left to hope for. Hope marks
humanity’s journey but for Christians it is enlivened by a certainty: the Lord
is present in the passage of our lives, he accompanies us and will one day also
dry our tears. One day, not far off, everything will find its fulfilment in the
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, a Kingdom of justice and peace. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">However there
are many different ways of waiting. If time is not filled by a present endowed
with meaning expectation risks becoming unbearable; if one expects something
but at a given moment there is nothing, in other words if the present remains
empty, every instant that passes appears extremely long and waiting becomes too
heavy a burden because the future remains completely uncertain. On the other
hand, when time is endowed with meaning and at every instant we perceive
something specific and worthwhile, it is then that the joy of expectation makes
the present more precious. Dear brothers and sisters, let us experience
intensely the present in which we already receive the gifts of the Lord, let us
live it focused on the future, a future charged with hope. In this manner
Christian Advent becomes an opportunity to reawaken within ourselves the true
meaning of waiting, returning to the heart of our faith which is the mystery of
Christ, the Messiah who was expected for long centuries and was born in
poverty, in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>.
In coming among us, he brought us and continues to offer us the gift of his
love and his salvation. Present among us, he speaks to us in many ways: in
Sacred Scripture, in the liturgical year, in the saints, in the events of daily
life, in the whole of the creation whose aspect changes according to whether
Christ is behind it or whether he is obscured by the fog of an uncertain origin
and an uncertain future. We in turn may speak to him, presenting to him the
suffering that afflicts us, our impatience, the questions that well up in our
hearts. We may be sure that he always listens to us! And if Jesus is present,
there is no longer any time that lacks meaning or is empty. If he is present,
we may continue to hope, even when others can no longer assure us of any
support, even when the present becomes trying. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
Advent is the season of the presence and expectation of the eternal. For this
very reason, it is in a particular way a period of joy, an interiorized joy
that no suffering can diminish. It is joy in the fact that God made himself a
Child. This joy, invisibly present within us, encourages us to journey on with
confidence. A model and support of this deep joy is the Virgin Mary, through
whom we were given the Infant Jesus. May she, a faithful disciple of her Son,
obtain for us the grace of living this liturgical season alert and hardworking,
while we wait. Amen!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, First Sunday of Advent, 28 November 2010</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the first
Sunday of Advent, the Church begins a new Liturgical Year, a new journey of
faith that on the one hand commemorates the event of Jesus Christ and, on the
other, opens to its ultimate fulfilment. It is precisely in this double
perspective that she lives the Season of Advent, looking both to the first
coming of the Son of God, when he was born of the Virgin Mary, and to his
glorious return, when he will come “to judge the living and the dead”, as we
say in the Creed. I would now like to focus briefly on this evocative theme of “waiting”,
for it touches upon a profoundly human aspect in which the faith becomes, so to
speak, completely one with our flesh and our heart.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Expectation or
waiting is a dimension that flows through our whole personal, family and social
existence. Expectation is present in thousands of situations, from the smallest
and most banal to the most important that involve us completely and in our
depths. Among these, let us think of waiting for a child, on the part of a
husband and wife; of waiting for a relative or friend who is coming from far
away to visit us; let us think, for a young person, of waiting to know his
results in a crucially important examination or of the outcome of a job interview;
in emotional relationships, of waiting to meet the beloved, of waiting for the
answer to a letter, or for the acceptance of forgiveness.... One could say that
man is alive as long as he waits, as long as hope is alive in his heart. And
from his expectations man recognizes himself: our moral and spiritual “stature”
can be measured by what we wait for, by what we hope for. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Every one of us,
therefore, especially in this Season which prepares us for Christmas, can ask
himself: What am I waiting for? What, at this moment of my life, does my heart
long for? And this same question can be posed at the level of the family, of
the community, of the nation. What are we waiting for together? What unites our
aspirations, what brings them together? In the time before Jesus’ birth the
expectation of the Messiah was very strong in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
– that is, the expectation of an Anointed one, a descendent of King David, who
would at last set the people free from every form of moral and political
slavery and find the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>. But no one would
ever have imagined that the Messiah could be born of a humble girl like Mary,
the betrothed of a righteous man, Joseph. Nor would she have ever thought of
it, and yet in her heart the expectation of the Savior was so great, her faith
and hope were so ardent, that he was able to find in her a worthy mother.
Moreover, God himself had prepared her before time. There is a mysterious
correspondence between the waiting of God and that of Mary, the creature “full
of grace”, totally transparent to the loving plan of the Most High. Let us
learn from her, the Woman of Advent, how to live our daily actions with a new
spirit, with the feeling of profound expectation that only the coming of God
can fulfil.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CELEBRATION OF FIRST VESPERS OF THE FIRST SUNDAY OF
ADVENT <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FOR UNBORN LIFE</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Saturday, 27 November 2010</i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With this
evening celebration the Lord gives us the grace and joy of opening the new
Liturgical Year, starting with its first season: Advent, the period that
commemorates the coming of God among us. Every beginning brings a special
grace, because it is blessed by the Lord. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Advent
Season we shall be granted once again to experience the closeness of the One
who created the world, who guides history and who cared for us to the point of
deigning to become a man. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This great and
fascinating mystery of the God-with-us, indeed, of the God who becomes one of
us, is what we shall celebrate in the coming weeks journeying towards holy
Christmas. During the Season of Advent we shall feel the Church which takes us
by the hand and — in the image of Mary Most Holy, expresses her motherhood,
enabling us to experience the joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, who
embraces us all in his love that saves and consoles.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">While our hearts
look forward to the annual celebration of Christ’s Birth, the Church’s Liturgy
directs our gaze to the final goal: our encounter with the Lord who will come
in the splendour of glory. For this reason in every Eucharist we “announce his
death, proclaim his Resurrection until he comes again”, we watch in prayer.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Liturgy does
not cease to encourage and support us, putting on our lips, in the days of
Advent, the cry with which the whole of Sacred Scripture ends, on the last page
of the Revelation to St John: “Come, Lord Jesus” (22:20).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, our gathering this evening for the beginning of the journey
through Advent is enriched by another important reason: together with the whole
Church we wish to celebrate a solemn prayer vigil for unborn life. I would like
to express my gratitude to all those who have accepted this invitation and to
those who are specifically dedicated to welcoming and safeguarding human life in
its various situations of frailty, especially when it is newly conceived and in
its early stages. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Precisely, the
beginning of the Liturgical Year helps us live anew the expectation of God who
took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, God who makes himself little, who
becomes a child; it speaks to us of the coming of a God who is close, who chose
to experience human life from the very beginning in order to save it totally,
in its fullness. And so the mystery of Lord’s Incarnation and the beginning of
human life are closely and harmoniously connected and in tune with each other
in the one saving plan of God, the Lord of the life of each and everyone. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Incarnation
reveals to us, with intense light and in a surprising way, that every human
life has a very lofty and incomparable dignity.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In comparison
with all the other living beings that populate the earth man has an
unmistakable originality. He is presented as the one unique being, endowed with
intelligence and free will, as well as consisting of material reality. He lives
simultaneously and inseparably in both the spiritual and the corporal
dimension. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is also
suggested in the text of the First Letter to the Thessalonians that has just
been proclaimed: “May the God of peace himself”, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> writes, “sanctify you wholly; and may
your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ” (5:23). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We are therefore
spirit, soul and body. We are part of this world, tied to the possibilities and
limitations of our material condition, while at the same time we are open to an
infinite horizon, able to converse with God and to welcome him within us. We
are active in earthly realities and through them we are able to perceive God’s
presence and to reach out to him, Truth, Goodness and absolute Beauty. We
savour fragments of life and happiness and yearn for complete fulfilment.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God loves us
deeply, totally and without making distinctions. He calls us to friendship with
him, he makes us part of a reality beyond every imagination and every thought
and word: his divine life itself. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With feeling and
gratitude, let us be aware of the value of every human person’s incomparable
dignity and of our great responsibility to all. “Christ, the final Adam”, the
Second Vatican Council states, “by the revelation of the mystery of the Father
and his love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling
clear… by his Incarnation, the Son of God has in a certain way united himself
with each man” (<i>Gaudium et Spes</i>, no. 22).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Believing in
Jesus Christ also means seeing man in a new way, with trust and hope. Moreover,
experience itself and right reason testify that the human being is capable of
understanding and of wanting, conscious of himself and free, unrepeatable and
irreplaceable, the summit of all earthly realities, and who demands to be
recognized as a value in himself and deserves always to be accepted with
respect and love. He is entitled not to be treated as an object to be possessed
or a thing to be manipulated at will, and not to be exploited as a means for
the benefit of others and their interests. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The human person
is a good in himself and his integral development must always be sought. Love
for all, moreover, if it is sincere, tends spontaneously to become preferential
attention to the weakest and poorest. This explains the Church’s concern for
the unborn, the frailest, those most threatened by the selfishness of adults
and the clouding of consciences.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church
continually reasserts what the Second Vatican Council declared against abortion
and against every violation of unborn life: “from the moment of its conception
life must be guarded with the greatest care” (<i>ibid</i>., no. 51).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Cultural trends
exist that seek to anaesthetize consciences with spurious arguments. With
regard to the embryo in the mother’s womb, science itself highlights its
autonomy, its capacity for interaction with the mother, the coordination of
biological processes, the continuity of development, the growing complexity of
the organism. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is not an
accumulation of biological material but rather of a new living being, dynamic
and marvelously ordered, a new individual of the human species. This is what
Jesus was in Mary’s womb; this is what we all were in our mother’s womb. We may
say with Tertullian, an ancient Christian writer: “the one who will be a man is
one already” (<i>Apologeticum IX</i>, 8), there is no reason not to consider
him a person from conception.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Unfortunately,
even after birth, the lives of children continue to be exposed to neglect, hunger,
poverty, disease, abuse, violence and exploitation. The many violations of
their rights sorrowfully wound the conscience of every person of good will. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the face of
the sad view of injustices committed against human life, before and after
birth, I make my own Pope John Paul II’s passionate appeal to the
responsibility of each and every individual: “respect, protect, love and serve
life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice,
development, true freedom, peace and happiness!” (Encyclical <i>Evangelium
vitae</i>, no. 5).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I urge
politicians, leaders of the economy and of social communications to do
everything in their power to promote a culture ever respectful of human life,
to obtain favourable conditions and support networks for the acceptance and
development of life.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust
our prayers and our commitment to unborn life to the Virgin Mary, who welcomed
the Son of God made man with her faith, with her maternal womb, with her
attentive care, with her nurturing support, vibrant with love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us do so in
the Liturgy — which is the place where we live the truth and where truth lives
with us — adoring the divine Eucharist in which we contemplate Christ’s Body,
that Body which took flesh from Mary through the action of the Holy Spirit, and
was born of her in <st1:place w:st="on">Bethlehem</st1:place>
for our salvation. <i>Ave, verum Corpus, natum de Maria Virgine!</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<strong><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 27 November 2011</span></i></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today,
together with the Church, we are beginning the new liturgical year: a new
journey of faith to experience together in Christian communities but, as
always, also to be taken within world history so as to open it to God’s
mystery, to the salvation that comes from his love. The liturgical year begins
with the Season of Advent. It is a marvellous period in which the expectation
of Christ’s return and the memory of his first Coming <span class="style21">— </span>when
he emptied himself of his divine glory to take on our mortal flesh <span class="style21">— </span>reawakens in hearts. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Watch!”
This is Jesus’ call in today’s Gospel. He does not only address it to his
disciples but to everyone: “Watch!” (Mk 13:37). It is a salutary reminder to
us that life does not only have an earthly dimension but reaches towards a “beyond”,
like a plantlet that sprouts from the ground and opens towards the sky. A
thinking plantlet, man, endowed with freedom and responsibility, which is why
each one of us will be called to account for how he/she has lived, how each one
has used the talents with which each is endowed: whether one has kept them to
oneself or has made them productive for the good of one’s brethren too.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today,
Isaiah, too, the prophet of Advent, with a heartfelt entreaty addressed to God
on behalf of the people, gives us food for thought. He recognized the
shortcomings of his people and said at a certain point: “There is no one who
calls upon your name, who rouses himself to cling to you; for you have hidden
your face from us and have delivered us up to our iniquities” (see Is 64:6).</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How
can we fail to find this description striking? It seems to reflect certain
panoramas of the post-modern world: cities where life becomes anonymous and
horizontal, where God seems absent and man the only master, as if he were the
architect and director of all things: construction, work, the economy,
transport, the branches of knowledge, technology, everything seems to depend on
man alone. And in this world that appears almost perfect at times disturbing
things happen, either in nature or in society, which is why we think that God
has, as it were, withdrawn and has, so to speak, left us to ourselves.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In
fact, the true “master” of the world is not the human being but God. The
Gospel says: “Watch therefore<span class="style21"> —</span> for you do not know
when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at
cockcrow, or in the morning <span class="style21">—</span> lest he come suddenly
and find you asleep” (Mk 13:35-36). </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Season of Advent returns every year to remind us of this in order that our life
may find its proper orientation, turned to the face of God. The face is not
that of a “master” but of a Father and a Friend. Let us make the Prophet’s
words our own, together with the Virgin Mary who guides us on our Advent
journey.”O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay and you are our potter: we
are all the work of your hand” (Is 64:8).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em> First Sunday of Advent, 2 December 2012</em></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today the Church
begins a new Liturgical Year, a journey which, 50 years after the opening of
the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, is further enriched by the Year of
Faith. The first Season on this itinerary is Advent, formed — in the Roman Rite
— of the four weeks preceding the Nativity of Our Lord, that is, the mystery of
the Incarnation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The word “advent”
means “coming” or “presence”. In the ancient world it meant the visit of the
king or emperor to a province; in the Christian language it refers to the
Coming of God, to his presence in the world; a mystery that embraces the entire
cosmos and history, but that has two culminating events: the First and the
Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The first is, precisely, the Incarnation. The
second is his glorious return at the end of time. These two events that are
chronologically distant — and we are not given to know by how long — are deeply
connected, because with his death and Resurrection Jesus fulfilled that
transformation of man and of the cosmos which is the final goal of Creation.
However, before the end, the Gospel must be proclaimed to all the nations, as Jesus
says in the Gospel according to St Mark (see Mk 13:10). The Lord’s Coming
continues, the world must be penetrated by his presence and this ongoing Coming
of the Lord in the proclamation of the Gospel requires our continuous
collaboration. Moreover the Church, who is, as it were, the Betrothed, the
promised Bride of the Lamb of the Crucified and Risen God (see Rev 21:9), in
communion with her Lord, collaborates in this Coming of the Lord, in which his
glorious return has already begun. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today the word of
God calls us to this, outlining the lines of conduct we should follow to be
ready for the Lord’s Coming. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus says to the disciples: “take
heed... lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and
cares of this life... at all times, praying” (Lk 21:34, 36). Therefore,
moderation and prayer. And the Apostle Paul adds the invitation to “increase
and abound in love” among ourselves and for everyone, to make our hearts
blameless in holiness (see 1 Thess 3:12-13). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the midst of
the upheavals of the world or in the deserts of indifference and materialism,
may Christians accept salvation from God and bear witness to it with a
different way of life, like a city set upon a hill. “In those days”, the
Prophet Jeremiah announced, “<st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>
will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: The Lord
is our righteousness” (33:16). The community of believers is a sign of God’s
love, of his justice which is <i>already </i>present and active in history but <i>is
not yet completely fulfilled</i> and must therefore always be awaited, invoked
and sought with patience and courage.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin Mary
perfectly embodies the spirit of Advent that consists in listening to God, with
a profound desire to do his will and to serve our neighbour joyfully. Let us
allow ourselves to be guided by her, so that God who comes may not find us
closed or distracted but rather may extend a little of his kingdom of love,
justice and peace in each of us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FIRST VESPERS <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>PRESIDED BY HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MEETING WITH STUDENTS OF <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">ROME</st1:place></st1:city>’S UNIVERSITIES AND ATHENEUMS<b><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Saturday, 1 December 2012</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“He who calls
you is faithful” (1 Thess 5:24).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><em>Dear</em></st1:placename><em> <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></em></st1:place><em> Students</em>,</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Apostle Paul’s
words guide us to understanding the true meaning of the Liturgical Year which
we are beginning this evening with the recitation of First Vespers of Advent.
The whole journey of the Church Year is orientated to discovering and living
fidelity to the God of Jesus Christ who will be presented to us once again, in
the Grotto of Bethlehem, in the face of a Child. The entire history of
salvation is a journey of love, mercy and benevolence: from Creation to the
liberation of the People of Israel from slavery in <st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place>, to the gift of the Law on
Sinai, to the return to the homeland from the Babylonian captivity. The God of
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was always the close God who never abandoned his
People. On several occasions he suffered their infidelity with sadness and
patiently awaited their return, ever with the freedom of a love that precedes
and sustains the beloved, attentive to his or her dignity and deepest
expectations. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God did not
withdraw into his heaven but lowered himself to man’s experience: a great
mystery that succeeds in surpassing every possible expectation. God entered
human time in the most unthinkable way: by making himself a child and going
through the stages of human life, so that our whole existence, spirit, soul and
body — as St Paul has reminded us — might be kept blameless and be raised to
God’s heights. And he did all this out of his faithful love for humanity. When
love is true, by its nature it strives for the good of others, for their
greatest possible good. It is not limited merely to respecting the commitments
of friendship that have been taken on, but goes further, without calculation or
measure. This is precisely what the living, true God did, whose profound
mystery is revealed to us in St John’s words: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16). In
Jesus of Nazareth this God takes upon himself the whole of humanity, the whole
history of man, and he gives it a decisive reorientation toward a new manner of
human existence, characterized by having been generated by God and by aspiring
to him (see <i>Jesus of <em>Nazareth</em></i>, vol. 3, <em>The</em><i> Infancy
Narratives</i>).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear young
people, distinguished rectors and professors, it is a cause of great joy to me
to share these reflections with you who represent <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>’s university world. In this world, while
retaining their own specific identities, converge <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>’s state and private universities and the
pontifical institutions that have developed together for so many years, bearing
a lively witness to a fertile dialogue and cooperation among the different
branches of knowledge and theology. I greet and thank the Cardinal Prefect of
the Congregation for Catholic Education, the Rector of the Foro Italico
University of Rome and your representative, for his words to me on behalf of
all. I greet with deep cordiality the Cardinal Vicar and the Minister of
Education, Universities and Research, as well as the various academic
authorities present.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet you with
special affection, dear young university students of the Roman Athenaeums, who
have renewed your profession of faith at the Apostle Peter’s Tomb. In this
period you are preparing for the great decisions of your life and for service
in the Church and in society. This evening you can feel that you are not alone.
With you are the university teachers and chaplains, as well as the animators of
the colleges. The Pope is with you! And, above all you are integrated into the
great academic community of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>,
in which it is possible to proceed in prayer, research, exchanges, and in
bearing witness to the Gospel. It is a precious gift for your life; may you be able
to see it as a sign of fidelity to God, who offers you opportunities to conform
your existence to that of Christ, to let yourselves be sanctified by him to the
point of perfection (see 1 Thess 5:23).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgical
year that we are beginning with these Vespers also represents for you the
journey to live once again the mystery of this faithfulness of God, on which
you are called to found your lives, as on a firm rock. In celebrating and
living this itinerary of faith with the whole Church, you will experience that
Jesus Christ is the one Lord of the cosmos and of history, without whom every
human project risks coming to nothing. The liturgy, lived in its true spirit,
is always the fundamental school for living the Christian faith, a “theological”
faith which involves you in your whole being — spirit, soul and body — to make
you living stones in the edifice of the Church and collaborators of the New
Evangelization. Especially in the Eucharist the living God makes himself so
close that he becomes food that supports us on the journey, a presence that
transforms us with the fire of his love.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, we
are living in a context in which we often come across indifference to God.
However, I think that in the inner depths of all those who live far from God —
also among your peers — there is an inner longing for the infinite, for
transcendence. It is your task to witness in the university halls to the close
God who also shows himself in the search for the truth, the soul of all
intellectual commitment. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this regard,
I express my pleasure and encouragement at seeing the university pastoral
programme entitled: “The Father saw him from afar. The today of man, the today
of God”, proposed by the Vicariate of Rome’s Office for Campus Ministry. Faith
is the door that God opens in our lives to lead us to the encounter with
Christ, in which the presence of the human meets the today of God. The
Christian faith is not adherence to a generic or indefinite God but to the
living God who in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, entered our history and
revealed himself as the Redeemer of man. Believing means entrusting one’s life
to the One who alone can give it fullness in time and open it to a hope beyond
time.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Year of
Faith the invitation, that I wish to address to the entire academic community
of <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>, is to
reflect on faith. The continuous dialogue between the State or private
universities and the Pontifical universities promises hope for an ever more
meaningful presence of the Church in the context of a culture that is not only
Roman but also Italian and international. The Cultural Weeks and the
International Symposium of Teachers which will be held next June will be an
example of this experience, which I hope it will be possible to repeat in all
the university towns with State, private and Pontifical athenaeums.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, “He
who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thess 5:24); he will make you
heralds of his presence. In this evening’s prayer let us set out in spirit
toward the Bethlehem Grotto in order to taste the true joy of Christmas: the
joy of welcoming at the centre of our life, after the example of the Virgin
Mary and of St Joseph, that Child who reminds us that God’s eyes are open on
the world and on every man and woman (see Zech 12:4). God’s gaze is focused on
us because he is faithful to his love! Only this certainty can lead humanity
towards goals of peace and prosperity, in this delicate and complex period of
history. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover the
next World Youth Day in <st1:place w:st="on">Rio de Janeiro</st1:place>
will be a great opportunity for you young university students to demonstrate
the historical fruitfulness of God’s fidelity, offering your witness and
commitment for the moral and social renewal of the world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The handing over
of the Icon of Mary <i>Sedes Sapientiae</i> to the Brazilian University
Delegation by the university chaplaincy of Roma Tre that is celebrating its
20th anniversary this year is a sign of this common commitment of yours as
young university students of <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I entrust to Mary, Seat of Wisdom, all of you and your
loved ones; the studies, teaching and life of the athenaeums; and, especially,
the itinerary of formation and of witness in this Year of Faith. May the lamps
you will carry in your chaplaincies always be fed by your faith that is humble
but full of reverence so that each one of you may be a light of hope and peace
in the university environment. Amen. </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-28366113107031259922023-11-20T01:30:00.003-05:002023-11-20T01:30:00.137-05:00Reflections on the Solemnity of Christ the King by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0309: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on the </b><b>Solemnity of Christ
the King </b><b><br />by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Solemnity of Christ
the King, on
20 November 2005, 26 November 2006, 25 November 2007, 23 November 2008,
22 November 2009, 21 November 2010, 20 November 2011, and 25 November 2012. Here are the texts of eight brief
reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i> and four homilies
delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 20 November 2005 <b> </b>Solemnity of Christ the King</span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters</i>, </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Solemnity of
Christ the King is celebrated today, the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year.
Since the announcement of his birth, the Only-begotten Son of the Father, born
of the Virgin Mary, was described as “king” in the Messianic sense, that is,
heir to the throne of David in accordance with the Prophets’ promise, for a
Kingdom that would have no end (see <i>Lk</i> 1: 32-33). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The kingship of
Christ remained completely hidden until he was 30 years old, years spent in an
ordinary life in Nazareth. Then, during his public life, Jesus inaugurated the
new Kingdom which “does not belong to this world” (<i>Jn</i> 18: 36), and
finally, with his death and Resurrection, he fully established it. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Appearing to the
Apostles after he had risen, he said: “Full authority has been given to me both
in heaven and on earth” (<i>Mt</i> 28: 18): this power flows from the love that
God manifested in its fullness in the sacrifice of his Son. The Kingdom of
Christ is a gift offered to the people of every epoch so that those who believe
in the incarnate Word “may not die but (may) have eternal life” (<i>Jn</i> 3:
16). Therefore, he proclaimed precisely
in the last Book of the Bible, Revelation: “I am the Alpha and the Omega... the
beginning and the end” (<i>Rv</i> 22: 13). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Christ: Alpha
and Omega” is the title of the closing paragraph of Part I of the Pastoral
Constitution <i>Gaudium et Spes</i> of the Second Vatican Council, promulgated
40 years ago. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In that
beautiful passage which borrows some words from the Servant of God Pope Paul
VI, we read: “The Lord is the goal of human history, the focal point of the
desires of history and civilization, the centre of mankind, the joy of all
hearts and the fulfilment of all aspirations. It is he whom the Father raised
from the dead, exalted and placed at his right hand, constituting him judge of
the living and the dead. Animated and drawn together in his Spirit we press
onwards on our journey towards the consummation of history which fully
corresponds to the plan of his love: “to unite all things in him, things in
Heaven and things on earth’“ (<i>Gaudium et Spes, </i>no. 45). </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In light of the
centrality of Christ, <i>Gaudium et Spes</i> interprets the condition of
contemporary men and women, their vocation and their dignity, and also the
milieus in which they live: the family, culture, the economy, politics, the
international community. This is the Church’s mission, yesterday, today and for
ever: to proclaim and witness to Christ so that the human being, every human
being, may totally fulfil his or her vocation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the Virgin
Mary, whom God uniquely associated with the kingship of his Son, obtain that we
welcome him as the Lord of our lives, in order to cooperate faithfully with the
coming of his Kingdom of love, justice and peace.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS </i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 26 November 2006 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this last
Sunday of the liturgical year we are celebrating the Solemnity of Christ the
King. Today’s Gospel proposes to us anew part of the dramatic questioning to
which Pontius Pilate subjected Jesus when he was handed over to him, accused of
usurping the title, “King of the Jews”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus answered
the Roman governor’s questions by declaring that he was a king, but not of this
world (see Jn 18: 36). He did not come to rule over peoples and territories but
to set people free from the slavery of sin and to reconcile them with God. And
he added: “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to
bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice” (Jn 18:
37). </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But what is the “truth”
that Christ came into the world to witness to? The whole of his life reveals
that God is love: so this is the truth to which he witnessed to the full with
the sacrifice of his own life on Calvary. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Cross is the
“throne” where he manifested his sublime kingship as God Love: by offering
himself in expiation for the sin of the world, he defeated the “ruler of this
world” (Jn 12: 31) and established the Kingdom of God once and for all. It is a
Kingdom that will be fully revealed at the end of time, after the destruction
of every enemy and last of all, death (see 1 Cor 15: 25-26). The Son will then
deliver the Kingdom to the Father and God will finally be “everything to
everyone” (1 Cor 15: 28). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The way to reach
this goal is long and admits of no short cuts: indeed, every person must freely
accept the truth of God’s love. He is Love and Truth, and neither Love nor
Truth are ever imposed: they come knocking at the doors of the heart and the
mind and where they can enter they bring peace and joy. This is how God reigns;
this is his project of salvation, a “mystery” in the biblical sense of the
word: a plan that is gradually revealed in history. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Virgin Mary
was associated in a very special way with Christ’s kingship. God asked her, a
humble young woman of Nazareth, to become Mother of the Messiah and Mary
responded to this request with her whole self, joining her unconditional “yes”
to that of her Son, Jesus, and making herself obedient with him even in his
sacrifice. This is why God exalted her above every other creature and Christ
crowned her Queen of Heaven and earth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust
the Church and all humanity to her intercession, so that God’s love can reign
in all hearts and his design of justice and peace be fulfilled.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ORDINARY
PUBLIC CONSISTORY <u> </u>FOR THE
CREATION OF NEW CARDINALS </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Solemnity of Christ the King Sunday, 25 November 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This Tuesday, at
Annapolis in the United States, Israelis and Palestinians intend to begin again
the negotiation process with the help of the International Community, in order
to find a just and definitive solution to the conflict that for 60 years has
stained the Holy Land with blood and has caused many tears and much suffering
for the two populations. I ask you to unite yourselves with the Day of Prayer
called for today by the Bishops’ Conference of the United States of America in
order to implore from the Holy Spirit peace for that region, so dear to us, and
the gifts of wisdom and courage for all the protagonists of this important
meeting. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">After the
conclusion of today’s solemn Celebration, I desire to turn my cordial salute to
all present, including those who remain outside the Basilica. I express special
gratitude to the faithful who have travelled a long way in order to accompany
the new Cardinals and participate in this event, which manifests in a unique
manner the unity and universality of the Catholic Church. To the distinguished
civil Authorities, I renew my deferential thought. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am happy to
greet all the English-speaking pilgrims who have come to attend the Consistory,
especially those from Iraq, Ireland, India, Kenya and the United States of
America. Let us give thanks to God for the gift of these new Cardinals and
strive to follow closely in the footsteps of Christ our King, bearing constant
witness to his saving truth! I wish you all a pleasant stay in Rome and a
blessed Sunday! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us open
ourselves now to reciting, as usual, the prayer of the <i>Angelus</i>. On
occasions such as this, one feels ever more fully the spiritual presence of
Mary Most Holy. As in the Upper Room in Jerusalem, she is today in the midst of
us and accompanies us on this stop along the ecclesial road. We wish to entrust
to the Virgin the new members of the College of Cardinals so that each one of
them, as well as all the Ministers of the Church, may strive to imitate Christ
through generous service of God and his people, in order to participate in his
glorious Kingship!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ORDINARY
PUBLIC CONSISTORY<u> </u>FOR THE CREATION OF NEW CARDINALS<i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC
CONCELEBRATION WITH THE NEW CARDINALS <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">AND
<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PRESENTATION
OF THE CARDINAL’S RING<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Basilica, Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sunday,
25 November 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your
Eminences, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Distinguished
Ladies and Gentlemen, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Solemnity of
Christ, King of the Universe, the crown of the liturgical year, is enriched by
the acceptance into the College of Cardinals of 23 new members whom, according
to tradition, I have invited to concelebrate the Eucharist with me today. I
address to each one of them my cordial greeting, which I extend with fraternal
affection to all the Cardinals present. I am also pleased to greet the
delegations from various countries and the Diplomatic Corps of the Holy See;
the numerous Bishops and priests, the men and women Religious and all the
faithful, especially those from Dioceses entrusted to the pastoral guidance of
some of the new Cardinals. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgical
Feast of Christ the King gives our celebration an especially significant
background, outlined and illuminated by the Biblical Readings. We find
ourselves as it were facing an imposing fresco with three great scenes: at the
centre, the Crucifixion according to the Evangelist Luke’s account; on one
side, the royal anointing of David by the elders of Israel; on the other, the
Christological hymn with which St Paul introduces the Letter to the Colossians.
The whole scene is dominated by the figure of Christ, the one Lord before whom
we are all brothers and sisters. The Church’s entire hierarchy, every charism
and ministry, everything and everyone are at the service of his Lordship. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We must begin
from the central event: the Cross. Here Christ manifests his unique Kingship.
On Calvary two opposite attitudes confront each other. Some figures at the foot
of the Cross as well as one of the two thieves address the Crucified One
contemptuously: If you are the Christ, the Messiah King, they say, save
yourself by coming down from the cross. Jesus reveals instead his own glory by
remaining there on the Cross as the immolated Lamb. The other thief
unexpectedly sides with him, and he implicitly confesses the royalty of the
innocent, just One and implores: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingly power” (Lk 23: 42). St Cyril of Alexandria comments: “You see him
crucified and you call him King. You believe that he who bears scoffing and
suffering will reach divine glory” (<i>Comment on Luke,</i> Homily 153).
According to the Evangelist John, the divine glory is already present, although
hidden by the disfiguration of the Cross. But also in the language of Luke, the
future is anticipated in the present when Jesus promises the good thief: “Truly,
I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23: 43). St Ambrose
observes: “He prayed that the Lord would remember him when he reached his
Kingdom, but the Lord responded: Truly, I say to you, <i>today </i>you will be
with me in Paradise. Life is being with Christ, because where Christ is, there
is his Kingdom” (<i>Exposition of the Gospel according to Luke, </i>10, 121).
The accusation: “This is the King of the Jews”, written on a tablet nailed
above Jesus’ head thus becomes the proclamation of the truth. St Ambrose
further notes: “The writing is correctly placed above the Cross, because even
though the Lord Jesus was on the Cross, yet his royal majesty shone from the
height of the Cross” (<i>ibid., </i>10, 113). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Crucifixion
scene in the four Gospels constitutes the moment of truth when the “veil of the
Temple” is torn and the Holy of Holies appears. The maximum revelation of God
possible in this world occurs in Jesus Crucified, because God is love and the
death of Jesus on the Cross is the greatest act of love in all of history. Well
then, on the Cardinal’s ring that I will consign in a few moments to the new
members of the Sacred College is portrayed precisely the Crucifixion. This,
dear new Cardinal-Brothers, will always be an invitation for you to remember of
what King you are servants, on what throne he has been raised and how he has
been faithful to the end in overcoming sin and death with the power of divine
mercy. Mother Church, Spouse of Christ, gives you this symbol in memory of her
Spouse, who loved her and gave himself up for her (see Eph 5: 25). Thus,
wearing the Cardinal’s ring, you are constantly called to give your life for
the Church.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If we now cast a
glance at the scene of the royal anointing of David presented in the First
Reading, an important aspect on royalty strikes us, namely, its “corporative”
dimension. The elders of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
go to <st1:city w:st="on">Hebron</st1:city>,
they seal a covenantal pact with David, declaring to consider themselves united
to him and wanting to be one only with him. If we relate Christ to this image,
it seems to me that this same covenantal profession applies very well precisely
to you, dear Cardinal-Brothers. You too who form the “senate” of the Church can
say to Jesus: “Behold, we are your bone and flesh” (II Sam 5: 1). We belong to
you, and we want to be one only with you. You are the Shepherd of the People of
God, you are the Head of the Church (see II Sam 5: 2). In this solemn
Eucharistic celebration we want to renew our pact with you, our friendship,
because only in this intimate and profound relationship with you, Jesus, our
King and Lord, does the dignity that has been conferred upon us and the
responsibility it bears have sense and value. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">There now
remains for us to admire the third part of our “triptych” that the Word of God
places before us: the Christological hymn of the Letter to the Colossians.
First of all, we make the sentiments of joy and gratitude that pour forth from
it our own, for the fact that the Kingdom of Christ, the “inheritance of the
saints in light”, is not only something seen from a distance but a reality in
which we are called to partake, into which we have been “transferred”, thanks
to the redemptive action of the Son of God (see Col 1: 12-14). This graced
action opens St Paul’s soul to the contemplation of Christ and his ministry in
its two principal dimensions: the creation of all things and their
reconciliation. The first aspect of Christ’s Lordship consists in the fact that
“all things were created through him and for him... in him all things hold
together” (Col 1: 16-17). The second dimension centres on the Paschal Mystery:
through the Son’s death on the Cross, God has reconciled every creature to
himself, has made peace between Heaven and earth; raising him from the dead he
has made him the firstborn of the new creation, the “fullness” of every reality
and “head of the [mystical] body”, the Church (see Col 1: 18-20). We find
ourselves again before the Cross, the central event of the mystery of Christ.
In the Pauline vision the Cross is placed within the entire economy of
salvation, where Jesus’ royalty is displayed in all its cosmic fullness. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This text of the
Apostle expresses a synthesis of truth and faith so powerful that we cannot
fail to remain in deep admiration of it. The Church is the trustee of the
mystery of Christ: She is so in all humility and without a shadow of pride or
arrogance, because it concerns the maximum gift that she has received without
any merit and that she is called to offer gratuitously to humanity of every
age, as the horizon of meaning and salvation. It is not a philosophy, it is not
a gnosis, even though it also comprises wisdom and knowledge. It is the mystery
of Christ, it is Christ himself, the <i>Logos </i>incarnate, dead and risen,
made King of the universe. How can one fail to feel a rush of enthusiasm full
of gratitude for having been permitted to contemplate the splendour of this
revelation? How can one not feel at the same time the joy and the
responsibility to serve this King, to witness his Lordship with one’s life and
word? In a particular way this is our duty, venerable Cardinal-Brothers: to
proclaim the truth of Christ, hope of every person and the entire human family.
In the wake of the Second Vatican Council, my Venerable Predecessors, the
Servants of God Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, have been authentic
heralds of Christ’s royalty in today’s world. And it is for me a motive of
consolation to be able to always count on you, both collegially and
individually, to bring to fulfilment with me the Petrine Ministry’s fundamental
duty. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In conclusion, I
would like to mention an aspect that is strongly united to this mission and
that I entrust to your prayer: peace among all Christ’s disciples, as a sign of
the peace that Jesus came to establish in the world. We have heard the great
news of the Christological hymn: it pleased God to “reconcile” the universe
through the Cross of Christ (see Col 1: 20)! Well then, the Church is that
portion of humanity in whom Christ’s royalty is already manifest, who has peace
as its privileged manifestation. It is the new Jerusalem, still imperfect
because it is yet a pilgrim in history, but able to anticipate in some way the
heavenly <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>.
Lastly, we can here refer to the Responsorial Psalm 121, belonging to the
so-called “Song of Ascents”. It is a hymn of the pilgrims’ joy who, going up
toward the holy city and having reached its doors, address the peace-greeting
to them: <i>shalom!</i> According to popular etymology Jerusalem is interpreted
as a “city of peace”, whose peace the Messiah, Son of David, would have
established in the fullness of time. We recognize in Jerusalem the figure of
the Church, sacrament of Christ and of his Kingdom. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
Cardinal-Brothers, this Psalm expresses well the ardent love song for the
Church that you certainly carry in your hearts. You have dedicated your life to
the Church’s service, and now you are called to assume in her a duty of utmost
responsibility. May the words of the Psalm find full acceptance in you: “Pray
for the peace of Jerusalem”! (v. 6). Prayer for peace and unity constitutes
your first and principal mission, so that the Church may be “solid and compact”
(v. 3), a sign and instrument of unity for the whole human race (see <i>Lumen
Gentium, </i>no. 1). I place, or rather, let us all place your mission under
the vigilant protection of the Mother of the Church, Mary Most Holy. To her,
united to her Son on Calvary and assumed as Queen at his right hand in glory,
we entrust the new Cardinals, the College of Cardinals and the entire Catholic
community, committed to sowing in the furrows of history Christ’s Kingdom, the
Lord of Life and Prince of Peace.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY
OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 23 November 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the last
Sunday of the liturgical year, we are celebrating the Solemnity of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. We know from the Gospels that Jesus refused
the title of king when it was meant in the political sense, by the standards of
the “rulers of the Gentiles” (Mt 20: 25). On the other hand, during his
Passion, he claimed a unique kingship before Pilate, who explicitly asked him “So
you are a king?”, and Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king” (Jn 18: 37);
however just previously he had declared, “My kingship is not of this world” (Jn
18: 36). Christ’s kingship is in fact a revelation and actuation of that of God
the Father, who governs all things with love and justice. The Father entrusted
to the Son the mission of giving mankind eternal life by loving it to the point
of supreme sacrifice and, at the same time, conferred upon him the power of
judging humanity, since he made himself Son of man, like us in all things (see
Jn 5: 21-22, 26-27).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s Gospel
insists precisely on the universal kingship of Christ the Judge, with the
stupendous parable of the Last Judgment, which St Matthew placed immediately
before the Passion narrative (25: 31-46). The images are simple, the language
is popular, but the message is extremely important: it is the truth about our
ultimate destiny and about the criterion by which we will be evaluated. “I was
hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a
stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25: 35) and so forth. Who does not know this
passage? It is part of our civilization. It has marked the history of the
peoples of Christian culture: the hierarchy of values, the institutions, the
multiple charitable and social organizations. In fact, the Kingdom of Christ is
not of this world, but it brings to fulfilment all the good that, thank God,
exists in man and in history. If we put love for our neighbour into practice in
accordance with the Gospel message, we make room for God’s dominion and his
Kingdom is actualized among us. If, instead, each one thinks only of his or her
own interests, the world can only go to ruin.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
the Kingdom of God is not a matter of honours and appearances but, as St Paul
writes, it is “righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rm 14:
17). The Lord has our good at heart, that is, that every person should have
life, and that especially the “least” of his children may have access to the
banquet he has prepared for all. Thus he has no use for the forms of hypocrisy
of those who say: “Lord, Lord” and then neglect his commandments (see Mt 7:
21). In his eternal Kingdom, God welcomes those who strive day after day to put
his Word into practice. For this reason the Virgin Mary, the humblest of all
creatures, is the greatest in his eyes and sits as Queen at the right of Christ
the King. Let us once again entrust ourselves to her heavenly intercession with
filial trust, to be able to carry out our Christian mission in the world.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST,
THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE</span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI</span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint Peter’s Square, Sunday, 22
November 2009</span></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers and Sisters, </span></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this last Sunday of the
liturgical year, we are celebrating the Solemnity of Christ the King, a Feast
established relatively recently but which has deep biblical and theological
roots. The title “King”, designating Jesus, is very important in the Gospels
and makes possible a complete interpretation of the figure of Jesus and of his
mission of salvation. In this regard a progression can be noted: it starts with
the expression “King of Israel” and extends to that of universal King, Lord of
the cosmos and of history, thus exceeding by far the expectations of the Jewish
people. It is yet again the mystery of Jesus Christ’s death and Resurrection
that lies at the heart of this process of the revelation of his kingship. When
Jesus is hung on the Cross, the priests, scribes and elders mock him saying: “He
is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will
believe in him” (<i>Mt</i> 27: 42). In fact, it is precisely as the Son of God
that Jesus freely gives himself up to his Passion. The Cross is the paradoxical
sign of his kingship, which consists in the loving will of God the Father in
response to the disobedience of sin. It is in the very offering of himself in
the sacrifice of expiation that Jesus becomes King of the universe, as he
himself was to declare when he appeared to the Apostles after the Resurrection:
“All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to me” (<i>Mt</i> 28: 18).
</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But in what does this “power” of
Jesus Christ the King consist? It is not the power of the kings or the great
people of this world; it is the divine power to give eternal life, to liberate
from evil, to defeat the dominion of death. It is the power of Love that can
draw good from evil, that can melt a hardened heart, bring peace amid the
harshest conflict and kindle hope in the thickest darkness. This Kingdom of
Grace is never imposed and always respects our freedom. Christ came “to bear
witness to the truth” (<i>Jn</i> 18: 37), as he declared to Pilate: whoever
accepts his witness serves beneath his “banner”, according to the image dear to
St Ignatius of Loyola. Every conscience, therefore, must make a choice. Who do
I want to follow? God or the Evil One? The truth or falsehood? Choosing Christ does
not guarantee success according to the world’s criteria but assures the peace
and joy that he alone can give us. This is demonstrated, in every epoch, by the
experience of numerous men and women who, in Christ’s name, in the name of
truth and justice, were able to oppose the enticements of earthly powers with
their different masks, to the point that they sealed their fidelity with
martyrdom. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers and sisters, when the
Angel Gabriel brought the announcement to Mary, he predicted that her Son would
inherit the throne of David and reign forever (see <i>Lk</i> 1: 32-33). And
even before she gave him to the world, the Blessed Virgin believed. Thus she
must certainly have wondered what new kind of kingship Jesus’ would be; she
came to understand by listening to his words, and especially by closely
participating in the mystery of his death on the Cross and in his Resurrection.
Let us ask Mary to help us too to follow Jesus, our King, as she did, and to
bear witness to him with our entire existence.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sunday,
21 November 2010</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Liturgy of
Our Lord Jesus Christ the King of the Universe in the Vatican Basilica has just
ended. It was also concelebrated by the 24 new Cardinals created at yesterday’s
Consistory. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Solemnity of
Christ the King was established by Pius XI in 1925 and, later, after the Second
Vatican Council, it was placed at the close of the liturgical year. The Gospel
according to St Luke presents, as in a great painting, the kingship of Jesus at
the moment of his Crucifixion. The leaders of the people and the soldiers taunt
“the first-born of all creation” (Col 1:15) and put him to the test to see
whether he has the power to save himself from death (see Luke 23:35-37). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet precisely: “on
the Cross, Jesus is exalted to the very ‘height’ of the God who is Love. It is
there that he can be ‘known’.... Jesus gives us ‘life’ because he gives us God.
He can give God because he himself is one with God” (Benedict XVI, <i>Jesus of <st1:city w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:city> </i>(English translation, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Doubleday</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place>,
2007, pp. 349 and 354 ). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact, while
the Lord seems to be mistaken because he is between two wrong-doers, one of
them, aware of his sins, opens himself to truth, arrives at faith and prays “the
King of the Jews”: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Lk
23:42). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From the One who
“is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col 1:17) the
so-called “Good Thief” straight away receives forgiveness and the joy of
entering the Kingdom of Heaven. “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me
in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). With these words, Jesus, from the <i>throne </i>of the
Cross welcomes every human being with infinite mercy. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Ambrose comments
that this “is a beautiful example of conversion to which one should aspire:
forgiveness is very quickly offered to the thief and grace is more abundant
than the request; the Lord in fact”, St Ambrose says, “always gives more than
is asked for.... Life is being with Christ because where Christ is there is the
Kingdom” (<i>Expositio Ev. sec. Lucam X, </i>121: ccl 14, 379).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Friends, we
can also contemplate in Christian art the way of love that the Lord reveals to
us and invites us to take. In fact, in the past “in the arrangement of
Christian sacred buildings... it became customary to depict the Lord returning
as a king — the symbol of hope — at the east end; while the west wall normally
portrayed the Last Judgement as a symbol of our responsibility for our lives”
(Encyclical <i>Spe Salvi, </i>no. 41): hope in the infinite love of God and
commitment to ordering our life in accordance with the love of God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When we
contemplate depictions of Jesus inspired by the New Testament — as an ancient
Council teaches — we are led to “understand... the sublimity and the
humiliation of the Word of God and... to remember his life in the flesh, his
Passion and his salvific death, and the redemption that the world derived from
it” (Council in Trullo, [691 or 692], can. 82). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Yes, we need
it, precisely to... become capable of recognizing in the pierced heart of the
Crucified One the mystery of God” (J. Ratzinger, <i>Teologia della liturgia: La
fondazione sacramentale dell’esistenza cristiana, </i>LEV 2010, p. 69).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the
Memorial of the Presentation of Mary at the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city>, let us entrust to the Virgin Mary the
new members of the College of Cardinals and our earthly pilgrimage toward
eternity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ORDINARY PUBLIC CONSISTORY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FOR THE CREATION OF NEW CARDINALS <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC CONCELEBRATION WITH THE NEW CARDINALS<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">AND <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>PRESENTATION OF THE CARDINAL’S RING</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Vatican Basilica, Solemnity of Christ the King of the
Universe <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Sunday, 21 November 2010</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Your
Eminences, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On the
Solemnity of Christ the King we have the joy of gathering round the Lord’s
altar with the 24 new Cardinals whom I added to the College of Cardinals
yesterday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I first
address to them my cordial greeting, which I extend to the other Cardinals and
all the Prelates present, as well as to the distinguished Authorities, the
Ambassadors, the priests, the religious and all the faithful who have come from
various parts of the world for this happy occasion which has a distinctly
universal character,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Many of
you will have noticed that the last Public Consistory for the Creation of
Cardinals, held in November 2007, was also celebrated on the eve of the
Solemnity of Christ the King. Three years have passed, thus, in accordance with
the liturgical cycle for Sundays the word of God comes to us in the same
Readings from Bible for this important Feast. It takes place on the last Sunday
of the liturgical year and, at the end of the itinerary of faith, presents to
us the royal Face of Christ, as the <i>Pantocrator</i> in the apse of an
ancient basilica. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
coincidence asks us to meditate deeply on the ministry of the Bishop of Rome
and on the ministry of the Cardinals linked to it, in the light of the unique
Kingship of Jesus, Our Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
primary service of the Successor of Peter is that of the faith. In the New
Testament, Peter becomes the “rock” of the Church insofar as he is the bearer
of Faith: the “we” of the Church begins with the name of the first man who
professed faith in Christ, it begins with <i>his</i> faith; a faith that was at
first immature and still “too human”. Then, however, after Easter it matured
and made him capable of following Christ even to the point of giving himself;
it developed in the belief that Jesus is truly King; that he is so precisely
because he <i>remained </i>on the Cross, and <i>in that way</i> gave his life
for sinners.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
Gospel we see that everyone asks Jesus to come down from the Cross. They mock
him, but this is also a way of excusing themselves from blame as if to say: it
is not our fault that you are hanging on the Cross; it is solely your fault
because if you really were the Son of God, the King of the Jews, you would not
stay there but would save yourself by coming down from that infamous scaffold. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Therefore,
if you remain there it means that you are wrong and we are right. The tragedy
that is played out beneath the Cross of Jesus is a universal tragedy; it
concerns all people before God who reveals himself for what he is, namely,
Love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
crucified Jesus the divinity is disfigured, stripped of all visible glory and
yet is present and real. Faith alone can recognize it: the faith of Mary, who
places in her heart too this last scene in the mosaic of her Son’s life. She
does not yet see the whole, but continues to trust in God, repeating once again
with the same abandonment: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord” (see Lk 1:38).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Then
there is the faith of the Good Thief: a faith barely outlined but sufficient to
assure him salvation: “Today you will be with me in <st1:place w:st="on">Paradise</st1:place>”
. This “with me” is crucial. Yes, it is this that saves him. Of course, the
good thief is on the cross<i> like</i> Jesus, but above all he is on the Cross <i>with</i>
Jesus. And, unlike the other evildoer and all those who taunt him, he does not
ask Jesus to come done from the Cross nor to make him come down. Instead he
says: “remember me when you come into your kingdom”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Good Thief sees Jesus on the Cross, disfigured and unrecognizable and yet he
entrusts himself to him as to a king, indeed as to the King. The good thief
believes what was written on the tablet over Jesus’ head: “The King of the Jews”.
He believed and entrusted himself. For this reason he was already, immediately,
in the “today” of God, in Paradise, because Paradise is this: being <i>with</i>
Jesus, being <i>with</i> God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">So
here, dear Brothers, is the first and fundamental message that the word of God
clearly tells us today: to me, the Successor of Peter, and to you, Cardinals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It
calls us to <i>be with</i> Jesus, like Mary, and not to ask him to come down
from the Cross but rather to stay there with him. And by reason of our ministry
we must do this not only for ourselves but for the whole Church, for the whole
People of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We know
from the Gospels that the Cross was the critical point of the faith of Simon
Peter and of the other Apostles. It is clear and it could not be otherwise:
they were men and thought “according to men”; they could not tolerate the idea
of a crucified Messiah. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Peter’s
“conversion” is fully achieved when he stops wanting “to save” Jesus and
accepts to be saved by him. He gives up wanting to save Jesus from the Cross
and allows Jesus’ Cross to save him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“I have
prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again,
strengthen your brethren” (Lk 22:32), the Lord says. Peter’s ministry consists
first of all in his faith, a faith that Jesus immediately recognizes, from the
outset, as genuine, as a gift of the heavenly Father; but a faith that must
pass through the scandal of the Cross to become authentic, truly “Christian”,
to become a “rock” on which Jesus can build his Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Participation
in the lordship of Christ is only brought about in practice in the sharing of
his self-abasement, with the Cross. My ministry too, dear Brothers, and
consequently also yours, consists wholly of faith. Jesus can build his Church
on us as long as that true, Paschal faith is found in us, that faith which does
not seek to make Jesus come down from the Cross but entrusts itself to him on
the Cross. In this regard the true place of the Vicar of Christ is the Cross,
it lies in persisting in the obedience of the Cross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
ministry is difficult because it is not in line with the human way of thinking
— with that natural logic which, moreover, continues to be active within us
too. But this is and always remains our primary service, the service of faith
that transforms the whole of life: believing that Jesus is God, that he is the
King precisely <i>because</i> he reached that point, because he loved us to the
very end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And we
must witness and proclaim this paradoxical kingship as he, the King, did, that
is, by following his own way and striving to adopt his same logic, the logic of
humility and service, of the ear of wheat which dies to bear fruit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Pope and the Cardinals are called to be profoundly united first of all in this:
all together, under the guidance of the Successor of Peter, they must remain in
the lordship of Christ, thinking and working in accordance with the logic of
the Cross — and this is never easy or predictable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
we must be united and we are, because it is not an idea or a strategy that
unites us but love of Christ and his Holy Spirit. The effectiveness of our
service to the Church, the Bride of Christ, depends essentially on this, on our
fidelity to the divine kingship of crucified Love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For
this reason on the ring that I am consigning to you today, the seal of your
nuptial covenant with the Church, is the image of the Crucifixion. And for the
same reason the colour of your robe alludes to blood, the symbol of life and of
love. The Blood of Christ which, according to an ancient iconography, Mary
collected from the pierced side of the Son, who died on the Cross; and that the
Apostle John contemplated while it gushed out with water, according to the prophetic
Scriptures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
Brothers, it is from this that our wisdom derives: <i>sapientia Crucis</i>. On
this St Paul reflected profoundly. He was the first to outline Christian
thought in an organized way, centred precisely on the paradox of the Cross (see
1 Cor 1:18-25; 2:1-8). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
Letter to the Colossians, of which today’s Liturgy proposes the Christological
Hymn — the Pauline reflection, made fertile by the grace of the Spirit, already
reaches an impressive level of synthesis in expressing an authentic Christian
concept of God and of the world, of personal and universal salvation; and it is
all centred on Christ, the Lord of hearts, of history and of the cosmos: “In
him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to
himself all things, whether on earth or in Heaven, making peace by the blood of
his Cross” (Col 1:19-20).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
Brothers, we are always called to proclaim this to the world: Christ “the image
of the invisible God”, Christ “the first-born of all creation”, and “the first-born
from the dead”, as the Apostle writes, so “that in everything he might be
pre-eminent” (Col 1:15. 18). The primacy of Peter and his Successors is totally
at the service of this primacy of Jesus Christ, the one Lord; at the service of
his Kingdom, that is, of his Kingship of love, so that it might come and be
spread, renew men and things, transform the earth and cause peace and justice
to germinate in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Church fits into this plan that transcends history and, at the same time, is
revealed and fulfilled in it, as the “Body” of which Christ is “the Head” (see
Col 1:18). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the
Letter to the Ephesians, St Paul speaks explicitly of the lordship of Christ
and sets it in relation to the Church. He formulates a prayer of praise to the “greatness
of the power of God” who raised Christ and made him the universal Lord and
concludes, “and he [God] has put all things under his feet and has made him the
head over all things for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills all in all” (Eph 1:22-23).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here,
Paul attributes to the Church the very word “fullness”, which applies to
Christ, for participation: the body, in fact, participates in the fullness of
the Head. This, Venerable Brother Cardinals — and I am also addressing all of
you who share with us the grace of being Christian — this is what our joy is:
participating, in the Church in the fullness of Christ through the obedience of
the Cross, of being qualified “to share in the inheritance of the saints in
light”, of being “transferred” to the Kingdom of the Son of God (see Col
1:12-13). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For
this reason we live in perennial thanksgiving, and even in trials do not lack
the joy and peace that Christ bequeathed to us as a guarantee of his Kingdom
which already exists among us, who wait with faith and hope, and of which we
have a foretaste in love. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">APOSTOLIC
JOURNEY TO BENIN<u> <o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">18-20
NOVEMBER 2011</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<strong><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Amitié
Stadium, Cotonou</em><i>, Sunday, 20 November 2011 </i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the
conclusion of this solemn Eucharistic celebration, having been made one in
Christ, let us turn with confidence to his Mother and pray the Angelus. Now
that I have consigned the Apostolic Exhortation <i>Africae Munus, </i>I wish to
entrust to the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Africa, the new chapter now opening for
the Church on this continent, asking her to accompany the future evangelization
of Africa as a whole and, in particular, of this land of Benin.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Mary joyfully
accepted the Lord’s invitation to become the Mother of Jesus. May she show us
how to respond to the mission which God entrusts to us today! Mary is that
earthly woman who received the privilege of becoming the Mother of the Saviour
of the world. Who better than she knows the value and beauty of human life? May
we never cease to be amazed before the gift of life! Who better than she knows
our needs as men and women who are still pilgrims on this earth? At the foot of
the Cross, united to her crucified Son, she is the Mother of Hope. This hope
enables us to take up our daily lives with the power bestowed by the truth
which is made known in Jesus.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters of Africa, this land which sheltered the Holy Family, may you
continue to cultivate Christian family values. At a time when so many families
are separated, in exile, grief-stricken as a result of unending conflicts, may
you be artisans of reconciliation and hope. With Mary, Our Lady of the
Magnificat, may you always abide in joy. May this joy remain deep within hearts
of your families and your countries!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the words of
the Angelus, let us now turn to our beloved Mother. Before her let us place the
intentions of our hearts. Let us now pray to her for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>
and for the whole world. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">APOSTOLIC
JOURNEY TO BENIN<u> <o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">18-20
NOVEMBER 2011</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOLY
MASS AND CONSIGNMENT <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE POST-SYNODAL APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO
THE BISHOPS OF AFRICA</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Amitié
Stadium, Cotonou</em><i>, Sunday, 20 November 2011 </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brother
Bishops and Priests, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Following in the
footsteps of my blessed predecessor Pope John Paul II, it is a great joy for me
to visit for the second time this dear continent of Africa, coming among you,
in Benin, to address to you a message of hope and of peace. I would like first
of all to express my cordial gratitude to Archbishop Antoine Ganyé Cotonou, for
his words of welcome and to greet the Bishops of Benin, as well as the
Cardinals and Bishops from various African countries and from other continents.
To all of you, dear brothers and sisters, who have come to this Mass celebrated
by the Successor of Peter, I offer my warm greetings. I am thinking certainly
of the faithful of Benin, but also of those from other French-speaking
countries, such as Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger and others. Our Eucharistic
celebration on the Solemnity of Christ the King is an occasion to give thank to
God for the one hundred and fifty years that have passed since the beginnings
of the evangelization of Benin; it is also an occasion to express our gratitude
to him for the Second Special Assembly of the Synod of African Bishops which
was held in Rome a few months ago.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel which
we have just heard tells us that Jesus, the Son of Man, the ultimate judge of
our lives, wished to appear as one who hungers and thirsts, as a stranger, as
one of those who are naked, sick or imprisoned, ultimately, of those who suffer
or are outcast; how we treat them will be taken as the way we treat Jesus
himself. We do not see here a simple literary device, or a simple metaphor.
Jesus’s entire existence is an example of it. He, the Son of God, became man,
he shared our existence, even down to the smallest details, he became the
servant of the least of his brothers and sisters. He who had nowhere to lay his
head, was condemned to death on a cross. This is the King we celebrate!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Without a doubt
this can appear a little disconcerting to us. Today, like two thousand years
ago, accustomed to seeing the signs of royalty in success, power, money and
ability, we find it hard to accept such a king, a king who makes himself the
servant of the little ones, of the most humble, a king whose throne is a cross.
And yet, the Scriptures tell us, in this is the glory of Christ revealed; it is
in the humility of his earthly existence that he finds his power to judge the
world. For him, to reign is to serve! And what he asks of us is to follow him
along the way, to serve, to be attentive to the cry of the poor, the weak, the
outcast. The baptized know that the decision to follow Christ can entail great
sacrifices, at times even the sacrifice of one’s life. However, as Saint Paul
reminds us, Christ has overcome death and he brings us with him in his
resurrection. He introduces us to a new world, a world of freedom and joy.
Today, so much still binds us to the world of the past, so many fears hold us
prisoners and prevent us from living in freedom and happiness. Let us allow
Christ to free us from the world of the past! Our faith in him, which frees us
from all our fears and miseries, gives us access to a new world, a world where
justice and truth are not a byword, a world of interior freedom and of peace
with ourselves, with our neighbours and with God. This is the gift God gave us
at our baptism!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Come, O blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world” (<i>Mt</i> 25:34). Let us receive this word of blessing which the Son of
Man will, on the Day of Judgement, address to those who have recognized his
presence in the lowliest of their brethren, with a heart free and full of the
love of the Lord! Brothers and sisters, the words of the Gospel are truly words
of hope, because the King of the universe has drawn near to us, the servant of
the least and lowliest. Here I would like to greet with affection all those
persons who are suffering, those who are sick, those affected by AIDS or by
other illnesses, to all those forgotten by society. Have courage! The Pope is
close to you in his thoughts and prayers. Have courage! Jesus wanted to
identify himself with the poor, with the sick; he wanted to share your
suffering and to see you as his brothers and sisters, to free you from every
affliction, from all suffering. Every sick person, every poor person deserves
our respect and our love because, through them, God shows us the way to heaven.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This morning, I
invite you once again to rejoice with me. One hundred and fifty years ago the
cross of Christ was raised in your country, and the Gospel was proclaimed for
the first time. Today, we give thanks to God for the work accomplished by the
missionaries, by the “apostolic workers” who first came from among you or from
distant lands, bishops, priests, men and women religious, catechists, all those
who, both yesterday and today, enabled the growth of the faith in Jesus Christ
on the African continent. I honour here the memory of the venerable Cardinal
Bernardin Gantin, an example of faith and of wisdom for Benin and for the
entire African continent.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, everyone who has received this marvellous gift of faith, this gift
of an encounter with the risen Lord, feels in turn the need to proclaim it to
others. The Church exists to proclaim this Good News! And this duty is always
urgent! After 150 years, many are those who have not heard the message of
salvation in Christ! Many, too, are those who are hesitant to open their hearts
to the word of God! Many are those whose faith is weak, whose way of thinking,
habits and lifestyle do not know the reality of the Gospel, and who think that
seeking selfish satisfaction, easy gain or power is the ultimate goal of human
life. With enthusiasm, be ardent witnesses of the faith which you have
received! Make the loving face of the Saviour shine in every place, in
particular before the young, who search for reasons to live and hope in a
difficult world!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church in
Benin has received much from her missionaries: she must in turn carry this
message of hope to people who do not know or who no longer know the Lord Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters, I ask you to be concerned for evangelization in your
country, and among the peoples of your continent and the whole world. The
recent Synod of Bishops for Africa stated this in no uncertain terms: the man
of hope, the Christian, cannot be uninterested in his brothers and sisters.
This would be completely opposed to the example of Jesus. The Christian is a
tireless builder of communion, peace and solidarity - gifts which Jesus himself
has given us. By being faithful to him, we will cooperate in the realization of
God’s plan of salvation for humanity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, I urge you, therefore, to strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ,
to be authentically converted to him. He alone gives us the true life and can
liberate us for all our fears and sluggishness, from all our anguish.
Rediscover the roots of your existence in the baptism which you received and
which makes you children of God! May Jesus Christ give you strength to live as
Christians and to find ways to transmit generously to new generations what you
have received from your fathers in faith! AKLUNƆ NI KƆN FƐNU TƆN LƐ DO MI JI [<i>Fon:
May the Lord fill you with his graces!</i>]</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this feast
day, we rejoice together in the reign of Christ the King over the whole world.
He is the one who removes all that hinders reconciliation, justice and peace.
We are reminded that true royalty does not consist in a show of power, but in
the humility of service; not in the oppression of the weak, but in the ability
to protect them and to lead them to life in abundance (see <i>Jn</i> 10:10).
Christ reigns from the Cross and, with his arms open wide, he embraces all the
peoples of the world and draws them into unity. Through the Cross, he breaks
down the walls of division, he reconciles us with each other and with the
Father. We pray today for the people of Africa, that all may be able to live in
justice, peace and the joy of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> (see <i>Rom</i>
14:17). With these sentiments I affectionately greet all the English-speaking
faithful who have come from Ghana and Nigeria and neighbouring countries. May
God bless all of you!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Queridos irmãos
e irmãs da África lusófona que me ouvis, a todos dirijo a minha saudação e
convido a renovar a vossa decisão de pertencer a Cristo e de servir o seu Reino
de reconciliação, de justiça e de paz. O seu Reino pode ser posto em perigo no
nosso coração. Aqui Deus cruza-se com a nossa liberdade. Nós – e só nós –
podemos impedi-Lo de reinar sobre nós mesmos e, em consequência, tornar difícil
a sua realeza sobre a família, a sociedade e a história. Por causa de Cristo,
tantos homens e mulheres se opuseram, vitoriosamente, às tentações do mundo
para viver fielmente a sua fé, às vezes mesmo até ao martírio. A seu exemplo,
amados pastores e fiéis, sede sal e luz de Cristo na terra africana! Amen.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">[Dear brothers
and sisters of the Portuguese-speaking nations of Africa who are listening to
me! I greet all of you and I invite you to renew your decision to belong to
Christ and to serve his Kingdom of reconciliation, justice and peace. His
Kingdom can be threatened in our hearts. There God comes face to face with our
freedom. We – and we alone – can prevent him from reigning over us and
consequently obstructing his Lordship over our families, society and history.
Because of Christ, many men and women successfully opposed the temptations of
the world in order to live their faith truly, even to martyrdom. Dear pastors
and faithful, following their example, be the salt and light of Christ, in the
land of <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>! Amen.]</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDETTO
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>St.
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 25 November 2012</em></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Church today is celebrating Our Lord Jesus Christ as as King of the Universe.
This Solemnity comes at the end of the liturgical year and sums up the mystery
of Jesus “firstborn from the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth”
(Collect, Year B), broadening our gaze towards the complete fulfilment of the
Kingdom of God, when God will be everything to every one (see 1 Cor 15:28). St
Cyril of Jerusalem said: “We preach not one advent only of Christ, but a second
also, far more glorious than the former. For the former gave a view of his patience;
but the latter brings with it the crown of a divine kingdom... in his second,
He comes attended by a host of Angels, receiving glory” (<i>Catechesis</i> XVI,<i>
1, Illuminandorum, De secundo Christi adventu</i>: pg 33, 869 a). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus’
entire mission consisted in proclaiming the Kingdom of God and putting it into
practice among human beings with signs and miracles. However, as the Second
Vatican Council recalls “this kingdom shone out before men ... in the presence
of Christ” (Dogmatic Constitution <i>Lumen Gentium</i>, no. 5) and he
established it through his death on the Cross and his Resurrection, with which
he manifested himself as Lord and Messiah and Priest for ever.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Christ</st1:placename></st1:place> has been entrusted to the Church
which is its “seed” and its “beginning” and has the task of proclaiming it and
spreading it among the peoples, with the power of the Holy Spirit (see <i>ibid.</i>).
At the end of the established time, the Lord will consign the Kingdom to God
the Father and will present to him all those who have lived in accordance with
his commandment of love.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, we are all called to extend God’s saving action, converting to the
Gospel, following with determination the King who did not come to be served but
to serve and to bear witness to the truth (see Mk 10:45; Jn 18:37). In this
perspective I invite everyone to pray for the six new Cardinals whom I created
yesterday that the Holy Spirit will strengthen them in faith and in charity and
fill them with his gifts, so that they may live their new responsibilities as a
further dedication to Christ and to his Kingdom. These new members of the
College of Cardinals represent well the universal dimension of the Church: they
are Pastors of the Church in Lebanon, in India, in Nigeria, in Colombia, and in
the Philippines, and one of them has been for many years in the service of the
Holy See.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let
us invoke the protection of Mary Most Holy upon each one of them and on the
faithful entrusted to their service. May the Virgin help us all to live the
present time in expectation of the Lord’s second coming, forcefully imploring
God: “Thy Kingdom come”, and undertaking those works of light which bring us
ever closer to heaven, in the awareness that, in the turbulent events of
history God continues to build his Kingdom of love.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ORDINARY PUBLIC CONSISTORY<u> <o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" class="style2" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FOR THE CREATION OF NEW CARDINALS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="style2" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><strong>HOLY MASS WITH THE NEW
CARDINALS</strong><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span class="style21"><i>Vatican Basilica</i></span><i>, </i><span class="style21"><i>Solemnity
of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe</i></span><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span class="style21"><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Sunday, 25 November 2012</span></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Your
Eminences,</em><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear Brother
Bishops and Priests,</em><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<em><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
Brothers and Sisters,</span></em></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s
Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe, the crowning of the liturgical year,
is enriched by our reception into the College of Cardinals of six new members
whom, following tradition, I have invited to celebrate the Eucharist with me
this morning. I greet each of them most cordially and I thank Cardinal James
Michael Harvey for the gracious words which he addressed to me in the name of
all. I greet the other Cardinals and Bishops present, as well as the
distinguished civil Authorities, Ambassadors, priests, religious and all the
faithful, especially those coming from the Dioceses entrusted to the pastoral
care of the new Cardinals.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this final
Sunday of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to celebrate the Lord
Jesus as King of the Universe. She calls us to look to the future, or more
properly into the depths, to the ultimate goal of history, which will be the
definitive and eternal kingdom of Christ. He was with the Father in the beginning,
when the world was created, and he will fully manifest his lordship at the end
of time, when he will judge all mankind. Today’s three readings speak to us of
this kingdom. In the Gospel passage which we have just heard, drawn from the
Gospel of Saint John, Jesus appears in humiliating circumstances – he stands
accused – before the might of Rome. He had been arrested, insulted, mocked, and
now his enemies hope to obtain his condemnation to death by crucifixion. They
had presented him to Pilate as one who sought political power, as the
self-proclaimed King of the Jews. The Roman procurator conducts his enquiry and
asks Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?” (<em>Jn</em> 18:33). In reply to
this question, Jesus clarifies the nature of his kingship and his messiahship
itself, which is no worldly power but a love which serves. He states that his
kingdom is in no way to be confused with a political reign: “My kingship is not
of this world … is not from the world” (v. 36).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus clearly
had no political ambitions. After the multiplication of the loaves, the people,
enthralled by the miracle, wanted to take him away and make him their king, in
order to overthrow the power of Rome and thus establish a new political kingdom
which would be considered the long-awaited kingdom of God. But Jesus knows that
God’s kingdom is of a completely different kind; it is not built on arms and
violence. The multiplication of the loaves itself becomes both the sign that he
is the Messiah and a watershed in his activity: henceforth the path to the
Cross becomes ever clearer; there, in the supreme act of love, the promised
kingdom, the kingdom of God, will shine forth. But the crowd does not
understand this; they are disappointed and Jesus retires to the mountain to
pray in solitude, to pray with the Father (see <em>Jn </em>6:1-15). In the
Passion narrative we see how even the disciples, though they had shared Jesus’
life and listened to his words, were still thinking of a political kingdom,
brought about also by force. In Gethsemane, Peter had unsheathed his sword and
began to fight, but Jesus stopped him (see <em>Jn</em> 18:10-11). He does not
wish to be defended by arms, but to accomplish the Father’s will to the end,
and to establish his kingdom not by armed conflict, but by the apparent
weakness of life-giving love. The kingdom of God is a kingdom utterly different
from earthly kingdoms.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">That is why,
faced with a defenceless, weak and humiliated man, as Jesus was, a man of power
like Pilate is taken aback; taken aback because he hears of a kingdom and servants.
So he asks an apparently odd question: “So you are a king?” What sort of king
can such a man as this be? But Jesus answers in the affirmative: “You say that
I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to
bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice”
(18:37). Jesus speaks of kings and kingship, yet he is not referring to power
but to truth. Pilate fails to understand: can there be a power not obtained by
human means? A power which does not respond to the logic of domination and
force? Jesus came to reveal and bring a new kingship, that of God; he came to
bear witness to the truth of a God who is love (see <em>1 Jn </em>4:8,16), who
wants to establish a kingdom of justice, love and peace (see <em>Preface</em>).
Whoever is open to love hears this testimony and accepts it with faith, to
enter the kingdom of God.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We find this
same perspective in the first reading we heard. The prophet Daniel foretells
the power of a mysterious personage set between heaven and earth: “Behold, with
the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the
Ancient of Days and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and
glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (7:13-14). These words present a king
who reigns from sea to sea, to the very ends of the earth, possessed of an
absolute power which will never be destroyed. This vision of the prophet, a
messianic vision, is made clear and brought to fulfilment in Christ: the power
of the true Messiah, the power which will never pass away or be destroyed, is
not the power of the kingdoms of the earth which rise and fall, but the power
of truth and love. In this way we understand how the kingship proclaimed by
Jesus in the parables and openly and explicitly revealed before the Roman
procurator, is the kingship of truth, the one which gives all things their
light and grandeur.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the second
reading, the author of the Book of Revelation states that we too share in
Christ’s kingship. In the acclamation addressed “to him who loves us and has
freed us from our sins by his blood”, he declares that Christ “has made us a
kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (1:5-6). Here too it is clear that we
are speaking of a kingdom based on a relationship with God, with truth, and not
a political kingdom. By his sacrifice, Jesus has opened for us the path to a
profound relationship with God: in him we have become true adopted children and
thus sharers in his kingship over the world. To be disciples of Jesus, then,
means not letting ourselves be allured by the worldly logic of power, but
bringing into the world the light of truth and God’s love. The author of the
Book of Revelation broadens his gaze to include Jesus’ second coming to judge
mankind and to establish forever his divine kingdom, and he reminds us that
conversion, as a response to God’s grace, is the condition for the establishment
of this kingdom (see 1:7). It is a pressing invitation addressed to each and
all: to be converted ever anew to the kingdom of God, to the lordship of God,
of Truth, in our lives. We invoke the kingdom daily in the prayer of the “Our
Father” with the words “Thy kingdom come”; in effect we say to Jesus: Lord,
make us yours, live in us, gather together a scattered and suffering humanity,
so that in you all may be subjected to the Father of mercy and love.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To you, dear and venerable Brother Cardinals – I think
in particular of those created yesterday – is is entrusted this demanding
responsibility: to bear witness to the kingdom of God, to the truth. This means
working to bring out ever more clearly the priority of God and his will over
the interests of the world and its powers. Become imitators of Jesus, who,
before Pilate, in the humiliating scene described by the Gospel, manifested his
glory: that of loving to the utmost, giving his own life for those whom he
loves. This is the revelation of the kingdom of Jesus. And for this reason,
with one heart and one soul, let us pray: <em>Adveniat regnum tuum</em> – Thy
kingdom come. Amen. </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-25049802309855086082023-11-13T01:30:00.004-05:002023-11-13T01:30:00.164-05:00Reflections on the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0308: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Thirty-Third</b><b> Sunday
of Ordinary Time </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI </b><b> </b></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 13 November 2005, 19 November
2006, 18 November 2007, 16 November 2008, 15 November 2009, 14 November 2010,
13 November 2011, and 18 November 2012. Here
are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
that were delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 13 November 2005 </span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Servants of
God <i>Charles de Foucauld</i>, a priest; <i>Maria Pia Mastena</i>, Foundress
of the Institute of the Sisters of the Holy Face; and <i>Maria
Crocifissa Curcio</i>, Foundress of the Congregation of Carmelite
Missionary Sisters of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, were beatified this morning
in St Peter’s Basilica. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">They are being
added to the multitude of Blesseds who were held up for the veneration of the
Ecclesial Communities in which they lived during the Pontificate of John Paul
II, in the awareness of what the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council strongly
emphasized, that all baptized persons are called to the perfection of Christian
life: priests, Religious and lay people, each in accordance with his or
her own charism and specific vocation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact, the
Council paid great attention to the role of the lay faithful. It dedicated to
them an entire chapter - the fourth - of <i>Lumen Gentium, </i>the Dogmatic
Constitution on the Church, defining their vocation and mission, which is
rooted in Baptism and Confirmation and whose purpose is to “seek the Kingdom of
God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will”
(no. 31). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On 18 November
1965 the Fathers approved a specific Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, <i>Apostolicam
Actuositatem. </i>It stressed first of all that “the fruitfulness of the
apostolate of lay people depends on their living union with Christ” (no. 4),
that is, on a vigorous spirituality nourished by active participation in the
Liturgy and expressed in the style of the Gospel Beatitudes. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For lay people,
moreover, professional competence, a sense of family, a civic sense and the
social virtues are of great importance. Although it is true that they are
called individually to bear their personal witness, particularly precious
wherever the freedom of the Church encounters obstacles, the Council
nonetheless insisted on the importance of the organized apostolate, essential
if an effect is to be made on the general mindset, social conditions and
institutions (see <i>ibid., </i>no. 18). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this regard,
the Fathers encouraged the numerous associations of lay people and insisted on
their formation in the apostolate. Beloved Pope John Paul II chose to dedicate
the Synod Assembly in 1987 to the topic of the vocation and mission of lay
people, which was followed by the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation <i>Christifideles
Laici. </i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To conclude, I
would like to recall that last Sunday, in the Cathedral of Vicenza, the mother
of a family was beatified; she was known as “Mamma Rosa” and was a model of
Christian life in the lay state. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust
the entire People of God to all those who are now in the heavenly homeland, to
all our Saints, and in the first place to Mary Most Holy and her Husband,
Joseph, so that the awareness of being called to work with commitment and productivity
in the Lord’s vineyard may increase in every baptized person.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 19 November 2006 </span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The day after
tomorrow, 21 November, on the occasion of the liturgical Memorial of the
Presentation of Mary, we will be celebrating <i>Pro Orantibus </i>Day,
dedicated to remembering cloistered religious communities. It is an especially
appropriate opportunity to thank the Lord for the gift of the numerous people
in monasteries and hermitages who are totally dedicated to God in prayer,
silence and concealment. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Some may wonder
what meaning and value their presence could have in our time, when there are so
many situations of poverty and neediness with which to cope. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Why “enclose
oneself” for ever between the walls of a monastery and thereby deprive others
of the contribution of one’s own skills and experience? How effective can the
prayer of these cloistered Religious be for the solution of all the practical
problems that continue to afflict humanity? Yet even today, often to the surprise of their
friends and acquaintances, many people in fact frequently give up promising
professional careers to embrace the austere rule of a cloistered monastery.
What impels them to take such a demanding step other than the realization, as
the Gospel teaches, that the Kingdom of heaven is “a treasure” for which it is
truly worth giving up everything (see Mt 13: 44)? </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed, these
brothers and sisters of ours bear a silent witness to the fact that in the midst
of the sometimes frenetic pace of daily events, the one support that never
topples is God, the indestructible rock of faithfulness and love. “Everything
passes, God never changes”, the great spiritual master Teresa of Avila wrote in
one of her famous texts. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And in the face
of the widespread need to get away from the daily routine of sprawling urban
areas in search of places conducive to silence and meditation, monasteries of
contemplative life offer themselves as “oases” in which human beings, pilgrims
on earth, can draw more easily from the wellsprings of the Spirit and quench
their thirst along the way. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus, these
apparently useless places are on the contrary indispensable, like the green “lungs”
of a city: they do everyone good, even those who do not visit them and
may not even know of their existence. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, let us thank the Lord, who in his <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place> has desired male and female
cloistered communities. May they have our spiritual and also our material
support, so that they can carry out their mission to keep alive in the Church
the ardent expectation of Christ’s Second Coming. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For this, let us
invoke the intercession of Mary, whom we contemplate on the Memorial of her
Presentation in the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
as Mother and model of the Church, who welcomes in herself both
vocations: to virginity and to marriage, to contemplative life and to
active life.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 18 November 2007<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In today’s
Gospel passage, St Luke reproposes the Biblical view of history for our
reflection and refers to Jesus’ words that invite the disciples not to fear,
but to face difficulties, misunderstandings and even persecutions with trust,
persevering through faith in him. The Lord says: “When you hear of wars and
tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will
not be at once” (Lk 21: 9). Keeping this admonition in mind, from the beginning
the Church lives in prayerful waiting for her Lord, scrutinizing the signs of
the times and putting the faithful on guard against recurring messiahs, who
from time to time announce the world’s end as imminent. In reality, history
must run its course, which brings with it also human dramas and natural
calamities. In it a design of salvation is developed that Christ has already
brought to fulfilment in his Incarnation, death and Resurrection. The Church
continues to proclaim this mystery and to announce and accomplish it with her
preaching, celebration of the sacraments and witness of charity. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, let us welcome Christ’s invitation to face daily events by
trusting in his providential love. Let us not fear the future, even when it can
appear with bleak colours, because the God of Jesus Christ, who entered history
to open it to its transcendent fulfilment, is the alpha and the omega, the
first and the last (see Rv 1: 8). He guarantees that in every little but
genuine act of love there is the entire sense of the universe, and that the one
who does not hesitate to lose his own life for him finds it again in fullness (see
Mt 16: 25).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With remarkable
effectiveness, consecrated persons, who have placed their lives completely at
the service of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, invite us to keep
this perspective alive. Among these I would like to particularly recall those
called to contemplation in cloistered monasteries. The Church dedicates a
special day to them this Wednesday, 21 November, Memorial of the Presentation
in the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city>
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We owe much to these people who live on what <st1:city w:st="on">Providence</st1:city> provides them
through the generosity of the faithful. “As a spiritual oasis, a monastery
reminds today’s world of the most important, and indeed, in the end, the only
decisive thing: that there is an ultimate reason why life is worth living: God
and his unfathomable love” (Pope Benedict XVI, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Heiligenkreuz</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Austria</st1:country-region></st1:place>,
9 September 2007). Faith, which is active in charity, is the true antidote
against a nihilistic mentality that is spreading its influence in the world
even more in our time. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May Mary, Mother
of the Incarnate Word, accompany us on our earthly pilgrimage. We ask her to
sustain the witness of all Christians, so that it is always based on a solid
and persevering faith.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 16 November 2008</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Word of God
this Sunday the second to the last Sunday of the liturgical year invites us to
be vigilant and hardworking, in the expectation of the Lord’s return at the end
of time. The Gospel passage recounts the famous Parable of the Talents, related
by St Matthew (25: 14-30). The “talent” was an ancient Roman coin, of great
value, and precisely because of this parable’s popularity it became synonymous
with personal gifts, which everyone is called to develop. In fact, the text
speaks of “a man going on a journey [who] called his servants and entrusted to
them his property” (Mt 25: 14). The man in the parable represents Christ
himself, the servants are the disciples and the talents are the gifts that
Jesus entrusts to them. These gifts, in addition to their natural qualities,
thus represent the riches that the Lord Jesus has bequeathed to us as a legacy,
so that we may make them productive: his Word, deposited in the Holy Gospel;
Baptism, which renews us in the Holy Spirit; prayer the “Our Father” that we
raise to God as his children, united in the Son; his forgiveness, which he
commanded be offered to all; the Sacrament of his Body sacrificed and his Blood
poured out; in a word: the Kingdom of God, which is God himself, present and
alive in our midst. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is the
treasure that Jesus entrusted to his friends at the end of his brief life on
earth. Today’s parable stresses the inner disposition necessary to accept and
develop this gift. Fear is the wrong attitude: the servant who is afraid of his
master and fears his return hides the coin in the earth and it does not produce
any fruit. This happens, for example, to those who after receiving Baptism,
Communion and Confirmation subsequently bury these gifts beneath a blanket of
prejudice, beneath a false image of God that paralyzes faith and good works,
thus betraying the Lord’s expectations. However, the parable places a greater
emphasis on the good fruits brought by the disciples who, happy with the gift
they received, did not keep it hidden with fear and jealousy but made it
profitable by sharing it and partaking in it. Yes, what Christ has given us is
multiplied in its giving! It is a treasure made to be spent, invested and
shared with all, as we are taught by the Apostle Paul, that great administrator
of Jesus’ talents. The Gospel teaching that the liturgy offers us today has
also had a strong effect at the historical and social level, encouraging an
active and entrepreneurial spirit in the Christian people. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The central
message, however, concerns the spirit of responsibility with which to receive
God’s Kingdom: a responsibility to God and to humanity. This attitude of the
heart is embodied perfectly in the Virgin Mary who, on receiving the most
precious gift of all, Jesus himself, offered him to the world with immense
love. Let us ask her to help us to be “good and faithful servants” so that we
may one day enter “into the joy of our Lord”.</span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 15 November 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have reached
the last two weeks of the liturgical year. Let us thank the Lord who has once
again granted us to make this journey of faith old and ever new in the great
spiritual family of the Church! It is a precious gift, which enables us to live
the mystery of Christ in history, receiving in the furrows of our personal and
community existence the seed of the word of God, a seed of eternity that
transforms this world from within and opens it to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place>.
This year, we have been accompanied along our itinerary through the Sunday
biblical <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place>
by St Mark’s Gospel, which today presents to us part of Jesus’ discourse on the
end of times. In this discourse is a phrase whose terse clarity is striking: “Heaven
and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mk 13: 31). Let us
pause a moment to reflect on this prophecy of Christ. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The expression “Heaven
and earth” recurs frequently in the Bible in reference to the whole universe,
the entire cosmos. Jesus declares that all this is destined to “pass away”; not
only the earth but also Heaven, which here is meant in a purely cosmic sense
and not as synonymous with God. Sacred Scripture knows no ambiguity: all
Creation is marked by finitude, including the elements divinized by ancient
mythologies; there is no confusion between Creation and the Creator but rather
a decided difference. With this clear distinction Jesus says that his words “will
not pass away”, that is to say they are part of God and therefore eternal. Even
if they were spoken in the concreteness of his earthly existence, they are
prophetic words par excellence, as Jesus affirms elsewhere, addressing the
heavenly Father: “I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have
received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed
that you sent me” (Jn 17: 8). In a well-known parable Christ compares himself
to the sower and explains that the seed is the word (see Mk 4: 14); those who
hear it, accept it and bear fruit (see Mk 4: 20) take part in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, that is, they live under his
lordship. They remain <i>in </i>the world, but are no longer <i>of</i> the
world. They bear within them a seed of eternity a principle of transformation
that is already manifest now in a good life, enlivened by charity, and that in
the end will produce the resurrection of the flesh. This is the power of Christ’s
word. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
the Virgin Mary is the living sign of this truth. Her heart was “good soil”
that received with complete willingness the Word of God, so that her whole
life, transformed according to the image of the Son, was introduced into
eternity, body and soul, in anticipation of the eternal vocation of every human
being. Let us now make our own in prayer her response to the Angel: “Let it be
to me according to your word” (Lk 1: 38), so that in following Christ on the
way of the Cross we too may be able to attain the glory of the Resurrection.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 14 November 2010 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Second
Reading of today’s Liturgy, the Apostle Paul underlines the importance of work
for the life of man. We are reminded of this idea on “Thanksgiving Day”, that
is traditionally celebrated in <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>
on this second Sunday in November, as the offering of thanks to God at the end
of the harvest season. Although in other geographical areas farming periods
naturally differ, today I would like to draw inspiration from <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>’s words to reflect on agricultural
work in particular. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The full gravity
of the current economic crisis, discussed these past few days at the “G20
Summit”, should be understood. This crisis has numerous causes and is a strong
reminder of the need for a profound revision of the model of global economic
development (see Encyclical, <i>Caritas in Veritate</i>, no. 21). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is an acute
symptom which has been added to a long list of many far more serious and
well-known problems, such as the lasting imbalance between wealth and poverty,
the scandal of world hunger, the ecological emergency and the now widespread
problem of unemployment. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this context,
a strategic revitalization of agriculture is crucial. Indeed, the process of
industrialization has often overshadowed the agricultural sector, which
although benefiting in its turn from modern technology has nevertheless lost
importance with notable consequences, even at the cultural level. It seems to
me that it is time to re-evaluate agriculture, not in a nostalgic sense but as
an indispensable resource for the future.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the present
economic situation, the dynamic economies are tempted to pursue advantageous
alliances, which nevertheless may have detrimental results for other poorer
States, situations of extreme poverty among the masses and the depletion of the
natural resources of the earth that God has entrusted to man, as it says in
Genesis, so that he may till it and keep it (see 2: 15). And in spite of the
crisis it can still be seen that in the old industrialized countries,
lifestyles marked by unsustainable consumerism are encouraged. These also prove
damaging for the environment and for the poor. Then a really concerted aim for
a new balance between farming, industry and services is necessary so that
development may be sustainable, so that no one will lack bread and work, air
and water, and that the other fundamental resources may be preserved as
universal rights (see Encyclical <i>Caritas in Veritate</i>, no. 27). Thus it
is essential to cultivate and spread a clear ethical awareness that is equal to
facing the most complicated challenges of our time. Everyone should be taught
to consume in a wiser and more responsible way. We should promote personal
responsibility along with a social dimension of rural activities based on the
undying values of hospitality, solidarity and sharing the toil of labour. Many
young people have already chosen this path and many professionals are also
returning to agricultural enterprises, feeling that in this way they are not
only responding to personal and family needs but also to a <i>sign of the
times, </i>to a concrete sensibility for the<i> common good. </i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pray to
the Virgin Mary that these reflections may serve as an incentive to the
international community, as we thank God for the fruits of the earth and the
work of mankind.</span></div>
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<strong><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 13 November 2011</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
word of God of this Sunday — the second to last Sunday of the liturgical year —
warns us of the transience of our earthly existence and invites us to live it
as a pilgrimage, keeping our gaze fixed on the destination for which God has
created us. Moreover, since he made us for himself (see <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>, <i>Confessions</i> 1, 1), he is
our ultimate destination and the meaning of our existence.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Death,
followed by the Last Judgement, is an obligatory stage to pass through in order
to reach this definitive reality. The Apostle Paul says: “the day of the Lord
will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess 5:2), that is, without warning.
May knowledge of the glorious return of the Lord Jesus spur us to live in an
attitude of watchfulness, waiting for his manifestation and in constant
remembrance of his first Coming. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In
the well known Parable of the Talents — recounted by the Evangelist Matthew (see
25: 14-30) — Jesus tells the story of three servants to whom their master
entrusted his property, before setting out on a long journey. Two of them
behaved impeccably, doubling the value of what they had received. On the
contrary, the third buried the money he had received in a hole. On his return,
the master asked his servants to account for what he had entrusted to them and
while he was pleased with the first two he was disappointed with the third. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed,
the servant who had hidden his talent and failed to make it increase in worth,
had calculated badly. He behaved as if his master were never to return, as if
there would never be a day on which he would be asked to account for his
actions. With this parable Jesus wanted to teach his disciples to make good use
of his gifts: God calls every person and offers talents to all, at the same
time entrusting each one with a mission to carry out. It would be foolish to
presume that these gifts are an entitlement, just as failing to use them would
mean failing to achieve our purpose in life. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In
commenting on this Gospel passage St Gregory the Great noted that the Lord does
not let anyone lack the gift of his charity, of his love. He wrote: “brothers,
it is necessary that you pay the utmost attention to preserving love in
everything you must do” (<i>Homilies on the Gospel</i>, 9, 6). After explaining
that true charity consists in loving enemies as well as friends, he added: “if
someone lacks this virtue, he loses every good he possesses, he is deprived of
the talent he received and is cast out into the darkness” (<i>ibid.</i>). </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
brothers and sisters, let us accept the invitation to be watchful, of which the
Scriptures frequently remind us! This is the attitude of those who know that
the Lord will return and that he will wish to see the fruits of his love in us.
Charity is the fundamental good that no one can fail to bring to fruition and
without which every other good is worthless (see 1 Cor 13:3). If Jesus loved us
to the point of giving his life for us (see 1 Jn 3:16), how can we not love God
with the whole of ourselves and love one another with real warmth? (see 1 Jn
4:11). It is only by practising charity that we too will be able to share in
the joy of Our Lord. May the Virgin Mary teach us active and joyful
watchfulness on our journey towards the encounter with God.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 18 November 2012</em></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Mark’s version of a part of Jesus’ discourse on the end times is proclaimed on
this penultimate Sunday of the liturgical year (see Mk 13:24-32). This discourse
is also found in Matthew and Luke, with some variations, and is probably the
most difficult Gospel text. This difficulty stems from both its content and its
language: in fact, it speaks of a future that exceeds our own categories and
for this reason Jesus uses images and words taken from the Old Testament; but
above all he introduces a new centre, which is he himself, the mystery of his
Person and of his death and Resurrection. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s
passage also opens with certain cosmic images that are apocalyptic in
character: “the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and
the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be
shaken” (vv. 24-25); but this element is relativized by what follows: “then
they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory” (v.
26). The “Son of man” is Jesus himself who links the present and the future;
the ancient words of the prophets have finally found a centre in the Person of
the Nazarene Messiah: he is the True Event which remains the firm and enduring
point in the midst of the world’s upheavals. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Other
words in today’s Gospel confirm this. Jesus says: “heaven and earth will pass
away, but my words will not pass away” (v. 31) Indeed we know that in the Bible
the word of God is at the origin of the Creation: all the creatures, starting
with the cosmic elements — sun, moon, the firmament — obey the word of God,
they exist since they have been “called into being” by it. This creative force
of the divine word is concentrated in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, and
also passes through his human words, which are the true “firmament” that
directs the thought and journey of man on earth. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For
this reason Jesus does not describe the end of the world and when he uses apocalyptic
images, he does not act as a “seer”. On the contrary, he wishes to prevent his
disciples in every epoch from being curious about dates and predictions; he
wants instead to provide them with a key to a profound, essential
interpretation and, above all, to point out to them the right way on which to
walk, today and in the future, to enter eternal life. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Everything
passes away, the Lord reminds us, but the word of God does not change and
before it each one of us is responsible for his or her own behaviour. We are
judged on this basis.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, in our day too there is no lack of
natural disasters nor, unfortunately, of war and violence. Today too we need a
permanent foundation for our life and our hope, especially because of the
relativism in which we are immersed. May the Virgin Mary help us to accept this
centre in the Person of Christ and in his word. </span></div>
</div>
</div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-52845500393456324242023-11-06T01:30:00.004-05:002023-11-06T01:30:00.154-05:00Reflections on the Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0307: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Thirty-Second</b><b> Sunday
of Ordinary </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>Time </b></span><b style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">by </b><b style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;">Pope Benedict XVI</b><b style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"> </b><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Thirty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 6 November 2005, 12 November
2006, 11 November 2007, 9 November 2008, 8 November 2009, 7 November 2010, 6
November 2011, and 11 November 2012. Here
are the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
and two homilies delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 6 November 2005</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On 18 November
1965, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council approved the Dogmatic Constitution
on Divine Revelation<b> </b><i>Dei Verbum. </i>This Document is one of the
pillars on which the entire Council is built. It addresses Revelation and its
transmission, the inspiration and interpretation of Sacred Scripture and its
fundamental importance in the life of the Church. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Gathering the
fruits of the theological renewal that preceded it, Vatican II put Christ at
the centre, presenting him as “both the mediator and the sum total of
Revelation” (no. 2). Indeed, the Lord Jesus, the Word made flesh who died and
rose, brought to completion the work of salvation, consisting of deeds and
words, and fully manifested the face and will of God so that no new public
revelation is to be expected until his glorious return (see no. 3). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Apostles and
their successors, the Bishops, are depositories of the message that Christ
entrusted to his Church so that it might be passed on in its integrity to all
generations. Sacred Scripture of the Old and New Testaments and sacred
Tradition contain this message, whose understanding develops in the Church with
the help of the Holy Spirit. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This same
Tradition makes known the integral canon of the sacred Books. It makes them
directly understandable and operative so that God, who has spoken to the Patriarchs
and Prophets, does not cease to speak to the Church and through her, to the
world (see no. 8). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church does
not live for herself but for the Gospel, and it is always in the Gospel that
she finds the direction for her journey. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The conciliar
Constitution <i>Dei Verbum </i>emphasized appreciation for the Word of God,
which developed into a profound renewal for the life of the Ecclesial
Community, especially in preaching, catechesis, theology, spirituality and
ecumenical relations. Indeed, it is the Word of God which guides believers,
through the action of the Holy Spirit, towards all truth (see Jn 16: 13). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Among the many
fruits of this biblical springtime I would like to mention the spread of the
ancient practice of <i>Lectio divina</i> or “spiritual reading” of Sacred
Scripture. It consists in pouring over a biblical text for some time, reading
it and rereading it, as it were, “ruminating” on it as the Fathers say and
squeezing from it, so to speak, all its “juice”, so that it may nourish
meditation and contemplation and, like water, succeed in irrigating life
itself. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">One condition
for <i>Lectio divina</i> is that the mind and heart be illumined by the Holy
Spirit, that is, by the same Spirit who inspired the Scriptures, and that they
be approached with an attitude of “reverential hearing”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This attitude
was typical of Mary Most Holy, as the icon of the Annunciation symbolically
portrays: the Virgin receives the heavenly Messenger while she is intent on
meditating upon the Sacred Scriptures, usually shown by a book that Mary holds
in her hand, on her lap or on a lectern. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is also the
image of the Church which the Council itself offered in the Constitution <i>Dei
Verbum</i>:<i> </i>“Hearing the Word of God with reverence...” (no. 1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pray that
like Mary, the Church will be a humble handmaid of the divine Word and will
always proclaim it with firm trust, so that “the whole world... through hearing
it may believe, through belief... may hope, through hope... may come to love” (<i>ibid.</i>).</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 12 November 2006 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>,
the annual Day of Thanksgiving is being celebrated today. Its theme is: <i>
“The earth: a gift for the whole human family”.</i> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In our Christian
families, children are taught to always thank the Lord prior to eating with a
short prayer and the Sign of the Cross. This custom should be preserved or
rediscovered, for it teaches people not to take their “daily bread” for granted
but to recognize it as a gift of <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place>.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We should become
accustomed to blessing the Creator for all things: for air and water, precious
elements on which life on our planet depends, as well as for the food that
through the earth’s fertility God offers to us for our sustenance. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus taught his
disciples to pray by asking the Heavenly Father not for “my” but for “our”
daily bread. Thus, he desired every person to feel co-responsible for his
brothers so that no one would want for what he needs in order to live. The
earth’s produce forms a gift which God has destined “for the entire
human family”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And here we
touch on a very sore point: the drama of hunger which, although it has recently
been addressed at the most important institutions such as the United Nations
and in particular at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), continues to
be very serious. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The last annual
report of the FAO has confirmed what the Church knows very well from her direct
experience of the communities and missions: more than 800 million people
are living in a condition of undernourishment and too many, especially
children, die of hunger. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How should we
cope with this situation which, though repeatedly renounced, shows no sign of a
solution and indeed, in some respects is worsening? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is certainly
necessary to eliminate the structural causes linked to the system for
regulating the world economy, which destines the majority of the planet’s
resources to a minority of the population. This injustice was stigmatized on
various occasions by my venerable Predecessors, the Servants of God Paul VI and
John Paul II. To be effective on a wide scale, it is necessary “to convert” the
model of global development, required not only due to the scandal of hunger but
also by environmental and energy emergencies. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet, every
person and every family can and must do something to alleviate hunger in the
world by adopting a lifestyle and consumption compatible with the safeguarding
of creation and with criteria of justice for those who cultivate the land in
every country. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, today’s Thanksgiving Day invites us, on the one hand, to give
thanks to God for the fruits of agricultural work; and on the other, it
encourages us to commit ourselves concretely to defeat the scourge of hunger. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the Virgin
Mary help us to be grateful for the benefits of <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place> and to foster justice and
solidarity in every part of the globe.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 11 November 2007</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, 11
November, the Church remembers St Martin, Bishop of <st1:place w:st="on">Tours</st1:place>, one of the most celebrated and
venerated Saints of Europe. Born of pagan parents in <st1:state w:st="on">Pannonia</st1:state>,
in what is today <st1:country-region w:st="on">Hungary</st1:country-region>,
he was directed by his father to a military career around the year 316. Still
an adolescent, Martin came into contact with Christianity and, overcoming many
difficulties, he enrolled as a catechumen in order to prepare for Baptism. He
would receive the Sacrament in his 20s, but he would still stay for a long time
in the army, where he would give testimony of his new lifestyle: respectful and
inclusive of all, he treated his attendant as a brother and avoided vulgar
entertainment. Leaving military service, he went to <st1:city w:st="on">Poitiers</st1:city>
in <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>
near the holy Bishop Hilary. He was ordained a deacon and priest by him, chose
the monastic life and with some disciples established the oldest monastery
known in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place> at Ligugé. About 10 years
later, the Christians of Tours, who were without a Pastor, acclaimed him their
Bishop. From that time, Martin dedicated himself with ardent zeal to the evangelization
of the countryside and the formation of the clergy. While many miracles are
attributed to him, <st1:place w:st="on">St Martin</st1:place> is known most of
all for an act of fraternal charity. While still a young soldier, he met a poor
man on the street numb and trembling from the cold. He then took his own cloak
and, cutting it in two with his sword, gave half to that man. Jesus appeared to
him that night in a dream smiling, dressed in the same cloak. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, <st1:place w:st="on">St Martin</st1:place>’s charitable gesture
flows from the same logic that drove Jesus to multiply the loaves for the
hungry crowd, but most of all to leave himself to humanity as food in the
Eucharist, supreme Sign of God’s love, <i>Sacramentum caritatis</i>.<i> </i>It
is the logic of sharing which he used to authentically explain love of
neighbour. May <st1:place w:st="on">St Martin</st1:place> help us to understand
that only by means of a common commitment to sharing is it possible to respond
to the great challenge of our times: to build a world of peace and justice
where each person can live with dignity. This can be achieved if a world model
of authentic solidarity prevails which assures to all inhabitants of the planet
food, water, necessary medical treatment, and also work and energy resources as
well as cultural benefits, scientific and technological knowledge. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us turn now
to the Virgin Mary so that all Christians may be like <st1:place w:st="on">St
Martin</st1:place>, generous witnesses of the Gospel of love and tireless
builders of jointly responsible sharing.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 9 November 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The liturgy
today has us celebrate the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, called the “mother
and head of all the Churches of the <i>Urbe </i>and <i>Orbe”. </i>Actually,
this Basilica was the first to be built after the Edict of the Emperor Constantine
who, in 313, conceded to Christians the freedom to practice their religion. The
same Emperor gave Pope Miltiades the ancient estate of the Laterani family and
had the Basilica, the Baptistery and the Patriarchate built for him, the latter
being the Bishop of Rome’s residence, where Popes resided until the <st1:place w:st="on">Avignon</st1:place> era. The
dedication of the Basilica was celebrated by Pope Silvester in about 324 and
the temple was dedicated to the Most Holy Saviour; only after the 6th century
were the names of Sts John the Baptist and John the Evangelist added, from
which came its common name. This occasion initially only involved the city of <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>; then, from 1565
onwards, it extended to the entire Church of the Roman rite. Hence, honouring
the holy building is meant as an expression of love and veneration for the
Roman Church “which”, as St Ignatius of Antioch affirms, “presides in charity”
over the entire Catholic communion (see <i>Epistula ad Romanos, </i>1, 1). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Word of God
during this Solemnity recalls an essential truth: the stone temple is the
symbol of the living Church, the Christian community, that the Apostles Peter
and Paul had, in their Letters, already understood as a “spiritual building”,
constructed by God with the “living stones” that are the Christians, upon the
one foundation that is Jesus Christ, who is in turn compared to the “cornerstone”
see 1 Cor 3: 9-11, 16-17; 1 Pt 2: 4-8; Eph 2: 20-22). “Brethren,... you are God’s
building”, <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
writes, and he adds, “God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor 3:
9c, 17). The beauty and the harmony of churches, destined to render praise to
God, invites us human beings too, though limited and sinful, to convert
ourselves to form a “cosmos”, a well-ordered construction, in close communion
with Jesus, who is the true Holy of Holies. This reaches its culmination in the
Eucharistic liturgy, in which the “<i>ecclesia” </i>that is, the community of
baptized finds itself again united to listen to the Word of God and nourish
itself on the Body and Blood of Christ. Gathered around this twofold table, the
Church of living stones builds herself up in truth and in love and is moulded
interiorly by the Holy Spirit, transforming herself into what she receives,
conforming herself ever more to her Lord Jesus Christ. She herself, if she
lives in sincere and fraternal unity, thus becomes a spiritual sacrifice
pleasing to God. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
today’s feast celebrates an ever current mystery: that God desires to build
himself a spiritual temple in the world, a community that adores him in spirit
and truth (see Jn 4: 23-24). But this occasion reminds us also of the
importance of the concrete buildings in which the community gathers together to
celebrate God’s praises. Every community therefore has the duty to carefully
guard their holy structures, which constitute a precious religious and
historical patrimony. For this we invoke the intercession of Mary Most Holy, so
that she might help us to become, like her, a “house of God”, living temple of
his love.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT TO <st1:place w:st="on">BRESCIA</st1:place>
AND CONCESIO</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><i>Paul VI Square</i></st1:address></st1:street><i>
- <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Brescia</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region></st1:place>, Sunday, 8 November 2009 </i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of
this Solemn Celebration, I thank those who were responsible for the liturgical
animation, and everyone who collaborated in various ways in the preparation and
realization of my Pastoral Visit to <st1:place w:st="on">Brescia</st1:place>.
Thank you all! I also greet those following us on radio and television, as well
as those watching from St Peter’s Square, particularly the many volunteers of
the Unione Nazionale Pro Loco d’Italia. At this <i>Angelus</i> prayer, I wish
to recall the profound devotion for the Virgin Mary of the Servant of God
Giovanni Battista Montini. He celebrated his first Mass in the Shrine of Santa
Maria delle Grazie, the Marian heart of your city, not far from this square. In
this way he placed his priesthood under the maternal protection of the Mother
of Jesus, and this bond accompanied him throughout his life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As his ecclesial
responsibilities grew, he developed an ever broader and more organic concept of
the relationship between the Blessed Virgin Mary and the mystery of the Church.
In this perspective, his closing <i>Discourse at the Third Session of the
Second Vatican Council</i> on 21 November 1964 remains memorable. That session
had promulgated the Constitution on the Church <i>Lumen gentium</i> which in
the words of Paul VI “has as its summit and crown an entire chapter dedicated
to Our Lady”. The Pope noted that it was the most ample synthesis of Marian
doctrine ever elaborated by an Ecumenical Council, aimed at “manifesting the
face of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>, to which Mary is intimately
bound” (<i>Enchiridion Vaticanum</i>, Bologna 1979, p. 185, nos. 300-302). In
that context, he proclaimed Mary Most Holy as “Mother of the Church” (see<i>
ibid</i>., no. 306), emphasizing, with great ecumenical sensitivity, that “the
devotion to Mary... is a means intended to orient souls towards Christ and thus
to unite them with the Father, in the love of the Holy Spirit” (<i>ibid</i>., no.
315). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Echoing the
words of Paul VI, today we too pray: O Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, we
entrust to you the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Brescia</st1:placename></st1:place> and the entire
population of this region. Remember all your children; confirm their prayers to
God; keep their faith steady; reinforce their hope; make charity grow. O
merciful, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary (see <i>ibid</i>., nos. 317.320.325).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT TO <st1:place w:st="on">BRESCIA</st1:place>
AND CONCESIO</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">EUCHARISTIC
CONCELEBRATION</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><i>Paul VI Square</i></st1:address></st1:street><i>
- <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Brescia</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region></st1:place>, Sunday, 8 November 2009</i> </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I have great joy
in being able to break the Bread of the Word of God and of the Eucharist with
you here, in the heart of the Diocese of Brescia, where the Servant of God
Giovanni Battista Montini, Pope Paul VI was born and educated in his youth. I
greet you all with affection and thank you for your warm welcome! In particular
I thank Bishop Luciano Monari, for his words to me at the beginning of the
celebration and with him I greet the Cardinals, Bishops, priests and deacons,
the men and women religious and all the pastoral workers. I thank the Mayor for
his words and his gift, and the other civil and military Authorities. I address
a special thought to the sick who have gathered in the Cathedral. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the heart of
the Liturgy of the Word this Sunday the 32nd in Ordinary Time we find the
figure of the poor widow or, more precisely, we find her gesture when she
dropped her last coins into the collection box of the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place> treasury. Thanks to Jesus’ attentive
look it has become the proverbial “widow’s mite” and indeed is synonymous with
the generosity of those who give unsparingly the little they possess. However,
I would like first of all to emphasize the importance of the atmosphere in
which this Gospel episode takes place, that is, the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:placename></st1:place>,
the religious centre of the People of Israel and the heart of its whole life.
The <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> was
the place of public and solemn worship, but also of pilgrimage, of the
traditional rites and of rabbinical disputations such as those recorded in the
Gospel between Jesus and the rabbis of that time in which, however, Jesus
teaches with unique authority as the Son of God. He judges the scribes severely
as we have heard because of their hypocrisy: indeed, while they display great
piety they are exploiting the poor, imposing obligations that they themselves
do not observe. Indeed, Jesus shows his affection for the Temple as a house of
prayer but for this very reason wishes to cleanse it from improper practices;
actually he wants to reveal its deepest meaning which is linked to the
fulfilment of his own Mystery, the Mystery of his death and Resurrection, in
which he himself becomes the new and definitive Temple, the place where God and
man, the Creator and his creature, meet. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The episode of
the widow’s mite fits into this context and leads us, through Jesus’ gaze
itself, to focus our attention on a transient but crucial detail: the action of
the widow, who is very poor and yet puts two coins into the collection box of
the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>
treasury. Jesus is saying to us too, just as he said to his disciples that day:
Pay attention! Take note of what this widow has done, because her act contains
a great teaching; in fact, it expresses the fundamental characteristic of those
who are the “living stones” of this new Temple, namely the total gift of
themselves to the Lord and to their neighbour; the widow of the Gospel, and
likewise the widow in the Old Testament, gives everything, gives herself,
putting herself in God’s hands for others. This is the everlasting meaning of
the poor widow’s offering which Jesus praises; for she has given more than the
rich, who offer part of what is superfluous to them, whereas she gave all that
she had to live on (see <i>Mk </i>12: 44), hence she gave herself. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
starting with this Gospel icon I would like to meditate briefly on the mystery
of the Church, the living <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Temple</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, and thereby pay
homage to the memory of the great Pope Paul VI who dedicated his entire life to
the Church. The Church is a real spiritual organism that prolongs in space and
time the sacrifice of the Son of God, an apparently insignificant sacrifice in
comparison with the dimensions of the world and of history but in God’s eyes
crucial. As the <i>Letter to the Hebrews</i> says and also the text we have
just heard Jesus’ sacrifice offered “once” sufficed for God to save the whole
world (see Heb 9: 26, 28), because all the Love of the Son of God made man is
condensed in that single oblation, just as all the widow’s love for God and for
her brethren is concentrated in this woman’s action; nothing is lacking and
there is nothing to add. The Church, which is ceaselessly born from the
Eucharist, from Jesus’ gift of self, is the continuation of this gift, this
superabundance which is expressed in poverty, in the all that is offered in the
fragment. It is Christ’s Body that is given entirely, a body broken and shared
in constant adherence to the will of its Head. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am glad that
guided by your Bishop’s Pastoral Letter you are examining in depth the
Eucharistic nature of the Church, this Church which the Servant of God Paul VI
loved passionately and sought with all his might to make understood and loved.
Let us reread his <i>Pensiero alla morte</i>, the part where, in the last
section, he speaks of the Church. “ I could say”, he writes, “that I have
always loved her... and that it seems to me I have lived for her and for
nothing else; but I would like the Church to know it”. These are the accents of
a palpitating heart and he continues: “Lastly, I would like to understand her
fully, in her history, in her divine plan, in her final destiny, in her
complex, total and unitary composition, in her human and imperfect consistence,
in her adversities and her sufferings, in her weakness and in the wretchedness
of so many of her children, in her less sympathetic aspects and in her eternal
aspiration to fidelity, love, perfection and charity. The Mystical Body of
Christ”. “I would like”, the Pope continues, “to embrace, greet her and love
her in every being of whom she is made up, in every Bishop and priest who
serves and guides her, in every soul who lives and illustrates her; I would
like to bless her”. Moreover, his last words were to her, as to the bride of
his whole life: “And what shall I say to the Church, to whom I owe everything
and whom was mine? May God’s Blessings be upon you; may you be aware of your
nature and your mission; may you have a sense of humanity’s true and profound
needs; and walk in poverty, in other words free, strong and in love with Christ”.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What can be
added to such lofty and intense words? I would just like to underline this last
vision of the Church “poor and free” which evokes the Gospel figure of the
widow. If it is to succeed in speaking to contemporary humanity the ecclesial
community must be like this. Giovanni Battista Montini had particularly at
heart the Church’s encounter and dialogue with the humanity of our time in all
the seasons of his life, from the early years of his priesthood until the
Pontificate. He dedicated all his energy to serving a Church which would
conform as closely as possible to his Lord Jesus Christ so that in encountering
her contemporary men and women might encounter him, Christ, because their need
for him is absolute. This was the basic desire of the Second Vatican Council
with which Paul VI’s reflection on the Church corresponds. He wanted to expound
programmatically on some of her salient points in his first Encyclical,
Ecclesiam Suam of 6 August 1964, at a time when the conciliar Constitutions <i>Lumen
gentium</i> and <i>Gaudium et spes</i> had not yet been written. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With that first
Encyclical the Pontiff sought to explain to all the Church’s importance for
humanity’s salvation and, at the same time, the need to establish a
relationship based on mutual knowledge and love between the ecclesial community
and society (see <i>Enchiridion Vaticanum</i>, 2, p. 199, no. 164). <br /><br />“Conscience”,
“renewal”, “dialogue”; these were the three words that Paul VI chose to express
his principal “policies”, as he himself describes them at the beginning of his
Petrine ministry, and all three concern the Church. First of all comes the need
for her to increase her self-awareness: of her origins, nature, mission and
final destiny; secondly, comes her need to renew herself, to cleanse herself by
looking at her model, Christ. Lastly there is the problem of establishing relations
with the modern world (see <i>ibid</i>., pp. 203-205, nos. 166-168). Dear
friends and I am addressing in a special way my Brothers in the Episcopate and
in the Priesthood how can we fail to see concerning the Church, the need for
her in the plan of salvation and her relationship with the world that is still
absolutely central today? And, indeed, that the developments of secularization
and globalization have made it even more essential, in the confrontation on the
one hand with the disregard for God and on the other with the non-Christian
religions? Pope Montini’s reflection on the Church is more timely than ever;
and even more valuable is his exemplary love for her, inseparable from his love
for Christ. “The mystery of the Church”, we read once again in the Encyclical <i>Ecclesiam
suam</i>, “is not to be confined to the realms of speculative theology. It must
be lived, so that the faithful may have a kind of intuitive experience of it,
even before they come to understand it clearly” (<i>ibid</i>., no. 37). This
presupposes a robust inner life which, the Pope continues, is thus “the richest
source of the Church’s spiritual strength. It is the means, peculiarly its own,
whereby the Church receives the sunlight of Christ’s Spirit. It is the Church’s
natural and necessary way of expressing her religious and social activity, her
surest defence and the cause of her constant renewal of strength amid the
difficulties of the secular world” (see <i>ibid</i>., no. 38). It is precisely
the Christian who is open, the Church open to the world, that need a robust
inner life. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends
what an invaluable gift for the Church the lesson of the Servant of God Paul VI
is! And how exciting it is, every time, to learn from him! It is a lesson that
concerns all and involves all in accordance with the various gifts and
ministries with which the action of the Holy Spirit has enriched the People of
God. In this Year for Priests I would like to stress how this lesson concerns
and involves priests in particular, for whom Pope Montini always reserved
special affection and concern. In his Encyclical on priestly celibacy he wrote:
““Laid hold of by Christ’ unto the complete abandonment of one’s entire self to
him, the priest takes on a closer likeness to Christ, even in the love with
which the eternal Priest has loved the Church his Body and offered himself
entirely for her sake.... In fact “the consecrated celibacy of the sacred
ministers manifests the virginal love of Christ for the Church and above all
the virginal and supernatural fecundity of this marriage” (<i>Sacerdotalis
caelibatus</i>, no. 26). I dedicate the great Pope’s words to the many priests
of the Diocese of Brescia, well represented here, as well as to the young men
in formation at the Seminary. And I would also like to recall the words that
Paul VI addressed to the students at the Lombard Seminary on 7 December 1968,
when the difficulties of the post-conciliar period had to contend with the
ferment in the world of youth: “So many”, he said, “expect of the Pope
sensational work, energetic and decisive interventions. The Pope does not
consider he should follow any other line than that of trust in Jesus Christ,
whose concern for his Church is greater than for anyone else. It will be he who
rides out the storm.... This expectation is neither sterile nor inert; rather,
it is attentive watching in prayer. This is the condition Jesus chose for us so
that he might fully carry out his work. The Pope too needs the help of prayer”
(<i>Insegnamenti</i> VI, [1968], 1189). Dear Brothers and Sisters, may the
priestly example of the Servant of God Giovanni Battista Montini always guide
you, and may St Arcangelo Tadini whom I have just venerated during my brief
stop at Botticino intercede for you. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">While I greet
and encourage the priests, I cannot forget, especially here in <st1:place w:st="on">Brescia</st1:place>, the lay faithful
in this region who have shown extraordinary vitality in their faith and
actions, in the various fields of the associated apostolate and of social
commitment. In the<i> Insegnamenti</i> of Paul VI, dear friends of <st1:city w:st="on">Brescia</st1:city>, you can find
ever precious instructions for facing the challenges of the present time
including, above all, the financial crisis, immigration and the education of
youth. At the same time, Pope Montini did not miss an opportunity to underline
the primacy of the contemplative dimension, in other words the primacy of God
in human experience and therefore never tired of promoting the consecrated life
in the variety of its aspects. He deeply loved the many-facetted beauty of the
Church, recognizing in it the infinite beauty of God which shines on Christ’s
Face. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us pray that
the brightness of divine beauty may be resplendent in all our communities and
that the Church may be a luminous sign of hope for humanity in the third
millennium. May Mary, whom at the end of the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI
wished to proclaim Mother of the Church, obtain this grace for us. Amen!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">APOSTOLIC
JOURNEY TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA AND <st1:city w:st="on">BARCELONA</st1:city><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">(NOVEMBER
6-7, 2010)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Square
of the church of the Sagrada Familia, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Barcelona</st1:city></st1:place>,
Sunday, 7 November 2010</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">My Dear
Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yesterday, in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Porto Alegre</st1:city>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region></st1:place>, there took place the
celebration of the Beatification of the Servant of God, Maria Barbara of the
Most Holy Trinity, foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary. May the deep faith and fervent charity with which she
followed Christ awaken in many the desire to devote their lives completely to
the greater glory of God and the generous service of their brothers and
sisters, especially the poorest and the most needy.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today I had the
great joy of dedicating this church to him who, being the Son of the Most High,
emptied himself and became man, and who, under the watchful care of Joseph and
Mary, in the silence of the home of Nazareth, taught us without words of the
dignity and the primordial value of marriage and the family, the hope of
humanity, in which life finds its welcome from conception to natural death. He
has taught us also that the entire Church, by hearing and putting his word into
practice, becomes his family. And he has exhorted us to be a seed of fraternity
which, sown in every heart, nourishes hope. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Filled with
devotion to the Holy Family of Nazareth, a devotion spread among the Catalan
people by Saint Joseph Manyanet, the genius of Antoni Gaudí, inspired by the
ardour of his Christian faith, succeeded in raising this sanctuary as a hymn of
praise to God carved in stone. A praise of God which, as with the birth of
Christ, has had as its protagonists the most humble and simple of people. In
effect, Gaudí, through his work, sought to bring the Gospel to everyone. For
this reason, he conceived of the three porticos of the exterior of the church
as a catechesis on the life of Jesus Christ, as a great Rosary, which is the
prayer of ordinary people, a prayer in which are contemplated the joyful,
sorrowful and glorious mysteries of our Lord. In collaboration with the parish
priest Gil Parés, he also designed and financed from his own savings the
creation of a school for the children of the workers and of the poorest
families of the neighbourhood, which was at that time a outlying suburb of <st1:place w:st="on">Barcelona</st1:place>. He brought
concrete reality to the conviction, saying: “The poor must always find a
welcome in the Church, which is an expression of Christian charity.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This morning I
also had the satisfaction of declaring this church a minor basilica. In it, men
and women of every continent can contemplate the façade of the Nativity. In
prayer, let us now consider the mystery of the Incarnation and lift up our
prayer to the Mother of God with the words of the Angel, as we entrust our
lives and the life of the entire Church to her, while imploring the gift of
peace for each and every person of good will.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">APOSTOLIC
JOURNEY TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA AND <st1:city w:st="on">BARCELONA</st1:city><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">(NOVEMBER
6-7, 2010)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOLY
MASS WITH DEDICATION OF THE CHURCH <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SAGRADA FAMILIA AND OF THE ALTAR</span></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><i>Barcelona</i></st1:city></st1:place><i>, Sunday,
7 November 2010 </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters in the Lord,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“This day is
holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep. … The joy of the Lord is your
strength” (Neh 8:9-11). With these words from the first reading that we have
proclaimed, I wish to greet all of you taking part in this celebration. I
extend an affectionate greeting to their Majesties the King and Queen of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region> who have
graciously wished to be with us. I extend a thankful greeting to Cardinal Lluís
Martínez Sistach, Archbishop of Barcelona, for his words of welcome and for his
invitation to me to dedicate this Church of the Sagrada Familia, a magnificent
achievement of engineering, art and faith. I also greet Cardinal Ricardo María
Carles Gordó, Archbishop Emeritus of <st1:city w:st="on">Barcelona</st1:city>,
the other Cardinals present and my brother bishops, especially the auxiliary
bishop of this local church, and the many priests, deacons, seminarians,
religious men and women, and lay faithful taking part in this solemn ceremony.
I also extend a respectful greeting to the national, regional and local
authorities present, as well as to the members of other Christian communities,
who share in our joy and our grateful praise of God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today marks an
important step in a long history of hope, work and generosity that has gone on
for more than a century. At this time I would like to mention each and every
one of those who have made possible the joy that fills us today, from the
promoters to the executors of this work, the architects and the workers, all
who in one way or another have given their priceless contribution to the
building of this edifice. We remember of course the man who was the soul and
the artisan of this project, Antoni Gaudí, a creative architect and a
practising Christian who kept the torch of his faith alight to the end of his
life, a life lived in dignity and absolute austerity. This event is also in a
certain sense the <st1:city w:st="on">high point</st1:city> of the history of
this <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">land</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Catalonia</st1:placename></st1:place> which, especially since the
end of the nineteenth century, has given an abundance of saints and founders,
martyrs and Christian poets. It is a history of holiness, artistic and poetic
creation, born from the faith, which we gather and present to God today as an
offering in this Eucharist.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The joy which I
feel at presiding at this ceremony became all the greater when I learned that
this shrine, since its beginnings, has had a special relationship with <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Joseph</st1:place>. I have been
moved above all by Gaudí’s confidence when, in the face of many difficulties,
filled with trust in divine <st1:city w:st="on">Providence</st1:city>, he would
exclaim, “<st1:place w:st="on">Saint Joseph</st1:place>
will finish this church”. So it is significant that it is also being dedicated
by a Pope whose baptismal name is Joseph. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What do we do
when we dedicate this church? In the heart of the world, placed before God and
mankind, with a humble and joyful act of faith, we raise up this massive
material structure, fruit of nature and an immense achievement of human
intelligence which gave birth to this work of art. It stands as a visible sign
of the invisible God, to whose glory these spires rise like arrows pointing
towards absolute light and to the One who is Light, Height and Beauty itself.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this place,
Gaudí desired to unify that inspiration which came to him from the three books
which nourished him as a man, as a believer and as an architect: the book of
nature, the book of sacred Scripture and the book of the liturgy. In this way
he brought together the reality of the world and the history of salvation, as
recounted in the Bible and made present in the liturgy. He made stones, trees
and human life part of the church so that all creation might come together in
praise of God, but at the same time he brought the sacred images outside so as
to place before people the mystery of God revealed in the birth, passion, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this way, he brilliantly helped to build
our human consciousness, anchored in the world yet open to God, enlightened and
sanctified by Christ. In this he accomplished one of the most important tasks
of our times: overcoming the division between human consciousness and Christian
consciousness, between living in this temporal world and being open to eternal
life, between the beauty of things and God as beauty. Antoni Gaudí did this not
with words but with stones, lines, planes, and points. Indeed, beauty is one of
mankind’s greatest needs; it is the root from which the branches of our peace
and the fruits of our hope come forth. Beauty also reveals God because, like
him, a work of beauty is pure gratuity; it calls us to freedom and draws us
away from selfishness. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We have
dedicated this sacred space to God, who revealed and gave himself to us in
Christ so as to be definitively God among men. The revealed Word, the humanity
of Christ and his Church are the three supreme expressions of his
self-manifestation and self-giving to mankind. As says <st1:place w:st="on">Saint Paul</st1:place> in the second reading: “Let each
man take care how he builds. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that
which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:10-11). The Lord Jesus is the
stone which supports the weight of the world, which maintains the cohesion of
the Church and brings together in ultimate unity all the achievements of
mankind. In him, we have God’s word and presence and from him the Church
receives her life, her teaching and her mission. The Church of herself is
nothing; she is called to be the sign and instrument of Christ, in pure
docility to his authority and in total service to his mandate. The one Christ
is the foundation of the one Church. He is the rock on which our faith is
built. Building on this faith, let us strive together to show the world the
face of God who is love and the only one who can respond to our yearning for
fulfilment. This is the great task before us: to show everyone that God is a
God of peace not of violence, of freedom not of coercion, of harmony not of discord.
In this sense, I consider that the dedication of this church of the Sagrada
Familia is an event of great importance, at a time in which man claims to be
able to build his life without God, as if God had nothing to say to him. In
this masterpiece, Gaudí shows us that God is the true measure of man; that the
secret of authentic originality consists, as he himself said, in returning to
one’s origin which is God. Gaudí, by opening his spirit to God, was capable of
creating in this city a space of beauty, faith and hope which leads man to an
encounter with him who is truth and beauty itself. The architect expressed his
sentiments in the following words: “A church [is] the only thing worthy of
representing the soul of a people, for religion is the most elevated reality in
man”.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This affirmation
of God brings with it the supreme affirmation and protection of the dignity of
each and every man and woman: “Do you not know that you are God’s temple? … God’s
temple is holy, and you are that temple” (1 Cor 3:16-17). Here we find joined
together the truth and dignity of God and the truth and dignity of man. As we
consecrate the altar of this church, which has Christ as its foundation, we are
presenting to the world a God who is the friend of man and we invite men and
women to become friends of God. This is what we are taught in the case of
Zacchaeus, of whom today’s gospel speaks (Lk 19:1-10), if we allow God into our
hearts and into our world, if we allow Christ to live in our hearts, we will
not regret it: we will experience the joy of sharing his very life, as the
object of his infinite love.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This church
began as an initiative of the Association of the Friends of Saint Joseph, who
wanted to dedicate it to the Holy Family of Nazareth. The home formed by Jesus,
Mary and Joseph has always been regarded as a school of love, prayer and work.
The promoters of this church wanted to set before the world love, work and
service lived in the presence of God, as the Holy Family lived them. Life has
changed greatly and with it enormous progress has been made in the technical,
social and cultural spheres. We cannot simply remain content with these
advances. Alongside them, there also need to be moral advances, such as in
care, protection and assistance to families, inasmuch as the generous and
indissoluble love of a man and a woman is the effective context and foundation
of human life in its gestation, birth, growth and natural end. Only where love
and faithfulness are present can true freedom come to birth and endure. For
this reason the Church advocates adequate economic and social means so that
women may find in the home and at work their full development, that men and
women who contract marriage and form a family receive decisive support from the
state, that life of children may be defended as sacred and inviolable from the
moment of their conception, that the reality of birth be given due respect and
receive juridical, social and legislative support. For this reason the Church
resists every form of denial of human life and gives its support to everything
that would promote the natural order in the sphere of the institution of the
family.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As I contemplate
with admiration this sacred space of marvellous beauty, of so much faith-filled
history, I ask God that in the land of Catalonia new witnesses of holiness may
rise up and flourish, and present to the world the great service that the
Church can and must offer to humanity: to be an icon of divine beauty, a
burning flame of charity, a path so that the world may believe in the One whom
God has sent (see Jn 6:29).</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, as I dedicate this splendid church, I implore the Lord of our
lives that, from this altar, which will now be anointed with holy oil and upon
which the sacrifice of the love of Christ will be consumed, there may be a
flood of grace and charity upon the city of Barcelona and its people, and upon
the whole world. May these fruitful waters fill with faith and apostolic
vitality this archdiocesan Church, its pastors and its faithful.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Finally, I wish
to commend to the loving protection of the Mother of God, Mary Most Holy, April
Rose, Mother of Mercy, all who enter here and all who in word or deed, in
silence and prayer, have made this possible this marvel of architecture. May
Our Lady present to her divine Son the joys and tribulations of all who come in
the future to this sacred place so that here, as the Church prays when
dedicating religious buildings, the poor may find mercy, the oppressed true
freedom and all men may take on the dignity of the children of God. Amen.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 6 November 2011</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>, </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Biblical Readings of this Sunday’s Liturgy invite us to extend the reflection
on eternal life that we began on the occasion of the commemoration of the
faithful departed. On this point there is a clear difference between those who
believe and those who do not believe or, one might likewise say, between those
who hope and those who do not hope. </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Indeed
<st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> wrote
to the Thessalonians: “but we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning
those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope” (1
Thess 4:13). Faith in the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ in this sphere
too is a crucial divide. St Paul always reminded the Christians of Ephesus that
before accepting the Good News they had been “separated from Christ, alienated
from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). Indeed the religion of
the Greeks, the pagan cults and myths, were unable to shed light on the mystery
of death; thus an ancient inscription said: “<i>In nihil ab nihilo quam cito
recidmus</i>” which means: “how quickly we fall back from nothing to nothing”.
If we remove God, we remove Christ and the world falls back into emptiness and
darkness. Moreover, this is also confirmed in the expressions of contemporary
nihilism that is often unconscious and, unfortunately, infects a great many
young people.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s
Gospel is a famous parable that speaks of ten maidens invited to a wedding
feast, a symbol of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place> and of eternal
life (Mt 25:1-13). It is a happy image with which, however, Jesus teaches a
truth that calls us into question. In fact five of those 10 maidens were
admitted to the feast because when the bridegroom arrived they had brought the
oil to light their lamps, whereas the other five were left outside because they
had been foolish enough not to bring any. What is represented by this “oil”, the
indispensable prerequisite for being admitted to the nuptial banquet? </span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place> (see <i>Discourses
</i>93, 4), and other ancient authors interpreted it as a symbol of love that
one cannot purchase but receives as a gift, preserves within one and uses in works.
True wisdom is making the most of mortal life in order to do works of mercy,
for after death this will no longer be possible. When we are reawoken for the
Last Judgement, it will be made on the basis of the love we have shown in our
earthly life (see Mt 25:31-46). And this love is a gift of Christ, poured out
in us by the Holy Spirit. Those who believe in God-Love bear within them
invincible hope, like a lamp to light them on their way through the night
beyond death to arrive at the great feast of life.</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let
us ask Mary, <i>Sedes Sapientiae, </i>to teach us true wisdom, the wisdom that
became flesh in Jesus. He is the Way that leads from this life to God, to the
Eternal One. He enabled us to know the Father’s face, and thus gave us hope
full of love. This is why the Church addresses the Mother of the Lord with
these words: “<i>Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra</i>” [our life, our sweetness
and our hope]. Let us learn from her to live and die in the hope that never
disappoints.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 11 November 2012</em></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Liturgy of the Word this Sunday gives us two widows as models of faith. They
are presented in parallel: one in the First Book of Kings (17:10-16) and the
other in the Gospel of Mark (12:41-44). Both these women are very poor and it
is precisely this condition that speaks of their great faith in God. The first
appears in the series of narratives about the Prophet Elijah. In a time of
famine, he receives an order from the Lord to go to pagan territory near <st1:city w:st="on">Sidon</st1:city>, outside <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>. There he meets a widow and
asks her for water to drink and a little bread. The woman replies that there is
only a handful of flour and a drop of oil, but, since the Prophet insists and
promises her that, if she listens to him, flour and oil will not be wanting;
she listens and is rewarded.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
second widow in the Gospel is noticed by Jesus at the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city>
in <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>,
to be precise at the treasury, where men and women are giving alms. Jesus sees
this woman throwing two coins into the treasury; he then calls his disciples
and explains that her contribution is greater than that of the rich, because,
while they gave of their plenty, the widow put in “everything she had, her
whole living” (Mk 12:44). </span></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From
these two biblical passages, wisely juxtaposed, one can learn a valuable lesson
about the faith. It appears as an interior attitude of he who bases his life on
God, on the Word, and trusts totally in him. Being a widow in antiquity was in
itself a condition of grave need. This is why in the Bible widows and orphans
were people whom God cared for in a special way: they have lost their earthly
support but God remains their Spouse, their Parent. </span></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yet,
Scripture says that the objective state of need, in this case being a widow,
does not suffice: God always asks for our free adherence to faith, that it is
expressed in love for him and for our neighbour. No one is so poor that he
cannot give something. And, in fact, both of these widows from today
demonstrate their faith by carrying out an act of charity: one for the Prophet
and the other by almsgiving. Thus they attest to the inseparable unity between
faith and love, as between love of God and love of one’s neighbour — as the
Gospel of last Sunday reminded us. Pope St Leo the Great, whose memory we
celebrated yesterday, affirmed this: “On the scales of divine justice the
quantity of gifts is not weighed, but the weight of hearts. The widow deposited
in the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city>
treasury two small coins and by doing so surpassed the gifts of all the rich.
No gesture of goodness is meaningless before God, no mercy is left barren” (<i>Sermo
de jejunio dec. mens</i>., 90, 3).</span></div>
<div class="style3" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The
Virgin Mary is the perfect example of someone who gives gives her whole self by
trusting in God; with this faith she proclaims her <i>fiat </i>to the Angel and
accepts the Will of Lord. May Mary help each one of us too, during this Year of
Faith, to strengthen our faith in God and in his Word. </span></div>
</div>
</div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-85296350026140112902023-10-30T01:30:00.004-04:002023-10-30T01:30:00.135-04:00Reflections on the Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0306: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Thirty-First</b><b> Sunday
of Ordinary </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>Time </b><b>by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Thirty-First Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 30 October 2005, 5 November 2006,
4 November 2007, 2 November 2008, 1 November 2009, 31 October 2010, 30 October
2011, and 4 November 2012. Here are
the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 30 October 2005</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Forty years ago,
on 28 October 1965, the Seventh Session of the Second Vatican Ecumenical
Council was held. Three more followed shortly thereafter, and the last one, on
8 December, marked the end of the Council. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the last
phase of that historic ecclesial event, which began three years earlier, the
major part of the Conciliar Documents received approval. Some of them are well
known and are frequently cited, while others are not so well known; however,
all are worth mention because they retain their value and reveal a reality
that, under certain aspects, has actually increased. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, I would
like to call to mind the five Documents that the Servant of God Pope Paul VI
and the Council Fathers signed on 28 October 1965. They are: the Decree <i>Christus
Dominus </i>on the pastoral office of Bishop; the Decree <i>Perfectae Caritatis
</i>on the renewal of Religious life; the Decree<i> Optatam Totius </i>on the
formation of priests; the Declaration <i>Gravissimum Educationis </i>on
Christian education; and lastly, the Declaration <i>Nostra Aetate </i>on the
relations of the Church to non-Christian religions. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The themes on
the formation of priests, consecrated life and the episcopal ministry were the
object of three Ordinary Assemblies of the Synod of Bishops in 1990, 1995 and
in 2001. They sounded and deepened the teachings of Vatican II extensively,
proof of which are the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortations <i>Pastores Dabo
Vobis, Vita Consecrata </i>and <i>Pastores Gregis</i> of my beloved
Predecessor, the Servant of God John Paul II. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Instead, less
known is the Document on Education. The Church has always been dedicated to the
education of young people, recognized by the Council as something of “paramount
importance” for both the life of men and women and for social progress (see <i>Gravissimum
Educationis, </i>Preface). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today too, in an
era of global communication, the Ecclesial Community perceives the importance
of an educational system that recognizes the primacy of man as a person, open
to truth and to good. Parents are the primary and principal educators and are
assisted by civil society in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity (see
<i>ibid., </i>no. 3). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Church, to
whom Christ entrusted the duty to proclaim the “way of salvation” (see <i>ibid.</i>),
feels she has a special educational responsibility. In different ways, she
seeks to fulfil this mission: in families, in the parish, through associations,
movements and groups of formation and of evangelical commitment and, in a
specific way, in schools, institutes of advanced studies and in universities (see
<i>ibid., </i>nos. 5-12). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Even the
Declaration <i>Nostra Aetate </i>is very relevant because it regards the
attitude of the Ecclesial Community in relation to non-Christian religions.
Starting with the principle that “all men and women form but one community” and
that the Church has the duty “to foster unity and charity” among individuals (no.
1), the Council “rejects nothing of what is true and holy” in other religions
and to everyone proclaims Christ, “the way, the truth and the life”, in whom
men and women find the “fullness of their religious life” (no. 2). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With the
Declaration <i>Nostra Aetate </i>the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council
proposed some fundamental truths: they clearly mentioned the special bond that
joins Christians to Jews (no. 4); they confirmed their high regard for the
Muslims (no. 3) and the followers of other religions (no. 2); and they
confirmed the spirit of universal fraternity that rejects any form of
discrimination or religious persecution (no. 5). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, as I invite you to look at these Documents again, I encourage you,
together with me, to pray to the Virgin Mary so that she may help all believers
in Christ to keep the spirit of the Second Vatican Council alive, to contribute
to the foundation of that universal fraternity in the world which responds to
the will of God for men and women, created in his image.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 5 November 2006 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In these days
following the liturgical commemoration of the faithful departed, the Octave of
the Dead is celebrated in many parishes. It is a fitting occasion to remember
our loved ones in prayer and to meditate on the reality of death, which the
so-called “affluent society” often seeks to remove from the consciousness of
people, totally taken up by the concerns of daily life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In fact, death
is part of life, and not only at its end but, upon a closer look, at every
moment. Yet, despite all the distractions, the loss of a loved one enables us
to rediscover the “problem” by making us sense death as a presence radically
hostile and contrary to our natural vocation to life and happiness. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus
revolutionized the meaning of death. He did so with his teaching, but
especially by facing death himself. “By dying he destroyed our death”, the
Liturgy of the Easter Season says. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“With the Spirit
who could not die”, a Father of the Church wrote, “Christ killed death that was
killing man” (Melito of Sardis,<b> </b><i>On Easter, </i>66). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Son of God
thus desired to share our human condition to the very end, to reopen it to
hope. After all, he was born to be able to die and thereby free us from the
slavery of death. The Letter to the Hebrews says: ”so that he might taste
death for everyone” (Heb 2: 9). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Since then,
death has not been the same: it was deprived, so to speak, of its “venom”.
Indeed, God’s love working in Jesus gave new meaning to the whole of human
existence, and thus transformed death as well. If, in Christ, human life is a “[departure]
from this world to the Father” (Jn 13: 1), the hour of death is the moment
when it is concretely brought about once and for all. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Anyone who
strives to live as he did, is freed from the fear of death, which no longer
shows the sarcastic sneer of an enemy but, as St Francis wrote in his Canticle
of the Creature, the friendly face of a “sister” for whom one can also bless
the Lord: <i>”Praised be the Lord for our Sister, bodily Death”</i>. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Faith reminds us
that there is no need to be afraid of the death of the body because, whether we
live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s [Rm 14: 8]. And with <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>, we know that even
if we are separated from our bodies we are with Christ, whose Risen Body, which
we receive in the Eucharist, is our eternal and indestructible dwelling place. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">True death, on
the other hand, which is to be feared, is the death of the soul which the Book
of Revelation calls “the second death” (see Rv 20: 14-15; 21: 8). In fact,
those who die in mortal sin without repentance, locked into their proud
rejection of God’s love, exclude themselves from the Kingdom of life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us invoke
from the Lord, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy and of <st1:place w:st="on">St Joseph</st1:place>, the grace to
prepare ourselves serenely to depart this world whenever he may desire to call
us, in the hope of being able to dwell for ever with him in the company of the
Saints and of our departed loved ones.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT XVI <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 4 November 2007</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today,
the liturgy presents for our meditation the well-known Gospel episode of Jesus’
meeting with Zacchaeus in the city of <st1:place w:st="on">Jericho</st1:place>.
Who was Zacchaeus? A rich man who was a “publican” by profession, that is, a
tax collector for the Roman authorities, hence, viewed as a public sinner.
Having heard that Jesus would be passing through <st1:city w:st="on">Jericho</st1:city>, the man was consumed by a great
desire to see him, and because he was small of stature, he climbed up into a
tree. Jesus stopped exactly under that tree and addressed him by name: “Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down; for I must stay at your house today” (Lk 19: 5). What
a message this simple sentence contains! “Zacchaeus”: Jesus called by name a
man despised by all. “Today”: yes, this very moment was the moment of his
salvation. “I must stay”: why “I must”? Because the Father, rich in mercy,
wants Jesus “to seek and to save the lost” (Lk 19: 10). The grace of that unexpected
meeting was such that it completely changed Zacchaeus’ life: “Behold, Lord, the
half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of
anything, I restore it fourfold” (Lk 19: 8). Once again, the Gospel tells us
that love, born in God’s heart and working through man’s heart, is the power
that renews the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
truth shines out in a special way in the testimony of the Saint whose Memorial
is celebrated today: Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan. His figure stands
out in the 16th century as a model of an exemplary Pastor because of his
charity, doctrine, apostolic zeal and above all, his prayer. “Souls are won”,
he said, “on one’s knees”. Charles Borromeo was consecrated a Bishop when he
was only 25 years old. He enforced the teaching of the Council of Trent that
obliged Pastors to reside in their respective dioceses, and gave himself heart
and soul to the Ambrosian Church. He travelled up and down his Diocese three
times; he convoked six provincial and 11 diocesan synods; he founded seminaries
to train a new generation of priests; he built hospitals and earmarked his
family riches for the service of the poor; he renewed religious life and
founded a new congregation of secular priests, the Oblates. In 1576, when the
plague was raging in <st1:city w:st="on">Milan</st1:city>,
he visited, comforted and spent all his money on the sick. His motto consisted
in one word:<b> </b><i>“Humilitas”</i>.<i> </i>It was humility that motivated
him, like the Lord Jesus, to renounce himself in order to make himself the
servant of all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Recalling
my venerable Predecessor John Paul II who bore his name with devotion - today
is his name day - let us entrust to <st1:place w:st="on">St
Charles</st1:place>’ intercession all the Bishops of the world,
for whom we invoke as always the heavenly protection of Mary Most Holy, Mother
of the Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">COMMEMORATION
OF ALL SOULS</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 2 November 2008</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yesterday the
feast of All Saints brought us to contemplate “your holy city, the heavenly <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, our mother” (<i>Preface,
All Saints</i>). Today, with our heart still turned toward this ultimate
reality, we commemorate all of the faithful departed, who have “gone before us
marked with the sign of faith and... who sleep in Christ” (<i>Eucharistic
Prayer I</i>). It is very important that we Christians live a relationship of
the truth of the faith with the deceased and that we view death and the
afterlife in the light of Revelation. Already the Apostle Paul, writing to the
first communities, exhorted the faithful to “not grieve as others do who have
no hope. For since”, he wrote, “we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even
so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1
Thes 4: 13-14). Today too, it is necessary to evangelize about the reality of
death and eternal life, realities particularly subject to superstitious beliefs
and syncretisms, so that the Christian truth does not risk mixing itself with
myths of various types. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In my Encyclical
on Christian hope, I questioned myself about the mystery of eternal life (see <i>Spe
salvi</i>, nos. 10-12). I asked myself: “Is the Christian faith a hope that
transforms and sustains the lives of people still today?” (see <i>ibid., </i>no.
10). And more radically: “Do men and women of our time still long for eternal
life? Or has earthly existence perhaps become their only horizon?” In reality,
as <st1:place w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:place>
had already observed, all of us want a “blessed life”, happiness. We rarely
know what it is like or how it will be, but we feel attracted to it. This is a
universal hope, common to men and women of all times and all places. The
expression “eternal life” aims to give a name to this irrepressible longing; it
is not an unending succession of days, but an immersion of oneself in the ocean
of infinite love, in which time, before and after, no longer exists. A fullness
of life and of joy: it is this that we hope and await from our being with
Christ (see <i>ibid</i>, no. 12). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today we renew
the hope in eternal life, truly founded on Christ’s death and Resurrection. “I
am risen and I am with you always”, the Lord tells us, and my hand supports
you. Wherever you may fall, you will fall into my hands and I will be there
even to the gates of death. Where no one can accompany you any longer and where
you can take nothing with you, there I will wait for you to transform for you
the darkness into light. Christian hope, however, is not solely individual, it
is also always a hope for others. Our lives are profoundly linked, one to the
other, and the good and the bad that each of us does always effects others too.
Hence, the prayer of a pilgrim soul in the world can help another soul that is
being purified after death. This is why the Church invites us today to pray for
our beloved deceased and to pause at their tombs in the cemeteries. Mary, Star
of Hope, renders our faith in eternal life stronger and more authentic, and
supports our prayer of suffrage for our deceased brethren.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">SOLEMNITY OF ALL SAINTS <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>BENEDICT XVI </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 1 November 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear
Brothers and Sisters, </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
Sunday coincides with the Solemnity of All Saints, which invites the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">pilgrim</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place> on earth to a foretaste of the
everlasting feast in the community of Heaven, and to revive our hope in eternal
life. This year marks 14 centuries since the Pantheon one of the oldest and
most famous of the Roman monuments was dedicated to Christian worship and named
after the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs: <i>Sancta Maria ad Martyres</i>. The
temple of all the pagan divinities was thus converted to commemorate all those
who, as the Book of Revelation says, “have come out of the great tribulations;
they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev
7: 14). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Subsequently,
the celebration of all the martyrs was extended to all the saints: “a great multitude
which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and
tongues” (Rev 7: 9) according to <st1:place w:st="on">St
John</st1:place>. In this Year for Priests, I would like to
remember with special veneration all the priest saints those whom the Church
has canonized upholding them as examples of spiritual and pastoral virtue, and
those much more numerous who are known to the Lord. Each one of us treasures a
grateful memory of some of them who have helped us to grow in faith and made us
feel the goodness and closeness of God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Tomorrow,
then, is the annual commemoration of All Souls’ Day, of all the faithful
departed. I would like to invite you to live this occasion in an authentic
Christian spirit, that is, in the light that comes from the Paschal Mystery.
Christ died and rose again, and has opened for us the way to the house of the
Father, the Kingdom of life and peace. Whoever follows Jesus in this life is
welcome where he has preceded us. Therefore, as we visit the cemeteries, let us
remember that resting in those tombs are merely the mortal remains of our dear
ones who await the final resurrection. Their souls, as Scripture tells us, are
already “in the hand of God” (<st1:place w:st="on">Wis</st1:place>
3: 1). Thus, the most proper and effective way to honour them is to pray for
them, offering acts of faith, hope and charity. In union with the Eucharistic
Sacrifice, we can intercede for their eternal salvation, and experience the
most profound communion in the expectation of being together, enjoying forever
the Love which created and redeemed us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, how beautiful and comforting is the communion of Saints! It is a
reality that instils a different dimension into our whole life. We are never
alone! We are part of a spiritual “company” where profound solidarity reigns:
the good of each one is for the benefit of everyone, and vice versa, common
happiness shines on every individual. It is a mystery which, in some measure,
we can already experience in this world, in the family, in friendship, and
especially in the spiritual community of the Church. May Mary Most Holy help us
to walk quickly on the way to holiness, and may she be the Mother of mercy for
the souls of the departed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 31 October 2010 </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters!</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Evangelist St
Luke pays special attention to the theme of Jesus’ mercy. In fact, in his
narration we find some episodes that highlight the merciful love of God and of
Christ, who said that he had come to call, not the just, but sinners (see Lk
5:32). Among Luke’s typical accounts there is that of the conversion of
Zacchaeus, which is read in this Sunday’s Liturgy. Zacchaeus is a publican,
indeed, he is the head of the publicans of <st1:place w:st="on">Jericho</st1:place>, an important city on the River
Jordan. The publicans were the tax collectors who collected the tribute that
the Jews had to pay to the Roman Emperor, and already for this reason they were
considered public sinners. What is more, they often took advantage of their
position to extort money from the people. Because of this Zacchaeus was very
rich but despised by his fellow citizens. So when Jesus was passing through <st1:city w:st="on">Jericho</st1:city> and stopped at
the house of Zacchaeus, he caused a general scandal. The Lord, however, knew
exactly what he was doing. He wanted, so to speak, to gamble, and he won the
bet: Zacchaeus, deeply moved by Jesus’ visit, decided to change his life, and
promised to restore four times what he had stolen. “Today salvation has come to
this house”, Jesus says, and concludes: “The Son of Man came to seek and to
save the lost”.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God excludes no
one, neither the poor nor the rich. God does not let himself be conditioned by
our human prejudices, but sees in everyone a soul to save and is especially
attracted to those who are judged as lost and who think themselves so. Jesus
Christ, the Incarnation of God, has demonstrated this immense mercy, which
takes nothing away from the gravity of sin, but aims always at saving the
sinner, at offering him the possibility of redemption, of starting again from
the beginning, of converting. In another passage of the Gospel Jesus states
that it is very difficult for a rich man to enter the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place>
(see Mt 19:23). In the case of Zacchaeus we see that precisely what seems
impossible actually happens: “He”, <st1:city w:st="on">St Jerome</st1:city>
comments, “gave away his wealth and immediately replaced it with the wealth of
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place>” (<i>Homily on Psalm</i> 83:3).
And St Maximus of <st1:place w:st="on">Turin</st1:place>
adds: “Riches, for the foolish, feed dishonesty, but for the wise they are a
help to virtue; for the latter they offer a chance of salvation, for the former
they procure a stumbling block and perdition” (<i>Sermons,</i> 95).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Friends,
Zacchaeus welcomed Jesus and he converted because Jesus first welcomed him! He
did not condemn him but he met his desire for salvation. Let us pray to the Virgin
Mary, perfect model of communion with Jesus, to be renewed by his love, so that
we too may experience the joy of being visited by the Son of God, of being
renewed by his love and of transmitting his mercy to others.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 30 October 2011</span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Sunday’s
Liturgy, the Apostle Paul invites us to draw near to the Gospel “not as the
word of men but as what it really is, the word of God” (1 Thess 2:13). Thus we
can accept with faith the warning that Jesus offers to our conscience, in order
to conform our way of living to it. In today’s passage he rebukes the scribes
and the Pharisees, who were the teachers of the community, because their own
conduct was openly in conflict with the teaching they rigorously taught others.
Jesus underlines that they “preach, but do not practise” (Mt 23:3); rather “they
bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they
themselves will not move them with their finger” (Mt 23:4). Good teaching must
be received but it risks being contradicted by inconsistent behaviour. Thus
Jesus says: “practise and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do”
(Mt 23:3). Jesus’ attitude is exactly the opposite: he is the first to practise
the commandment of love, which he teaches to everyone, and he can say the
burden is light and easy because he helps us carry it (see Mt 11:29-30). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thinking of
teachers who oppress the freedom of others in the name of authority, St
Bonaventure points out who the authentic teacher is, affirming that, “No one
can teach or practise, or reach knowable truths unless the Son of God is
present” (<i>Sermo</i> I <i>de Tempore, Dom. XXII post Pentecosten, Opera omnia</i>,
IX, Quaracchi, 1901, 442). “Jesus sits on the cathedra of Moses... as the
greater Moses, who broadens the Covenant to include all nations” (see <i>Jesus
of Nazareth</i>, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Doubleday</st1:city>,
<st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place>, 2007, p. 66). He is our
true and only Teacher! We are, therefore, called to follow the Son of God, the
Word Incarnate, who expresses the truth of his teaching through his
faithfulness to the will of the Father, through the gift of himself. Bl.
Antonio Rosmini writes: “The first teacher trains all the other teachers, as he
also trains the same disciples themselves, because they exist only in virtue of
that first tacit, but very powerful Magisterium” (<i>Idea della Sapienza</i>,
82, in: <i>Introduzione alla filosofia</i>, vol. II, Rome, 1934, 143). Jesus
also firmly condemns vanity and observes that “deeds to be seen by men” (Mt
23:5), places them at the mercy of human approval, undermining the values that
found the authenticity of the person. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
the Lord Jesus presented himself to the world as a servant, completely
stripping himself and lowering himself to give on the Cross the most eloquent
lesson of humility and love. His example gives rise to a proposal of life: “He
who is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Mt 23:11). We invoke the
intercession of Mary Most Holy and we ask especially for those in Christian
communities, who are called to the ministry of teaching, that they may always
witness by their works to the truths that they communicate by their words.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 4 November 2012</em></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear
Brothers and Sisters</em>,</span></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
Sunday’s Gospel (Mk 12:28-34) offers us Jesus’ teaching on the greatest
commandment, the commandment of love, which is two-fold: love of God and love
of neighbour. The Saints, who we have recently celebrated together in a single
solemn Feast are precisely those who, trusting in God’s grace, tried to live
according to this fundamental law. In fact, those who live a profound
relationship with God, just as a child becomes capable of loving, starting from
a good relationship with his mother and father, may put the commandment of love
fully into practice. St John of Avila, who I recently proclaimed a Doctor of
the Church, writes at the beginning of his Treatise on the Love of God: “the
cause”, he says, “that mostly pushes our hearts to love of God is considering
deeply the love that He had for us.... This, beyond any benefit, pushes the
heart to love; because he who gives something of benefit to another, gives him
something he possesses; but he who loves, gives himself with everything he has,
until he has nothing left to give” (no. 1). Before being a command — love is
not a command — it is a gift, a reality that God allows us to know and
experience, so that, like a seed, it can also germinate within us and develop
throughout our life.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="style1" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">If
the love of God has planted deep roots in a person, then he is able to love
even those who do not deserve it, as God does us. Fathers and mothers do not
love their children only when they deserve love; they always love them, though
of course, they make them understand when they are wrong. We learn from God to
seek only what is good and never what is evil. We learn to look at each other
not only with our eyes, but with the eyes of God, which is the gaze of Jesus
Christ. A gaze that begins in the heart and does not stop at the surface, that
goes beyond appearances and manages to capture the deepest aspirations of the
other: waiting to be heard, for caring attention, in a word: love. But the
opposite is also true: that by opening myself to another, just as he or she is,
by reaching out, by making myself available, I am also opening myself to know
God, to feel that he is there and is good. Love of God and love of neighbour
are inseparable and are mutually related. Jesus did not invent one or the other
but revealed that they are essentially a single commandment and did so not only
through the Word, but especially with his testimony: the person of Jesus and
his whole Mystery embody the unity of love of God and neighbour, like the two
arms of the Cross, vertical and horizontal. In the Eucharist he gives us this
two-fold love, giving himself, because, nourished by this Bread, we love one another
as he has loved us.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
friends, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, we pray that every
Christian may know how to show his/her faith in the one true God with a clear
witness to love of neighbour. </span></div>
</div>
</div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-85311910139113428292023-10-23T01:30:00.002-04:002023-10-23T01:30:00.153-04:00Reflections on the Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />
<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0304: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Thirtieth</b><b> Sunday
of Ordinary </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>Time </b><b>by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
<div align="justify">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Thirtieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 23 October 2005, 29 October 2006,
28 October 2007, 26 October 2008, 25 October 2009, 24 October 2010, 23 October
2011, and 28 October 2012. Here are
the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
and six homilies delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 23 October 2005</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With today’s
Eucharistic celebration in St Peter’s Square, the Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops was closed. At the same time the Year of the Eucharist was concluded,
which the beloved Pope John Paul II opened in October 2004. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To the dear and
venerable Synod Fathers, with whom I was able to share three weeks of intense
work in a climate of fraternal communion, I renew the expression of my cordial
gratitude. Their reflections, testimonies, experiences and propositions on the
theme, <i>The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the
Church</i>, have been gathered together to be elaborated in a Post-Synodal
Exhortation which, taking into account the different world realities, helps to
portray the face of the “Catholic” community, and to live united, amid the
plurality of cultures, the central mystery of the faith: the Incarnation of
Redemption, of which the Eucharist is the living presence. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Moreover, as the
exposed tapestries on the facade of the Vatican Basilica show, I had the joy
today of proclaiming five new saints which, at the end of the Eucharistic Year,
I am pleased to point out their exemplary fruits of communion of life with
Christ. They are Jozef Bilczewski, Archbishop of Lviv for Latins; Gaetano
Catanoso, priest, Founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of St Veronica,
Missionaries of the Holy Face; Zygmunt Gorazdowski, Polish priest, Founder of
the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph; Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, priest
of the Society of Jesus, from Chile; and the Capuchin Felix of Nicosia. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Each of these
disciples of Jesus was interiorly formed by his divine presence, welcomed,
celebrated and adored in the Eucharist. Each of them, moreover, nourished with
different hues a tender and filial devotion to Mary, Mother of Christ. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These new
saints, whom we contemplate in heavenly glory, invite us to make recourse in
every circumstance to the maternal protection of Mary, in order to advance ever
more on the road of evangelical perfection, sustained by constant union with
the Lord truly present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In such a way we
will be able to live the vocation to which each Christian is called: that of
being “bread broken for the life of the world”, as World Mission Sunday aptly
reminds us. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How very
significant is the bond between the Church’s mission and the Eucharist. In
fact, missionary and evangelizing action is the apostolic diffusion of love
that is, as it were, concentrated in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Whoever
receives Christ in the reality of his Body and Blood cannot keep this gift to
himself, but is impelled to share in courageous witness to the Gospel, in
service to brothers and sisters in need, in pardoning offences. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For some, then,
the Eucharist is the seed of a specific call to leave all and go to proclaim
Christ to those who still do not know him. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To Mary Most
Mary, Woman of the Eucharist, let us entrust the spiritual fruits of the Synod
and the Year of the Eucharist. May she keep watch over the Church’s journey and
teach us to grow in communion with the Lord Jesus, to be witnesses of his love,
in which is the secret of joy.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CONCLUSION OF THE 11th ORDINARY GENERAL
ASSEMBLY <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS AND YEAR OF THE
EUCHARIST </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CANONIZATION OF THE BLESSEDS:<b> </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">JÓZEF
BILCZEWSKI </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">GAETANO
CATANOSO </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ZYGMUNT
GORAZDOWSKI </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ALBERTO
HURTADO CRUCHAGA </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FELIX
OF <st1:place w:st="on">NICOSIA</st1:place> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square, World <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Mission</st1:city></st1:place>
Sunday, 23 October 2005</i> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this 30th
Sunday of Ordinary Time, our Eucharistic celebration is enriched for various
reasons that impel us to give thanks to God. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Year of the
Eucharist and the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, dedicated
precisely to the mystery of the Eucharist in the life and mission of the
Church, have concurrently come to an end. And in a short while, five Blesseds
will be canonized: Archbishop Jozef Bilczewski; Gaetano Catanoso, Zygmunt
Gorazdowski and Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, priests; and Felix of Nicosia, a
Religious Capuchin Friar. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Furthermore,
today is “World Mission Sunday”, a yearly appointment that reawakens missionary
ardour in the Ecclesial Community. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With joy I greet
all who are present; first, the Synod Fathers, and then, the pilgrims who have
come from various nations, together with their Pastors, to celebrate the new
Saints. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today’s liturgy
invites us to contemplate the Eucharist as the source of holiness and spiritual
nourishment for our mission in the world: this supreme “gift and mystery”
manifests and communicates to us the fullness of God’s love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Word of the
Lord, just proclaimed in the Gospel, has reminded us that all of divine law is
summed up in love. The dual commandment to love God and neighbour contains the
two aspects of a single dynamism of the heart and of life. Jesus thus brings to
completion the ancient revelation, not by adding an unheard-of commandment, but
by realizing in himself and in his work of salvation the living synthesis of
the two great commands of the Old Covenant: “You shall love the Lord your God with
your whole heart...” and “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (see Dt 6:
5; Lv 19: 18). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Eucharist
we contemplate the Sacrament of this living synthesis of the law: Christ offers
to us, in himself, the complete fulfilment of love for God and love for our
brothers and sisters. He communicates his love to us when we are nourished by
his Body and Blood. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this way, <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>’s words to the
Thessalonians in today’s Second Reading are brought to completion in us: “You
turned to God from idols, to serve him who is the living and true God” (I Thes
1: 9). This conversion is the beginning of the walk of holiness that the
Christian is called to achieve in his own life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The saint is the
person who is so fascinated by the beauty of God and by his perfect truth as to
be progressively transformed by it. Because of this beauty and truth, he is
ready to renounce everything, even himself. Love of God is enough for him,
experienced in humble and disinterested service to one’s neighbour, especially
towards those who cannot give back in return. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this
perspective, how providential it is today that the Church points out to all her
members five new saints who, nourished by Christ, the Living Bread, were
converted to love; this marked their entire life! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In different
situations and with different charisms, they loved the Lord with all their
heart and their neighbour as themselves, so as to become “a model for all
believers” (I Thes 1: 6-7). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Jozef
Bilczewski was a man of prayer. The Holy Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours,
meditation, the Rosary and other pious practices formed part of his daily life.
A particularly long time was dedicated to Eucharistic adoration. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Zygmunt
Gorazdowski also became famous for his devotion founded on the celebration and
adoration of the Eucharist. Living Christ’s offering urged him toward the sick,
the poor and the needy. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The deep
knowledge of theology, faith and Eucharistic devotion of Jozef Bilczewski made
him an example for priests and a witness for all the faithful. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In founding the
Association of Priests, the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph and many
other charitable institutions, Zygmunt Gorazdowski always allowed himself to be
guided by the spirit of communion, fully revealed in the Eucharist. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“You shall love
the Lord your God with your whole heart.... You shall love your neighbour as
yourself” (Mt 22: 37, 39). This was the programme of life of St Alberto
Hurtado, who wished to identify himself with the Lord and to love the poor with
this same love. The formation received in the Society of Jesus, strengthened by
prayer and adoration of the Eucharist, allowed him to be won over by Christ,
being a true contemplative in action. In love and in the total gift of self to
God’s will, he found strength for the apostolate. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He founded <i>El
Hogar de Cristo </i>for the most needy and the homeless, offering them a family
atmosphere full of human warmth. In his priestly ministry he was distinguished
for his simplicity and availability towards others, being a living image of the
Teacher, “meek and humble of heart”. In his last days, amid the strong pains
caused by illness, he still had the strength to repeat: “I am content, Lord”,
thus expressing the joy with which he always lived. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Gaetano
Catanoso was a lover and apostle of the Holy Face of Jesus. “The Holy Face”, he
affirmed, “is my life. He is my strength”. With joyful intuition he joined this
devotion to Eucharistic piety. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">He would say: “If
we wish to adore the real Face of Jesus..., we can find it in the divine Eucharist,
where with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the Face of Our Lord is hidden
under the white veil of the Host”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Daily Mass and
frequent adoration of the Sacrament of the Altar were the soul of his
priesthood: with ardent and untiring pastoral charity he dedicated himself to
preaching, catechesis, the ministry of confession, and to the poor, the sick
and the care of priestly vocations. To the Congregation of the Daughters of St
Veronica, Missionaries of the Holy Face, which he founded, he transmitted the
spirit of charity, humility and sacrifice which enlivened his entire life. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Felix of <st1:place w:st="on">Nicosia</st1:place> loved to repeat in
all situations, joyful or sad: “So be it, for the love of God”. In this way we
can well understand how intense and concrete his experience was of the love of
God, revealed to humankind in Christ. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This humble
Capuchin Friar, illustrious son of the land of Sicily, austere and penitent,
faithful to the most genuine expressions of the Franciscan tradition, was
gradually shaped and transformed by God’s love, lived and carried out in love
of neighbour. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Bro. Felix helps
us to discover the value of the little things that make our lives more
precious, and teaches us to understand the meaning of family and of service to
our brothers and sisters, showing us that true and lasting joy, for which every
human heart yearns, is the fruit of love. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear and
venerable Synod Fathers, for three weeks we have lived together an atmosphere
of renewed Eucharistic fervour. Now I would like, with you and in the name of
the entire Episcopacy, to extend a fraternal greeting to the Bishops of the
Church in <st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place>.
</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With deep sorrow
we felt the absence of their representatives. Nevertheless, I want to assure
all of the Chinese Bishops that, in prayer, we are close to them and to their
priests and faithful. The painful journey of the communities entrusted to their
pastoral care is present in our heart: it does not remain fruitless, because it
is a participation in the Paschal Mystery, to the glory of the Father. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The work of the
Synod enabled us to deepen the important aspects of this mystery, given to the
Church from the beginning. Contemplation of the Eucharist must urge all the
members of the Church, priests in the first place, ministers of the Eucharist,
to revive their commitment of faithfulness. The celibacy that priests have
received as a precious gift and the sign of undivided love towards God and
neighbour is founded upon the mystery of the Eucharist, celebrated and adored. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For lay persons
too, Eucharistic spirituality must be the interior motor of every activity, and
no dichotomy is acceptable between faith and life in their mission of spreading
the spirit of Christianity in the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With the closing
of the Year of the Eucharist, how can we not give thanks to God for the many
gifts granted to the Church during this time? And how can we not take up once
again the invitation of our beloved Pope John Paul II to “start afresh from
Christ”? </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Like the
disciples of Emmaus, whose hearts were kindled by the words of the Risen One
and enlightened by his living presence recognized in the breaking of the bread,
who hurriedly returned to Jerusalem and became messengers of Christ’s
Resurrection, we too must take up the path again, enlivened by the fervent
desire to witness to the mystery of this love that gives hope to the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It is in this
Eucharistic perspective that today’s World Mission Sunday is well situated, to
which the venerated Servant of God John Paul II gave as the theme for
reflection: <i>Mission: bread broken for the life of the world</i>. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When the
Ecclesial Community celebrates the Eucharist, especially on Sunday, the Day of
the Lord, it better understands that Christ’s sacrifice is “for all” (Mt 26:
28), and that the Eucharist urges Christians to be “bread broken” for others,
to commit themselves to a more just and fraternal world.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Even today,
faced with the crowds, Christ continues to exhort his disciples: “Give them
something to eat yourselves” (Mt 14: 16), and in his Name, missionaries
proclaim and witness to the Gospel, sometimes with the sacrifice of their
lives. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, we
must all start afresh from the Eucharist. Mary, Woman of the Eucharist, will
help us to “fall in love” with it, she will help us to “remain” in Christ’s
love, to be deeply renewed by him. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Docile to the
Spirit’s action and attentive to the needs of others, the Church will be
evermore a beacon of light, of true joy and hope, fully achieving its mission
as “sign and instrument... of unity among all men” (<i>Lumen Gentium, </i>no.
1).</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 29 October 2006 </span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Sunday’s
Gospel (Mk 10: 46-52), we read that while the Lord passed through the
streets of Jericho a blind man called Bartimaeus cried out loudly to him, “Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me!”. This prayer moved the heart of Jesus, who
stopped, had him called over and healed him. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The decisive
moment was the direct, personal encounter between the Lord and that suffering
man. They found each other face to face: God with his desire to heal and
the man with his desire to be healed; two freedoms, two converging desires. “What
do you want me to do for you?” the Lord asks him. “Master, let me receive my
sight”, the blind man answers. “Go your way, your faith has saved you”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With these
words, the miracle was worked: God’s joy and the man’s joy. And Bartimaeus, who
had come into the light, as the Gospel narrates, “followed him on the way”;
that is, he became a disciple of the Lord and went up to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> with the Master to take part with
him in the great mystery of salvation. This account, in the essentiality of its
passages, recalls the catechumen’s journey towards the Sacrament of Baptism,
which in the ancient Church was also known as “Illumination”. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Faith is a
journey of illumination: it starts with the humility of recognizing oneself as
needy of salvation and arrives at the personal encounter with Christ, who calls
one to follow him on the way of love. On this model the Church has formulated
the itinerary of Christian initiation to prepare for Baptism, Confirmation (or
Chrism) and the Eucharist. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In places
evangelized of old, where the Baptism of children is widespread, young people
and adults are offered catechetical and spiritual experiences that enable them
to follow the path of a mature and conscious rediscovery of faith in order to
then take on a consistent commitment to witness to it. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">How important is
the work that Pastors and catechists do in this field! The rediscovery of the
value of one’s own Baptism is at the root of every Christian’s missionary
commitment, because as we see in the Gospel, those who allow themselves to be
fascinated by Christ cannot fail to witness to the joy of following in his
footsteps. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this month of
October, especially dedicated to missions, we understand ever more that it is
precisely in virtue of Baptism that we possess a co-natural missionary
vocation. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us invoke
the intercession of the Virgin Mary so that missionaries of the Gospel may
multiply.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May every
baptized person, closely united to the Lord, feel that he is called to proclaim
God’s love to everyone with the witness of his own life.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 28 October 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This morning,
here in St Peter’s Square, 498 Martyrs killed in <st1:place w:st="on">Spain</st1:place> in the 1930s have been
beatified. I thank Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation
for the Causes of Saints, who has presided at the celebration, and I address my
cordial greeting to the pilgrims gathered here for this happy event. Today’s
addition to the roll of Blesseds of such a large number of Martyrs shows that
the supreme witness of blood is not an exception reserved for only a few
individuals, but a realistic possibility for the entire Christian People.
Indeed, they are men and women of different ages, vocations and social classes
who paid with their lives for their faithfulness to Christ and his Church. <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>’s words which
resounded in this Sunday’s liturgy can be well applied to them: “I for my part
am already being poured out like a libation”, he writes to the Apostle Timothy.
“The time of my dissolution is near. I have fought the good fight, I have
finished the race, I have kept the faith” (II Tm 4: 6-7). Paul, in prison in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>, saw death
approaching and sketched an evaluation full of recognition and hope. He was at
peace with God and with himself and faced death serenely, in the knowledge that
he had spent his whole life, sparing no effort, at the service of the Gospel. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The month of
October, dedicated in a special way to missionary commitment, thus ends with
the shining witness of the Spanish Martyrs, who come in addition to the Martyrs
Albertina Berkenbrock, Emmanuel Gómez Gonzàlez and Adílio Daronch, and Franz
Jägerstätter, beatified a few days ago in Brazil and in Austria. Their example
testifies that Baptism commits Christians to participating courageously in the
spreading of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, if need be
cooperating with the sacrifice of life itself. Of course, not everyone is
called to martyrdom by bloodshed. In fact, there is a non-bloody “martyrdom”
which is equally significant, such as that of Celina Chludzińska Borzęcka,
wife, mother of a family, widow and Religious, who was beatified yesterday in
Rome: this is the silent and heroic witness of so many Christians who live the
Gospel without compromise, doing their duty and dedicating themselves
generously to the service of the poor. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This martyrdom
of ordinary life constitutes a particularly important witness in the
secularized society of our time. It is the peaceful battle of love which every
Christian, like Paul, must fight without flagging: the race to spread the
Gospel that involves us until our death. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Martyrs
and Star of Evangelization, help us in our daily witness.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 26 October 2008<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With the
Eucharistic celebration in St Peter’s Basilica this morning, the 12th General
Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on <i>“The Word of God in the life
and mission of the Church”</i> came to a conclusion. Every Synodal Assembly is
a powerful experience of ecclesial communion, but this one was even more so
because it focused on what illumines and guides the Church: the Word of God:
Christ in person. And we lived every day in religious listening, conscious of
all of the grace and beauty of being his disciples and servants. In accordance
with the original meaning of the term “church”, we experienced the joy of being
gathered together by the Word and, especially in the liturgy, found ourselves
on our way within it, as in our promised land, which gives us a foretaste of
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place>. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">One aspect very
deeply reflected upon was the relationship between the Word and words, that is,
between the Divine Word and the Scriptures that express it. As the Second
Vatican Council teaches in the Constitution <i>Dei Verbum </i>(no. 12), a good
biblical exegesis demands both the historical-critical and theological methods
since Sacred Scripture is the Word of God in human words. This means that every
text must be read and interpreted keeping in mind the unity of the whole of
Scripture, the living tradition of the Church and the light of the faith. If it
is true that the Bible is also a literary work even the great codex of
universal culture it is also true that it should not be stripped of the divine
element but must be read in the same Spirit in which it was composed.
Scientific exegesis and <i>lectio divina </i>are therefore both necessary and complementary
in order to seek, through the literal meaning, the spiritual meaning that God
wants to communicate to us today. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of
the Synodal Assembly, the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches launched an
appeal, which I make my own, in order to call the attention of the
international community, religious leaders and all men and women of good will,
to the tragedy that is bearing its toll on several Eastern countries where
Christians are the victims of intolerance and cruel violence, killed, threatened
and forced to abandon their homes and wander in search of refuge. I am thinking
at this moment above all of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place>.
I am certain that the ancient and noble peoples of those nations have learned,
over the course of centuries respectful coexistence, to appreciate the
contribution that the small but hardworking and well-qualified Christian
minorities make to the growth of the common homeland. They do not ask for
privileges but desire only to be able to continue to live in their country with
their fellow citizens as they have always lived. I ask the civil and religious
Authorities concerned to spare no efforts to ensure that legality and civil
coexistence are soon re-established so that honest and loyal citizens may be
able to count on the adequate protection of State institutions. I also hope
that the civil and religious leaders of all countries, aware of their role as a
guide and reference for the population, will make significant and explicit
gestures of friendship and consideration to minorities whether they are
Christian or belong to other religions and make the defence of their legitimate
rights a point of honour. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I am also
pleased to inform you who are present here of what I announced a little while
ago during Holy Mass: the Second Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for
Africa will be held here in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
in October of next year. Before then, please God, I intend to go to Africa in
the month of March, to visit first <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cameroon</st1:country-region>,
where I shall present to the Bishops of the Continent the <i>Instrumentum
laboris </i>of the Synod, and then <st1:place w:st="on">Angola</st1:place>, on the occasion of the
500th anniversary of the evangelization of that country. Let us entrust the
sufferings mentioned above, as well as the hopes that we all carry in our
hearts, and in particular the prospects for the Synod of Africa, to the
intercession of Mary Most Holy.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CAPPELLA
PAPALE FOR THE CONCLUSION </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE 12th ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS </span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Sunday, 26 October 2008 </i></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Brothers in
the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Word of the
Lord, resounding a short while ago in the Gospel, reminded us that the whole
divine law is summarized in love. The Evangelist Matthew narrates that after
Jesus had answered the Sadducees, silencing them, the Pharisees met to put him
to the test (see 22: 34-35). One of them, a doctor of law, asked him: “Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the law?” (22: 36). The question makes
apparent the concern, present in ancient Jewish tradition, over finding a
unifying principle in the various formulations of God’s will. This was not an
easy question, considering that in the law of Moses, a good 613 precepts and
prohibitions are contemplated. How does one discern, among all of these, which
is the most important? But Jesus does not hesitate, and readily responds: “You
shall love the Lord your God with your all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” (22: 37-38). Jesus
quotes the <i>Shemà </i>in his answer, the prayer the pious Israelite recites
several times a day, especially in the morning and in the evening (see Dt 6:
4-9; 11: 13-21; Nm 15: 37-41): the proclamation of the integral and total love
due to God, as the only Lord. Emphasis is placed on the totality of this
dedication to God, listing the three faculties that define man in his deep
psychological structures: heart, soul and mind. The word mind, <i>diánoia</i>,
contains the rational element. God is not only the object of love, commitment,
will and sentiment, but also of the intellect, which should not be excluded
from this milieu. Then, however, Jesus adds something which, in truth, had not
been asked by the doctor of law: “And a second is like it, You must love your
neighbour as yourself” (22: 39). The surprising aspect of Jesus’ answer
consists in the fact that he establishes a similarity between the first and the
second commandments, defined this time too with a biblical formula drawn from
the Levitical code of holiness (see Lv 19: 18). And thus by the end of the
passage the two commandments become connected in the role of a fundamental
union upon which all of biblical Revelation rests: “On these two commandments
the whole law is based, and the prophets as well” (Mt 22: 40). </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Gospel
passage on which we are focusing makes clear that being disciples of Christ
means practicing his teachings, which can be summarized in the first and
greatest commandment of the divine law, the commandment of love. Even the First
Reading, taken from the Book of Exodus, insists on the duty of love; a love
witnessed concretely in relationships between persons, which must be
relationships of respect, collaboration, generous help. The neighbour to be
loved is the stranger, the orphan, the widow and the needy, in other words,
those citizens who have no “defender”. The holy author goes into details, as in
the case of the object pawned by one of these poor persons (see Ex 22: 25-26).
In this case God himself is the one to vouch for the neighbour’s position. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the Second
Reading, we can find a concrete application of the supreme commandment of love
in one of the first Christian communities. <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> writes to the Thessalonians, leading
them to understand that, while having known them for such a short time, he
appreciates them and holds them dear in his heart. Because of this, he
pinpoints them as “a model for all the believers of <st1:place w:st="on">Macedonia</st1:place> and Achaia” (1 Thes 1:
7). Weaknesses and difficulties are not lacking in this recently founded
community, but it is love that surpasses all, renews all, conquers all: the
love of those who, knowing their own limits, docilely follow the words of
Christ, the divine Teacher, passed down through one of his faithful disciples. “You,
in turn, became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word despite
great trials, with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit”, the Apostle wrote.
He continued: “For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in <st1:place w:st="on">Macedonia</st1:place>
and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere” (1 Thes 1: 6, 8).
The lesson that we can draw from the Thessalonians’ experience, an experience
that is truly common in every authentic Christian community, is that
neighbourly love is born from docile listening to the divine Word. It is a love
that will even withstand difficult trials for the truth of the divine Word, and
in this way true love grows and truth shines in all its splendour. How
important it is to listen to the Word and incarnate it in personal and
community life! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Eucharistic
celebration, which closes the work of the Synod, we sense, in a particular way,
the bond that exists between the <i>loving listening to the Word of God </i>and
<i>disinterested service of the brethren</i>. How many times, in the past days,
we have heard experiences and reflections that highlight today’s emerging need
for a more intimate listening to God, for a truer knowledge of his Word of
salvation; for a more sincere sharing of faith which is constantly nourished at
the table of the divine Word! Dear and venerable Brothers, thank you for the
contribution each of you has offered in analysing the Synod’s theme: “The Word
of God in the life and the mission of the Church”. I greet you all with great
affection. I address a special greeting to the Cardinals, the Delegate
Presidents of the Synod and the General Secretary, whom I thank for their
constant dedication. I greet you, dear brothers and sisters, who have come from
every continent bringing your enriching experience. In returning home, give
everyone an affectionate greeting from the Bishop of Rome. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet the
Fraternal Delegates, the Experts, the Auditors and the Invited Guests, the
members of the General Secretariat of the Synod, all those who work with the
press. A special thought goes to the Bishops of Continental China, who could
not be represented during this Synodal Assembly. I would like to speak on
behalf of them and thank God for their love for Christ, their communion with
the universal Church and their faithfulness to the Successor of the Apostle Peter.
They are present in our prayer, along with all the faithful who are entrusted
to their pastoral care. We ask the “Chief Shepherd” (1 Pt 5: 4) of the sheep to
give them joy, strength, and apostolic zeal to guide, with wisdom and
far-sightedness, the Catholic community of <st1:place w:st="on">China</st1:place> that we love so dearly. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">All of us who
have taken part in the work of the Synod will carry with us the renewed
awareness that the Church’s principal task, at the start of this new
millennium, is above all to nourish herself on the Word of God, in order to
make new evangelization, the proclamation in our day, more effective. What is
needed now is that this ecclesial experience reach every community; it is
necessary to understand the need to translate the Word we have heard into gestures
of love, because this is the only way to make the Gospel proclamation credible,
despite the human weaknesses that mark individuals. First of all this requires
a more intimate knowledge of Christ and an ever more docile listening to his
Word. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this Pauline
year, making the words of the Apostle our own: “Woe to me if I do not preach
the gospel” (1 Cor 9: 16), I hope with all my heart that this yearning of Paul’s
will be felt in every community with ever greater conviction as a vocation in
the service of the Gospel for the world. At the start of the Synod I recalled
Jesus’ appeal: “the harvest is rich” (Mt 9: 37), an appeal we must never tire
of responding to, no matter what difficulties we might encounter. So many
people are seeking, sometimes unknowingly, to encounter Christ and his Gospel;
many need to find in him the meaning of their lives. To give a clear and common
witness to a life according to the Word of God, demonstrated by Jesus, is
therefore an indispensable criterion to verify the mission of the Church. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place> today’s liturgy
offers for our meditation remind us that the fulness of the law, as all of the
divine Scriptures, is love. Therefore anyone who believes they have understood
the Scriptures, or at least some part of them, without undertaking to build, by
means of their intelligence, the twofold love of God and neighbour, in reality
proves to be still a long way from having grasped its deeper meaning. But how
can we put this commandment into practice, how can we live the love of God and
our brothers without a living and intense contact with the Sacred Scriptures?
The Second Vatican Council asserts that “access to sacred Scripture ought to be
open wide to the Christian faithful” (<i><a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html"><span style="color: black;">Dei Verbum</span></a></i>, 22), so that persons,
encountering the truth, may grow in authentic love. This is a requisite that is
indispensable for evangelization today. And since often the encounter with
Scriptures is in danger of being not “a fact” of the Church, but informed by
subjectivity and arbitrariness, <i>a robust and credible pastoral promotion of
the knowledge of Sacred Scripture </i>to announce, celebrate and live the Word
in the Christian community becomes indispensable, dialoguing with the cultures
of our time, placing ourselves at the service of truth and not of current
ideologies, and increasing the dialogue God wishes to have with all men (see <i>ibid,
</i>21). To this end special care should be given to the preparation of
pastors, who are then ready to take whatever action is necessary to spread the
biblical movement with appropriate means. Ongoing efforts to give life to the
biblical movement among lay people should be encouraged, along with the
formation of group leaders, with particular attention being paid to the young.
We must also support the effort to allow faith to be known through the Word of
God to those who are “far away” as well and especially those who are sincerely
seeking the meaning of life. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Many other
reflections could be added but I will limit myself to underlining that the <i>privileged
place where the Word of God resounds, </i>which edifies the Church, as was said
many times in the Synod, is undoubtedly the liturgy. This is where it appears
that the <i>Bible is a book of the people and for the people: </i>a heritage, a
testament consigned to readers so that the salvation history witnessed in the
text becomes concrete in their own lives. There is therefore a vital,
reciprocal relationship of belonging between the people and the Book: the Bible
remains a living Book with the people its subject who read it. The people
cannot exist without the Book, because in it they find their reason for being,
their vocation and their identity. This mutual belonging between people and
Sacred Scripture is celebrated in every liturgical assembly, which, thanks to
the Holy Spirit, listens to Christ, since it is he who speaks when the
Scripture is read in the Church and welcomes the Covenant that God renews with his
people. Scripture and liturgy converge, therefore, with the single aim of
bringing the people to dialogue with the Lord and to obedience to the will of
the Lord. The Word issued from the mouth of God and witnessed in the Scriptures
returns to him in the form of a prayerful response, a response that is lived, a
response that wells up from love (see Is 55: 10-11). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, let us pray that from renewed listening to the Word of God, guided
by the action of the Holy Spirit, an authentic renewal in the universal Church
and in every Christian community may spring forth. We entrust the fruit of this
Synodal Assembly to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary. I also
entrust to her the Second Special Assembly of the Synod for Africa, that will
take place in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
in October of next year. Next March I intend to go to <st1:place w:st="on">Cameroon</st1:place> to deliver the <i>Instrumentum
laboris</i> of that Synodal Assembly to representatives of the Episcopal
Conferences of Africa. From there, God willing, I will proceed to <st1:place w:st="on">Angola</st1:place>
to pay homage to one of the most ancient sub-saharan Churches. May Mary Most
Holy, who offered her life as the “servant of the Lord” (Lk 1: 38), so that
everything would happen according to the divine will and who exhorts us to do
whatever Jesus would tell us (see Jn 2: 5), teach us to recognize in our lives
the primacy of the Word that alone can grant us salvation. Amen!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 25 October 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A short while
ago, with the Eucharistic celebration in St Peter’s Basilica, the Second
Special Assembly for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> of the Synod of
Bishops ended. Three weeks of mutual prayer and listening, to discern what the
Holy Spirit says today to the Church who lives in the African Continent, but at
the same time to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Universal</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>. The Synodal
Fathers, having come from all the Countries in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>,
presented the richness of the local Churches’ realities. Together we shared
their joys for the dynamism of the Christian communities, which continue to
grow in quantity and quality. We thank God for the missionary impetus that
found a fertile terrain in many dioceses and which expresses itself by sending
missionaries to other African Countries and to other Continents. Special
emphasis was given to the family, which also in Africa constitutes the primary
cell of society, but which today is threatened by ideological currents coming
from outside as well. Then what can be said about the young people exposed to
this sort of pressure, influenced by models of thought and behavior that
contrast with the human and Christian values of the African peoples? Naturally
during this Assembly, today’s problems in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>
came out, as well as its great need for reconciliation, justice and peace. To
this the Church answers re-proposing, with renewed impetus, proclaiming the
Gospel and the act of human promotion. Enlivened by the Word of God and the
Eucharist, it strives to make everyone have what is necessary to live so that
all may live an existence worthy of a human being. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Remembering the
Apostolic Visit to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cameroon</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Angola</st1:country-region> I made last
March, which also had the aim of beginning the immediate preparation for the
second Synod for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, today I would like to
speak to all the African populations, in particular those who share the
Christian faith, to give them the Final Message of this Synodal Assembly. It is
a Message that comes from <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city>, the See of Peter’s
Successor, who presides universal communion, but we can say, from another true
sense, originates in Africa, gathering its experiences, expectations, projects
and now returns to <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, bearing the
richness of a profound communion in the Holy Spirit. Dear brothers and sisters
who are listening to me from <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>! I entrust
to your prayer the fruits of the work of the Synodal Fathers’ work in a special
way and I encourage you with the words of the Lord Jesus: be the salt and the
light of the beloved African land! </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">While this Synod
is ending, I would like to remind you now that a Special Assembly for the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> of the Synod of Bishops is scheduled for next
year. On the occasion of my Visit to <st1:place w:st="on">Cyprus</st1:place>, I will have the pleasure of
presenting the <i>Instrumentum Laboris </i>for that assize. Let us thank the
Lord, who never tires of building his Church in communion, and we invoke the
maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary with trust.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOLY
MASS FOR THE CONCLUSION<i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE<i> </i>SECOND SPECIAL ASSEMBLY FOR <st1:place w:st="on">AFRICA</st1:place> <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i> </i><i> <b>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</b>
<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Sunday, 25 October 2009 <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Here is a
message of hope for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>: we have just
listened to the Word of God. It is the message that the Lord of history never
tires of renewing for the oppressed and overcome humanity of every era and
every land, since the time he revealed to Moses his will for the Israelite
slaves of Egypt: “I have witnessed the affliction of my people... and have
heard their cry... so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have
come down to rescue them... and lead them out of that land into a good and
spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3: 7-8). What is this
land? Is it not the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Reconciliation</st1:placename></st1:place>,
Justice and Peace, to which all of humanity is called? God’s plan does not
change. It is the same as that prophesied by Jeremiah, in the magnificent
oracles called “The Book of Consolation”, from which today the First Reading is
taken. It is an announcement of hope for the people of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>, laid low by the invasion of the army of
Nebuchadnezzar, by the devastation of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>
and the <st1:city w:st="on">Temple</st1:city> and the deportation to <st1:place w:st="on">Babylonia</st1:place>. A message of joy for the “remainder” of Jacob’s
sons, which announces a future for them, because the Lord will lead them back
to their lands, by a straight and easy road. The persons needing support, like
the blind or the crippled, the pregnant woman and the woman in labor, will all
experience the strength and tenderness of the Lord: he is a father for Israel,
ready to care for it as if it were his firstborn (see Jer 31: 7-9). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">God’s plan does
not change. Through the centuries and turns of history, he always aims at the
same finality: the Kingdom of liberty and peace for all. And this implies his
predilection for those deprived of freedom and peace, for those violated in
their dignity as human beings. We think in particular of our brothers and
sisters who in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> suffer poverty,
diseases, injustice, wars and violence, forced migration. These favorite
children of the heavenly Father are like the blind man in the Gospel,
Bartimaeus (Mk 10: 46) at the gates of <st1:place w:st="on">Jericho</st1:place>.
Jesus the Nazarene passed that way. It is the road that leads to <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>, where the
Paschal Event will take place, his sacrificial Easter, towards which the
Messiah goes for us. It is the road of his exodus which is also ours: the only
way that leads to the land of reconciliation, justice and peace. On that road,
the Lord meets Bartimaeus, who has lost his sight. Their paths cross, they
become a single path. The blind man calls out, full of faith “Jesus, son of
David, have pity on me!”. Jesus replies: “Call him!”, and adds: “What do you
want me to do for you?”. God is light and the Creator of light. Man is the son
of light, made to see the light, but has lost his sight, and is forced to beg.
The Lord, who became a beggar for us, walks next to him: thirsting for our
faith and our love. “What do you want me to do for you?”. God knows the answer,
but asks; he wants the man to speak. He wants the man to stand up, to find the
courage to ask for what is needed for his dignity. The Father wants to hear in
the son’s own voice the free choice to see the light once again, the light, the
reason for Creation. “Master, I want to see!” And Jesus says to him: “Go your
way; your faith has saved you’. Immediately he received his sight and followed
him on the way” (Mk 10: 51-52). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers,
we give thanks because this “mysterious encounter between our poverty and the
greatness” of God was achieved also in the Synodal Assembly for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> that has ended today. God renewed his call: “Take
courage! Get up...” (Mk 10: 49). And the Church in Africa, through its Pastors,
having come from all the countries in the continent, from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Madagascar</st1:country-region> and the other islands, has embraced
the message of hope and light to walk on the path that leads to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>. “Go your way; your faith has saved
you” (Mk 10: 52). Yes, faith in Jesus Christ when properly understood and
experienced guides men and peoples to liberty in truth, or, to use the three
words of the Synodal theme, to reconciliation, to justice and to peace.
Bartimaeus who, healed, follows Jesus along the road, is the image of that
humanity that, illuminated by faith, walks on the path towards the promised
land. Bartimaeus becomes in turn a witness of the light, telling and
demonstrating in the first person about being healed, renewed, regenerated.
This is the Church in the world: a community of reconciled persons, operators
of justice and peace; “salt and light” amongst the society of men and nations.
Therefore the Synod strongly confirmed and manifested this that the Church is
the Family of God, in which there can be no divisions based on ethnic, language
or cultural groups. Moving witnesses showed us that, even in the darkest
moments of human history, the Holy Spirit is at work and transforming the hearts
of the victims and the persecutors, that they may know each other as brothers.
The reconciled Church is the potent leaven of reconciliation in each country
and in the whole African continent. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Second
Reading offers another perspective: the Church, the community that follows
Christ on the path of love, has a sacerdotal form. The category of priesthood,
as the interpretive key of the Mystery of Christ and, consequently, of the
Church, was introduced in the New Testament, by the author of the Letter to the
Hebrews. His intuition originates from Psalm 110, quoted in today’s words,
where the Lord God assures the Messiah with a solemn promise: “You are a priest
for ever of the order of Melchizedek” (Ps 110: 4). A reference which leads to
another, taken from Psalm 2, in which the Messiah announces the Lord’s decree
which says about him: “You are my son, today have I fathered you” (Ps 2: 7).
From these texts derives the attribution to Jesus Christ of a sacerdotal
character, not in the generic sense, rather “of the order of Melchizedek”, in
other words the supreme and eternal priesthood, of divine not human origins. If
each supreme priest “is taken from among men and made their representative
before God” (Heb 5: 1), He alone, Christ, the Son of God, possesses a ministry
that can be identified to his own person, a singular and transcendent ministry,
on which universal salvation relies. Christ transmitted this ministry of his to
the Church through the Holy Spirit; therefore the Church has in itself, in each
of its members, because of Baptism, a sacerdotal characteristic. However here
is a decisive aspect the priesthood of Jesus Christ is no longer primarily
ritual, rather it is existential. The dimension of the rite is not abolished,
but, as clearly seen in the institution of the Eucharist, takes its meaning
from the Paschal Mystery, which completes the ancient sacrifices and surpasses
them. Thus contemporarily a new sacrifice, a new ministry and a new temple are
born, and all three coincide with the Mystery of Jesus Christ. United to him
through the Sacraments, the Church prolongs its saving action, allowing man to
be healed, like the blindman Bartimaeus. Thus the ecclesial community, in the
steps of its Master and Lord, is called to walk decisively along the path of
service, to share the condition of men and women in its time, to witness to all
the love of God and thus sow hope. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
this message of salvation is always transmitted by the Church by joining
evangelization and the promotion of humanity. Let us take the example of the
historical Encyclical <i>Popolorum Progressio: </i>what the Servant of God Paul
VI elaborated in terms of reflection, the missionaries created and continue to
create in the field, promoting a development that respects local cultures and
the environment, following a logic that now, more than 40 years later, appears
to be the only one capable of allowing the African people to emerge from the
slavery of hunger and sickness. This means transmitting the announcement of
hope, following a “sacerdotal form”, that is, living the Gospel in the first
person, trying to translate it into projects and undertakings that are
consistent with its principle dynamic foundation, which is love. In these three
weeks, the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops has
confirmed what my venerable Predecessor John Paul II had already clearly
focused on, and that I also wanted to look at more closely in the recent
Encyclical <i>Caritas in Veritate: </i>what is necessary, therefore, is the
renewal of the model of global development, in such a way that it be capable of
“including within its range all peoples and not just the better off” (no. 39).
What the social doctrine of the Church has always maintained is what is
required today of globalization (see <i><a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html"><span style="color: black;">ibid</span></a></i>.). This we must remember should not be
understood fatalistically as though its dynamics were produced by anonymous impersonal
forces or structures independent of the human will. Globalization is a human
reality and as such can be modified in line with one or another cultural
impositions. The Church works with its personalist and community concept to
steer the globalization of humanity in relational terms, in terms of communion
and the sharing of goods (see <i>ibid. </i>no. 42). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Take courage!
Get up”... This is how the Lord of life and hope addresses the Church and
peoples of <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> at the end of these weeks of
Synodal reflection. Get up, Church in Africa, Family of God, because you are
being called by the Heavenly Father whom your ancestors invoked as Creator,
before knowing his merciful closeness, revealed in his only-begotten Son, Jesus
Christ. Set out on the path of a new evangelization with the courage that comes
from the Holy Spirit. The urgent action of evangelization which has been spoken
about so much in these days also involves an urgent appeal for reconciliation,
an indispensable condition for instilling in Africa justice among men and
building a fair and lasting peace that respects each individual and people; a
peace that requires and is open to the contribution of all people of good will
irrespective of their religious, ethnic, linguistic, cultural and social backgrounds.
In such a challenging mission, <st1:placename w:st="on">pilgrim</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>
of the third millennium, you are not alone. The whole Catholic Church is near
to you with its prayer and active solidarity, and from heaven you are
accompanied by the African saints who, with their lives to the point of
martyrdom sometimes, testified to the fullness of their faith in Christ. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Courage! Get up,
African continent, land that welcomed the Savior of the World when as a child
he had to take refuge with Joseph and Mary in <st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place> to save his life from the
persecution of King Herod. Welcome with renewed enthusiasm the Gospel
proclamation so that the Face of Christ may light with its splendor the
multiplicity of cultures and languages of your peoples. As it offers the bread
of the Word and the Eucharist, the Church also undertakes to operate, with
every means at its disposal, to ensure that no African should be deprived of
his or her daily bread. For this reason, along with the work of primary
importance of evangelization, Christians are actively involved in interventions
in favor of promoting humanity. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Synodal
Fathers, at the end of these reflections of mine, I want to salute you most
warmly, and thank you for your edifying participation. Return home, you,
pastors of the Church in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, take my
blessing to your communities. Transmit to everyone the oft-heard appeal of this
<a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/index.htm#II_Special_Assembly_for_Africa"><span style="color: black;">Synod</span></a> for reconciliation, justice and peace. As
the Synodal Assembly draws to a close, I have to renew my most vivid thanks to
the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops and all their collaborators. I
express my grateful thoughts to the choirs of the Nigerian community in <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city> and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Ethiopian</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype></st1:place> who are contributing
to the celebration of this liturgy. And finally I would like to thank everyone
who has accompanied the Synodal work with their prayer. May the Virgin Mary
recompense each and every one of them, and allow the Church in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> to grow in every part of that great continent,
spreading the “salt” and “light” of the Gospel everywhere.</span></div>
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<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 24 October 2010<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This morning at
the Vatican Basilica the solemn Celebration concluded the Special Assembly for
the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops with the theme with the slogan: “The
Catholic Church in the Middle East: communion and witness”. Moreover this
Sunday is also World Mission Day: “The construction of Ecclesial Communion is
the key to the <st1:city w:st="on">Mission</st1:city>”.
This motto displays a similarity between the themes of both ecclesial events.
Each invite us to look at the Church as a mystery of communion that, by her
nature, is destined for the whole person and for all people. The Servant of God
Pope Paul <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">vi </span>stated the Church “exists
in order to evangelize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach, to be the
channel of the gift of grace, to reconcile sinners with God, and to perpetuate
Christ’s sacrifice in Holy Mass, which is the memorial of His death and
glorious resurrection” (Apostolic Exortation <i>Evangelii Nuntiandi</i>, 8
December 1975, no. 14: p. 8 ). So the next Ordinary General Synod of Bishops in
2012 will have the theme: “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the
Christian Faith”. At any time or any place, even today in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle
East</st1:place>, the Church is present and works to welcome every person and
offer him/her the fullness of life in Christ. As the Italian-German theologian
Romano Guardini once wrote, “The reality of the ‘Church’ implies a complete
fullness of being Christian, which grows as it embraces the fullness the human
being in relation to God” (see <i>Formazione liturgica</i>, Brescia, 2008, pp.
106-107). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, in
the today’s Liturgy we read the testimony of <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> concerning the final reward that the
Lord will grant “to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Tim 4:8). This
testimony does not mean an idle or solitary waiting. Quite the contrary! The
Apostle lived in communion with the Risen Christ to “proclaim the Word [Gospel]
fully” so that “all the Gentiles might hear it” (2 Tim 4:17). The missionary
task is not to revolutionize the world, rather to transfigure it, drawing upon
the strength of Jesus Christ who “summons us to the banquet of his word and of
the Eucharist, to taste the gift of his presence, to be formed at his school
and to live ever more closely united to him, our teacher and Lord” (<i>Message
for the 84th World Mission Sunday</i>). Also, Christians of today – as it is
written in the <i>Epistle to Diognetus</i> – “show how marvellous and...
extraordinary their associated life is. They spend their life on earth, but
they are citizens of heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their way
of living go beyond these laws... They are condemned to death, from which they
draw life. While doing good, they are... persecuted and they grow in number
every day” (<span style="font-variant: small-caps;">v</span>, 4.9.12.16; <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">vi</span> 9, no. 33, Paris 1951, 62-66). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">To the Virgin
Mary, that from Jesus crucified received the new mission to be the Mother of
all those who desire to believe in and follow Him, we entrust the Christian
community of the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> and all
missionaries of the Gospel.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PAPAL
MASS FOR THE CLOSING</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SPECIAL ASSEMBLY FOR THE MIDDLE EAST </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Sunday, 24 October 2010 <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Distinguished
Ladies and Gentlemen,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Two weeks from
the opening Celebration, we are gathered once again on the Lord’s day, at the
Altar of the Confession in St Peter’s Basilica, to conclude the Special
Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops. In our hearts is a deep
gratitude towards God who has afforded us this truly extraordinary experience,
not just for us, but for the good of the Church, for the People of God who live
in the lands between the Mediterranean and <st1:place w:st="on">Mesopotamia</st1:place>.
As Bishop of Rome, I would like to express my gratitude to you, Venerable Synod
Fathers: Cardinals, Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops. I wish to especially
thank the Secretary General, the four Presidents Delegate, the Relator General,
the Special Secretary and all the collaborators, who have worked tirelessly in
these days. This morning we left the Synod Hall and came to “the temple to pray”:
in this, we are touched directly by the parable of the pharisee and the
publican, told by Jesus and recounted by the Evangelist St Luke (see 18:9-14).
We too may be tempted, like the pharisee, to tell God of our merits, perhaps
thinking of our work during these days. However, to rise up to Heaven, prayer
must emanate from a poor, humble heart. And therefore we too, at the conclusion
of this ecclesial event, wish to first and foremost give thanks to God, not for
our merits, but for the gift that He has given us. We recognize ourselves as
small and in need of salvation, of mercy; we recognize all that comes from Him
and that only with his Grace we may realize what the Holy Spirit told us. Only
in this manner may we “return home” truly enriched, made more just and more
able to walk in the path of the Lord.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The First
Reading and the responsorial Psalm stress the theme of prayer, emphasizing that
it is much more powerful to God’s heart when those who pray are in a condition
of need and are afflicted. “The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds”
affirms Ecclesiasticus (35:21); and the Psalmist adds: “Yahweh is near to the
broken-hearted, he helps those whose spirit is crushed” (34:18). Our thoughts
go to our numerous brothers and sisters who live in the region of the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> and who find themselves in trying situations,
at times very burdensome, both for the material poverty and for the
discouragement, the state of tension and at times of fear. Today the Word of
God also offers us a light of consoling hope, there where He presents prayer,
personified, that “until he has eliminated the hordes of the arrogant and
broken the sceptres of the wicked, until he has repaid all people as their
deeds deserve and human actions as their intentions merit” (Ecc 35:21-22). This
link too, between prayer and justice makes us think of many situations in the
world, particularly in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>. The
cry of the poor and oppressed finds an immediate echo in God, who desires to
intervene to open up a way out, to restore a future of freedom, a horizon of
hope.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This faith in
God who is near, who frees his friends, is what the Apostle Paul witnesses to
in today’s epistle, in the Second Letter to Timothy. Realizing that the end of
his earthly life was near, Paul makes an assessment: “I have fought the good
fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith” (2
Tim 4:7). For each one of us, dear brothers in the episcopacy, this is a model
to imitate: may Divine Goodness allow us to make a similar judgment of
ourselves! <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
continues, “the Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the
message might be fully proclaimed for all the gentiles to hear” (2 Tim 4:17).
It is a word which resounds with particular strength on this Sunday in which we
celebrate World Mission Day! Communion with Jesus crucified and risen, witness
of his love. The Apostle’s experience is a model for every Christian,
especially for us Shepherds. We have shared a powerful moment of ecclesial
communion. We now leave each other so that each may return to his own mission,
but we know that we remain united, we remain in his love.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Synodal
Assembly which concludes today has always kept in mind the icon of the first
Christian community, described in the Acts of the Apostles: “The whole group of
believers was united, heart and soul” (Acts 4:32). It is a reality that we
experienced in these past days, in which we have shared the joys and the pains,
the concerns and the hopes of Christians in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle
East</st1:place>. We experienced the unity of the Church in the variety of
Churches present in that region. Led by the Holy Spirit, we became “united,
heart and soul” in faith, in hope, and in charity, most of all during the
Eucharistic celebrations, source and summit of ecclesial communion, and in the
Liturgy of the Hours as well, celebrated every morning according to one of the
seven Catholic rites of the Middle East. We have thus enhanced the liturgical,
spiritual and theological wealth of the Eastern Catholic Churches, as well as
of the Latin Church. It involved an exchange of precious gifts, from which all
the Synodal Fathers benefited. It is hoped that this positive experience
repeats itself in the respective communities of the Middle East, encouraging
the participation of the faithful in liturgical celebrations of other Catholic
rites, thus opening themselves to the dimensions of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Universal</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Common prayer
helped us to face the challenges of the Catholic Church in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> as well. One of these is communion within
each <i>sui <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">iuris</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on"><span style="font-style: normal;">Church</span></st1:placetype></st1:place><span style="font-style: normal;">, as well as in the relationships between the various
Catholic Churches of different traditions. As today’s Gospel reminded us (see
Lk 18:9-14), we need humility, in order to recognize our limitations, our
errors and omissions, in order to be able to truly be “united, heart and soul”.
A fuller communion within the Catholic Church favours ecumenical dialogue with
other Churches and ecclesial communities as well. The Catholic Church
reiterated in this Synodal meeting its deep conviction to pursuing such
dialogue as well, so that the prayer of the Lord Jesus might be completely
fulfilled: “May they all be one” (Jn 17:21).</span></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The words of the
Lord Jesus may be applied to Christians in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>:
“There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to
give you the kingdom” (Lk 12:32). Indeed, even if they are few, they are
bearers of the Good News of the love of God for man, love which revealed itself
in the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy Land</st1:place> in the person of Jesus
Christ. This Word of salvation, strengthened with the grace of the Sacraments,
resounds with particular potency in the places in which, by Divine Providence,
it was written, and it is the only Word which is able to break that vicious
circle of vengeance, hate, and violence. From a purified heart, in peace with
God and neighbour, may intentions and initiatives for peace at local, national,
and international levels be born. In these actions, to whose accomplishment the
whole international community is called, Christians as full-fledged citizens
can and must do their part with the spirit of the Beatitudes, becoming builders
of peace and apostles of reconciliation to the benefit of all society.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Conflicts, wars,
violence and terrorism have gone on for too long in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle
East</st1:place>. Peace, which is a gift of God, is also the result of the
efforts of men of goodwill, of the national and international institutions, in
particular of the states most involved in the search for a solution to
conflicts. We must never resign ourselves to the absence of peace. Peace is
possible. Peace is urgent. Peace is the indispensable condition for a life
worthy of humanity and society. Peace is also the best remedy to avoid
emigration from the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>. “Pray for the
peace of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>”
we are told in the Psalm (122:6). We pray for peace in the <st1:place w:st="on">Holy
Land</st1:place>. We pray for peace in the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>,
undertaking to try to ensure that this gift of God to men of goodwill should
spread through the whole world. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Another
contribution that Christians can bring to society is the promotion of an
authentic freedom of religion and conscience, one of the fundamental human
rights that each state should always respect. In numerous countries of the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> there exists freedom of belief, while the
space given to the freedom to practice religion is often quite limited.
Increasing this space of freedom becomes essential to guarantee to all the
members of the various religious communities the true freedom to live and
profess their faith. This topic could become the subject of dialogue between
Christians and Muslims, a dialogue whose urgency and usefulness was reiterated
by the Synodal Fathers. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">During the work
of the Synod what was often underlined was the need to offer the Gospel anew to
people who do not know it very well or who have even moved away from the
Church. What was often evoked was the need for a new evangelization for the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> as well. This was quite a widespread theme,
especially in the countries where Christianity has ancient roots. The recent
creation of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization also
responds to this profound need. For this reason, after having consulted the
episcopacy of the whole world and after having listened to the Ordinary Council
of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, I have decided to dedicate
the next Ordinary General Assembly, in 2012, to the following theme: “<i>Nova
evangelizatio ad christianam fidem tradendam</i> — The New Evangelization for
the Transmission of the Christian Faith”.</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters of the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place>! May the
experience of these days assure you that you are never alone, that you are
always accompanied by the Holy See and the whole Church, which, having been
born in <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>, spread through the <st1:place w:st="on">Middle East</st1:place> and then the rest of the world. We entrust
the results of the Special Assembly for the Middle East, as well as the
preparation for the Ordinary General Assembly, to the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Mother of the Church and Queen of Peace. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 23 October 2011</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Before concluding
this solemn celebration, I would like to cordially greet everyone. I turn first
to the pilgrims who have come to pay homage to St Guido Maria Conforti and St
Luigi Guanella, with a thought of special affection and encouragement for the
members of the Institutes founded by them: the Xavieran Missionaries, the
Daughters of St Mary of <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place>
and the Servants of Charity. I greet the Bishops and Civil Authorities and
thank each of them for their presence. Once again, <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place> has offered the Church and the
world exemplary witnesses of the Gospel; let us give glory to God and let us
pray that in this nation the faith may never cease to renew itself and bear
good fruit.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PAPAL MASS FOR THE
CANONIZATION OF BLESSEDS:</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">GUIDO MARIA
CONFORTI (1865-1931)</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">LUIGI GUANELLA
(1842-1915)</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">BONIFACIA
RODRÍGUEZ DE CASTRO (1837-1905)</span><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 23 October 2011 </span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For various
reasons, our Sunday Liturgy today is enriched by thanksgiving and supplication
to God. While we are celebrating with the whole Church World Mission Day — an
annual event aiming to awaken enthusiasm and commitment to mission — we praise
the Lord for the three new Saints: Bishop Guido Maria Conforti, the priest
Aloysius [also known as Luigi] Guanella and the religious Bonifacia Rodríguez
de Castro. I joyfully greet all those present, in particular the official
Delegations and the many pilgrims who have come to celebrate these three
exemplary disciples of Christ. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Word of the
Lord, which was proclaimed just a moment ago in the Gospel Reading, reminds us
that the whole of the Divine Law can be summed up in love. The Evangelist
Matthew recounts that the Pharisees, after Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
met to put him to the test (see 22:34-35). One of these interlocutors, a doctor
of law, asked him: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (v.
36). Jesus answered the deliberately tricky question, saying quite simply: “You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and
with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment” (vv. 37-38). In
fact, the main requirement for each one of us is that God be present in our
lives. He should, as the Scripture says, penetrate all levels of our being and
fill them completely. The heart should know him and let itself be touched by
him, and thus also the soul, the energies of our will and determination, as
well as intelligence and thought. One could say, as <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> did, “It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jesus
immediately adds something that the doctor of law did not actually ask: “And a
second is like it, You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Mt 22:39). By
declaring that the second commandment is similar to the first, Jesus implies
that loving your neighbour is as important as loving God. In fact, a visible sign
that the Christian can show the world in order to witness to God’s love is love
for our brothers and sisters. How providential it is that precisely today the
Church holds up to her members three new Saints, who allowed themselves to be
transformed by the divine love, that imbued their entire existence. Through
various situations and with different charisms, they loved the Lord with all
their heart and loved their neighbour as themselves: thus becoming “an example
to all the believers” (1 Thess 1:7).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Psalm 17, just
read, invites us to abandon ourselves with trust into the hands of the Lord,
who is “steadfast... to his anointed” (Ps 18[17]:51). This interior attitude
guided the life and ministry of St Guido Maria Conforti. Since, as a boy, he
had had to overcome his father’s opposition to his entering the Seminary. He
displayed strong character in following God’s will and by conforming in
everything to the <i>caritas Christi</i>, that, in the contemplation of the
Crucifix, attracted him to it. He felt strongly the urgency to announce this
love to those who had not yet received the news and the motto “<i>Caritas
Christi urget nos</i>” (see 2 Cor 5:14), summed up the Missionary Institute’s
programme, to which he, after just turning 30-years-old, brought to life: a
religious family completely at the service of evangelization, under the
patronage of the great “Patron of the Orient”, St Francis Xavier. St Guido
Maria was called to live this apostolic zeal in his episcopal ministry first in
<st1:city w:st="on">Ravenna</st1:city> and then in <st1:place w:st="on">Parma</st1:place>. With all his strength he dedicated
himself to the good of the souls entrusted to him, especially those who had
moved away from the Lord’s path. His life was marked by numerous trials, even
serious ones. He understood how to accept every situation with docility, welcoming
it as an indication of the path traced for him by Divine Providence. In every
circumstance, even in debilitating periods of illness, he knew how to recognize
God’s plan, which led him to build his Kingdom, above all through self-denial
and the daily acceptance of God’s will, ever more complete with a trusting
abandonment. He first experienced and testified what he taught his
missionaries, namely, that perfection consists in doing the will of God,
following the model of the crucified Jesus. St Guido Maria Conforti fixed his
interior gaze on the Cross, which sweetly attracted him. In contemplating the
Cross he saw the horizon of the entire world open wide to him, he perceived the
“urgent” desire, hidden in the heart of every person, to receive and welcome
the good news of the only love that saves. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The human and
spiritual testimony of St Luigi Guanella is a special gift of grace for the
whole Church. During his earthly life he lived with courage and determination
the Gospel of Love and the “great commandment”, which today too, the Word of
God has recalled. Thanks to the profound and continuing union with Christ, in
the contemplation of his love, Don Guanella, led by Divine Providence, became a
companion and teacher, comfort and support to the poorest and weakest. The love
of God aroused in him the desire for the good of the people who were entrusted
to him in the routine of daily life. He paid caring attention to each one and
respected the pace of their development. He cultivated the hope in his heart that
every human being, created in the image and likeness of God, by tasting the joy
of being loved by him — Father of all — can receive and give to others the best
of himself. Today, let us praise and thank the Lord, who gave us a prophet and
an apostle of love in St Luigi Guanella. In his testimony, so full of humanity
and attention to the least, we recognize a bright sign of the presence and
charitable action of God, the God — as we heard in the First Reading — who
defends the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the poor person obliged to give
his garment in pledge... his only covering for the night (see Ex 22:20-26). May
this new Saint of love be for everyone, especially for the members of the
Congregations founded by him, a model of profound and fruitful synthesis
between contemplation and action that he himself lived and put into practice.
We can summarize his whole human and spiritual life in his last words on his
death-bed: “<i>in caritate Christi</i>”. It is Christ’s love that illumines the
life of every person, revealing through the gift of himself to others that
nothing is lost but is fully realized for our happiness. May St Luigi Guanella
obtain that we may grow in friendship with the Lord to be bearers of the
fullness of God’s love in our time, to promote life in all of its forms and
conditions, and to ensure that human society increasingly become the family of
God’s children. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>In Spanish
the Pope said</i>: In the Second Reading we heard a passage from the First
Letter to the Thessalonians, a text that uses the metaphor of manual labour to
describe the work of evangelization and which, in a certain sense, can be
applied also to the virtues of St Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro. When <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> writes the Letter,
he is working to earn his bread and it becomes evident, from the tone and the
examples he uses, that in the shop where he preaches he meets his first
disciples. This same intuition motivated St Bonifacia who, from the beginning
understood how to combine her following of Jesus Christ with painstaking daily
work. Work, as she had done since she was a child, was not only a way not to
burden people but also implied the freedom to pursue one’s vocation. At the
same time it gave her the chance to attract and train other women, who in the
workshop could meet God and listen to his loving call, discerning the plan for
their life and preparing themselves to carry it out. Thus the Servants of St
Joseph came into being in the humility and simplicity of the Gospel, which in
the family of <st1:city w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:city> presents a <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">school</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Christian</st1:placename></st1:place> life. The Apostle continues in
his Letter that the love he entertains for the community is not without effort
and difficulty, since it always means emulating Christ’s self-gift to man,
without asking or looking for any reward, except to please God. Mother Bonifacia,
who dedicated herself with joy to the apostolate and began to obtain the first
fruits of her endeavours, also experienced abandonment and rejection by her
disciples, and through it she learned a new dimension of the <i>sequela</i> of
Christ: the Cross. She accepted it with the steadiness of hope, offering her
own life for the unity of the work born of her hands. The new Saint may be seen
as an ideal model in whom the work of God resounds, an echo that invites her
daughters, the Servants of St Joseph, and also all of us to welcome her
testimony with the joy of the Holy Spirit, fearing no difficulty in spreading
the Good News of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Heaven</st1:placename></st1:place> everywhere. We
entrust ourselves to her intercession and we ask God for all the workers,
especially those engaged in the more modest trades and who at times are not
sufficiently esteemed, so that in their daily work, they may discover the
friendly hand of God and witness to his love, transforming their own effort
into a song of praise to the Creator. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“I love you,
Lord, my strength”, we have just proclaimed this, dear brothers and sisters, in
the Responsorial Psalm. These three new Saints are an eloquent sign of this
passionate love for God. Let us follow their example, let us be guided by their
teachings so that our whole life may become a witness of authentic love of God
and neighbour. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Saints, and the intercession of St
Guido Maria Conforti, of St Luigi Guanella e St Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro
obtain this grace for us. Amen.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>St.
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 28 October 2012</em></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With the Holy
Mass celebrated this morning in the Basilica of St Peter’s, we have concluded
the 13th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. For three weeks we looked
at the reality of the new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian
faith: the entire Church was represented and, therefore, involved in this task,
which will not fail to bear fruit, with the grace of the Lord. Before all else,
however, the Synod is always a moment of strong ecclesial communion, and thus I
desire with all of you to give thanks to God, who yet again has made us
experience the beauty of being the Church, and of being this today, in this
world just as it is, in the midst of this humanity with all its toil and all
its hopes.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The coincidence
of this Synodal Assembly with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second
Vatican Council is very significant, and thus with the start of the <i>Year of
Faith</i>. Thinking back to Blessed John XXIII, to the Servant of God Paul VI,
to the conciliar season, has been more fruitful than ever, because it helped us
to remember that the new evangelization is not of our invention, but rather it
is a dynamism that developed in the Church in a special way over the past 50
years, when it appeared evident that even those countries of ancient Christian
tradition had become, as the saying goes, “mission territory.” </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Thus arose the
need for a renewed proclamation of the Gospel in secular societies, with the
double certainty that, one the one hand, it is only he, Jesus Christ, the true
newness who answers the longings of man from every age, and on the other, that
his message calls to be transmitted in an adequate way in the changed social
and cultural context.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">What can we say
at the end of these intense days of work? For my part, I have listened and
gathered much food for reflection and many propositions, that, with the help of
the Secretariat of the Synod and my Collaborators, I will seek to order and elaborate
on, so as to offer to the whole of the Church an organic synthesis and coherent
indications. Until now we can say that from this Synod comes a reinforced
commitment to the spiritual renewal of the Church herself, to enable her to
spiritually renew the secularized world; and this renewal comes from the
rediscovery of Jesus Christ, of his truth and of his grace, of his “faceâ€,
both human and divine, upon which shines resplendent the transcendent mystery
of God.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust
to the Virgin Mary the fruits of the work of this Synodal Assembly just
concluded. May she, the Star of the New Evangelization, teach us and help us to
bring Christ to all, with courage and with joy.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOLY
MASS FOR THE CLOSING OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS</span></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI</span></i></strong></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><em>Vatican</em></st1:place><em> Basilica</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 28
October 2012 </em></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brother
Bishops,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Distinguished
Ladies and Gentlemen,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The miracle of
the healing of blind Bartimaeus comes at a significant point in the structure
of Saint Mark’s Gospel. It is situated at the end of the section on the “journey
to <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>”, that is, Jesus’ last pilgrimage
to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Holy</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place>, for the Passover, in which he
knows that his passion, death and resurrection await him. In order to
ascend to Jerusalem from the Jordan valley, Jesus passes through Jericho, and
the meeting with Bartimaeus occurs as he leaves the city – in the evangelist’s
words, “as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude”
(10:46). This is the multitude that soon afterwards would acclaim Jesus
as Messiah on his entry into <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>.
Sitting and begging by the side of the road was Bartimaeus, whose name means “son
of Timaeus”, as the evangelist tells us. The whole of Mark’s Gospel is a
journey of faith, which develops gradually under Jesus’ tutelage. The
disciples are the first actors on this journey of discovery, but there are also
other characters who play an important role, and Bartimaeus is one of
them. His is the last miraculous healing that Jesus performs before his
passion, and it is no accident that it should be that of a blind person,
someone whose eyes have lost the light. We know from other texts too that
the state of blindness has great significance in the Gospels. It
represents man who needs God’s light, the light of faith, if he is to know
reality truly and to walk the path of life. It is essential to
acknowledge one’s blindness, one’s need for this light, otherwise one could
remain blind for ever (see <i>Jn</i> 9:39-41).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Bartimaeus,
then, at that strategic point of Mark’s account, is presented as a model.
He was not blind from birth, but he lost his sight. He represents man who
has lost the light and knows it, but has not lost hope: he knows how to seize
the opportunity to encounter Jesus and he entrusts himself to him for
healing. Indeed, when he hears that the Master is passing along the road,
he cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (<i>Mk</i> 10:47), and
he repeats it even louder (v. 48). And when Jesus calls him and asks what
he wants from him, he replies: “Master, let me receive my sight!” (v.
51). Bartimaeus represents man aware of his pain and crying out to the
Lord, confident of being healed. His simple and sincere plea is
exemplary, and indeed – like that of the publican in the <st1:place w:st="on">Temple</st1:place>: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (<i>Lk</i>
18:13) – it has found its way into the tradition of Christian prayer. In
the encounter with Christ, lived with faith, Bartimaeus regains the light he
had lost, and with it the fullness of his dignity: he gets back onto his feet
and resumes the journey, which from that moment has a guide, Jesus, and a path,
the same that Jesus is travelling. The evangelist tells us nothing more
about Bartimaeus, but in him he shows us what discipleship is: following Jesus “along
the way” (v. 52), in the light of faith.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on">Saint Augustine</st1:place>, in one of
his writings, makes a striking comment about the figure of Bartimaeus, which
can be interesting and important for us today. He reflects on the fact
that in this case Mark indicates not only the name of the person who is healed,
but also the name of his father, and he concludes that “Bartimaeus, the son of
Timaeus, had fallen from some position of great prosperity, and was now
regarded as an object of the most notorious and the most remarkable
wretchedness, because, in addition to being blind, he had also to sit begging.
And this is also the reason, then, why Mark has chosen to mention only the one
whose restoration to sight acquired for the miracle a fame as widespread as was
the notoriety which the man’s misfortune itself had gained” (<i>On the
Consensus of the Evangelists</i>, 2, 65, 125: <i>PL</i> 34, 1138). Those
are <st1:city w:st="on">Saint Augustine</st1:city>’s
words.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This
interpretation, that Bartimaeus was a man who had fallen from a condition of “great
prosperity”, causes us to think. It invites us to reflect on the fact
that our lives contain precious riches that we can lose, and I am not speaking
of material riches here. From this perspective, Bartimaeus could
represent those who live in regions that were evangelized long ago, where the
light of faith has grown dim and people have drifted away from God, no longer
considering him relevant for their lives. These people have therefore
lost a precious treasure, they have “fallen” from a lofty dignity – not
financially or in terms of earthly power, but in a Christian sense – their
lives have lost a secure and sound direction and they have become, often
unconsciously, beggars for the meaning of existence. They are the many in
need of a new evangelization, that is, a new encounter with Jesus, the Christ,
the Son of God (see <i>Mk</i> 1:1), who can open their eyes afresh and teach
them the path. It is significant that the liturgy puts the Gospel of
Bartimaeus before us today, as we conclude the Synodal Assembly on the New
Evangelization. This biblical passage has something particular to say to
us as we grapple with the urgent need to proclaim Christ anew in places where
the light of faith has been weakened, in places where the fire of God is more
like smouldering cinders, crying out to be stirred up, so that they can become
a living flame that gives light and heat to the whole house.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The new
evangelization applies to the whole of the Church’s life. It applies, in
the first instance, to the ordinary pastoral ministry that must be more
animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as to inflame the hearts of the faithful
who regularly take part in community worship and gather on the Lord’s day to be
nourished by his word and by the bread of eternal life. I would like here
to highlight three pastoral themes that have emerged from the Synod. The
first concerns the <i>sacraments of Christian initiation</i>. It has been
reaffirmed that appropriate catechesis must accompany preparation for Baptism,
Confirmation and Eucharist. The importance of Confession, the sacrament
of God’s mercy, has also been emphasized. This sacramental journey is
where we encounter the Lord’s call to holiness, addressed to all
Christians. In fact it has often been said that the real protagonists of
the new evangelization are the saints: they speak a language intelligible to
all through the example of their lives and their works of charity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Secondly, the
new evangelization is essentially linked to the <i>Missio ad Gentes</i>.
The Church’s task is to evangelize, to proclaim the message of salvation to
those who do not yet know Jesus Christ. During the Synod, it was
emphasized that there are still many regions in Africa, Asia and <st1:place w:st="on">Oceania</st1:place> whose inhabitants await with lively expectation,
sometimes without being fully aware of it, the first proclamation of the
Gospel. So we must ask the Holy Spirit to arouse in the Church a new
missionary dynamism, whose progatonists are, in particular, pastoral workers
and the lay faithful. Globalization has led to a remarkable migration of
peoples. So the first proclamation is needed even in countries that were
evangelized long ago. All people have a right to know Jesus Christ and
his Gospel: and Christians, all Christians – priests, religious and lay
faithful – have a corresponding duty to proclaim the Good News.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A third aspect
concerns <i>the baptized whose lives do not reflect the demands of Baptism</i>.
During the Synod, it was emphasized that such people are found in all
continents, especially in the most secularized countries. The Church is
particularly concerned that they should encounter Jesus Christ anew, rediscover
the joy of faith and return to religious practice in the community of the
faithful. Besides traditional and perennially valid pastoral methods, the
Church seeks to adopt new ones, developing new language attuned to the
different world cultures, proposing the truth of Christ with an attitude of
dialogue and friendship rooted in God who is Love. In various parts of
the world, the Church has already set out on this path of pastoral creativity,
so as to bring back those who have drifted away or are seeking the meaning of
life, happiness and, ultimately, God. We may recall some important city
missions, the “Courtyard of the Gentiles”, the continental mission, and so
on. There is no doubt that the Lord, the Good Shepherd, will abundantly
bless these efforts which proceed from zeal for his Person and his Gospel.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, Bartimaeus, on regaining his sight from Jesus, joined the crowd of
disciples, which must certainly have included others like him, who had been
healed by the Master. New evangelizers are like that: people who have had
the experience of being healed by God, through Jesus Christ. And
characteristic of them all is a joyful heart that cries out with the Psalmist: “What
marvels the Lord worked for us: indeed we were glad” (<i>Ps</i> 125:3).
Today, we too turn to the Lord Jesus, <i>Redemptor hominis </i> and <i>lumen
gentium</i>, with joyful gratitude, making our own a prayer of Saint Clement of
Alexandria: “until now I wandered in the hope of finding God, but since you
enlighten me, O Lord, I find God through you and I receive the Father from you,
I become your coheir, since you did not shrink from having me for your
brother. Let us put away, then, let us put away all blindness to the
truth, all ignorance: and removing the darkness that obscures our vision like
fog before the eyes, let us contemplate the true God ...; since a light from
heaven shone down upon us who were buried in darkness and imprisoned in the shadow
of death, [a light] purer than the sun, sweeter than life on this earth” (<i>Protrepticus</i>,
113: 2 – 114:1). Amen. </span></div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132028138745879045.post-55813638232601590982023-10-16T01:30:00.004-04:002023-10-16T01:30:00.152-04:00Reflections on the Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time by Pope Benedict XVI<div align="center">
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<br /><b><span style="color: #333333;">Entry 0303: </span></b><b>Reflections </b><b>on </b><b>the Twehty-Ninth</b><b> Sunday
of Ordinary </b></span><br />
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>Time </b><b>by </b><b>Pope Benedict XVI</b><b> </b></span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><br />On eight occasions during his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI delivered reflections on the Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time, on 16 October 2005, 22 October 2006,
21 October 2007, 19 October 2008, 18 October 2009, 17 October 2010, 16 October
2011, and 21 October 2012. Here are
the texts of eight brief reflections prior to the recitation of the <i>Angelus</i>
and five homilies delivered on these occasions.</span><br />
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span><br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 16 October 2005</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Exactly 27 years
ago today, the Lord called Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop of Krakow, to
succeed John Paul I who had died a little more than a month after his election.
With John Paul II began one of the longest Pontificates in the Church’s
history, during which a Pope “from a far-away country” was also recognized as a
moral authority by many non-Christians and non-believers. This was demonstrated
by the moving expressions of affection on the occasion of his illness, and the
touching condolences after his death. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The pilgrimage
of so many of the faithful to his tomb in the Vatican Grottoes constantly
continues, and this is an eloquent sign of how the beloved John Paul II had a
place in people’s hearts, particularly because of the witness of his love and
dedication amid suffering. In him, we were able to admire the power of faith
and prayer and a complete entrustment to Mary Most Holy, who never failed to
accompany and protect him, especially in the most difficult and dramatic
moments of his life. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">We could
describe John Paul II as a Pope totally consecrated to Jesus through Mary, as
his motto highlighted clearly:<i> “Totus tuus</i>”. He was elected in the
middle of the month of the Rosary, and the pair of Rosary beads he often held
in his hands became one of the symbols of his Pontificate, over which the
Immaculate Virgin watched with motherly care. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On radio and
television, the faithful of the entire world were frequently able to join him
in this Marian prayer and, thanks to his example and teachings, rediscover its
authentic, contemplative and Christological meaning (see Apostolic Letter <i>Rosarium
Virginis Mariae, </i>nos. 9-17). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Actually, the
Rosary is not an obstacle to meditation on the Word of God and liturgical
prayer; indeed, it represents a natural and ideal complement to it, especially
as a preparation and thanksgiving for the Eucharistic celebration. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">With Mary, we
contemplate Christ encountered in the Gospel and in the Sacrament in the
various moments of his life through the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and
Glorious Mysteries. We thus learn at the school of the Mother to conform
ourselves to her Divine Son and to proclaim him with our own lives. If the
Eucharist for Christians is the centre of the day, the Rosary contributes in a
privileged way to deepening communion with Christ and teaches us to live by
keeping the heart’s gaze fixed on him, to make his merciful love shine upon
everyone and everything. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A contemplative
and a missionary: this is what beloved Pope John Paul II was. He was this way
because of his intimate union with God, nourished each day by the Eucharist and
by extended periods of prayer. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the hour of
the <i>Angelus</i> that was so dear to him, it is pleasant and a duty to
remember him on this anniversary, renewing our gratitude to God for having
given the Church and the world such a worthy Successor of the Apostle Peter.
May the Virgin Mary help us cherish his precious legacy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 22 October 2006 </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, we
celebrate the 80th World Mission Sunday. It was established by Pope Pius XI,
who gave a strong impulse to the missions<i> ad gentes</i>, and in the Jubilee
of 1925 promoted a grandiose exhibition which later became the current
Ethnological-Missionary Collection of the Vatican Museums. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This year, in
the customary Message for the occasion, I have proposed the theme, “Charity,
soul of the mission”. In effect, if the mission is not inspired by love, it is
reduced to a philanthropic and social activity. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For Christians,
however, the words of <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place>
are valid: “The love of Christ impels us” (II Cor. 5: 14). The charity that
moved the Father to send his Son into the world, and moved the Son to offer
himself for us even to death on the Cross, that same charity has been poured
out by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Every baptized
person, as a vine united to the branch, can therefore cooperate in the mission
of Jesus, which can be summarized thus: to bring to every person the good news
that “God is love” and, precisely for this reason, wants to save the world. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The mission
arises from the heart: when one stops to pray before a Crucifix with his glance
fixed on that pierced side, he cannot but experience within himself the joy of
knowing that he is loved and the desire to love and to make himself an
instrument of mercy and reconciliation. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This is what
happened about 800 years ago to the young Francis of Assisi in the little
church of San Damiano, which was then dilapidated. From the height of the
Cross, now preserved in the Basilica of St Clare, Francis heard Jesus tell
him: ”Go, repair my house which, as you see, is all in ruins”. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">That “house” was
first of all his own life, which needed repair through authentic conversion; it
was the Church, not the one made of stones but living persons, always needing
purification; it was all of humanity, in whom God loves to dwell. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The mission
always initiates from a heart transformed by the love of God, as the countless
stories of saints and martyrs witness, who in different ways have spent their
life at the service of the Gospel. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The mission,
therefore, is a workshop where there is room for all: for those who commit
themselves to bringing the Kingdom of God into their own family; for those who
live their professional life with a Christian spirit; for those who are totally
consecrated to the Lord; for those who follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd, in the
ordained ministry to the People of God; for those who in a specific way go to
announce Christ to those who still do not know him. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May Mary Most
Holy help us to live with renewed ardor, each one in the situation in which <st1:place w:st="on">Providence</st1:place> has placed him,
the joy and courage of the mission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO <st1:place w:st="on">NAPLES</st1:place><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Piazza
del Plebiscito, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city></st1:place>,
Sunday, 21 October 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of
this solemn celebration, I want to renew to all of you, dear friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Naples</st1:place>, my greeting and
thanks for your cordial welcome, even with the conditions that are a bit
difficult. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I wish to
address a special greeting to the delegations that have come from different
parts of the world to participate in the International Meeting for Peace
organized by the Sant’Egidio Community on the theme: “For a world without
violence - Religions and cultures in dialogue”. May this important cultural and
religious initiative also contribute to consolidating world peace. Let us pray
for this. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">But let us also
pray today particularly for missionaries. Indeed, today we are celebrating
World Mission Sunday, which has a very significant motto: ”All the
Churches for all the world”. Each particular Church is co-responsible for the
evangelization of the whole of humanity, and this inter-Church cooperation was
increased 50 years ago by Pope Pius XII with his Encyclical<i> Fidei Donum</i>.
We should not allow those who work on the mission front to lack our spiritual
and material support: priests, men and women religious and lay people who
in their work often meet with serious difficulties and even persecution. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us entrust
these prayer intentions to Mary Most Holy, whom in the month of October we like
to invoke by the title with which she is venerated at the nearby Sanctuary of
Pompei: Queen of the Holy Rosary. Let us entrust to her especially the
many migrants who have gathered here on a pilgrimage from <st1:city w:st="on">Caserta</st1:city>. May the Blessed Virgin likewise
protect those who commit themselves in various ways to the common good for a
just order in society, as was well emphasized during the 45th Social Week for
Italian Catholics promoted in particular by Giuseppe Toniolo, an illustrious
Christian economist. Many problems and challenges face us today. A strong
commitment is required of all, especially the lay faithful who work in the
social and political arena, in order to guarantee each person, especially
youth, the indispensable conditions to develop their own natural talents and
generous life choices in the service of their own families and of the whole
community, and for this we would like everyone’s collaboration. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And now let us
turn to Our Lady with the customary prayer of the <i>Angelus</i>. </span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">OF
HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI <u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO <st1:place w:st="on">NAPLES</st1:place> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b>EUCHARISTIC
CELEBRATION </b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</i></b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Piazza
del Plebiscito, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city></st1:place>,
Sunday, 21 October 2007 <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Distinguished
Authorities, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I accepted with
great joy the invitation to visit the Christian community that lives in this
historical city of <st1:place w:st="on">Naples</st1:place>.
I first offer Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, your Archbishop, a fraternal embrace
and my special thanks for his words on your behalf at the beginning of this
solemn Eucharistic Celebration. I sent him to your Community knowing of his
apostolic zeal and I am happy to see that you appreciate him for his gifts of
mind and heart. I greet with affection the Auxiliary Bishops and diocesan
priests, as well as the men and women religious and other consecrated persons,
the catechists and the lay people, especially the youth actively involved in
various pastoral, apostolic and social initiatives. I greet the distinguished
civil and military Authorities who honor us with their presence, starting with
the Prime Minister, the Mayor of Naples and the Presidents of the Province and
Region. To you all, gathered in this Square in front of the monumental Basilica
dedicated to St Francis of Paola, the fifth centenary of whose death is being
celebrated this year, I address my cordial thoughts, which I willingly extend
to all those who have joined us via radio and television, especially the
cloistered communities, the elderly, those in the hospital or prison and those
whom I will be unable to meet in this short Visit to Naples. In a word, I greet
the entire family of believers and all citizens of <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city>:
I am among you, dear friends, to break with you the Word and the Bread of Life,
and the bad weather does not discourage us because <st1:place w:st="on">Naples</st1:place> is always beautiful!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In meditating on
the biblical Readings for this Sunday and thinking of the situation of Naples,
I was struck by the fact that today the main theme of the Word of God is
prayer; indeed, we “ought always to pray and not lose heart”, as the Gospel
says (see Lk 18: 1). At first sight, this might seem a message not particularly
relevant, unrealistic, not very incisive with regard to a social reality with
so many problems such as yours. But, if we think about it, we understand that
this Word contains a message that certainly goes against the tide and yet is
destined to illuminate in depth the conscience of this Church and city of
yours. I would sum it up like this: the power that changes the world and
transforms it into the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place>, in silence and
without fanfare, is faith - and prayer is the expression of faith. When faith
is filled with love for God, recognized as a good and just Father, prayer
becomes persevering, insistent, it becomes a groan of the spirit, a cry of the
soul that penetrates God’s Heart. Thus, prayer becomes the greatest
transforming power in the world. In the face of a difficult and complex social
reality, as yours certainly is, it is essential to strengthen hope which is
based on faith and expressed in unflagging prayer. It is prayer that keeps the
torch of faith alight. Jesus asks, as we heard at the end of the Gospel: “When
the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18: 8). It is a
question that makes us think. What will be our answer to this disturbing
question? Today, let us repeat together with humble courage: Lord, in coming
among us at this Sunday celebration you find us gathered together with the lamp
of faith lit. We believe and trust in you! Increase our faith! </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The biblical <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place> we have heard
present several models to inspire us in our profession of faith, which is also
always a profession of hope because faith and hope open the earth to divine
power, to the power for good. They are the figures of the widow, whom we
encounter in the Gospel parable, and of Moses, of whom the Book of Exodus
speaks. The widow of the Gospel (see Lk 18: 1-8) makes us think of the “little”,
the lowliest, but also of so many simple, upright people who suffer because of
abuse, who feel powerless in the face of the perduring social malaise and are
tempted to despair. To them Jesus repeats: look at this poor widow, with what
tenacity does she insist and in the end succeeds in being heard by a dishonest
judge! How could you imagine that your Heavenly Father, who is good and
faithful and powerful, who desires only his children’s good, would not do
justice to you in his own time? Faith assures us that God hears our prayers and
grants them at the appropriate moment, although our daily experience seems to
deny this certainty. In fact, in the face of certain events in the news or of
life’s numerous daily hardships which the press does not even mention, the supplication
of the ancient Prophet: “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will
not hear? Or cry to you, “Violence!’ and you will not save?” (Heb 1: 2) wells
up in the heart spontaneously. There is one answer to this heartfelt
invocation: God cannot change things without our conversion, and our true
conversion begins with the “cry” of the soul imploring forgiveness and
salvation. Christian prayer is not, therefore, an expression of fatalism or
inertia; on the contrary, it is the opposite of evasion from reality, from
consoling intimism. It is the force of hope, the maximum expression of faith in
the power of God who is Love and does not abandon us. The prayer Jesus taught
us which culminated in <st1:place w:st="on">Gethsemane</st1:place> has the
character of “competitiveness”, that is, of a struggle because we line up with
determination at the Lord’s side to fight injustice and conquer evil with good;
it is the weapon of the lowly and the poor in spirit, who reject every type of
violence. Indeed, they respond to it with evangelical non-violence, thereby
testifying that the truth of Love is stronger than hatred and death. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This also
emerges in the First Reading, the famous account of the battle between the
Israelites and Amalek’s men (see Ex 17: 8-13a). It was precisely prayer, addressed
with faith to the true God, that determined the fate of that harsh conflict.
While Joshua and his men were tackling their adversaries on the battlefield,
Moses was standing on the hilltop, his hands uplifted in the position of a
person praying. These raised hands of the great leader guaranteed <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>’s
victory. God was with his people; he wanted them to win but made Moses’
uplifted hands the condition for his intervention. </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">It seems
incredible, but that is how it is: God needs the raised hands of his servant!
Moses’ raised arms are reminiscent of the arms of Jesus on the Cross: the
outspread, nailed arms with which the Redeemer won the crucial battle against
the infernal enemy. His fight, his arms raised to the Father and wide open for
the world, ask for other arms, other hearts that continue to offer themselves
with his same love until the end of the world. I am addressing you in
particular, dear Pastors of the Church in <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city>,
making my own the words that <st1:city w:st="on">St Paul</st1:city>
address to Timothy and that we heard in the Second Reading: remain firm in what
you have learned and have believed. Preach the word, persevere on every
occasion, in season and out of season, convince, rebuke and exhort, be
unfailing in patience and in teaching (see II Tim 3: 14, 16; 4: 2). And like
Moses on the mountain, persevere in prayer for and with the faithful entrusted
to your pastoral care, so that every day they may be able to face together the
good fight of the Gospel. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">And now,
inwardly enlightened by the Word of God, let us return to look at the reality
of your city, where there is no lack of healthy energy, good people, cultured
and with a keen sense of family. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">For many,
however, life is far from simple. There are so many situations of poverty,
housing shortages, unemployment or under-employment, the lack of any future
prospects. Then there is the sad phenomenon of violence. It is not only a
question of the deplorable crimes of the Camorra but also of the fact that
violence unfortunately tends to breed a widespread mentality, creeping into the
recesses of social life in the historical districts of the centre and in the
new and anonymous suburbs, with the risk of attracting especially young people
who grow up in contexts where unlawfulness, the “black economy” and the culture
of “fending for oneself” thrive. How important it is, therefore, to redouble
our efforts for a serious strategy of prevention that focuses on school, work
and helping youth to manage their leisure time - an intervention which involves
everyone in the fight against every form of violence, which begins with the
formation of consciences and the transformation of everyday mindsets, attitudes
and behavior. I address this invitation to every man and woman of good will
while the meeting for peace by religious leaders is being held here in <st1:place w:st="on">Naples</st1:place> on the theme: <i>“For
a world without violence - Religions and cultures in dialogue”</i>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, beloved Pope John Paul II visited <st1:place w:st="on">Naples</st1:place> for the first time in 1979: it was,
like today, on Sunday, 21 October! He came a second time in November 1990: a
Visit that encouraged the rebirth of hope. The Church’s mission is always
nourished by the faith and hope of the Christian people. This is also what your
Archbishop is doing. He recently wrote a Pastoral Letter with the significant
title: <i>“Blood and hope”</i>. Yes, true hope is only born from the Blood of
Christ and blood poured out for him. There is blood which is the sign of death,
but there is also blood that expresses love and life. The Blood of Jesus and
the blood of the Martyrs, like that of your own beloved Patron St Januarius, is
a source of new life. I would like to conclude by making my own a saying from
your Archbishop’s Pastoral Letter that sounds like this: “The seed of hope may
be the tiniest but can give life to a flourishing tree and bear abundant fruit”.
This seed exists and is active in <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city>,
despite the problems and difficulties. Let us pray to the Lord that he will
cause an authentic faith and firm hope to grow in the Christian community that
can effectively oppose discouragement and violence. <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city> certainly needs appropriate political
interventions, but first it needs a profound spiritual renewal; it needs
believers who put their full trust back in God and with his help work hard to
spread Gospel values in society. Let us ask Mary’s help with this, as well as
that of your holy Protectors, especially St Januarius. Amen!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO
THE PONTIFICAL SHRINE OF <st1:city w:st="on">POMPEII</st1:city></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Square
outside the Pontifical Shrine of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:city></st1:place>,
Sunday, 19 October 2008</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">After the solemn
Eucharistic celebration and the traditional prayer to Our Lady of Pompeii, let
us turn our gaze once again to Mary with the recitation of the Angelus, as we
do every Sunday, and entrust to her the important intentions of the Church and
of humanity. Let us pray especially for the Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of
Bishops currently taking place in Rome and whose theme is: <i>“The Word of God
in the life and mission of the Church”, </i>so that it may bear the fruits of
authentic renewal in every Christian community. A special prayer intention is
offered to us by World Mission Day which proposes for our meditation during
this Pauline Year a celebrated saying of the Apostle to the Gentiles: “Woe to
me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9: 16). In this month of October, the
month of missions and of the Rosary, how many faithful and how many communities
offer the holy Rosary for missionaries and for evangelization! I am therefore
pleased to be here in <st1:city w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:city>
on this very day, in the most important Shrine dedicated to the Blessed Virgin,
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. In fact, it gives me the opportunity to emphasize
increasingly that the first missionary commitment of each one of us is prayer.
It is first and foremost in praying that the way is prepared for the Gospel; it
is in praying that hearts are opened to the mystery of God and souls disposed
to welcome his Word of Salvation. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Then there is
another happy coincidence today: on this very day Louis Martin and Zélie
Guérin, the parents of St Thérèse of the Child Jesus whom Pius xi declared
Patroness of Missions, are being beatified at Lisieux. These new Blesseds,
accompanied and shared, with their prayers and their Gospel witness, the
journey of their daughter, called by the Lord to consecrate herself to him
without reserve within the walls of Carmel. It was there, in the concealment of
the cloister, that the little St Thérèse fulfilled her vocation: “In the heart
of the Church, my mother, I will be love” (<i>Manuscripts autobiographiques, </i>Lisieux,
1957, p. 229). In thinking of the beatification of the Martin couple, I am keen
to recall another intention very dear to my heart: the family, whose role in
teaching children a universal outlook that is both responsible and open to the
world and its problems is fundamental, as it also is in the formation of
vocations to missionary life. And then, so as to follow in spirit on the
pilgrimage that so many families made a month ago to this Shrine, let us invoke
the motherly protection of Our Lady of Pompeii upon all the families in the
world, thinking already of the Fourth World Meeting of Families, scheduled to
take place in <st1:place w:st="on">Mexico City</st1:place>
in January 2009. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">On this World Mission
Sunday, let us join in particular the pilgrims who have gathered at Lisieux for
the beatification of Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St Thérèse of the
Child Jesus, Patroness of Missions. With their life as an exemplary couple they
proclaimed Christ’s Gospel. They lived their faith ardently and passed it on to
their family and those around them. May their common prayer be a source of joy
and hope for all parents and all families.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PASTORAL
VISIT<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">TO
THE PONTIFICAL SHRINE OF <st1:city w:st="on">POMPEII</st1:city></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Square
outside the Pontifical Shrine of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:city></st1:place>,
Sunday, 19 October 2008<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Following in the
footsteps of the Servant of God John Paul II, today I have come on pilgrimage
to <st1:place w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:place> to
venerate the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary, together with you. I have
come in particular to entrust to the Mother of God, in whose womb the Word was
made flesh, the Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which is under way at the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vatican</st1:country-region> on the
theme of the <i>Word of God in the life and mission of the Church</i>. My Visit
also coincides with World Mission Sunday; contemplating in Mary she who
accepted within her the Word of God and gave him to the world, we shall pray at
this Mass for all those in the Church who spend their energy in the service of
proclaiming the Gospel to all the nations. Thank you, dear brothers and
sisters, for your welcome! I embrace you all with fatherly affection, and I am
grateful to you for the prayers you raise ceaselessly to Heaven for the
Successor of Peter and for the needs of the universal Church. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I address a
cordial greeting in the first place to Archbishop Carlo Liberati, Prelate of
Pompeii and Pontifical Delegate for this Shrine, and I thank him for his words
expressing your sentiments. I extend my greeting to the civil and military
Authorities present here, and in a special way to the government
Representative, the Minister for Cultural Assets and Activities and
the Mayor of Pompeii, who, on my arrival, addressed words of reverent
welcome to me on behalf of all the townspeople. I greet the
priests of the Prelature, the men and women religious who offer their
daily service at the Shrine, among whom I am pleased to mention
the Dominican Sisters Daughters of the Holy Rosary of Pompeii and the Brothers
of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Christian</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Schools</st1:placename></st1:place>. I greet the volunteers involved
in various services and the zealous apostles of Our Lady of the Rosary of
Pompeii. And how can I forget at this moment the people who are suffering, the
sick, the elderly alone, young people in difficulty, prisoners, and all those
in burdensome conditions of poverty and social and financial hardship? I would
like to assure each and every one of my spiritual closeness and convey a
testimony of my affection. I entrust you all to Mary, each one of you, dear
faithful and inhabitants of this region, and you too, who are united in spirit
with this celebration via radio and television, I entrust you all to Mary and
invite you to trust always in her maternal support. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let
us now allow her, our mother and teacher, to guide us in reflecting
on the Word of God that we have just heard. The First Reading and the
Responsorial Psalm express the joy of the People of Israel at the salvation
given by God, salvation that is liberation from evil and the hope of a new
life. The oracle of Zephaniah is addressed to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Israel</st1:country-region>
who is designated with such names as “daughter of <st1:city w:st="on">Zion</st1:city>”
and “daughter of <st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city>”,
and is invited to rejoice: “Sing aloud... rejoice and exult!” (Zep
3: 14). It is the same appeal that the Angel Gabriel addresses to Mary at <st1:place w:st="on">Nazareth</st1:place> “Hail, full of
grace” (Lk 1: 28). “Do not fear, O Zion” (Zep 3: 16), the Prophet
says; “Do not be afraid, Mary” (Lk 1: 30), the Angel says. And the reason
for trust is the same: “The Lord your God is in your midst; a warrior who gives
victory” (Zep 3: 17), the Prophet says; “The Lord is with you” (Lk
1: 28), the Angel assures the Virgin. The Canticle of Isaiah also
ends: ”Shout and sing for joy, O inhabitant of <st1:place w:st="on">Zion</st1:place>, for great in your midst is the Holy One
of Israel” (Is 12: 6). The Lord’s presence is a source of joy, for
wherever he is, evil is overcome and life and peace triumph. I would like in
particular to emphasize Zephaniah’s wonderful expression, which in addressing <st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place> says: the
Lord “will renew you in his love” (3: 17). Yes, God’s love has this
power: to renew all things, starting from the human heart which is his
masterpiece and in which the Holy Spirit best brings about his transforming
action. With his grace, God renews man’s heart, forgiving him his sins,
reconciling him and instilling in him an impetus for good. All of this is
expressed in the lives of the Saints and we see it here in particular in the
apostolic work of Bl. Bartolo Longo, Founder of the new <st1:city w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:city>. And so, in this hour, we open our
hearts to this love, renewer of man and of all things. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">From its
beginnings, the Christian community has seen the personification of Israel and
Jerusalem in a female figure as an important and prophetic approach to the
Virgin Mary, who is recognized precisely as a “daughter of Zion” and the
archetype of the people who “found grace” in the eyes of the Lord. This is an
interpretation we find again in the Gospel account of the wedding feast at <st1:place w:st="on">Cana</st1:place> (Jn 2: 1-11). The Evangelist John sheds
symbolic light on the fact that Jesus is the Bridegroom of Israel, the new <st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place>
that all of us are in faith, the spouse who has come to bring the grace of the
new Covenant, represented by the “good wine”. At the same time the Gospel
emphasizes Mary’s role, who at the beginning is called “the Mother of Jesus”
but the Son himself later addresses her as “woman” and this has a very profound
meaning: indeed, it implies that Jesus, to our wonder, before kinship
places the spiritual bond according to which Mary herself impersonates the
beloved Bride of the Lord, that is, the People he has chosen to shower his
blessings upon the whole human family. The symbol of the
wine, together with that of the banquet, reproposes the theme of joy and of the
feast. In addition, the wine, like the other biblical images of the vineyard
and the vine, alludes metaphorically to love: God is the owner of the
vineyard, Israel is the vineyard, a vineyard that will find its perfect
fulfilment in Christ, of whom we are the branches; and the wine is the fruit,
that is, love, because it is exactly love that God expects of his children. And
we pray to the Lord, who has given Bartolo Longo the grace to bring love in
this land, so that also our life and our heart bears this fruit of love and
thus renews the earth. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Apostle Paul
also urges us to love in the Second Reading from the Letter to the Romans. We
find outlined in this passage the itinerary of life of a Christian community,
whose members are renewed by love and strive to renew themselves ceaselessly,
to discern God’s will always and not to relapse into conformity with a worldly
mindset (see 12: 1-2). The new <st1:place w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:place>,
even with the limitations proper to any human reality, is an example of this
new civilization, which emerged and developed under Mary’s motherly gaze. And
the characteristic of Christian civilization, as my venerable Predecessors so
often affirmed, is love: God’s love that is expressed in love of neighbor.
I also wished to dedicate my first Encyclical, <i>Deus caritas est, </i>to this
fundamental reality of the Church. Now when <st1:place w:st="on">St Paul</st1:place> writes to the Christians of
Rome: “Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord
(12: 11), we are reminded of Bartolo Longo and the many charitable
initiatives he implemented for his neediest brethren. Impelled by love, he was
able to plan a <st1:city w:st="on">new city</st1:city>
which then sprung up around the Marian Shrine, as if to be the radiation of the
light of her faith and hope. It became a citadel of Mary and of charity, but
not one that was isolated from the world not, as people say “a cathedral in the
desert” but rather integrated into the territory of this valley to
redeem and advance it. The Church’s history, thanks be to God,
is rich in experiences of this kind and also today a great number can be
counted in every part of the world. These are experiences of fraternity, that
show the face of a different society, placed as leaven within the civil
context. The power of love, in fact, is irresistible: it is love that
truly drives the world onwards! </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Who could have
thought that a Marian Shrine of world-wide importance would have come into
being here, beside the ruins of ancient <st1:place w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:place>;
as well as so many social practices aimed to express the Gospel in concrete
service to those most in difficulty? Wherever God arrives, the desert blooms!
Bl. Bartolo Longo, with his personal conversion, also bore witness to this
spiritual power that transforms the human being from within and makes him
capable of doing great things in accordance with God’s plan. Remembering the
early times after his arrival in <st1:place w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:place>,
Bartolo Longo thanked the Lord with these words: “The first fruit of your
grace inspired within me an irrepressible, insatiable desire for you, truth,
light, food, the peace of man, your creature” (Bartolo Longo, <i>Storia del
Santuario di Pompei, </i>1990, p. 58). The episode of Bartolo Longo’s spiritual
crisis and conversion appears very relevant today. In fact, in the period of
his university studies in <st1:city w:st="on">Naples</st1:city>,
influenced by immanentist and positivist philosophers, he had drifted from the
Christian faith. He had become a militant anti-clerical, and even indulged
in spiritualistic and superstitious practices. His conversion, with the
discovery of God’s true Face, contains a very eloquent message for us since,
unfortunately, such tendencies are not lacking in our day. In this Pauline
Year, I am pleased to emphasize that like St Paul, Bartolo Longo was
transformed from persecutor to apostle: an apostle of Christian faith, of
Marian devotion and, in particular, of the Rosary, in which he found a
synthesis of the whole Gospel. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This city, which
Longo refounded, is thus a historical demonstration of how God transforms the
world: filling the human heart with love and making it a “vehicle” of
religious and social renewal. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:place> is an example of
how faith can work in the human city, inspiring apostles of charity who place
themselves at the service of the lowly and the poor and act to ensure that the
dignity of the least is respected and that they find acceptance and
advancement. Here in <st1:city w:st="on">Pompeii</st1:city>
one realizes that love for God and love for neighbor are inseparable. Here the
genuine Christian people, the people who face life with sacrifices, find the
strength to persevere in good without stooping to compromises. Here, at Mary’s
feet, families rediscover or reinforce the joy of love that keeps them
together. Appropriately, therefore, in preparation for my Visit today, a
special “pilgrimage of families for the family” took place exactly a month ago
to entrust this fundamental nucleus of society to Our Lady. May the Blessed
Virgin watch over every family and over the entire Italian people!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May this Shrine
and this city continue above all to be ever linked in a unique Marian
gift: the prayer of the Rosary. When we see, in the famous painting of
Our Lady of Pompeii, the Virgin Mother and the Child Jesus giving the Rosary
beads to St Catherine of Siena and St Dominic respectively, we immediately
understand that this prayer leads us through Mary to Jesus, as Pope John Paul
II taught us in his Letter <i>Rosarium virginis Mariae, </i>in which he
explicitly mentions Bl. Bartolo Longo and the charism of Pompeii. The Rosary is
a spiritual “weapon” in the battle against evil, against all violence, for
peace in hearts, in families, in society and in the world. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, in this Eucharist, the inexhaustible source of life and hope, of
personal and social renewal, let us thank God because in Bartolo Longo he has
given us a luminous witness of this Gospel truth. And let us once again turn
our hearts to Mary with the words of the Supplication that in a little while we
shall be reciting together: ”As our Mother, thou art our Advocate and our
Hope. To thee, amidst sighs, do we lift up our hands, crying for mercy!” Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><b><i>ANGELUS</i></b><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 18 October 2009<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters, </span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today, the Third
Sunday of October, we are celebrating World Mission Day. To every ecclesial
community and to each Christian it is a strong appeal for commitment to
witnessing and proclaiming the Gospel to all, especially those who do not yet
know it. In the Message I wrote for this occasion, I found inspiration in a
phrase in the Book of Revelation which echoes a prophecy of Isaiah: “By its
light shall the nations walk” (Rv 21: 24). The light mentioned is that of God,
revealed by the Messiah and reflected on the face of the Church, portrayed as
the new Jerusalem, a marvelous city in which the glory of God shines out in its
fullness. It is the light of the Gospel which directs the people’s journey and
guides them towards the fulfilment of a great family in justice and in peace,
under the fatherhood of the one, good and merciful God. The Church exists to
proclaim this message of hope to the whole of humanity, which in our time “has
experienced marvelous achievements but which seems to have lost its sense of
ultimate realities and of existence itself” (Encyclical <i>Redemptoris Missio, </i>no.
2). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the month of
October, especially on this Sunday, the universal Church highlights her
missionary vocation. Guided by the Holy Spirit she knows she is called to
pursue the work of Jesus himself, proclaiming the Gospel of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Kingdom</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">God</st1:placename></st1:place> which is “righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rm 14: 17). This Kingdom is already present in the
world as a force of love, freedom, solidarity and respect for the dignity of
every person, and the ecclesial community has a heartfelt urge to work, so that
the sovereignty of Christ may be completely fulfilled. All her members and
structures cooperate in this project, according to their various states of life
and charisms. On this World Mission Day I would like to recall the missionaries
priests, religious and lay volunteers who devote their lives to bringing the
Gospel to the world, also facing hardship and difficulty and sometimes even
outright persecution. I am thinking, among others, of Fr Ruggero Ruvoletto, a <i>donum
fidei </i>priest, recently killed in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region>;
of Fr Michael Sinott, a religious kidnapped a few days ago in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Philippines</st1:country-region>; and how can we forget all that is
emerging from the Synod of Bishops for <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>,
in terms of extreme sacrifice and love for Christ and for his Church? I thank
the Pontifical Mission Societies for the valuable service they render to
missionary animation and formation. Further, I ask all Christians for a gesture
of material and spiritual sharing in order to help the young Churches in the
poorest countries. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends,
today, 18 October, is also the Feast of St Luke the Evangelist, who, in
addition to the Gospel, wrote the Acts of the Apostles in order to spread the
Christian message to the ends of the known world in his time. Let us invoke his
intercession, together with that of St Francis Xavier and St Thérèse of the
Child Jesus, Patrons of the missions, and of the Virgin Mary, so that the
Church may continue to make Christ’s light shine out among all the peoples. I
also ask you to pray for the Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of
Bishops, which is taking place here in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Vatican</st1:country-region> in these weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 17 October 2010<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">At the end of
this solemn celebration, I wish to renew my cordial greeting to all the
pilgrims who came to honor the new Saints. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet with
pleasure the French-speaking pilgrims and in particular the Official Delegation
from <st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place>
and all the Canadians present here for the Canonization of Bro. André Bessette.
In taking up his message, I encourage you to follow in his footsteps to welcome
God’s will in your life freely and through love. May you too, as he was, be
overflowing with charity for your brothers and sisters who are experiencing
distress. May God bless you all and your families! Have a pleasant stay in <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I warmly greet
all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially those who have come in such great
numbers for today’s Canonization. May these new Saints accompany you with their
prayers and inspire you by the example of their holy lives. I greet especially
the Official Delegations from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region> who have traveled
to <st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city> in honor
of St André Besette and St Mary MacKillop. May God bless and keep you all, as
well as your families and loved ones at home. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I offer a warm
welcome to the German-speaking pilgrims and visitors. Saints are the living
image of God’s love. Today, therefore, we are rejoicing in the six new Saints,
Stanisław Kazimierczyk Sołtys, André Besette, Cándida María Cipitria, Mary
MacKillop, Giulia Salzano and Camilla da Varano. May they be models and
intercessors for our Christian life. May the Lord bless you all. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I cordially
greet the Spanish-speaking pilgrims who have taken part in the solemn ceremony
of Canonization this morning, especially the Cardinals and Bishops, as well as
the Official Delegation from <st1:place w:st="on">Spain</st1:place>.
I entrust the Religious, the Daughters of Jesus, to the intercession of St
Cándida, their Foundress. I also ask God that the new Saints may serve as
models to the Christian people, particularly to youth, so that those who accept
the Lord’s call and give their whole lives to proclaiming the greatness of his
love may be ever more numerous. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I warmly greet
all the Poles who have come for the Canonization. I welcome in particular the
Representatives of the Episcopate and the President of the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Republic</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Poland</st1:placename></st1:place>.
I rejoice with you in the glory of the holiness of your compatriot, Stanisław
Kazmierczyk. Let us learn from him the spirit of prayer, contemplation and
sacrifice for our neighbor. May he keep in God’s presence the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Poland</st1:placename></st1:place>,
you who are here, your loved ones and your Homeland. I warmly bless you. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I greet the
Italian pilgrims who are celebrating St Battista da Varano and St Giulia
Salzano, as well as the Official Delegation who has come here for this happy
occasion. In particular, my thoughts turn to their spiritual daughters, as well
as to the faithful who have come from the <st1:state w:st="on">Marches</st1:state>
and <st1:place w:st="on">Campania</st1:place>.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In thinking of <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>,
I am anxious to recall that today, in Reggio Calabria, the 46th Social Week for
Italian Catholics is drawing to a close. It has marked out a “programme of hope”
for the country’s future. I address a cordial greeting to the participants in
the Congress, who are connected via live broadcast at this moment, and I hope
that the search for the common good will always be the reliable reference for
the commitment of Catholics in social and political action. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us now turn
in prayer to Mary Most Holy, whom God has placed in the centre of the great
assembly of Saints. Let us entrust the whole Church to her so that illumined by
their example and sustained by their intercession she may walk with ever new
enthusiasm towards the heavenly Homeland. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PAPAL
MASS FOR THE CANONIZATION OF NEW SAINTS:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">STANISŁAW
KAZIMIERCZYK SOŁTYS (1433 - 1489)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANDRÉ BESSETTE (1845 - 1937)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CÁNDIDA
MARÍA DE JESÚS CIPITRIA y BARRIOLA (1845 - 1912)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MARY
OF THE CROSS MacKILLOP (1842 - 1909)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">GIULIA
SALZANO (1846 - 1929)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BATTISTA
CAMILLA DA VARANO (1458 - 1524)</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St.
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 17 October 2010</span></i></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Dear Brothers
and Sisters</i>, </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The celebration
of holiness is renewed today in St Peter’s Square. I joyfully address my
cordial welcome to you who have come from even very far away to take part in
it. I offer a special greeting to the Cardinals, to the Bishops and to the
Superiors General of the Institutes founded by the new Saints, as well as to
the Official Delegations and to all the Civil Authorities. Let us seek together
to understand what the Lord tells us in the Sacred Scriptures proclaimed just
now. This Sunday’s Liturgy offers us a fundamental teaching: the need to pray
always, without tiring. At times we grow weary of praying, we have the
impression that prayer is not so useful for life, that it is not very
effective. We are therefore tempted to throw ourselves into activity, to use
all the human means for attaining our goals and we do not turn to God. Jesus
himself says that it is necessary to pray always, and does so in a specific
parable (see Lk 18: 1-8). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This parable
speaks to us of a judge who does not fear God and is no respecter of persons: a
judge without a positive outlook, who only seeks his own interests. He neither
fears God’s judgment nor respects his neighbor. The other figure is a widow, a
person in a situation of weakness. In the Bible, the widow and the orphan are
the neediest categories, because they are defenseless and without means. The
widow goes to the judge and asks him for justice. Her possibilities of being
heard are almost none, because the judge despises her and she can bring no
pressure to bear on him. She cannot even appeal to religious principles because
the judge does not fear God. Therefore this widow seems without any recourse.
But she insists, she asks tirelessly, importuning him, and in the end she succeeds
in obtaining a result from the judge. At this point Jesus makes a reflection,
using the argument <i>a fortiori: </i>if a dishonest judge ends by letting
himself be convinced by a widow’s plea, how much more will God, who is good,
answer those who pray to him. God in fact is generosity in person, he is
merciful and is therefore always disposed to listen to prayers. Therefore we
must never despair but always persist in prayer. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The conclusion
of the Gospel passage speaks of faith: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find
faith on earth?” (Lk 18: 8). It is a question that intends to elicit an
increase of faith on our part. Indeed it is clear that prayer must be an
expression of faith, otherwise it is not true prayer. If one does not believe
in God’s goodness, one cannot pray in a truly appropriate manner. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Faith is
essential as the basis of a prayerful attitude. It was so for the six new
Saints who are held up today for the veneration of the universal Church:
Stanisław Sołtys, André Bessette, Cándida María de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola,
Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Giulia Salzano and Battista Camilla Varano.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Stanisław
Kazimierczyk, a religious of the 15th century, can also be an example and an
intercessor for us. His whole life was bound to the Eucharist, first of all in
the <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Corpus
Domini</st1:placename> in Kazimierz, known today as <st1:place w:st="on">Krakow</st1:place>,
where, beside his mother and father, he learned faith and piety. Here he made
his religious vows with the Canons Regular; here he worked as a priest and
educator, attentive to the care of the needy. However, he was linked in a
special way to the Eucharist through his ardent love for Christ present under
the species of the Bread and the Wine; by living the mystery of his death and
Resurrection, which is fulfilled in an unbloody way in the Holy Mass; by the
practice of love for neighbor, of which Communion is a source and a sign. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Bro. André
Bessette, a native of <st1:state w:st="on">Quebec</st1:state> in <st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place>,
and a religious of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, experienced suffering
and poverty at a very early age. They led him to have recourse to God through
prayer and an intense inner life. As porter of the College of Notre Dame in <st1:city w:st="on">Montreal</st1:city>, he demonstrated
boundless charity and strove to relieve the distress of those who came to
confide in him. With very little education, he had nevertheless understood
where the essential of his faith was situated. For him, believing meant
submitting freely and through love to the divine will. Wholly inhabited by the
mystery of Jesus, he lived the beatitude of pure of heart, that of personal
rectitude. It is thanks to this simplicity that he enabled many people to see
God. He had built the Oratory of St Joseph of Mount Royal, whose faithful
custodian he remained until his death in 1937. He was the witness of
innumerable cures and conversions. “Do not seek to have your trials removed”,
he said, “ask rather for the grace to bear them well”. For him, everything
spoke of God and of God’s presence. May we, in his footsteps, seek God with
simplicity in order to discover him ever present in the heart of our life! May
the example of Bro. André inspire Canadian Christian life! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">When the Son of
man comes to do justice to the chosen ones, will he find this faith on earth? (see
Lk 18: 8). Today, contemplating figures such as Mother Cándida María de Jesus
Cipitria y Barriola, we can say “yes” with relief and firmness. That girl of
simple origins on whose heart God had set his seal and whom he brought very
soon, with the guidance of her Jesuit spiritual directors, to make the firm
decision to live “for God alone”. She faithfully kept to her decision as she
herself recalled when she was about to die. She lived for God and for what he
most desires: to reach everyone, to bring everyone the hope that does not
disappoint, especially to those who need it most. “Where there is no room for
the poor, there is no room for me either” the new Saint said, and with limited
means she imbued the other Sisters with the desire to follow Jesus and to
dedicate themselves to the education and advancement of women. So it was that
the Hijas de Jesus [Daughters of Jesus] came into being; today they have in
their Foundress a very lofty model of life to imitate and an exciting mission
to carry on Mother Cándida’s apostolate with her spirit and aspirations, in
many countries. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“Remember who
your teachers were from these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus”. For many years countless young people
throughout <st1:country-region w:st="on">Australia</st1:country-region>
have been blessed with teachers who were inspired by the courageous and saintly
example of zeal, perseverance and prayer of Mother Mary MacKillop. She
dedicated herself as a young woman to the education of the poor in the
difficult and demanding terrain of rural <st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place>, inspiring other women to
join her in the first women’s community of religious sisters of that country.
She attended to the needs of each young person entrusted to her, without regard
for station or wealth, providing both intellectual and spiritual formation.
Despite many challenges, her prayers to <st1:city w:st="on">St
Joseph</st1:city> and her unflagging devotion to the Sacred Heart
of Jesus, to whom she dedicated her new congregation, gave this holy woman the
graces needed to remain faithful to God and to the Church. Through her
intercession, may her followers today continue to serve God and the Church with
faith and humility!</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In the second
half of the 19th century, in <st1:state w:st="on">Campania</st1:state>, in the
south of <st1:place w:st="on">Italy</st1:place>,
the Lord called a young elementary teacher, Giulia Salzano, and made her an
apostle of Christian education, Foundress of the Congregation of the Catechist
Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Mother Gulia understood well the importance of
catechesis in the Church and, combining pedagogical training with spiritual fervor,
dedicated herself with generosity and intelligence, contributing to the
formation of people of every age and social class. She would repeat to the
Sisters that she wished to catechize to the very last hour of her life, showing
with her whole self that if “God created us to know him, love him and serve him
in this life”, it is necessary to put nothing before this task. May the example
and intercession of St Giulia Salzano sustain the Church in her perennial duty
to proclaim Christ and to form authentic Christian consciences. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">St Battista
Camilla Varano, a Poor Clare nun of the 15th century, witnessed to the deep
evangelical meaning of life, especially through persevering prayer. She entered
the monastery in Urbino at the age of 23, fitting into that vast movement of
the reform of Franciscan female spirituality which aimed to recover fully the
charism of St Clare of <st1:city w:st="on">Assisi</st1:city>.
She promoted new monastic foundations in Camerino where she was several times
elected Abbess, in Fermo and in San Severino. St Battista’s life, totally
immersed in divine depths, was a constant ascent on the way of perfection, with
a heroic love of God and neighbor. She was marked by profound suffering and
mystic consolation; in fact she had decided, as she herself writes, “to enter
the most Sacred Heart of Jesus and to drown in the ocean of his most bitter
suffering”. In a period in which the Church was undergoing a period of moral
laxity, she took with determination the road of penance and prayer, enlivened
by an ardent desire for the renewal of the Mystical Body of Christ. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, let us thank the Lord for the gift of holiness that is resplendent
in the Church and today shines out on the faces of these brothers and sisters
of ours. Jesus also invites each one of us to follow him in order to inherit
eternal life. Let us allow ourselves to be attracted by these luminous examples
and to be guided by their teaching, so that our life may be a canticle of
praise to God. May the Virgin Mary and the intercession of the six new Saints
whom we joyfully venerate today obtain this for us. Amen.</span></div>
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<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS</span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>Saint
Peter’s Square, Sunday, 16 October 2011</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Yesterday and
today an important meeting has taken place in the <st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place> on the theme of the New
Evangelization, a meeting that ended this morning with the Eucharistic
celebration at which I presided in St Peter’s Basilica. The main aim of the
project, organized by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New
Evangelization, was to examine in depth the context for a renewed proclamation
of the Gospel in countries with an ancient Christian tradition, and at the same
time it presented several significant testimonies and experiences. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The invitation
was accepted by many people from every part of the world who are committed to
this mission, which Bl. John Paul II had already clearly indicated to the
Church as an urgent and exciting task. In the wake of the Second Vatican
Council and of Pope Paul VI, the one who began its implementation, John Paul II
was in fact both a strenuous supporter of the mission <i>ad gentes —</i> that
is, to the people and territories where the Gospel has not yet put down roots —
and a herald of the New Evangelization. These are aspects of the Church’s one
mission and it is particularly meaningful to consider them together in this
month of October, characterized by the celebration of World Mission Day next
Sunday itself.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">As I did a short
while ago in the Homily at Mass, I gladly take the opportunity on this occasion
to announce that I have decided to proclaim a special <i>Year of Faith </i>which
will begin on 11 October 2012 — the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second
Vatican Council — and will end on 24 November 2013, the Solemnity of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, Universal King. I have explained the reasons, aims and guidelines
of this “year” in an Apostolic Letter that will be published in the next few
days. The Servant of God Paul <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">vi</span>
proclaimed a similar “Year of Faith” in 1967, on the occasion of the 19th
centenary of the martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul and in a period of
great cultural turmoil. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I consider that
as half a century has passed since the opening of the Council, associated with
the happy memory of Bl. Pope John XXIII it is appropriate to recall the beauty
and centrality of the faith, the need to reinforce it and to deepen it at the
personal and the community level and to do so in a perspective that is not so
much celebratory as missionary, with a view precisely to the mission <i>ad
gentes</i> and the New Evangelization.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear friends, in
this Sunday’s Liturgy we read what <st1:place w:st="on">St
Paul</st1:place> wrote to the Thessalonians: “our Gospel came to
you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full
conviction”. May these words of the Apostle to the Gentiles be auspicious and
be the programme for missionaries in our day — priests, religious and lay
people — involved in proclaiming Christ to those who do not know him or who
have reduced him to a mere historical figure. May the Virgin Mary help every
Christian to be an effective witness of the Gospel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;"><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOLY MASS </span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FOR
THE NEW EVANGELIZATION</span></div>
<div align="center" style="margin: 0in; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI</span></i></b></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><st1:place w:st="on"><i>Vatican</i></st1:place><i> Basilica, Sunday, 16 October 2011</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Venerable
Brothers,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today I
celebrate Holy Mass with joy for you who are involved in many parts of the
world on the front of the New Evangelization. This liturgy concludes of the
meeting that called you yesterday to an exchange on the areas of this mission
and to listen to several significant testimonies. I myself wished to offer you
some thoughts, whereas today I break the bread of the Word and of the Eucharist
with you, in the certainty – shared by us all – that without Christ, the Word
and Bread of Life, we can do nothing (see Jn 15:5). I am glad that this
congress fits into the context of the month of October, exactly a week before
World Mission Day: this reminds us of the proper universal dimension of the New
Evangelization, in harmony with that of the mission <i>ad gentes</i>.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I address a
cordial greeting to all of you who have accepted the invitation of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. In particular, I greet
and thank the President of this recently established dicastery, Archbishop
Salvatore Fisichella, and his collaborators. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us now come
to the biblical <st1:place w:st="on">Readings</st1:place>
in which the Lord speaks to us today. The first, taken from the Second Book of
Isaiah, tells us that God is one, there is no other; there are no gods other
than the Lord and even the powerful Cyrus, Emperor of the Persians, was part of
a larger plan that God alone knew and carried ahead. This <st1:city w:st="on">Reading</st1:city> gives us the theological meaning of
history: the epochal upheavals and the succession of great powers are under the
supreme domination of God; no earthly power can stand in his stead. The
theology of history is an important and essential aspect of the New
Evangelization because the people of our time, after the inauspicious season of
the totalitarian empires in the 20th century, need to rediscover an overall
look at the world and at time, a truly free, peaceful look, that look which the
second Vatican Council communicated in its documents and which my predecessors,
the Servant of God Paul VI and Bl. John Paul II, illustrated with their Magisterium.
</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The Second
Reading is the beginning of the First Letter to the Thessalonians and this is
already very evocative because it is the oldest letter that has come down to us
of the greatest evangelizer of all time, the Apostle Paul. He tells us first of
all that one does not evangelize by oneself: in fact he too had collaborators,
Silvanus and Timothy (see 1 Thes 1:1) and many others. And he immediately adds
something else that is very important: that proclamation must always be
preceded, accompanied and followed by prayer. Indeed, he writes: “We give
thanks to God always for you all, constantly mentioning you in our prayers” (v.
2). The Apostle then says he is well aware of the fact that he did not choose
the members of the community, but that [God]: “has chosen you”, he says (v. 4).
</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Every Gospel
missionary must always bear in mind this truth: it is the Lord who touches
hearts with his word and with his Spirit, calling people to faith and to
communion in the Church. Lastly, Paul leaves us a very valuable teaching, taken
from his experience. He writes: “our gospel came to you not only in word, but
also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (v. 5).
Evangelization, to be effective, needs the power of the Spirit, who gives life
to proclamation and imbues those who convey it with the “full conviction” of
which the Apostle speaks. This term “conviction” or “full conviction” in the
original Greek is <i>pleroforia</i>: a word that does not so much express the
subjective, psychological aspect, rather the fullness, fidelity, completeness,
in this case of the proclamation of Christ. It is a proclamation which, to be
complete and faithful, asks to be accompanied by signs and gestures, like the
preaching of Jesus. Word, Spirit and certainty — understood in this way — are
therefore inseparable and compete to ensure that the Gospel message is spread
effectively.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Let us now
reflect on the Gospel passage. It is the text about the legitimacy of the
tribute to be paid to Caesar which contains Jesus’ famous answer: “render
therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that
are God’s” (Mt 22:21). But, before reaching this point there is a passage that
can be applied to those who have the mission of evangelizing. Indeed, those who
are speaking with Jesus — disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians —
compliment him, saying “we know that you are true, and teach the way of God
truthfully, and care for no man” (v. 16). It is this affirmation itself,
although it is prompted by hypocrisy, that must attract our attention. The
disciples of the Pharisees and Herodians do not believe in what they say. They
are only affirming it as a <i>captatio benevolentiae </i>to make people listen
to them, but their heart is far from that truth; indeed, they want to lure
Jesus into a trap to be able to accuse him. For us, instead, those words are
precious: indeed, Jesus is true and teaches the way of God according to the
truth, and stands in awe of none. He himself is that “way of God”, which we are
called to take. Here we may recall the words of Jesus himself in John’s Gospel:
“I am the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6). </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">In this regard <st1:city w:st="on">St Augustine</st1:city>’s comment is
illuminating: “It was necessary for Jesus to say ‘I am the way, the truth, and
the life’, when knowing the way by which he went they had to learn where he was
going. The way led to truth, it led to life.... And where are we going, but to
him, and by what way do we go, but by him? (<i>In Evangelium Johannis tractatus</i>
69, 2). The new evangelizers are called to walk first on this Way that is
Christ, to make others know the beauty of the Gospel that gives life. And on
this Way one never walks alone but in company, an experience of communion and
brotherhood that is offered to all those we meet, to share with them our experience
of Christ and of his Church. Thus testimony combined with proclamation can open
the hearts of those who are seeking the truth so that they are able to arrive
at the meaning of their own life. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A brief
reflection also on the central question of the tribute to Caesar. Jesus replies
with a surprising political realism, linked to the theocentrism of the
prophetic tradition. The tribute to Caesar must be paid because his image is on
the coin; but the human being, every person, carries in him- or herself another
image, that of God, and therefore it is to him and to him alone that each one
owes his or her existence. The Fathers of the Church, drawing inspiration from
the fact that Jesus was referring to the image of the Emperor impressed on the
coin of the tribute, interpreted this passage in the light of the fundamental
concept of the human being as an image of God, contained in the first chapter
of the Book of Genesis. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">An anonymous
author wrote: “The image of God is not impressed on gold, but on the human
race. Caesar’s coin is gold, God’s coin is humanity…. Therefore give your
riches to Caesar but keep for God the unique innocence of your conscience,
where God is contemplated…. Caesar, in fact, asked that his image be on every
coin, but God chose man, whom he created to reflect his glory” (Anonymous, <i>Incomplete
Work on Matthew,</i> Homily 42). And <st1:place w:st="on">St
Augustine</st1:place> used this reference several times in his
homilies: “If Caesar reclaims his own image impressed on the coin”, he says, “will
not God demand from man the divine image sculpted within him?” (<i>En. Ps.</i>,
Psalm 94:2). And further, “as the tribute money is rendered to him [Caesar], so
should the soul be rendered to God, illumined and stamped with the light of his
countenance” (<i>ibid.</i>, Ps 4:8).</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">This word of
Jesus is rich in anthropological content and it cannot be reduced only to the
political context. The Church, therefore, is not limited to reminding human
beings of the right distinction between the sphere of Caesar’s authority and
that of God, between the political and religious contexts. The mission of the
Church, like that of Christ, is essentially to speak of God, to remember his
sovereignty, to remind all, especially Christians who have lost their own
identity, of the right of God to what belongs to him, that is, our life.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Precisely in
order to give a fresh impetus to the mission of the whole Church to lead human
beings out of the wilderness in which they often find themselves to the place
of life, friendship with Christ that gives us life in fullness, I have decided
to proclaim a “Year of Faith”, which I shall have the opportunity to illustrate
with a special Apostolic Letter. It will begin on 11 October 2012 on the 50th
anniversary of the opening of the <span style="color: black;">Second Vatican Council</span> and will end on 24
November 2013, the Solemnity of Christ the King. It will be a moment of grace
and commitment for an ever fuller conversion to God, to strengthen our faith in
him and to proclaim him with joy to the people of our time.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, you are among the protagonists of the New Evangelization that the
Church has undertaken and carries forth, not without difficulties but with the
same enthusiasm as the first Christians. To conclude, I make my own the words
of the Apostle Paul that we have heard: I give thanks to God always for you
all, constantly mentioning you in my prayers, remembering before our God and
Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our
Lord Jesus Christ. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">May the Virgin
Mary, who was not afraid to answer “yes” to the Word of the Lord and, after
conceiving in her womb, set out full of joy and hope, always be your model and
your guide. Learn from the Mother of the Lord and our Mother to be humble and
at the same time courageous, simple and prudent; meek and strong, not with the
strength of the world but with the strength of the truth. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">BENEDICT
XVI</span></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANGELUS </span></i></strong></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>St.
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 21 October 2012</em></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear Brothers
and Sisters,</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Before
concluding this celebration, let us address the Virgin Mary, the One who is
Queen of all saints, with a thought for <st1:place w:st="on">Lourdes</st1:place>,
hit by the severe flooding of the Gave that has also inundated the Grotto of
the Apparitions of Our Lady. In particular, let us entrust today to the
motherly protection of the Virgin Mary the missionaries “men and women,
priests, religious and lay people” who sow the good seed of the Gospel in every
part of the world. Let us also pray for the Synod of Bishops which in these
weeks is taking on the challenge of new evangelization for the transmission of
the Christian faith.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>In French</i>:
I cordially greet the French-speaking pilgrims, especially the official
delegations of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Madagascar</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>
that have come to <st1:place w:st="on">Rome</st1:place>
for the canonization of Fr Jacques Berthieu and Kateri Tekakwitha. May the
example of these new saints encourage you to welcome Christ’s love into your
life and to bear witness to it around you! Through their prayers may numerous
young people respond to the Lord’s call to live and proclaim the Gospel! As I
entrust the Church in your countries to their protection, I wholeheartedly
bless you all as well as your families! I wish you all a good pilgrimage!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>In English</i>:
On the happy occasion of the canonizations today, I greet the official
delegations and all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, especially
those from the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Philippines</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> and the <st1:place w:st="on">United States of America</st1:place>. May the
holiness and witness of these saints inspire us to draw closer to the Son of
God who, for such great love, came to serve and offer his life for our
salvation. God bless you all!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>In German</i>:
I address a warm greeting to all the German-speaking guests, especially the
official delegation from Bayern and the many pilgrims from the Diocese of
Regensburg. Looking into God’s heart is what St Anna Schaffer learned in her “workshop
of suffering.” She was thereby able to know that God’s love brings comfort,
which becomes even greater when it is given to others. May the new saints
strengthen us and help us through their example and their prayers of
intercession, so that with faith we too may become witnesses and heralds of the
Gospel.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>In Spanish</i>:
I cordially greet the Spanish-speaking pilgrims, and in particular <st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region>’s
official delegation, as well as the pastors and faithful present here for the
canonization of Mother Carmen Salles y Barangueras. From heaven, she continues
to urge everyone, but especially her daughters, the Conceptionist Missionary
Sisters of Teaching, to welcome and meditate on the word of God faithfully in
their hearts, putting it into practice with a spirit of service, trust and
humility, after the example of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Aided by the
intercession of the new saint, may an ever increasing number of people
courageously proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
especially among the young. Have a happy Sunday!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>In Polish</i>:
I cordially greet the Poles. Today the new saints usher us into Mission Week.
In a special way let us sustain spiritually and materially those who proclaim
Christ on the different continents. I thank all those who, through the
Pontifical Mission Societies, care for the missions throughout the world. May
the Year of Faith rekindle in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Poland</st1:country-region>
the missionary enthusiasm both of clerics and of the lay faithful! I warmly
bless you. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><i>In Italian</i>:
I address my cordial greeting to the official Italian Delegation and to all the
pilgrims, who have come to celebrate the canonization of Giovanni Battista
Piamarta, and in particular the members of the Institutes he founded. May you,
as he did, him, always combine intense prayer with generous service to your
neighbor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">CAPPELLA
PAPALE<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">FOR
THE CANONIZATION OF THE BLESSEDS:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">JAMES
BERTHIEU<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">PEDRO
CALUNGSOD<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">JOHN
BAPTIST PIAMARTA<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MARIA
OF MT <st1:city w:st="on">CARMEL</st1:city>
SALLÉS Y BARANGUERAS<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">MARIANNE
COPE<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">KATERI
TEKAKWITHA<u><o:p></o:p></u></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">ANNA
SCHÄFFER</span></div>
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<strong><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI</span></i></strong></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Saint
Peter’s Square</em><i>, <em>Sunday, 21 October 2012</em></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>The Son of
Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many</em> (cf. <em>Mk</em>
10:45)</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>Dear Brother
Bishops,</em><i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<em><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear
brothers and sisters!</span></em></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Today the Church
listens again to these words of Jesus, spoken by the Lord during his journey to
<st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place>,
where he was to accomplish the mystery of his passion, death and resurrection.
They are words which enshrine the meaning of Christ’s mission on earth, marked
by his sacrifice, by his total self-giving. On this third Sunday of October, on
which we celebrate World Mission Sunday, the Church listens to them with special
attention and renews her conviction that she should always be fully dedicated
to serve mankind and the Gospel, after the example of the One who gave himself
up even to the sacrifice of his life.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I extend warm
greetings to all of you who fill Saint Peter’s Square, especially the official
delegations and the pilgrims who have come to celebrate the seven new saints. I
greet with affection the Cardinals and Bishops who, during these days, are
taking part in the Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization. The coincidence
between this ecclesiastical meeting and World Mission Sunday is a happy one;
and the word of God that we have listened to sheds light on both subjects. It
shows how to be evangelizers, called to bear witness and to proclaim the
Christian message, configuring ourselves to Christ and following his same way
of life. This is true both for the mission <em>ad Gentes</em> and for the new
evangelization in places with ancient Christian roots.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><em>The Son of
Man came to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many</em> (cf. <em>Mk</em>
10:45)</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">These words were
the blueprint for living of the seven Blessed men and women that the Church
solemnly enrolls this morning in the glorious ranks of the saints. With heroic
courage they spent their lives in total consecration to the Lord and in the
generous service of their brethren. They are sons and daughters of the Church
who chose a life of service following the Lord. Holiness always rises up in the
Church from the well-spring of the mystery of redemption, as foretold by the
prophet Isaiah in the first reading: the Servant of the Lord is the righteous
one who “shall make many to be accounted as righteous; and he shall bear their
iniquities” (<em>Is</em> 53:11); this Servant is Jesus Christ, crucified, risen
and living in glory. Today’s canonization is an eloquent confirmation of this
mysterious saving reality. The tenacious profession of faith of these seven
generous disciples of Christ, their configuration to the Son of Man shines out
brightly today in the whole Church.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Jacques
Berthieu, born in 1838 in <st1:place w:st="on">France</st1:place>,
was passionate about Jesus Christ at an early age. During his parish ministry,
he had the burning desire to save souls. Becoming a Jesuit, he wished to
journey through the world for the glory of God. A tireless pastor on the <st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Sainte Marie</st1:placename>,
then in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Madagascar</st1:country-region>,
he struggled against injustice while bringing succor to the poor and sick. The
Malagasies thought of him as a priest come down from heaven, saying, You are
our “father and mother!” He made himself all things to all men, drawing from
prayer and his love of the sacred heart of Jesus the human and priestly force
to face martyrdom in 1896. He died, saying “I prefer to die rather than
renounce my faith”. Dear friends, may the life of this evangelizer be an
encouragement and a model for priests that, like him, they will be men of God!
May his example aid the many Christians of today persecuted for their faith! In
this Year of Faith, may his intercession bring forth many fruits for <st1:country-region w:st="on">Madagascar</st1:country-region> and
the African Continent! May God bless the Malagasy people!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Pedro Calungsod
was born around the year 1654, in the Visayas region of the <st1:place w:st="on">Philippines</st1:place>. His love for Christ
inspired him to train as a catechist with the Jesuit missionaries there. In
1668, along with other young catechists, he accompanied Father Diego Luís de
San Vitores to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Marianas</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Islands</st1:placetype></st1:place> in order to
evangelize the Chamorro people. Life there was hard and the missionaries also
faced persecution arising from envy and slander. Pedro, however, displayed deep
faith and charity and continued to catechize his many converts, giving witness
to Christ by a life of purity and dedication to the Gospel. Uppermost was his
desire to win souls for Christ, and this made him resolute in accepting
martyrdom. He died on the April 2<sup>nd</sup> 1672. Witnesses record that
Pedro could have fled for safety but chose to stay at Father Diego’s side. The
priest was able to give Pedro absolution before he himself was killed. May the
example and courageous witness of Pedro Calungsod inspire the dear people of
the <st1:place w:st="on">Philippines</st1:place>
to announce the Kingdom bravely and to win souls for God!</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Giovanni
Battista Piamarta, priest of the Diocese of Brescia, was a great apostle of
charity and of young people. He raised awareness of the need for a cultural and
social presence of Catholicism in the modern world, and so he dedicated himself
to the Christian, moral and professional growth of the younger generations with
an enlightened input of humanity and goodness. Animated by unshakable faith in
divine providence and by a profound spirit of sacrifice, he faced difficulties
and fatigue to breathe life into various apostolic works, including the Artigianelli
Institute, Queriniana Publishers, the Congregation of the Holy Family of
Nazareth for men, and for women the Congregation of the Humble Sister Servants
of the Lord. The secret of his intense and busy life is found in the long hours
he gave to prayer. When he was overburdened with work, he increased the length
of his encounter, heart to heart, with the Lord. He preferred to pause before
the Blessed Sacrament, meditating upon the passion, death and resurrection of
Christ, to gain spiritual fortitude and return to gaining people’s hearts,
especially the young, to bring them back to the sources of life with fresh
pastoral initiatives. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“May your love
be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you” (<em>Ps</em> 32:22). With
these words, the liturgy invites us to make our own this hymn to God, creator
and provider, accepting his plan into our lives. María Carmelo Salles y
Barangueras, a religious born in Vic in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region> in 1848, did just so. Filled
with hope in spite of many trials, she, on seeing the progress of the
Congregation of the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching, which she
founded in 1892, was able to sing with the Mother of God, “His mercy is on
those who fear him from generation to generation” (<em>Lk</em> 1:50). Her
educational work, entrusted to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, continues to bear
abundant fruit among young people through the generous dedication of her
daughters who, like her, entrust themselves to God for whom all is possible. </span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">I now turn to
Marianne Cope, born in 1838 in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Heppenheim</st1:city>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region></st1:place>. Only
one year old when taken to the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>,
in 1862 she entered the Third Order Regular of Saint Francis at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Syracuse</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">New
York</st1:state></st1:place>. Later, as Superior General of her congregation,
Mother Marianne willingly embraced a call to care for the lepers of <st1:state w:st="on">Hawaii</st1:state> after many others
had refused. She personally went, with six of her fellow sisters, to manage a
hospital on Oahu, later founding <st1:placename w:st="on">Malulani</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Hospital</st1:placetype> on <st1:place w:st="on">Maui</st1:place>
and opening a home for girls whose parents were lepers. Five years after that
she accepted the invitation to open a home for women and girls on the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">island</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Molokai</st1:placename></st1:place> itself, bravely going there
herself and effectively ending her contact with the outside world. There she
looked after Father Damien, already famous for his heroic work among the
lepers, nursed him as he died and took over his work among male lepers. At a
time when little could be done for those suffering from this terrible disease,
Marianne Cope showed the highest love, courage and enthusiasm. She is a shining
and energetic example of the best of the tradition of Catholic nursing sisters
and of the spirit of her beloved Saint Francis.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Kateri
Tekakwitha was born in today’s <st1:place w:st="on">New
York</st1:place> state in 1656 to a Mohawk father and a Christian
Algonquin mother who gave to her a sense of the living God. She was baptized at
twenty years of age and, to escape persecution, she took refuge in Saint
Francis Xavier Mission near <st1:city w:st="on">Montreal</st1:city>.
There she worked, faithful to the traditions of her people, although renouncing
their religious convictions until her death at the age of twenty-four. Leading
a simple life, Kateri remained faithful to her love for Jesus, to prayer and to
daily <st1:state w:st="on">Mass.</st1:state>
Her greatest wish was to know and to do what pleased God. She lived a life
radiant with faith and purity.</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Kateri impresses
us by the action of grace in her life in spite of the absence of external help
and by the courage of her vocation, so unusual in her culture. In her, faith
and culture enrich each other! May her example help us to live where we are,
loving Jesus without denying who we are. Saint Kateri, Protectress of Canada
and the first native American saint, we entrust to you the renewal of the faith
in the first nations and in all of <st1:place w:st="on">North America</st1:place>!
May God bless the first nations!</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Anna Schaeffer,
from Mindelstetten, as a young woman wished to enter a missionary order. She
came from a poor background so, in order to earn the dowry needed for
acceptance into the cloister, she worked as a maid. One day she suffered a
terrible accident and received incurable burns on her legs which forced her to
be bed-ridden for the rest of her life. So her sick-bed became her cloister
cell and her suffering a missionary service. She struggled for a time to accept
her fate, but then understood her situation as a loving call from the crucified
One to follow him. Strengthened by daily communion, she became an untiring
intercessor in prayer and a mirror of God’s love for the many who sought her
counsel. May her apostolate of prayer and suffering, of sacrifice and
expiation, be a shining example for believers in her homeland, and may her
intercession strengthen the Christian hospice movement in its beneficial
activity.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Dear brothers
and sisters, these new saints, different in origin, language, nationality and
social condition, are united among themselves and with the whole People of God
in the mystery of salvation of Christ the Redeemer. With them, we too, together
with the Synod Fathers from all parts of the world, proclaim to the Lord in the
words of the psalm that he “is our help and our shield” and we invoke him
saying, “may your love be upon us, O Lord, as we place all our hope in you” (<em>Ps
</em>32:20.22). May the witness of these new saints, and their lives generously
spent for love of Christ, speak today to the whole Church, and may their
intercession strengthen and sustain her in her mission to proclaim the Gospel
to the whole world. </span></div>
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<b style="color: #ac0000; font-family: arial, serif;">Book by Orestes J. González</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACTUS-ESSENDI-PRINCIPLE-THOMAS-AQUINAS/dp/0578522179" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Actus essendi and the Habit of the First Principle in Thomas Aquinas</span></a></i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="color: purple;"> </span></div>
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Orestes J. Gonzálezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15867137812062130275noreply@blogger.com