The text of Pope Benedict's address at his last audience yesterday:
“Like the Apostle Paul in the Biblical text that we have heard, I feel in my heart that I have to especially thank God who guides and builds up the Church, who plants His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His People. At this moment my heart expands and embraces the whole Church throughout the world and I thank God for the 'news' that, in these years of my Petrine ministry, I have received about the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and for the love that truly circulates in the Body of the Church, making it to live in the love and the hope that opens us to and guides us towards the fullness of life, towards our heavenly homeland.”
I have to especially thank God
who guides and builds up the Church,
who plants His Word
and thus nourishes the faith in His People.
“I feel that I am carrying everyone with me in prayer in this God-given moment when I am collecting every meeting, every trip, every pastoral visit. I am gathering everyone and everything in prayer to entrust it to the Lord: so that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding in order to live in a manner worthy of the Lord and His love, bearing fruit in every good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).”
“At this moment I have great confidence because I know, we all know, that the Gospel's Word of truth is the strength of the Church; it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews, bearing fruit, wherever the community of believers hears it and welcomes God's grace in truth and in love. This is my confidence, this is my joy.”
the Gospel's Word of truth is the strength of the Church;
it is her life.
“When, on 19 April almost eight years ago I accepted to take on the Petrine ministry, I had the firm certainty that has always accompanied me: this certainty for the life of the Church from the Word of God. At that moment, as I have already expressed many times, the words that resounded in my heart were: Lord, what do You ask of me? It is a great weight that You are placing on my shoulders but, if You ask it of me, I will cast my nets at your command, confident that You will guide me, even with all my weaknesses. And eight years later I can say that the Lord has guided me. He has been close to me. I have felt His presence every day. It has been a stretch of the Church's path that has had moments of joy and light, but also difficult moments. I felt like St. Peter and the Apostles in the boat on the See of Galilee. The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and light breezes, days when the fishing was plentiful, but also times when the water was rough and the winds against us, just as throughout the whole history of the Church, when the Lord seemed to be sleeping. But I always knew that the Lord is in that boat and I always knew that the boat of the Church is not mine, not ours, but is His. And the Lord will not let it sink. He is the one who steers her, of course also through those He has chosen because that is how He wanted it. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. And that is why my heart today is filled with gratitude to God, because He never left—the whole Church or me—without His consolation, His light, or His love.”
Lord, what do You ask of me?
It is a great weight that You are placing on my shoulders but,
if You ask it of me, I
will cast my nets at your command,
confident that You will guide me,
even with all my weaknesses.
“We are in the Year of Faith, which I desired precisely in order to strengthen our faith in God in a context that seems to relegate it more and more to the background. I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children to God's arms, certain that those arms always hold us up and are what allow us to walk forward each day, even when it is a struggle. I would like everyone to feel beloved of that God who gave His Son for us and who has shown us His boundless love. I would like everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer, which can be recited every morning, say: 'I adore you, my God and I love you with all my heart. Thank you for having created me, for having made me Christian...' Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith. It is the most precious thing, which no one can take from us! Let us thank the Lord for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but awaits us to also love Him!”
I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord,
to entrust ourselves like children to God's arms,
certain that those arms always hold us up
and are what allow us to walk forward each day,
even when it is a struggle.
I would like everyone to feel beloved
of that God who gave His Son for us
and who has shown us His boundless love.
I would like everyone to feel the joy of being Christian.
“It is not only God who I wish to thank at this time. A pope is not alone in guiding Peter's barque, even if it is his primary responsibility. I have never felt alone in bearing the joy and the weight of the Petrine ministry. The Lord has placed at my side so many people who, with generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been close to me. First of all, you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom, your advice, and your friendship have been precious to me. My collaborators, starting with my secretary of state who has accompanied me faithfully over the years; the Secretariat of State and the whole of the Roman Curia, as well as all those who, in their various areas, serve the Holy See. There are many faces that are never seen, remaining in obscurity, but precisely in their silence, in their daily dedication in a spirit of faith and humility, they were a sure and reliable support to me. A special thought goes to the Church of Rome, my diocese! I cannot forget my Brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, consecrated persons, and the entire People of God. In my pastoral visits, meetings, audiences, and trips I always felt great care and deep affection, but I have also loved each and every one of you, without exception, with that pastoral love that is the heart of every pastor, especially the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle Peter. Every day I held each of you in prayer, with a father's heart.”
“I wish to send my greetings and my thanks to all: a pope's heart extends to the whole world. And I would like to express my gratitude to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which makes the great family of Nations present here. Here I am also thinking of all those who work for good communication and I thank them for their important service.”
The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and light breezes,
days when the fishing was plentiful,
but also times when the water was rough and the winds against us,
just as throughout the whole history of the Church,
when the Lord seemed to be sleeping.
But I always knew that the Lord is in that boat
and I always knew that the boat of the Church
is not mine, not ours, but is His.
“At this point I would also like to wholeheartedly thank all of the many people around the world who, in recent weeks, have sent me touching tokens of concern, friendship, and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone. I feel this again now in such a great way that it touches my heart. The Pope belongs to everyone and many people feel very close to him. It's true that I receive letters from the world's notables—from heads of states, from religious leaders, from representatives of the world of culture, etc. But I also receive many letters from ordinary people who write to me simply from their hearts and make me feel their affection, which is born of our being together with Christ Jesus, in the Church. These people do not write to me the way one would write, for example, to a prince or a dignitary that they don't know. They write to me as brothers and sisters or as sons and daughters, with the sense of a very affectionate family tie. In this you can touch what the Church is—not an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian ends, but a living body, a communion of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ who unites us all. Experiencing the Church in this way and being able to almost touch with our hands the strength of His truth and His love is a reason for joy at a time when many are speaking of its decline. See how the Church is alive today!”
“In these last months I have felt that my strength had diminished and I asked God earnestly in prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me make the right decision, not for my own good, but for the good of the Church. I have taken this step in full awareness of its seriousness and also its newness, but with a profound peace of mind. Loving the Church also means having the courage to make difficult, agonized choices, always keeping in mind the good of the Church, not of oneself.”
“Allow me here to return once again to 19 April, 2005. The gravity of the decision lay precisely in the fact that, from that moment on, I was always and for always engaged by the Lord. Always—whoever assumes the Petrine ministry no longer has any privacy. He belongs always and entirely to everyone, to the whole Church. His life, so to speak, is totally deprived of its private dimension. I experienced, and I am experiencing it precisely now, that one receives life precisely when they give it. Before I said that many people who love the Lord also love St. Peter's Successor and are fond of him; that the Pope truly has brothers and sisters, sons and daughters all over the world and that he feels safe in the embrace of their communion; because he no longer belongs to himself but he belongs to all and all belong to him.”
“'Always' is also 'forever'--there is no return to private life. My decision to renounce the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this. I am not returning to private life, to a life of trips, meetings, receptions, conferences, etc. I am not abandoning the cross, but am remaining beside the Crucified Lord in a new way. I no longer bear the power of the office for the governance of the Church, but I remain in the service of prayer, within St. Peter's paddock, so to speak. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will be a great example to me in this. He has shown us the way for a life that, active or passive, belongs wholly to God's work.”
“I also thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding with which you have received this important decision. I will continue to accompany the Church's journey through prayer and reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and His Bride that I have tried to live every day up to now and that I want to always live. I ask you to remember me to God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals who are called to such an important task, and for the new Successor of the Apostle Peter. Many the Lord accompany him with the light and strength of His Spirit.”
“We call upon the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of the Church, that she might accompany each of us and the entire ecclesial community. We entrust ourselves to her with deep confidence.”
“Dear friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.”
God guides His Church,
always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times.
Let us never lose this vision of faith,
which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world.
In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you,
may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us,
that He does not abandon us,
that He is near and embraces us with His love.
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"Many people perceive Christianity as something institutional -- rather than as an encounter with Christ -- which explains why they don't see it as a source of joy "
"Today, Christianity is seen as an old tradition, weighed down by old Commandments, something we already know which tells us nothing new; a strong institution, one of the great institutions that weigh on our shoulders."
"If we stay with this impression, we do not live the essence of Christianity, which is an ever new encounter, an event thanks to which we can encounter the God who speaks to us, who approaches us, who befriends us"
"It is critical to come to this fundamental point of a personal encounter with God, who also today makes himself present, and who is contemporary," he added.
"If one finds this essential center, one also understands all the other things. "But if this encounter is not realized, which touches the heart, all the rest remains like a weight, almost like something absurd."Regarding the Second Vatican Council Cardinal Ratzinger said in the interview:
"There is still much to assimilate of the Second Vatican Council. "It seems difficult to me that one generation can really assimilate the legacy of the Council."
"From my point of view, perhaps in the last 10 years, we have taken a step forward to make truly our own the liturgical reformation, which is not something arbitrary nor is it reduced to external gestures, but consists in really engaging in a dialogue of faith."
"Another fundamental element of the Council that we are called to assimilate better affects the need to understand Christianity in a personal way, from the point of view of an encounter with Christ."
"The central character of Christ was, I would say, the heart of the message of Vatican Council II," he contended. "Unfortunately, we concentrated on many external things so that this central character of Christian personalism remains to be discovered."
"The Council, in fact, wished to show that Christianity is not against reason, against modernity, but that on the contrary it is a help so that reason in its totality can work not only on technical questions, but also on human, moral and religious knowledge."
"In a world dominated by an economy governed by "materialist principles" and by liberalism, what is excluded is "the heart," namely, "the highest point of human intelligence, that is, the possibility to see God and to introduce also into the world of work, trade and politics, the light of moral responsibility, love and justice."
"If on one hand it is important that priests proclaim well the essence of the Christian faith, on the other hand there must be persons who in the different realms of the world commit themselves to make present the principles of the Christian faith, which will transform human realities from within."
For us here in the Canterbury region, each year when we gather to mark the occasion of the anniversary of the death of our brother Don Luigi Giussani, we also mark the anniversary of the day the earthquake struck on 22 February 2011.
Our lives here in New Zealand changed that day. 185 of our citizens, family and friends, lost their lives. As the ground shook, our security was shaken. Many of the houses and workplaces that had provided our strong sense of home and security, became insecure, and much of the security and heritage of our city was reduced to rubble on that terrible day.
Now, two years on, our recovery has moved to the rebuilding phase. Many people have used this tragic opportunity to reassess their life direction and adjust their priorities. Others simply cling to whatever seems to offer a future. Some still wander aimlessly like the lost puppy advertising “free to a good home.” For all of us, these two-dozen months have brought uncertainty and suffering.
In these days, as we mark this eighth anniversary of Don Luigi Giussani’s death, we can’t help but think of Pope Benedict. As Fr. Julian Carron pondered earlier this week in La Repubblica, “Will anyone ask themselves who Christ is for Joseph Ratzinger, if the bond with Him led him to carry out an act of freedom this surprising.”
An “act of freedom?” Yes, for this is what Pope Benedict has done. He has acted with the freedom that is the first fruit of lived personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The fact that no pope has resigned for 700 years did not limit him. Nor did any possible apprehension about whom he might have to watch fill his shoes. Neither of these considerations (which would inevitably have limited freedom), are worthy of too much thought. For the one who lives in Christ and with Christ and for Christ, there is true freedom.
And surely Fr. Julian this week was speaking directly to the shaky situation we find ourselves in today. He writes ”Through His care for the Church, according to His mysterious design, Christ places a sign in the world in which everyone can see that they are not alone with their impotence. Thus, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance, which often cause confusion and dismay, the Pope offers to every man a rock to which he can anchor the hope that does not fear the daily storms, allowing him to look to the future with confidence”.
And we can’t help but in these days remember that it was the then Cardinal Ratzinger who preached the homily at Don Luigi’s funeral. Just a couple of months later he was elected to the Chair of St. Peter. It is surely no coincidence that the anniversary of his death is the day that the Church celebrates the Feast of the Chair of Peter. It is no coincidence that we hear the “rock” Gospel in this Mass: “You are Peter – and on this rock.” Of course the rock is not Peter the man. The rock can never be any human person however strong. The rock is Jesus Christ who lives and acts through every willing human instrument to bring his rock-solid stability to every human life, and to the entire world.
In his homily at Giussani’s funeral, the future Pope Benedict reminded us of the early home life of Luigi Giussani who “grew up in a home poor as far as bread was concerned, but rich with music, and thus from the start he was touched, or better, wounded, by the desire for beauty. He was not satisfied with any beauty whatever, a banal beauty, he was looking rather for Beauty itself, infinite Beauty, and thus he found Christ, in Christ true beauty, the path of life, the true joy.”
And then the Cardinal went on to describe the mature heart of Giussani, the man of faith, one who understood and appreciated that “only Christ gives meaning to the whole of our life. Fr. Giussani always kept the eyes of his life and of his heart fixed on Christ. In this way, he understood that Christianity is not an intellectual system, a packet of dogmas, the moralism. Christianity is rather an encounter, a love story; it is an event.”
It was as if the Cardinal had in mind the desert-like experience of that human existence of most people which he spoke of two months later in his first homily as pope: “And there are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love. There is the desert of God’s darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast”.
Earlier this week Fr.Julian spoke at the conclusion of the Milan Mass to mark this eight anniversary of Don Luigi’s death. His words speak to own situation here in New Zealand, since he addresses the human reality of suffering, instability, and desert life hungry for the oasis. His words are also what we need to hear in the midst of our own personal and national struggle and instability.
Today’s feast of the Chair of St. Peter, and the anniversary of Don Luigi’s death are also the heart of our New Zealand context and calling, in which we listen again as Julian reminds us: “Therefore, we cannot but renew the awareness that the grace that we received in the form of Fr. Giussani’s charism is, through our daily willingness, totally at the service of the edification of the Church, the Body of Christ, by making it present in every setting and circumstance in which the drama of human existence is played out. Thus we follow Your Eminence’s [Cardinal Scola] reminder to all the Ambrosian faithful: “Illuminated by an adult faith, Christians do not evade their duty to propose their experience and their vision regarding the big questions that our era is called to face”
WHERE IS GOD, TWO YEARS
AFTER THE FEBRUARY 22 EARTHQUAKE?
A Lenten reflection by Fr John O’Connor On the second anniversary of the devastating earthquakes of February 22, 2011, Fr John O’Connor will lead an evening reflection on our relationship with God two years later. Have the events of the past two years led us closer to God? Has our faith sustained us in these times? Do we need to strengthen our hope? Join us as Fr John shows us how the events of the past two years can bring us closer to God.
7.30pm, Friday 22 February, St Gregory’s Parish Centre, 30 Cotswold Ave, Bishopdale, Matt O’Connell,Earthquake Recovery Coordinator, 366 9869, email moconnell@chch.catholic.org.nz for more details.
“I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes. But I think it's very important to be able to see the funny side of life and its joyful dimension and not to take everything too tragically. I'd also say it's necessary for my ministry.
A writer once said that angels can fly because they don't take themselves too seriously. Maybe we could also fly a bit if we didn't think we were so important.”
"Musically inclined theologians sometimes say that, while Bach is what the angels play in heaven on high days and holy days, they turn to Mozart when they’re playing for the sheer pleasure and joy of it".
"Yes! Although we moved around a very great deal in my childhood, the family basically always remained in the area between the Inn and the Salzach. And the largest and most important and best parts of my youth I spent in Traunstein, which very much reflects the influence of Salzburg. You might say that there Mozart thoroughly penetrated our souls, and his music still touches me very deeply, because it is so luminous and yet at the same time so deep. His music is by no means just entertainment; it contains the whole tragedy of human existence."
