Catechesis With Pope Benedict Xvi

Pope Benedict XVI: "The intimate structure of her praying song is, therefore, praise, thanksgiving, grateful joy. But this personal witness is not solitary and intimate, purely individualistic, because the Virgin Mother is conscious of having a mission to accomplish for humanity and her story is inserted within the history of salvation. And thus she can say: "His mercy extends from generation to generation over those who fear him" (v 50). With this praise of the Lord, Our Lady gives voice to all the redeemed creatures who in her "fiat", and thus in the figure of Jesus born of the Virgin, find the mercy of God. ..." (General Audience, 1 February 2006). Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it was inspired by our holy fathers our holy fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Pope Benedict XVI: "The seat of Rome, after these migrations by St Peter, was thus recognized as that of the successor of Peter, and the "chair" of its bishop represents that of the Apostle instructed by Christ to graze his whole flock. The most ancient Fathers of the Church attest to this, as for example St Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, but who came from Asia Minor, who in his treatise Against Heresies, describes the Church of Rome as the "greatest and most ancient, known by all; ... founded and established in Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul"; and he adds: "With this Church, because of her eminent superiority, must be in accord the universal Church, that is, the faithful everywhere" (III, 3, 2-3). Tertullian, a little later, for his part affirms: "How blessed is this Church of Rome! It was the Apostles themselves who, in pouring out their blood, gave to her the doctrine in its totality" (The prescription of heretics, 36). The chair of the Bishop of Rome represents, therefore, not only his

Pope Benedict XVI: "All the other titles attributed to Our Lady find their foundation in her vocation to be the Mother of the Redeemer, the human creature elected by God to realise the plan of salvation, centered on the great mystery of the incarnation of the divine Verb. In these festive days we have stopped to contemplate in the crib the representation of the Nativity. At the centre of this scene we find the Virgin Mother who offers the Baby Jesus to the contemplation of all those who come to adore the Saviour: the shepherds, the poor people of Bethlehem, the Magi come from the East. Later, on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, it will be the elderly Simeon and the prophetess Anna who will receive the little Child from the hands of his Mother and adore him. The devotion of the Christian people has always considered the birth of Jesus and the divine motherhood of Mary as two aspects of the same mystery of the incarnation of the divine Verb and so has never considered the Nativity as a thing of the pa

Pope Benedict XVI: "From the love for Christ is born love towards persons and also towards all God's creatures. Here is another characteristic trait of Francis' spirituality: the sense of universal brotherhood and love for created matter, which inspired his famous Canticle of creatures. It is a very timely message. As I recalled in my recent encyclical Caritas in Veritate, only a development that respects creation and does not damage the environment is sustainable (cf n 48-52) and in the Message for the World Day of Peace this year I underlined that the construction of a solid peace is also linked to respect for created matter. Francis reminds us that in creation is unfolded the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator. Nature is for him understood precisely as a language in which God speaks with us, in which reality becomes transparent and we can speak of God and with God. Dear friends, Francis was a great saint and a joyful man. His simplicity, his humility, his faith, his love for Christ, his goodness towards

Papa Benedetto: "Cari amici, Francesco è stato un grande santo e un uomo gioioso. La sua semplicità, la sua umiltà, la sua fede, il suo amore per Cristo, la sua bontà verso ogni uomo e ogni donna l’hanno reso lieto in ogni situazione. Infatti, tra la santità e la gioia sussiste un intimo e indissolubile rapporto. Uno scrittore francese ha detto che al mondo vi è una sola tristezza: quella di non essere santi, cioè di non essere vicini a Dio. Guardando alla testimonianza di san Francesco, comprendiamo che è questo il segreto della vera felicità: diventare santi, vicini a Dio!" (Udienza generale, 27 gennaio 2010) Music: To the Ends of the Earth by Fr Rob Galea - ℗ 2011 Robert Galea - used with permission. Visit Totus2us.com for much more - dedicated to Our Lady, it was inspired by our holy fathers St John Paul II and Papa Benedict XVI. Totus Tuus was JPII's motto to Mary. Our Lady is also everything to us - Totus2us.

Pope Benedict XVI: "On the basis of these simple findings that result from the Gospel, we can advance a pair of reflections. The first is that Jesus welcomed into the group of his close friends a man who, according to the concepts in vogue in Israel at that time, was considered a public sinner. Matthew, in fact, not only handled money deemed impure because of its provenance from people foreign to the people of God, but he also collaborated with a foreign and odiously greedy authority, whose tributes moreover could be determined arbitrarily. For these reasons, the Gospels more than once speak jointly of "tax collectors and sinners" (Mt 9, 10; Lk 15, 1), of "tax collectors and prostitutes" (Mt 21, 31). Furthermore, they see tax collectors as an example of meanness (cf Mt 5, 46: they love only those who love them), and mention one of them, Zacchaeus, as "a leader of tax collectors and a rich man" (Lk 19, 2), while popular opinion associated them with "extortioners, the unjust, adulterers" (Lk 18, 11). Based on t

Pope Benedict XVI: "When Dominic died in 1221 in Bologna, the city that declared him its Patron, his work had already had great success. With the support of the Holy See, the Order of Preachers had spread to many countries in Europe for the benefit of the entire Church. Dominic was canonized in 1234 and it is he himself who, with his holiness, indicates to us two indispensable means for making apostolic action incisive. First of all, Marian devotion, which he cultivated with tenderness and left as a precious legacy to his spiritual children, who in the history of the Church have had the great merit of spreading the prayer of the Holy Rosary, so dear to the Christian people and so rich in Gospel values, a true school of faith and piety. In the second place, Dominic, who took care of several women's convents in France and in Rome, believed through and through in the value of intercessory prayer for the success of apostolic work. Only in Heaven will we understand how much the prayers of cloistered religious effi

Pope Benedict XVI: ".. Dear friends, we too, with St Therese of the Child Jesus, must be able to repeat to the Lord every day that we want to live of love for him and for others, to learn at the school of the saints to love in an authentic and total way. Therese is one of the Gospel's “little ones" who let themselves be led by God into the depths of his Mystery. A guide for everyone, above all for those who, in the People of God, carry out the ministry of theologians. With humility and charity, faith and hope, Therese entered continually into the heart of Sacred Scripture which contains the Mystery of Christ. And this reading of the Bible, nourished by the science of love, is not opposed to academic science. The science of the saints, in fact, of which she herself speaks in the last page of The Story of a Soul, is the highest science. “All the saints have understood and in a more particular way perhaps those who fill the universe with the radiance of evangelical doctrine. Was it not from prayer that the saint

Papa Benedetto XVI: ".. Cari amici, anche noi con santa Teresa di Gesù Bambino dovremmo poter ripetere ogni giorno al Signore che vogliamo vivere di amore a Lui e agli altri, imparare alla scuola dei santi ad amare in modo autentico e totale. Teresa è uno dei “piccoli” del Vangelo che si lasciano condurre da Dio nelle profondità del suo Mistero. Una guida per tutti, soprattutto per coloro che, nel Popolo di Dio, svolgono il ministero di teologi. Con l'umiltà e la carità, la fede e la speranza, Teresa entra continuamente nel cuore della Sacra Scrittura che racchiude il Mistero di Cristo. E tale lettura della Bibbia, nutrita dalla scienza dell’amore, non si oppone alla scienza accademica. La scienza dei santi, infatti, di cui lei stessa parla nell'ultima pagina della Storia di un'anima, è la scienza più alta. "Tutti i santi l'hanno capito e in modo più particolare forse quelli che riempirono l'universo con l'irradiazione della dottrina evangelica. Non è forse dall'orazione che i Santi Paolo, Agostino, Giovanni

Pope Benedict XVI: ".. Returning to the scene of the vocation, the Evangelist tells us that, when Jesus sees Nathanael approaching him, he exclaims: "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!" (Jn 1, 47). This is a eulogy that recalls the text of a Psalm: "Blessed is the man... in whose spirit there is no deceit" (Ps 32, 2), but provokes the curiosity of Nathanael who replies in amazement: "How do you know me?" (Jn 1, 48). Jesus' response is not immediately comprehensible. He says: "Before Philip called you, I saw you when you were under the fig tree" (Jn 1, 48). We do not know what had happened under this fig tree. It is evident that this was a decisive moment in Nathanael's life. He feels touched in his heart by Jesus' words, he feels understood and he understands: this man knows everything about me, He knows and understands the road of life, this man I can really trust. And so he answers with a clear and beautiful confession of faith, saying: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King o

Pope Benedict XVI: ".. According to tradition, John is the "beloved disciple", who in the Fourth Gospel lays his head on the Master's breast during the Last Supper (cf Jn 13, 21), stands at the foot of the Cross together with the Mother of Jesus (cf Jn 19, 25) and lastly is witness both of the empty tomb and of the very presence of the Risen One (cf Jn 20, 2; 21, 7). We know that this identification is disputed by scholars today, some of whom view him merely as the prototype of a disciple of Jesus. Leaving the exegetes to settle the matter, let us be content here to gather an important lesson for our lives: the Lord desires to make each one of us a disciple who lives a personal friendship with Him. To realise this, it is not enough to follow him and to listen to him exteriorly: it is also necessary to live with Him and like Him. This is possible only in the context of a rapport of great familiarity, imbued with the warmth of total trust. This is what happens between friends; this is why Jesus said one day: "N

Pope Benedict XVI: ".. Peter thus learnt what it means to truly follow Jesus. It is his second call, analogous to the call of Abraham in Genesis 22, after that of Genesis 12: "If any man wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. Because whoever wants to save his life, will lose it; but whoever loses his own life for my sake and that of the Gospel, will save it" (Mk 8, 34-35). It is the demanding law of following Christ: the need to know how to renounce, if necessary, the whole world so as to save true values, to save one's soul, to save the presence of God in the world (cf Mk 8, 36-37). Even if with difficulty, Peter welcomes the invitation and continues his pathway in the footsteps of the Master. And it seems to me that these different conversions of St Peter and his whole figure are a great consolation and a great lesson for us. We too have a desire for God, we too want to be generous, but we too expect God to be strong in the world and to immediately transform the worl

Pope Benedict XVI: ".. Then there is the well-known and proverbial scene of the doubting Thomas, that occurred eight days after Easter. Initially, he had not believed that Jesus had appeared in his absence, and had said: "Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe" (Jn 20, 25). At base, from these words emerges the conviction that Jesus is henceforth recognized not so much by his face as by his wounds. Thomas considers that the marks that confirm Jesus' identity are now above all his wounds, in which he reveals to what end He has loved us. In this the Apostle is not mistaken. As we know, eight days later Jesus reappeared among his disciples, and this time Thomas was present. And Jesus summons him: "Put your finger here and see my hands; stretch out your hand and place it in my side; and no longer be incredulous, but believe" (Jn 20, 27). Thomas reacts with the most splendid profession of faith in the whole of

Pope Benedict XVI: ".. We can thus learn many things from Saint James: promptness in welcoming the Lord's call even when he asks us to leave the "boat" of our human securities, enthusiasm in following him on the roads that He indicates to us beyond any of our illusory presumption, readiness to witness to him with courage, if necessary, all the way to the supreme sacrifice of life. Thus James the Greater stands before us as an eloquent example of generous adherence to Christ. He who initially, through his mother, had requested to be seated with his brother next to the Master in his Kingdom, was precisely the first to drink the chalice of the passion, to share martyrdom with the Apostles. And, in the end, summarizing everything, we can say that the pathway, not only exterior but above all interior, from the mount of the Transfiguration to the mount of the Agony, symbolizes the whole pilgrimage of Christian life, amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God, as the Second Vatican Council says.

Pope Benedict XVI: ".. Benedict describes the Rule as "minimal, tracing only an initial outline" (73, 8); in reality, however, it offers useful directions not only to monks, but also to all those who seek guidance on their pathway to God. For its measure, humanity and sober discernment between the essential and the secondary in spiritual life, it has been able to maintain its illuminating force all the way up to the present time. Paul VI, by proclaiming St Benedict Patron of Europe on 24 October 1964, intended to recognize the marvellous work accomplished by the Saint through his Rule for the formation of European civilization and culture. Today Europe - having just exited a century deeply wounded by two World Wars and then the collapse of the great ideologies that were revealed as tragic utopias - is in search of its own identity. In order to create new and lasting unity, political, economic and juridical instruments are certainly important, but an ethical and spiritual renewal must also be awakened which dr

Pope Benedict XVI: ".. .. In this time of Lent, in the Year of faith, we renew our commitment on the pathway of conversion, so as to overcome the tendency to close in on ourselves and to make, instead, space for God, looking with his eyes at daily reality. The alternative between the closing in of our egoism and the opening to the love of God and others, we could say corresponds to the alternatives of the temptations of Jesus: the alternative, that is, between human power and love of the Cross, between a redemption viewed solely on material well-being and a redemption as the work of God, to whom we give the primacy in existence. Conversion means not closing in on oneself in the search for one's own success, one's own prestige, one's own position, but making sure that every day, in the little things, truth, faith in God and love become the most important thing." (General Audience, 13 January 2013) Music by Ooberfuse: Credo. Visit Totus2us.com for much more.

Pope Benedict XVI in the Year of Faith: ".. The Logos, who is with God, the Logos who is God, the Creator of the world (cf Jn 1, 1), for whom all things were created (cf Jn 1, 3), who has accompanied and accompanies men in their history with his light (cf Jn 1, 4-5; 1, 9), became one among others, took up his dwelling amongst us, becoming one of us (cf Jn 2, 14). The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council affirms: “The Son of God... worked with the hands of a man, he thought with the intelligence of a man, he acted with the will of a man, he loved with heart of a man. Born of the Virgin Mary, he truly became one of us, like us in all things except sin” (Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 22). It is thus important to rediscover amazement in front of this mystery, to let ourselves be enveloped by the greatness of this event: God, the true God, Creator of everything, as man has traveled our roads, entering into the time of man, so as to transmit to us his own life (cf 1 Jn 1, 1-4). And He did it not with the splendour of

Pope Benedict XVI in the Year of Faith: ".. So let us return to the question with which we begun, the one about the origin of Jesus, synthesized by Pilate’s question: “Where are you from?” From our reflections it appears clear, right from the beginning of the Gospels, what the true origin of Jesus is: He is the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, He comes from God. We are before the great and disconcerting mystery which we celebrate in this time of Christmas: the Son of God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, was incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This is an announcement that rings out ever new and that in itself brings hope and joy to our hearts, because each time it gives us the certainty that, even though we often feel weak, poor, incapable in the face of the difficulties and evil of the world, the power of God acts always and works wonders in weakness itself. His grace is our strength (cf 2 Cor 12:9-10). Thank you." (General Audience, 2 January 2013) Music by Ooberfuse: Credo. Visit Totus2us.com fo

Pope Benedict XVI in the Year of Faith: ".. Faced with all this, we can ask ourselves: how was Mary able to live this pathway alongside her Son with a faith so strong, even in obscurity, without losing full trust in the action of God? There is an underlying attitude that Mary assumes in the face of what happens in her life. At the Annunciation she is disturbed on hearing the words of the angel — it is the fear a man feels when touched by the closeness of God —, but it is not the attitude of someone who is afraid in front of what God might ask. Mary reflects, she ponders the meaning of such a greeting (cf Lk 1:29). The Greek term used in the Gospel to define this “reflection”, “dielogizeto”, evokes the root of the word “dialogue”. This means that Mary enters into intimate dialogue with the Word of God that has been announced to her, she does not consider it superficially, but dwells on it, lets it penetrate into her mind and her heart so as to understand what the Lord wants from her, the meaning of the announ

Pope Benedict XVI in the Year of Faith: "This “design of benevolence” did not remain, so to speak, in the silence of God, in the heights of his Heaven, but He made it known by entering into relationship with man, to whom He revealed not only something, but His very self. He did not simply communicate a set of truths, but communicated himself to us, all the way to being one of us, to being incarnated. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council says in the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum: “It pleased God in his goodness and wisdom to reveal his very self [not only something of himself, but he himself] and to make known the mystery of his will, thanks to which men through Christ, the Word made flesh, have access in the Holy Spirit to the Father and are thus rendered participants in the divine nature” (DV, 2). God does not only say something, but He communicates Himself, He attracts us into divine nature in such a way that we are involved in divine nature, divinized. God reveals his great design of love by entering i