"Only when truth and love are in harmony can man know joy.
For it is truth that makes man free."
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI
Showing posts with label Pope Benedict XVI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pope Benedict XVI. Show all posts
Thursday, April 5, 2018
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Great Post In Honor of Our Dear Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's Birthday
A very Happy Birthday to our dear Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI today!
There is an excellent post at Catholic Vision in honor of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's birthday about the harmony of truth and love, referencing Joseph Ratzinger's older writings. Check it out at:
The Harmony of Truth and Love
cross posted at Community of Catholic Bloggers
There is an excellent post at Catholic Vision in honor of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's birthday about the harmony of truth and love, referencing Joseph Ratzinger's older writings. Check it out at:
The Harmony of Truth and Love
cross posted at Community of Catholic Bloggers
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Pope Benedict XVI on Prayer
From Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth:
If being human is essentially about relation to God, it is clear that speaking with, and listening to, God is an essential part of it. This is why the Sermon on the Mount also includes a teaching about prayer. The Lord tells us how we are to pray.In Matthew's Gospel, the Lord's Prayer is preceded by a short catechesis on prayer. Its main purpose is to warn against false forms of prayer. Prayer must not be an occasion for showing off before others; it requires the discretion that is essential to a relation of love. God addresses every individual by a name that no one else knows, as Scripture tells us (cf. Rev 2:17). God's love for each individual is totally personal and includes this mystery of uniqueness that cannot be divulged to other human beings.This discretion, which is of the very essence of prayer, does not exclude prayer in common. The Our Father is itself a prayer uttered in the first person plural, and it is only by becoming part of the "we" of God's children that we can reach up to him beyond the limits of this world in the first place. And yet this "we" awakens the inmost core of the person; in the act of prayer the totally personal and the communal must always pervade each other, as we will see more closely in our exposition of the Our Father. Just as in the relationship between man and woman there is a totally personal dimension that requires a zone of discretion for its protection, though at the same time the relationship of the two in marriage and family by its very nature also includes public responsibility, so it is also in our relation to God: The "we" of the praying community and the utterly personal intimacy that can be shared only with God are closely interconnected.The other false form of prayer the Lord warns us against is the chatter, the verbiage, that smothers the spirit. We are all familiar with the danger of reciting habitual formulas while our mind is somewhere else entirely. We are at our most attentive when we are driven by inmost need to ask God for something or are prompted by a joyful heart to thank him for good things that have happened to us. Most importantly, though, our relationship to God should not be confined to such momentary situations, but should be present as the bedrock of our soul. In order for that to happen, this relation has to be constantly revived and the affairs of our everyday lives have to be constantly related back to it. The more the depths of our souls are directed toward God, the better we will be able to pray. The more prayer is the foundation that upholds our entire existence, the more we will become men of peace. The more we can bear pain, the more we will be able to understand others and open ourselves to them. This orientation pervasively shaping our whole consciousness, this silent presence of God at the heart of our thinking, our meditating, and our being , is what we mean by "prayer without ceasing." This is ultimately what we mean by love of God, which is at the same time the condition and the driving force behind love of neighbor.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Pope Benedict XVI on Faith
From Pope Benedict XVI In Erfurt, Germany Friday, September 23, 2011:
HT Vincenzo at Sancte Pater
linkBut the faith of Christians does not rest on such a weighing of benefits and drawbacks. A self-made faith is worthless. Faith is not something we work out intellectually or negotiate between us. It is the foundation for our lives. Unity grows not by the weighing of benefits and drawbacks but only by entering ever more deeply into the faith in our thoughts and in our lives.
HT Vincenzo at Sancte Pater
Monday, November 1, 2010
Prayer Vigil for All Nascent Human Life
From LifeSiteNews:
By John-Henry Westen
VATICAN, October 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life activists worldwide are pledging to promote Pope Benedict XVI's initiative to have all Catholic churches in the world to join him in celebrating a vigil for all nascent human life on November 27th, 2010. Moreover, a campaign to thank the Pope for the initiative is being promoted in seven languages.A new website has been launched "yes-for-benedict.net," where pro-life people can send a message to the pope in their own language.
The message states: "We express our sincere gratitude to you, Holy Father, for your leadership in this gravely needed initiative, and in the fight for life around the world. In prayer, we renew and redouble our efforts, trusting that the Author of Life will guide us toward victory in defending our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
"On the evening of November 27, 2010 at the liturgical beginning of Advent - a time of joyful anticipation for the celebration of birth of Christ - His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a prayer vigil in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican for the intention of all nascent human life. At the request of the Holy Father, a letter was sent to all the episcopal conferences of the Catholic Church this past June asking them to take part in this prayer and to organize prayer vigils at the beginning of Advent in all local churches.
"Let's do everything possible so that our parishes, communities, prayer groups and families join in this universal prayer for life, in communion with the Holy Father," said Lech Kowalewski, a national leader of the pro-life movement in Poland, who is also coordinating the "yes for Benedict" effort. "Personal prayer in union with the Church for the intention of defending preborn human life is our duty and raises great hope that with God's help the civilization of life and love will triumph.
"For details on how to join Pope Benedict in prayer during the Vigil for All Nascent Human Life, click here.
To sign on to the message of thanks to the Pope for instituting the vigil for life please click here.
By John-Henry Westen
VATICAN, October 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Pro-life activists worldwide are pledging to promote Pope Benedict XVI's initiative to have all Catholic churches in the world to join him in celebrating a vigil for all nascent human life on November 27th, 2010. Moreover, a campaign to thank the Pope for the initiative is being promoted in seven languages.A new website has been launched "yes-for-benedict.net," where pro-life people can send a message to the pope in their own language.
The message states: "We express our sincere gratitude to you, Holy Father, for your leadership in this gravely needed initiative, and in the fight for life around the world. In prayer, we renew and redouble our efforts, trusting that the Author of Life will guide us toward victory in defending our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
"On the evening of November 27, 2010 at the liturgical beginning of Advent - a time of joyful anticipation for the celebration of birth of Christ - His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate a prayer vigil in St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican for the intention of all nascent human life. At the request of the Holy Father, a letter was sent to all the episcopal conferences of the Catholic Church this past June asking them to take part in this prayer and to organize prayer vigils at the beginning of Advent in all local churches.
"Let's do everything possible so that our parishes, communities, prayer groups and families join in this universal prayer for life, in communion with the Holy Father," said Lech Kowalewski, a national leader of the pro-life movement in Poland, who is also coordinating the "yes for Benedict" effort. "Personal prayer in union with the Church for the intention of defending preborn human life is our duty and raises great hope that with God's help the civilization of life and love will triumph.
"For details on how to join Pope Benedict in prayer during the Vigil for All Nascent Human Life, click here.
To sign on to the message of thanks to the Pope for instituting the vigil for life please click here.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Forgiveness
Having recently read Pope Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, these words of the Holy Father still resonate deeply in my heart, and I want to share them with you. This is the part of the chapter where our Holy Father discusses the petition of "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us" and how we encounter the mystery of the Cross of Christ in this petition (from Ch5 - The Lord's Prayer, pp 158-160, emphasis mine):
If we want to understand the petition fully and make it our own, we must go one step further and ask: What is forgiveness, really? What happens when forgiveness takes place? Guilt is a reality, an objective force; it has caused destruction that must be repaired. For this reason, forgiveness must be more than a matter of ignoring, of merely trying to forget. Guilt must be worked through, healed, and thus overcome. Forgiveness exacts a price- first of all from the person who forgives. He must overcome within himself the evil done to him; he must, as it were, burn it interiorly and in so doing renew himself. As a result, he also involves the other, the trespasser, in this process of transformation, of inner purification, and both parties, suffering all the way through and overcoming evil, are made new. At this point, we encounter the mystery of Christ's Cross. But the very first thing we encounter is the limit of our power to heal and to overcome evil. We encounter the superior power of evil, which we cannot master with our unaided powers. Reinhold Schneider says apropos of this that "evil lives in a thousand forms; it occupies the pinnacles of power...it bubbles up from the abyss. Love has just one form- your Son" (Das Vaterunser, p. 68).
The idea that God allowed the forgiveness of guilt, the healing of man from
within, to cost him the death of his Son has come to seem quite alien to us
today. That the Lord has "borne our diseases and taken upon himself sorrows,"
that"he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities,"
and that "with his wounds we are healed" (Is 53:4-6) no longer seems plausible
to us today. Militating against this, on one side, is the trivialization of evil
in which we take refuge, despite the fact that at the very same time we treat
the horrors of human history, especially of the most recent human history as an
irrefutable pretext for denying the existence of a good God and slandering his
creature man. But the understanding of the great mystery of expiation is
also blocked by our individualistic image of man. We can no longer grasp
substitution because we think that every man is ensconced in himself alone. The fact that all individual beings are deeply interwoven and that all are encompassed in turn by the being of the One, the Incarnate Son, is something we are no longer capable of seeing. When we come to speak of Christ's
Crucifixion, we will have to take up these issues again.
In the meantime, the idea of Cardinal John Henry Newman may suffice. Newman once said that while God could create the whole world out of nothing with just one word,
he could overcome men's guilt and suffering only by bringing himself into play,
by becoming in his Son a sufferer who carried this burden and overcame it
through his self-surrender. The overcoming of guilt has a price: We must
put our heart- or, better, our whole existence- on the line. And even this act
is insufficient; it can become effective only through communion with the One who bore the burdens of us all.
The petition for forgiveness is more than a moral exhortation- though it is that as well, and as such it challenges us anew every day. But, at its deepest core, it is- like the other petitions- a Christological prayer. It reminds us of he who allowed forgiveness to cost him descent into the hardship of human existence and death on the Cross. It calls us first and foremost to thankfulness for that, and then, with him, to work through and suffer through evil by means of love. And while we must acknowledge day by day how little our capacities suffice for that task, and how often we ourselves keep falling into guilt, this petition gives us the great consolation that our prayer is held safe within the power of his love- with which, through which, and in which it can still become a power of healing.
God, thank You for these words of the Holy Father. Please watch over him and protect him in his travels. Thank You for giving us a wise and holy shepherd. Jesus, thank You for Your Love and Mercy. Open our hearts to receive You and all You give us. Open our hearts to forgive as You forgive and to Love as You Love. In Your Holy Name, Amen.
If we want to understand the petition fully and make it our own, we must go one step further and ask: What is forgiveness, really? What happens when forgiveness takes place? Guilt is a reality, an objective force; it has caused destruction that must be repaired. For this reason, forgiveness must be more than a matter of ignoring, of merely trying to forget. Guilt must be worked through, healed, and thus overcome. Forgiveness exacts a price- first of all from the person who forgives. He must overcome within himself the evil done to him; he must, as it were, burn it interiorly and in so doing renew himself. As a result, he also involves the other, the trespasser, in this process of transformation, of inner purification, and both parties, suffering all the way through and overcoming evil, are made new. At this point, we encounter the mystery of Christ's Cross. But the very first thing we encounter is the limit of our power to heal and to overcome evil. We encounter the superior power of evil, which we cannot master with our unaided powers. Reinhold Schneider says apropos of this that "evil lives in a thousand forms; it occupies the pinnacles of power...it bubbles up from the abyss. Love has just one form- your Son" (Das Vaterunser, p. 68).
The idea that God allowed the forgiveness of guilt, the healing of man from
within, to cost him the death of his Son has come to seem quite alien to us
today. That the Lord has "borne our diseases and taken upon himself sorrows,"
that"he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities,"
and that "with his wounds we are healed" (Is 53:4-6) no longer seems plausible
to us today. Militating against this, on one side, is the trivialization of evil
in which we take refuge, despite the fact that at the very same time we treat
the horrors of human history, especially of the most recent human history as an
irrefutable pretext for denying the existence of a good God and slandering his
creature man. But the understanding of the great mystery of expiation is
also blocked by our individualistic image of man. We can no longer grasp
substitution because we think that every man is ensconced in himself alone. The fact that all individual beings are deeply interwoven and that all are encompassed in turn by the being of the One, the Incarnate Son, is something we are no longer capable of seeing. When we come to speak of Christ's
Crucifixion, we will have to take up these issues again.
In the meantime, the idea of Cardinal John Henry Newman may suffice. Newman once said that while God could create the whole world out of nothing with just one word,
he could overcome men's guilt and suffering only by bringing himself into play,
by becoming in his Son a sufferer who carried this burden and overcame it
through his self-surrender. The overcoming of guilt has a price: We must
put our heart- or, better, our whole existence- on the line. And even this act
is insufficient; it can become effective only through communion with the One who bore the burdens of us all.
The petition for forgiveness is more than a moral exhortation- though it is that as well, and as such it challenges us anew every day. But, at its deepest core, it is- like the other petitions- a Christological prayer. It reminds us of he who allowed forgiveness to cost him descent into the hardship of human existence and death on the Cross. It calls us first and foremost to thankfulness for that, and then, with him, to work through and suffer through evil by means of love. And while we must acknowledge day by day how little our capacities suffice for that task, and how often we ourselves keep falling into guilt, this petition gives us the great consolation that our prayer is held safe within the power of his love- with which, through which, and in which it can still become a power of healing.
God, thank You for these words of the Holy Father. Please watch over him and protect him in his travels. Thank You for giving us a wise and holy shepherd. Jesus, thank You for Your Love and Mercy. Open our hearts to receive You and all You give us. Open our hearts to forgive as You forgive and to Love as You Love. In Your Holy Name, Amen.
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