'REGINA CAELI' TODAY
Leading the 'Regina caeli' prayers in St. Peter's Square at noon today, Benedict XVI paid tribute to Mary as the 'spiritual heart of the Christian community', saying she was the best example of what Jesus says in today's Gospel that 'whoever loves me follows my
words'.
He asked the faithful to pray for his trip to Portugal on Tuesday, centered on the devotion to Our Lady of Fatima.
After the prayers, he addressed words in Portuguese to Brazilian Catholics gathered in Brasilia for their 16th National Eucharistic Congress. The Holy Father sent Cardinal Claudio Hummes, archbishop emeritus of Sao Paolo and Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, as his personal representative to the celebration.
Here is what he said addressing English-speaking pilgrims today:
This week I am making an Apostolic Journey to Portugal to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Beatification of the visionaries Blessed Jacinta and Blessed Francisco.
I ask for your prayers for the success of this Journey, and I in turn assure you of my prayers to our Lady of Fatima for the whole People of God. May she intercede for us all, and draw us closer to Christ her Son.
Upon each of you and your loved ones at home, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.
Here is a full translation of teh Holy Father's words today:
Dear brothers and sisters:
May is a beloved month for many reasons. In our hemisphere, spring advances with so much colorful flowering, and the climate favors walks and excursions.
For the liturgy, May always comes at Eastertide, the time of 'Alleluia', the revelation of the mystery of Christ in the light of the Resurrection and our Paschal faith. It is the time of awaiting the Holy Spirit who descends with power on the nascent Church at Pentecost.
In both contexts - the natural and the liturgical - the tradition of the Church to dedicate the month of May to the Virgin Mary harmonizes very well. Because she is indeed the most beautiful flower of Creation, the 'rose' who appeared in the fullness of time, when God, in sending his Son, gave the world a new spring.
At the same time, she is a protagonist, humble and discreet, in the first steps taken by the Christian community: Mary is its spiritual heart, because her very presence among the disciples is a living memory of the Lord Jesus and a token of the gift of his Spirit.
The Gospel this Sunday, taken from Chapter 14 of the Gospel of St. John, offers us an implicit spiritual portrait of the Virgin Mary, when Jesus says: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him" (Jn 14,23).
These words are addressed to the disciples, but they can be applied to the maximum degree precisely to her who was the first and perfect disciple of Jesus. Indeed, Mary followed first and fully the word of her Son, demonstrating that she loved him not only as a mother, but first of all, as a humble and obedient handmaid. That is why God the Father loved her and why the Most Holy Trinity dwelt in her.
Moreover, when Jesus promises his friends that the Holy Spirit will help them to remember every word of his and to understand him profoundly (cfr Jn 14,26), how can we not think of Mary who, in her heart, temple of the Holy Spirit, meditated and interpreted faithfully all that her Son said and did? Thus, even before but especially after Easter, the Mother of Jesus also became the Mother and model of the Church.
Dear friends, in the heart of this Marian month, I will have the joy of going in the next few days to Portugal. I will visit the capital Lisbon and Porto, the country's second most important city.
The principal destination of my trip is Fatima. on the tenth anniversary of the beatification of the two shepherd children Jacinta and Francisco. For the first time, as the Successor of Peter, I will be visiting that Marian shrine which was so dear to the Venerable John Paul II.
I ask everyone to accompany me on this pilgrimage, participating actively in prayer: with one heart and one spirit, let us invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary for the Church, particularly for priests, and for peace in the world.
After the prayers, he said the following in Portuguese:
I address a special greeting to the Brazilian people who will gather in their capital Brasilia, to celebrate the XVI National Eucharistic Congress, next Friday to Sunday, with the presence of my special representative, Cardinal Claudio Hummes.
The theme of the Congress is taken from the words of the two disciples at Emmaus who said, 'Stay with us, Lord' - an expression of the desire that throbs in the heart of every human being.
May all of you, pastors and the faithfuul, rediscover that the heart of Brazil is the Eucharist. And that it is precisely in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar that Jesus shows he wants to be with us, to live among us, to give himself to us.
In adoration of him, let us recognize the primacy of God who alone can transform the heart of men, raising them to union with Christ in his Body. Indeed, by receiving the Body of the risen Lord, we experience communion with a Love that we cannot keep to ourselves alone: it demands to be communicated to others so that we may be able to construct together a more just society.
Finally, as we come closer to the end of the Year for Priests, I invite all priests to cultivate a profoundly eucharistic spirituality following the Example of the Holy Curate of Ars who, seeking to unite his personal sacrifice to that of Jesus actualized in the Mass, exclaimed: "How good it is for a priest to offer himself in sacrifice to God every morning!"
And as I invoke the intercession of Our Lady of Aparecida for all the graces that they may be nourished by the Eucharist, bread of unity, to become true missionary disciples, I impart on all the Apostolic Blessing.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 09/05/2010 23:46]