ANGELUS TODAY
The Holy Father spoke today about the closing of the Pauline Year and the graces born from it as well as the start of the Year for Priests.
In English, he referred to today's Gospel:
I am happy to greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present for this Angelus Prayer.
Today’s Liturgy proclaims Jesus Christ, the Saviour who has done away with death and brought us life through his Gospel. May our thoughts and actions always be inspired by the words and deeds of Jesus whom we venerate as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
I wish you all a pleasant stay in Rome and a blessed Sunday!
Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's words before the prayers today:
Dear brothers and sisters!
With the celebration of the First Vespers of Saints Peter and Paul which I will preside over this evening at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls, the Pauline Year, which was declared to mark the bimillennary of the birth of the Apostle of the Gentiles, comes to a close.
it has been a true time of grace during which, through pilgrimages, catecheses, numerous publications and diverse initiatives, the figure of St. Paul was re-proposed throughout the entire Church, and his vibrant message revived in all Christian communities a passion for Christ and his Gospel.
Let us therefore give thanks to God for the Pauline Year and for all the spiritual gifts that it has brought us.
Divine Providence saw to it that a few days ago, on June 19, Solemnity of the Sacred heart of Jesus, another special year was inaugurated, the Year for Priests, on the occasion of the anniversary of the death - dies natalis [birthday in heaven] - of Jean-Marie Vianney, the holy curate of Ars.
This is another spiritual and pastoral initiative which, I am sure, will not fail to bring many benefits to the Christian people and especially to the clergy.
What is the purpose of the Year for Priests? As I wrote in the letter I sent to all priests for the occasion, it is meant to help promote a commitment to interior renewal by all priests so that they may give the world today a stronger, more incisive witness to the Gospel.
The apostle Paul constitutes, in this respect, a splendid model to imitate not so much in the concrete details of his life - his was truly extraordinary - but in his love for Christ, in his zeal to announce the Gospel, in his dedication to the community, in his elaboration of effective syntheses of pastoral theology.
St. Paul is the example of a priest who totally identified with his ministry - as the holy Curate of Ars would be - conscious of carrying an inestimable treasure, namely, the message of salvation, but carrying it in a 'vessel of clay' (cfr 2 Cor 4,7).
That is why he is at once strong and humble, intimately convinced that everything is to God's merit, everything is his grace.
"The love of Christ possesses us," the Apostle writes, and this can well be the motto of every priest whom the Spirit has 'compelled' (cfr Acts 20,22). The priest should belong completely to Christ and to the Church, to whom he is called to dedicate himself with undivided love, like a husband faithful to his wife.
Dear friends, together with the holy apostles peter and Paul, let us now invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary that she may obtain from the Lord abundant blessings for all priests during the Year for Priests that has just begun.
May Our Lady, whom St. Jean Marie Vianney so loved and made his parishioners love, help every priest to revive the gift of God which is in him by virtue of his Holy Ordination, so that he may grow in holiness and be ready to bear witness, to the point of martyrdom if need be, to the beauty of his total and definitive consecration to Christ and to the Church.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/07/2009 22:32]