AT THE CHURCH
WHERE PAUL VI WAS BAPTIZED
The last event on the Pope's visit was the church of Sant'Antonino where Giovanni Battista Montini was baptized, where the Pope addressed the parishioners,
The church where Paul VI was baptized, and the baptismal font (2nd photo, as it is today); third and fourth photos, before renovation.
Pope says 'It's not easy
to be a Christian'
BRESCIA, Nov. 8 (RV) - In the final discourse of his visit to Brescia in the footsteps of Pope Paul VI, Benedict XVI told the 300 parishioners of St Anthony’s Church in Concesio that "It's not easy to be a Christian”.
Speaking in the small village church where the future Pope, Giovanni Battista Montini, was baptised more than a century ago, Pope Benedict noted that “it takes courage and tenacity not to comply with the mentality of today’s world, not to be seduced by the sometimes powerful calls of hedonism and consumerism, to face, if necessary, misunderstandings and sometimes even real persecution''.
For this reason - he added -''we should remain firmly united in the Church, even when we see some shadows and blemishes on its face'' ''loving her as our true mother'' and translating this love into concrete action ''within our communities'.''
Pope Benedict also urged believers not to yield to the temptation of “individualism 'and prejudice” rather to overcome “all rivalry and division”.
Earlier Sunday evening Pope Benedict XVI launched an appeal for the freedom for Catholics to educate their children according to their faith and tradition.
He was speaking at the inauguration of the Paul VI Institute for religious studies, located next to the family home of the late Pope in Concesio.
Retracing his own personal bond with Paul VI, and their shared commitment to education he noted that “educating the younger generation, on which the future depends, has never been easy, but in our time seems to become even more complex”.
Pope Benedict said “a mentality and a culture that cast doubts on the value of the person, the meaning of truth and goodness..,is spreading”.
Yet he also observed that “there is a widespread thirst for hard certainties and values”.
Pope Benedict spoke of Paul VI’s involvement with the university students of his day, his promotion of an ‘intellectual charity’ that was rooted in social action in favour of the poor.
Meeting the community of Concesio:
'Concrete gestures of love
can overcome rivalries and divisions'
At the end of his pastoral visit, Benedict XVI went to the parish church of Sant'Antonino in Concesio, where Giovanni Battista Montini was baptized on Sept. 30, 1897. Here is a translation of his address to the parishioners:
Dear brothers and sisters:
This meeting closes my pastoral visit to Brescia, birthplace of my venerated predecessor Paul VI. It is for me a great pleasure to end it here in Concesio where he was born and began his long and rich human and spiritual experience.
Even more significant - emotional even - is to stop at this, your church, which was his church. Here, on Sept. 30, 1897, he received Baptism, and who knows how many times he came here to pray?
Here, probably, he learned to better understand the voice of the divine Teacher who called him to follow, and who led him, through so many stages, to become his Vicar on earth.
Here the inspired words still resound which Giovanni Battista Montini, having become a cardinal, said fifty years ago, on August 16, 1959, when he returned to this, his baptismal font.
"Here I became Christian," he said, "I became a son of God, I received the gift of faith" (G.B. Montini, Discorsi e Scritti Milanesi, ii,[Milanese Discourses and Writings, II], p. 3010).
In remembering him, it is my pleasure to greet with affection all of you, his townmates, your parish priest and your mayor, along with the Pastor of the Diocese, Mons. Luciano Monari, and all those who have come here for this brief but intense moment of spiritual intimacy.
"Here I became a Christian... Here I received the gift of faith". Dear friends, allow me to take this occasion to recall, starting from that affirmation by Papa Montini, and referring to other similar interventions, the importance of Baptism in the life of every Christian.
Baptism, he said, can be called "the first and fundamental relationship - vital and supernatural - between the Lord's Passover and our Easter" (Insegnamenti iv [Teachings, IV], 1966, p. 742). It is the Sacrament through takes place "the transfusion of the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection this followers" (Insegnamenti xiv [Teachings XIV], 1976, p. 407). It is the Sacrament that starts our relationship of communion with Christ.
"Through Baptism," as St. Paul said, "we were indeed buried with him into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead..., we too might live in newness of life" (Rom 6,4).
Paul VI liked to underscore the Christocentric dimension of Baptism, in which Christ clothes anew to enter into vital communion with him, and now belong to him.
In times of great changes within the Church and in the world, how many times did Paul VI insist on the need to remain firm in our vital communion with Christ! Only thus can one become a member of his family which is the Church.
Baptism, he noted, is "the door through which men enter the Church" (Insegnamenti xii [Teachings XIII], 1974, p. 422). It is the Sacrament through which we become "brothers of Christ and members of that humanity destined to become part of his mystical and universal Body that is his Church" (Insegnamenti xiii [Teachings XIII], 1975, p. 308).
Once man is regenerated by Baptism, God makes him a participant in his own life, and "the baptized person can effectively direct himself towards God-Trinity, hiss ultimate end, that for which he is ordained, for the purpose of taking part in his life and eternal love" (Insegnamenti xi [Teachings XI}, 1973, p. 850).
Dear brothers and sisters, I wish to go back in thought to that visit to this parish church which the then Archbishop of Milan made 50 years ago. Recalling his Baptism, he asked himself how he had guarded and lived this great gift of the Lord, and while he acknowledged that he had never understood it enough nor followed it through enough, he confessed: "I want to tell you that the faith which I received in this church with the sacrament of Holy Baptism was the light of life for me... the lamp in my life"(op. cit., pp. 3010,3011).
Echoing his words, we can ask ourselves: "How do I live my Baptism? How have I made use of the journey of new life that St. Paul spoke of?"
In the world in which we live, to use once more an expression of Archbishop Montini, often there is "a cloud which takes away the happiness of serenely seeing the divine sky... There is the temptation to believe that faith is a bond or a chain that must be taken off, that it is something old if not outdated, and which no longer serves" (ibid., p. 3012), and through which man thinks that "economic and social life suffice to give an answer to all the aspirations of the human heart" (ibid.).
In this respect, how eloquent was St. Augustine who wrote in Confessions, that our heart does not have peace until it rests in God (cfr i, 1). Man can be truly happy only when he finds the light that illuminates him and gives him full meaning.
This light is faith in Christ, the gift we receive at Baptism, and which must be constantly rediscovered in order to be transmitted to others.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us not forget this immense gift that we receive on the day that we are baptized! In that moment, Christ has bound us to him for always, but on our part, do we continue to be united to him through choices that are consistent with the Gospel?
It is not easy to be Christian! It takes courage and tenacity not to conform to the mentality of the world, not to let oneself be seduced by the often powerful beckonings of hedonism and consumerism, or to face, if necessary, incomprehension and sometimes even true persecution.
To live Baptism means remaining firmly united to the Church, even when we see some shadow or stain on her face. It is she who has regenerated us into divine life and accompanies us throughout our entire journey.
Let us love her - and love her like our true mother! Let us love her and serve her with a faithful love that translates into concrete gestures within our own community, not yielding to the temptation of individualism and prejudice, and overcoming every rivalry and division. Thus we will be true disciples of Christ!
May we be helped from heaven by Mary, Mother of Christ and of the Church, whom the Servant of God Paul VI loved and honored with great devotion.
Again, I am grateful to you for your warm welcome that is so cordial and beautiful, dear brothers and sisters, and as I assure you of remembrance in my prayers, I impart to all a special blessing.
NB: Most of the pictures I have posted about the Brescia visit are from
which has come promptly online today with its photo galleries (and videoclips from Teletutto) on each of the places were the Pope was, with the exception of the lunch at Centro Pastorale and the meeting wfterwards with the organizers. Obviously, such events are not generally open to coverage.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/11/2009 10:54]