Benedict to the Dominican nuns of Monte Mario:
The hidden power of cloistered prayer
24 June 10 (RV) - On Thursday morning, Pope Benedict XVI paid a pastoral visit to the Don Orione Centre and the Dominican Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary on Monte Mario hill, northern Rome.
The Holy Father’s first stop was at the Don Orione Centre, where he blessed the giant statue of Our Lady 'Salus populi romani' which has been restored after it was toppled by a storm October last.
Pope Benedict then travelled the short distance from the Institute to the Dominican Convent of Our Lady of the Rosary, to preside over the recitation of the Midday Prayer.
The Holy Father is greeted by Suor Maria Angelica Ubbriaco, prioress of the convent.
The convent has custody of an ancient icon of the Virgin, known by its Greek title, Hagiosoritissa (The Intercessor), also known as Our Lady of St Luke, dated to the VII century.
In his homily to the cloistered nuns, the Pope stressed the fundamental importance of their prayer for the life of the Universal Church and his ministry as its pastor. He said:
The contemplative life which, from the hands of St. Dominic, you received in the form of the cloister, makes you living and vital members in the heart of the Lord's mystical body which is the Church.
And just as the heart causes the blood to circulate and keeps the entire body alive, so your hidden lives with Christ, imbued with work and prayer, contribute to maintaining the Church, the instrument of salvation for all mankind whom the Lord redeemed with His Blood..It is from this inexhaustible source that you draw with prayer,
You have chosen to live in obscurity and to renounce earthly goods in order to desire above all other things the good that has no equal, the precious pearl for which it is worth abandoning all else.
The Holy Father concluded by inviting the religious "to pronounce your 'yes' to the designs of God every day, with the same humility as that with which the Blessed Virgin pronounced her 'yes'".
Before taking his leave, Pope Benedict stood in reverence before the icon of Hagiosoritissa, said to the oldest Marian icon in Rome.
The Church of Santa Maria del Rosario. The Hagiosoritissa is found on the right side of the main altar protected by an iron grill and an incrustation of jewels.
His visit comes a few days ahead of the "feast of the Translation" of the painting to the Monastery of SS. Dominic and Sixtus, on June 27.
This icon is considered an 'acheropita' (one that is not made by human hands. An 11th-century legend about the icon tells how the Apostles after the resurrection, decided that the face of the Virgin should be depicted by the Evangelist Luke. The artist had barely traced her face, without even putting his hand to the colours, when the image appeared complete in all its magnificent beauty, "as was natural, because the work appeared not as the result of human effort, but as an expression of the power of God Almighty".
[NB: The image came to Rome from Constantinople after a Byzantine emperor banned icons in the 8th century and came into the hands of the Dominican nuns in 1220, who have taken it with them through their various churches until Benedict XIII gave them the 17th century church of Santa Maria on Monte Mario in 1710.
Santa Maria and its location in Monte Mario, 1841 prints.
During his 10-year residence in Rome (1957-1867) Franz Liszt lived in the convent twice and composed his Christus oratorio there.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/06/2010 12:59]