Spiritual Reflections at, TX US - JOY: INFALLIBLE SIGN OF GOD'S PRESENCE

CHRISTIAN JOY ARISES FROM THE CERTAINTY THAT GOD IS NEAR VATICAN CITY, DEC 16, 2007 (VIS) - Having returned to the Vatican following his visit this morning to the Roman parish of "Santa Maria del Rosario ai Maritiri Portuensi," the Pope appeared at the window of his private study overlooking St. Peter's Square to pray the Angelus with the faithful gathered below. In his remarks, the Pope recalled how the third Sunday of Advent is traditionally known as "Gaudete Sunday" because Christians are called to rejoice at the coming of the Lord. "Christian joy," he explained, "flows from this certainty. God is near. ... He is with us, in happiness and in pain, in health and in sickness." "Some people ask themselves," the Pope went on, "if this joy can still be felt today." The answer, he said, "is supplied by the lives of men and women of all ages and social conditions who are happy to consecrate their existence to others." In this context, the Holy Father mentioned Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta, "an unforgettable witness of true evangelical joy." Mother Theresa, he continued, "experienced the trial of the dark night of faith, yet she continued to give everyone the smile of God. On one occasion she wrote: ... 'Being happy with God means loving like Him, helping like Him, giving like Him, serving like Him.' "Indeed, joy enters the heart of those who place themselves at the service of the smallest and the poorest," the Pope added. "God dwells in people who love in such a way, and the soul is infused with joy. If, on the other hand, people idolize happiness, they take the wrong path and it becomes truly difficult to discover the joy of which Jesus speaks. "And this, unfortunately, is what cultures that put individual happiness in place of God propose," he said. Emblematic of such a mentality "is the search for pleasure at all costs" and "the increasing use of drugs as an escape, a refuge in an artificial paradise which is subsequently revealed as merely illusory." "At Christmas too it is possible to take the wrong path," Pope Benedict concluded, "mistaking the true feast for one that does not open the heart to the joy of Christ. May the Virgin Mary help all Christians - and men and women searching for God - to reach Bethlehem and meet the Child Who was born for us, for the salvation and happiness of all mankind." ANG/HAPPINESS/...VIS 071217 (420) JOY IS ROOTED IN THE FREEDOM THAT GOD GIVES VATICAN CITY, OCT 27, 2007 (VIS) - This evening in the Paul VI Hall, Benedict XVI attended a concert held in his honor, during which the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir played Beethoven's 9th Symphony. The event was organized to thank the Pope for his visit to Bavaria of September 2006. At the end of the concert the Holy Father remarked how Beethoven had composed his final symphony in 1824, following a period of isolation and difficulty "which threatened to suffocate his artistic creativity." Yet he "surprised the public with a composition that broke with the traditional structure of the symphony" rising at the end "in an extraordinary finale of optimism and joy." "This overwhelming sentiment of joy," the Pope said, "is not something light and superficial; it is a sensation achieved through struggle" because "silent solitude ... had taught Beethoven a new way of listening that went well beyond a simple capacity to experience in his imagination the sound of notes read or written." His was akin to "the perceptivity given as a gift by God to people who obtain the grace of interior or exterior liberation." Benedict XVI recalled how in 1989, when the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir had played Beethoven's 9th Symphony for the fall of the Berlin Wall, they altered the text from "Ode to Joy" to "Freedom, Spark of God," thus expressing "more than the simple sensation of a historical moment. True joy is rooted in the freedom that only God can give. " God - sometimes through periods of interior emptiness and isolation - wishes to make us attentive and capable of 'feeling' His silent presence, not only 'over the canopy of stars' but also in the most intimate recesses of our soul. There burns the spark of divine love that can free us to be what we truly are." AC/NINTH SYMPHONY/... VIS 071029 (320) MARTYRS ENCOURAGE US TO WORK FOR RECONCILIATION VATICAN CITY, OCT 28, 2007 (VIS) - At midday today, Benedict XVI appeared at the window of his private study overlooking St. Peter's Square in order to pray the Angelus with thousands of faithful gathered below. Most of those present were Spaniards who had just attended a ceremony for the beatification of 498 Spanish martyrs of the 20th century, presided in the Pope's name by Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins C.M.F., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The beatification of such a large number of martyrs "shows how the supreme witness of blood is not an exception reserved just for a few individuals, but a realistic possibility for an entire Christian people," said the Holy Father. The 498 new Blesseds, killed in Spain in the 1930s, were "men and women of various ages, vocations and social conditions who paid with their lives for their faithfulness to Christ and to His Church." "The month of October, which is especially dedicated to the mission, thus closes with the shining witness of the Spanish martyrs whose names are added to those of the martyrs Albertina Berkenbrock, Manuel Gomez Gonzalez and Adilio Daronch, and Franz Jagerstatter, recently proclaimed as Blesseds in Brazil and in Austria. Their example testifies to the fact that Baptism commits Christians to participate courageously in creating the Kingdom of God, cooperating therein, if necessary, with the sacrifice of their own lives. "Of course," Benedict XVI added, "not everyone is called to a cruel martyrdom. However, there exists a bloodless 'martyrdom' which is no less important, such as that of Celina Chludzinska, wife and mother, widow and religious, who was beatified yesterday in Rome. This is the silent and heroic witness of so many Christians who live the Gospel without compromise, doing their duty and dedicating themselves generously to the service of the poor. "This martyrdom of everyday life is a vital testimony in the secularized societies of our own time, It is the peaceful battle of love that all Christians, like Paul, must tirelessly wage, the race to spread the Gospel which keeps us committed unto death." Following the Angelus, the Holy Father addressed a special greeting to some 40,000 Spanish faithful - bishops, priests, religious, seminarians and lay people - who had participated in the morning's beatification ceremony. "Let us thank God," the Pope said, "for the great gift of these heroic witnesses of the faith who, moved exclusively by their love for Christ, paid for their faithfulness to Him and to His Church with their blood. With their witness, they illuminate our own spiritual path to sanctity and encourage us to give our lives as a gift of love to God and to our fellows." The new Blesseds, "with their words and deeds of pardon towards their persecutors encourage us to work tirelessly for mercy, reconciliation and peaceful coexistence. "From my heart I invite you to strengthen ecclesial communion day after day, to be faithful witnesses of the Gospel in the world, conscious of the joy of being living members of the Church, the true bride of Christ. "Let us ask the new Blesseds," the Holy Father concluded, "through the Virgin Mary, Queen of Martyrs, to intercede for the Church in Spain and in the world. May the fecundity of their martyrdom produce abundant fruits of Christian life in the faithful and in families, may the blood they spilt be a seed for many holy priestly, religious and missionary vocations." ANG/MARTYRS/... VIS 071029 (590)

(Back)