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Pope Benedict XVI- Addresses |
VISIT
TO THE COMMUNITY OF THE ROMAN MAJOR SEMINARY
ON OCCASION OF THE FEAST OF OUR LADY OF TRUST
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Saturday, 17 February 2007
www.zenit.org
Part I: "We Must
Accept Our Frailty But Keep On Going"
Part II: "A
Day Without the Eucharist is Incomplete"
Gregorpaolo Stano,
Diocese of Oria (First-Year Philosophy): Your Holiness, ours is the
first of two years dedicated to discernment, during which we are
taught to make a profound personal examination. It is a tiring
exercise for us, because the language of God is special, and only
those who are attentive are able discern it among the thousands of
voices clamoring inside us. We are asking you, therefore, to help us
to understand how God talks in practice and what clues he gives you
in his private pronouncements?
Pope Benedict XVI: As a first word, a "thank you" to Monsignor
Rector for his address. I am already curious to read that text you
will be writing and also to learn from it. I am not sure whether I
can clarify the essential points of life in the seminary, but I
shall give it a try.
Now, for the first question: how can we distinguish God's voice from
among the thousands of voices we hear each day in our world. I would
say: God speaks with us in many different ways. He speaks through
others, through friends, parents, pastors, priests. Here, the
priests to whom you are entrusted, who are guiding you.
He speaks by means of the events in our life, in which we are able
to discern God's touch; he speaks also through nature, creation, and
he speaks, naturally and above all, through his Word, in Sacred
Scripture, read in the communion of the Church and read personally
in conversation with God.
It is important to read Sacred Scripture in a very personal way, and
really, as St Paul says, not as a human word or a document from the
past as we read Homer or Virgil, but as God's Word which is ever
timely and speaks to me. It is important to learn to understand in a
historical text, a text from the past, the living Word of God, that
is, to enter into prayer and thus read Sacred Scripture as a
conversation with God.
St Augustine often says in his homilies: I knocked on various
occasions at the door of this Word until I could perceive what God
himself was saying to me. It is of paramount importance to combine
this very personal reading, this personal talk with God in which I
search for what the Lord is saying to me, and in addition to this
personal reading, reading it in the community is very important
because the living subject of Sacred Scripture is the People of God,
it is the Church.
This Scripture was not simply restricted to great writers -- even if
the Lord always needs the person and his personal response --, but
it developed with people who were traveling together on the journey
of the People of God and thus, their words are expressions of this
journey, of this reciprocity of God's call and the human response.
Thus, the subject lives today as it lived at that time so that
Scripture does not belong to the past, because its subject, the
People of God inspired by this same God, is always the same, and
therefore the Word is always alive in the living subject.
It is consequently important to read Sacred Scripture and experience
Sacred Scripture in the communion of the Church, that is, with all
the great witnesses of this Word, beginning with the first Fathers
and ending with today's Saints, with today's Magisterium.
Above all, it is a Word that becomes vital and alive in the Liturgy.
I would say, therefore, that the Liturgy is the privileged place
where every one of us can enter into the "we" of the sons of God, in
conversation with God. This is important. The Our Father begins with
the words: "Our Father"; only if I am integrated into the "we" of
this "Our" can I find the Father; only within this "we", which is
the subject of the prayer of the Our Father, do we hear the Word of
God clearly.
Thus, this seems to me most important: the Liturgy is the privileged
place where the Word is alive, is present, indeed, where the Word,
the Logos, the Lord, speaks to us and gives himself into our hands;
if we are ready to listen to the Lord in this great communion of the
Church of all times, we find him. He opens the door to us little by
little.
I would say, therefore, that this is the focus for all the other
points: we are personally directed on our journey by the Lord, and
at the same time we live in the great "we" of the Church, where the
Word of God is alive.
Moreover, other points are associated with it: listening to friends,
listening to the priests who guide us, listening to the voice of
today's Church; hence, listening to the voice of the events of this
time and of creation which become decipherable in this profound
context.
To sum up, therefore, I would say that God speaks to us in many
ways. It is important to be in the "we" of the Church, in the "we"
of the life of the Liturgy. It is important that I personalize this
"we" in myself; it is important to be attentive to the other voices
of the Lord, also letting ourselves be guided by the people who have
experience of God, so to speak, and help us on this journey, so that
this "we" becomes my "we", and I become one who truly belongs to
this "we".
Thus, discernment grows, and personal friendship with God grows, the
capacity to distinguish God's voice among the thousands of voices of
today, which is always present and always speaks with us.
Claudio Fabbri, Diocese of Rome (Second-Year Philosophy): Holy
Father, how was the period of your formation to the priesthood
organized? What interests did you cultivate? Considering the
experience you have had, what are the cardinal points of priestly
formation? In particular, what place does Mary occupy in it?
Pope Benedict XVI: I think that our life at our seminary in Freising
was organized in a very similar way to yours, even if I do not know
your exact daily schedule. I think the day began at 6: 30 or 7 a.m.
with a half hour's meditation, when each one spoke silently with the
Lord, trying to prepare his soul for the Sacred Liturgy. Holy Mass
followed, breakfast, and then the morning lessons.
In the afternoon, seminars, study time, and then again common
prayer. In the evening, the so-called "puncta", which is when the
spiritual director or rector of the seminary spoke to us on various
evenings to help us discover the path of meditation; they did not
give us a meditation composed in advance, but elements that might
help each one of us personalize the Word of the Lord that was to be
the object of our meditation.
This was the daily itinerary; then naturally, there were the great
feast days with a beautiful liturgy, music.... But it seems to me,
and perhaps I will return to this at the end, that it is very
important to have a discipline that precedes me and not to have to
decide again, every day, what to do and how to live. There is a
rule, a set discipline that waits for me and helps me live this in
an orderly way.
Now, as to my preferences, naturally I followed the lessons with
attention, as best I could. Initially, in the first two years of
philosophy, it was above all the figure of St Augustine who
fascinated me from the very start, then also the Augustinian current
in the Middle Ages: St Bonaventure, the great Franciscans, the
figure of St Francis of Assisi.
Above all, I found St Augustine's great humanity fascinating,
because from the outset as a catechumen he was simply unable to
identify with the Church, but instead had to have a spiritual
struggle to find, little by little, access to the Word of God, to
life with God, until he said his great "yes" to his Church.
This journey is so human. In it, we can also today see how one
begins to enter into contact with God, how all the forms of our
natural resistance must be taken seriously and then channeled to
arrive at the great "yes" to the Lord. Thus, his theology conquered
me in a very personal way, developed above all by preaching.
This is important because at the outset Augustine wanted to live a
purely contemplative life, to write more books on philosophy... but
the Lord did not want him to, he made Augustine a priest and Bishop
and so for the rest of his life, his work developed essentially in
dialogue with a very simple people.
Moreover, he must have always personally discovered the meaning of
the Scriptures, and likewise, must have taken this people's ability,
their life context, into account to arrive at a realistic and at the
same time very profound Christianity.
Then, naturally, for me exegesis was very important: we had two
somewhat liberal but nevertheless great exegetes, also true
believers, who fascinated us. I can say that Sacred Scripture really
was the soul of our theological studies: we truly lived with Sacred
Scripture and learned to love it, to converse with it.
I have already spoken of Patristics, of the encounter with the
Fathers. Our dogmatics professor was also a very famous person and
had nourished his dogmatics with the Fathers and with the Liturgy.
In his opinion, our liturgical formation was a very central point:
there were still no liturgical faculties at that time, but our
professor of pastoral studies gave us great courses in liturgy, and
at the time he was also Rector of the seminary, so the liturgy was
lived and celebrated, and thus liturgy taught and thought went
together. These, together with Sacred Scripture, were the crucial
points of our theological formation. I am always thankful to the
Lord for this, because together they truly are the centre of a
priestly life.
Another interest was literature: it was obligatory to read
Dostoevsky, it was fashionable at that time; then there were also
the great French writers: Claudel, Mauriac, Bernanos and also German
literature. Furthermore, there was a German edition of Manzoni: at
that time I did not speak Italian. So it was that in this sense we
gave some sort of form to our human horizon.
Another great love was music, as well as the natural beauty of our
land. With these preferences, these realities, I forged ahead on a
journey that was not always easy. The Lord helped me to arrive as
far as the "yes" of the priesthood, a "yes" that has accompanied me
every day of my life.
Gianpiero Savino, Diocese of Taranto (First-Year Theology): In the
eyes of most people we might appear as young men who say their "yes"
firmly and courageously and leave everything to follow the Lord; but
we know that we are far from being truly consistent with that "yes".
Trusting as sons, we confess to you the partiality of our response
to Jesus' call and the daily effort of living a vocation that we
feel is propelling us along the path of the definitive and the
total. How can we respond to such a demanding vocation as that of
shepherds of God's holy People while being constantly aware of our
weakness and inconsistencies?
Benedict XVI: It is good to recognize one's weakness because in this
way we know that we stand in need of the Lord's grace. The Lord
comforts us. In the Apostolic College there was not only Judas but
also the good Apostles; yet, Peter fell and many times the Lord
reprimanded the Apostles for their slowness, the closure of their
hearts and their scant faith. He therefore simply shows us that none
of us is equal to this great yes, equal to celebrating "in persona
Christi", to living coherently in this context, to being united to
Christ in his priestly mission.
To console us, the Lord has also given us these parables of the net
with the good fish and the bad fish, of the field where wheat but
also tares grow. He makes us realize that he came precisely to help
us in our weakness, and that he did not come, as he says, to call
the just, those who claim they are righteous through and through and
are not in need of grace, those who pray praising themselves; but he
came to call those who know they are lacking, to provoke those who
know they need the Lord's forgiveness every day, that they need his
grace in order to progress.
I think this is very important: to recognize that we need an ongoing
conversion, that we are simply not there yet. St Augustine, at the
moment of his conversion, thought he had reached the heights of life
with God, of the beauty of the sun that is his Word. He then had to
understand that the journey after conversion is still a journey of
conversion, that it remains a journey where the broad perspectives,
joys and lights of the Lord are not absent; but nor are dark valleys
absent through which we must wend our way with trust, relying on the
goodness of the Lord.
Therefore, also the Sacrament of Reconciliation is important. It is
not correct to think we must live like this, so that we are never in
need of pardon. We must accept our frailty but keep on going, not
giving up but moving forward and becoming converted ever anew
through the Sacrament of Reconciliation for a new start, and thus
grow and mature in the Lord by our communion with him.
It is also important of course not to isolate oneself, not to
believe one is capable of going ahead alone. We truly need the
company of priest friends and also lay friends who accompany and
help us. It is very important for a priest, in the parish itself, to
see how people trust in him and to experience in addition to their
trust also their generosity in pardoning his weaknesses. True
friends challenge us and help us to be faithful on our journey. It
seems to me that this attitude of patience and humility can help us
to be kind to others, to understand the weaknesses of others and
also help them to forgive as we forgive.
I think I am not being indiscrete if I say that today I received a
beautiful letter from Cardinal Martini: I had congratulated him on
his 80th birthday -- we are the same age; in thanking me he wrote:
"I thank the Lord above all for the gift of perseverance. Today", he
writes, "good is done rather ad tempus, ad experimentum. Good, in
accordance with its essence, can only be done definitively; but to
do it definitively we need the grace of perseverance. I pray each
day", he concluded, "that the Lord will grant me this grace".
I return to St Augustine: at first he was content with the grace of
conversion; then he discovered the need for another grace, the grace
of perseverance, one which we must ask the Lord for each day; but
since -- I return to what Cardinal Martini said -- "the Lord has
given me the grace of perseverance until now, I hope he will also
give it to me in the last stage of my journey on this earth".
It seems to me that we must have trust in this gift of perseverance,
but we must also pray to the Lord with tenacity, humility and
patience to help and sustain us with the gift of true
"definitiveness", and to accompany us day after day to the very end,
even if our way must pass through dark valleys. The gift of
perseverance gives us joy, it gives us the certainty that we are
loved by the Lord, and this love sustains us, helps us and does not
abandon us in our weakness.
[Translation of Italian original issued by the Holy See]
Part II: "A Day Without the Eucharist Is
Incomplete"
Koicio Dimov, Diocese of Nicopolis, Bulgaria (Second-Year Theology):
Most Blessed Father, commenting on the Way of the Cross in 2005, you
spoke of the dirt in the Church; and in the Homily for the
ordination of the Roman priests last year, you warned us of the risk
"of careerism, the attempt to get to the top, to obtain a position
through the Church". How do we face these problems as serenely and
responsibly as possible?
Benedict XVI: It is not an easy question, but it seems to me that I
have already said, and it is an important point, that the Lord
knows, knew from the beginning, that there is also sin in the
Church, and for our humility it is important to recognize this and
to see sin not only in others, in structures, in lofty hierarchical
duties, but also in ourselves, to be in this way more humble and to
learn that what counts before the Lord is not an ecclesial position,
but what counts is to be in his love and to make his love shine
forth.
Personally I consider St Ignatius' prayer on this point to be very
important. It says: "Suscipe, Domine, universam meam libertatem;
accipe memoriam, intellectum atque voluntatem omnem; quidquid habeo
vel possideo mihi largitus es; id tibi totum restitó ac tuae
prorsus voluntati traoi gubernandum; amorem tuum cum gratia tua mihi
dones ed dives sum satis, nec aliud quidquam ultra posco".
Precisely this last part seems to me to be very important: to
understand that the true treasure of our life is living in the
Lord's love and never losing this love. Then we are really rich. A
man who has discovered a great love feels really rich and knows that
this is the true pearl, that this is the treasure of his life and
not all the other things he may possess.
We have found, indeed, we have been found by the love of the Lord,
and the more we let ourselves be moved by his love in sacramental
life, in prayer life, in the life of work, in our free time, the
better we will understand that indeed, I have found the true pearl,
all the rest is worthless, all the rest is important only to the
extent that the Lord's love attributes these things to me. I am
rich, I am truly rich and borne aloft if I am in this love. Here I
find the centre of life, its riches. Then let us allow ourselves to
be guided, let us allow Providence to decide what to do with us.
Here a little story springs to my mind about St Bakhita, the
beautiful African Saint who was a slave in Sudan and then discovered
the faith in Italy, who became a Sister. When she was old, the
Bishop who was paying a visit to her religious house had not met
her. He spotted this small, bent African Sister and said to Bakhita:
"But what do you do, Sister?"; and Sr Bakhita replied: "I do the
same as you, Your Excellency". Astonished, the Bishop asked her:
"But what?", and Bakhita answered, "But Your Excellency, we both
want to do the same thing: God's will".
This seems to me to be a most beautiful answer, the Bishop and the
tiny Sister who was almost no longer capable of working, who were
both doing the same thing in their different offices; they were
seeking to do God's will and so were in the right place.
I also remember something St Augustine said: All of us are always
only disciples of Christ, and his throne is loftier, for his throne
is the Cross and only this height is the true height, communion with
the Lord, also in his Passion. It seems to me, if we begin to
understand this by a life of daily prayer, by a life of dedicated
service to the Lord, we can free ourselves of these very human
temptations.
Francesco Annesi, Diocese of Rome (Third-Year Theology): Your
Holiness, John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris makes it
clear that suffering is a source of spiritual wealth for all who
accept it in union with the sufferings of Christ. How can the priest
today witness to the Christian meaning of suffering in a world that
resorts to every legal or illegal means to eliminate any form of
pain, and how should he behave towards those who are suffering
without running the risk of being rhetorical or pathetic?
Benedict XVI: Yes, what is he to do? Well, I think we should
recognize that it is right to do our utmost to overcome the
suffering of humanity and to help those suffering -- there are so
many of them in the world -- to find a good life and to be relieved
from the evils that we ourselves often cause: hunger, epidemics,
etc.
However, at the same time, recognizing this duty to alleviate the
suffering we ourselves have caused, we must also recognize and
understand that suffering is an essential part of our human
development.
I am thinking of the Lord's parable of the grain of wheat that fell
to the ground and only in this way, by dying, could it bear fruit;
and this falling to the ground and dying is not a momentary event
but precisely a life process: to fall like a seed into the earth and
thus to die, being transformed, being instruments of God so as to
bear fruit.
It was not by chance that the Lord told his disciples: the Son of
Man must go to Jerusalem to suffer; therefore, anyone who wants to
be a disciple of mine must shoulder his cross so he can follow me.
In fact, we are always somewhat similar to Peter, who said to the
Lord: "No, Lord, this cannot happen to you, you must not suffer". We
do not want to carry the Cross, we want to create a kingdom that is
more human, more beautiful, on this earth.
This is totally mistaken: the Lord teaches it. However, Peter needed
a lot of time, perhaps his entire life, in order to understand it;
why is there this legend of the Quo Vadis? There is something true
in it: learning that it is precisely in walking with the Lord's
Cross that the journey will bear fruit. Thus, I would say that
before talking to others, we ourselves must understand the mystery
of the Cross.
Of course, Christianity gives us joy, for love gives joy. But love
is also always a process of losing oneself, hence, a process of
coming out of oneself; in this regard, it is also a painful process.
Only in this way is it beautiful and helps us to mature and to
attain true joy.
Anyone who seeks to affirm or to promise a life that is only happy
and easy is a liar, because this is not the truth about man; the
result is that one then has to flee to false paradises. And in this
way one does not attain joy but self-destruction.
Christianity proclaims joy to us, indeed; this joy, however, only
develops on the path of love, and this path of love has to do with
the Cross, with communion with the Crucified Christ. And it is
presented through the grain of wheat that fell to the ground. When
we begin to understand and accept this -- every day, because every
day brings some disappointment or other, some burden that may also
cause pain --, when we accept this lesson of following Christ, just
as the Apostles had to learn at this school, so we too will become
capable of helping the suffering.
It is true that it is always difficult, if one who is more or less
healthy and in good condition is obliged to comfort someone
afflicted by a great evil, whether illness or the loss of love. In
the face of these evils with which we are all familiar, everything
appears almost inevitably rhetorical and pathetic.
Yet, I would say, if these people feel that we are "com-passionate",
that we want to share in carrying the Cross with them in communion
with Christ, above all by praying with them, helping them with a
silence full of sympathy, love, helping them as best we can, then
can we become credible.
We must accept this, as perhaps at first our words appear purely
words. However, if we really live in this spirit of truly following
Jesus, we also find the way to be close with our sympathy.
Etymologically, sympathy means "com-passion" for the human being,
helping him, praying, and thereby creating trust in the Lord's
goodness that also exists in the darkest valley. Thus, we can open
our hearts to the Gospel of Christ himself, who is the true
Consoler; opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit, who is called the
other Consoler, the other Paraclete, who is there, who is present.
We can open our hearts not because of our words, but because of the
important teaching of Christ, his being with us, and thereby help
make suffering and pain truly a grace of maturation, of communion
with the Crucified and Risen Christ.
Marco Ceccarelli: Diocese of Rome, (Deacon): Your Holiness, in the
coming months my companions and I will be ordained priests. We will
move from a well-regulated seminary life to the broader context of
parish life. What advice can you give us to enable us to adjust as
well as possible at the beginning of our priestly ministry?
Benedict XVI: Well, here at the seminary you do have a very good
routine. I would say as the first point that it is also important in
the life of pastors of the Church, in the daily life of the priest,
to preserve as far as possible a certain order. You should never
skip Mass -- a day without the Eucharist is incomplete -- and thus
already at the seminary we grow up with this daily liturgy. It seems
to me very important that we feel the need to be with the Lord in
the Eucharist, not as a professional obligation but truly as an
interiorly-felt duty, so that the Eucharist should never be missed.
Another important point is to make time for the Liturgy of the Hours
and therefore, for this inner freedom: with all the burdens that
exist, it frees us and helps us to be more open, to be deeply in
touch with the Lord.
Of course, we must do all that is required by pastoral life, by the
life of a parochial vicar or of a parish priest or by another
priestly office. However, I would say, never forget these fixed
points, the Eucharist and the Liturgy of the Hours, so that you have
a certain order in the daily routine. As I said at the outset, we
learned not to have to plan the timetable ever anew; "Serva ordinem
et ordo servabit te". These are true words.
Next, it is important not to neglect communion with other priests,
with one's companions on the way, and not to lose one's personal
contact with the Word of God, meditation. How should this be done? I
have a fairly simple recipe for it: combine the preparation of the
Sunday homily with personal meditation to ensure that these words
are not only spoken to others but are really words said by the Lord
to me myself, and developed in a personal conversation with the
Lord.
For this to be possible, my advice is to begin early on Monday, for
if one begins on Saturday it is too late, the preparation is hurried
and perhaps inspiration is lacking, for one has other things on
one's mind. Therefore, I would say, already on Monday, simply read
the Readings for the coming Sunday which perhaps seem very
difficult: a little like those rocks at Massah and Meribah, where
Moses said: "But how can water come from these rocks?".
Then stop thinking about these Readings and allow the heart to
digest them. Words are processed in the unconscious, and return a
little more every day. Obviously, books should also be consulted, as
far as possible. And with this interior process, day by day, one
sees that a response gradually develops. These words gradually
unfold, they become words for me. And since I am a contemporary,
they also become words for others. I can then begin to express what
I perhaps see in my own theological language in the language of
others; the fundamental thought, however, remains the same for
others and for myself.
Thus, it is possible to have a lasting and silent encounter with the
Word that does not demand a lot of time, which perhaps we do not
have. But save a little time: only in this way does a Sunday homily
mature for others, but my own heart is also touched by the Lord's
Word. I am also in touch with a situation when perhaps I have little
time available.
I would not dare now to offer too much advice, because life in the
large city of Rome is a little different to what I experienced 55
years ago in our Bavaria. But I think these things are essential:
the Eucharist, the Office of Readings, prayer and a conversation
every day, even a brief one, with the Lord on his words which I must
proclaim. And never lose either your friendship with priests,
listening to the voice of the living Church, or naturally,
availability to the people entrusted to me, because from these very
people, with their suffering, their faith experiences, their doubts
and difficulties, we too can learn, seek and find God, find our Lord
Jesus Christ.
[Translation of Italian original issued by the Holy See]
© Copyright 2007 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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