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Pope Benedict XVI- Addresses |
 "Place
Yourselves With Ever Growing Openness at the Service of the Gospel"
Address
of H.H. Pope Benedict XVI to Priests, Deacons and Seminarians of
Brindisi
Brindisi Cathedral
June 15, 2008
Dearest
priests, deacons and seminarians,
I am pleased to address my cordial greeting to all of you
gathered in this beautiful Cathedral, reopened for worship after
its restoration last November. I thank Archbishop Rocco Talucci
for the warm welcome he has addressed to me in your name and for
all his gifts. I greet the priests to whom I wish to express my
satisfaction at the immense and structured pastoral work they
carry out. I greet the deacons, the seminarians and everyone
present and express my joy at being surrounded by a large crowd
of souls consecrated for the advent of the Kingdom of God. Here
in the Cathedral, which is the heart of the Diocese, we all feel
at home, united by the bond of Christ's love. Let us commemorate
here with gratitude those who spread Christianity in these
regions: Brindisi was the first city of the West to welcome the
Gospel, which reached it on the Roman consular roads. Among the
evangelizing Saints I think of Bishop St Leucius, of St Oronzo,
St Theodore of Amasea and St Lawrence of Brindisi, proclaimed a
Doctor of the Church by John XXIII. Their presence lives on in
the hearts of the people and is witnessed to by many of the
city's monuments.
Dear brothers, in seeing you gathered in this Church, in which
many of you received your diaconal and presbyteral ordination, I
remember the words that St Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the
Christians of Ephesus: "Your excellent presbyters, who are a
credit to God, are as suited to the Bishop as strings to a harp.
So in your harmony of mind and heart the song you sing is Jesus
Christ". And the holy Bishop added: "Every one of you should
form a choir, so that, in harmony of sound through harmony of
hearts, and in unity taking the note from God, you may sing with
one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father. If you do this, he
will listen to you" (Letter to the Ephesians, 4). Persevere,
dear priests, in seeking this unity of intention and reciprocal
help, so that fraternal charity and unity in pastoral work are
an example and incentive for your communities. This, above all,
was the goal of the pastoral visits your Archbishop made to your
parishes which ended last March. Due, precisely, to your
generous collaboration, it was not merely a juridical exercise
but an extraordinary event of ecclesial and formative value. I
am certain that it will be fruitful since the Lord will make the
seed sown with love grow abundantly in the hearts of the
faithful.
I would like to encourage you with my presence today to place
yourselves with ever growing openness at the service of the
Gospel and of the Church. I know that you already work with zeal
and intelligence, sparing no energy in spreading the joyful
Gospel proclamation. Christ, to whom you have consecrated your
lives, is with you! In him we all believe, to him alone we
entrust our lives, it is he whom we desire to proclaim to the
world. May Christ who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn
14: 6), be the object of our thought, the topic of our words,
the reason for our life. Dear brother priests, if your faith is
to be strong and vigorous, as you well know, it must be
nourished with assiduous prayer. Thus be models of prayer,
become masters of prayer. May your days be marked by times of
prayer, during which, after Jesus' example, you engage in a
regenerating conversation with the Father. I know it is not easy
to stay faithful to this daily appointment with the Lord,
especially today when the pace of life is frenetic and worries
absorb us more and more. Yet we must convince ourselves: the
time he spends in prayer is the most important time in a
priest's life, in which divine grace acts with greater
effectiveness, making his ministry fruitful. The first service
to render to the community is prayer. And therefore, time for
prayer must be given a true priority in our life. I know that
there are many urgent things: as regards myself, an audience, a
document to study, a meeting or something else. But if we are
not interiorly in communion with God we cannot even give
anything to others. Therefore, God is the first priority. We
must always reserve the time necessary to be in communion of
prayer with our Lord.
Dear brothers and sisters, I would now like to congratulate you
on the new Archdiocesan Seminary which was inaugurated last
November by my Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. On
the one hand, it expresses the present state of a Diocese,
understood as the culmination of work undertaken by priests and
parishes in the area of the pastoral care of youth, in teaching
the catechism, in the religious animation of families. On the
other hand, the Seminary is a precious investment for the
future, because it ensures that through patient and generous
work the Christian community will not be deprived of shepherds
of souls, of teachers of faith and of zealous guides and
witnesses of Christ's charity. Besides being the place of your
formation, dear seminarians, true hope of the Church, this
seminary of yours is also a place for the up-dating and
continuing formation of youth and adults who wish to make their
contribution to the cause of the Kingdom of God. The careful
formation of seminarians and the continuing formation of priests
and other pastoral workers is a primary concern of your Bishop,
to whom God has entrusted the mission of guiding the People of
God who live in your City as a wise pastor.
Another opportunity for the spiritual growth of your community
is the Archdiocesan Synod, the first since the Second Vatican
Council and since the unification of the two Dioceses of
Brindisi and Ostuni. It is an opportunity to relaunch the
apostolic commitment of the entire Diocese but above all it is a
privileged moment of communion that is a help in the rediscovery
of the value of fraternal service, as indicated in the biblical
scene of the washing of the feet (cf. Jn 13: 12-17) that you
chose, with the words of Jesus that comment on it: "As I have
done" (Jn 13: 15). If it is true that the Synod, every Synod, is
called to establish laws and to issue the appropriate norms for
an organic pastoral activity, raising and stimulating renewed
commitment to evangelization and Gospel witness, it is also true
that a Synod must reawaken in every baptized person the
missionary outreach that constantly animates the Church.
Dear brother priests, the Pope assures you of his special
remembrance in prayer so that you may continue on the journey of
authentic spiritual renewal which you have been making with your
community. May the experience of "being together" in faith and
reciprocal love help you in this commitment, like the Apostles
around Christ in the Upper Room. It was there that the Divine
Teacher taught them, opening their eyes to the splendour of the
truth and giving them the sacrament of unity and love: the
Eucharist. In the Upper Room, during the Last Supper, at the
moment of the washing of the feet, it clearly emerged that
service is one of the fundamental dimensions of Christian life.
It is therefore a duty of the Synod to help all the members of
your local Church to rediscover the meaning and the joy of
service: a service for love. This applies above all for you,
dear priests, configured to Christ "Head and Pastor", always
ready to guide his flock. Be thankful and happy for the gift
received! Be generous in carrying out your ministry! Sustain it
with assiduous prayer and a continuing cultural, theological and
spiritual formation!
While I renew the expression of my lively appreciation and my
warmest encouragement, I invite you and the entire Archdiocese
to prepare for the Pauline Year which is shortly to begin. It
can be an occasion on which to relaunch generous missionary
activity, for a more profound proclamation of the Word of God,
welcomed, meditated and translated into a fruitful apostolate,
as it happened exactly for the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Conquered by Christ, Paul lived entirely for him and for his
Gospel, spending his existence even to the point of martyrdom.
May you be assisted by the Blessed Mother of the Church and
Virgin of Listening; may the Patron Saints of this beloved land
of Apulia protect you. Be missionaries of God's love; may each
of your parishes experience the joy of belonging to Christ. As a
pledge of divine grace and of the gifts of his Spirit, I gladly
impart the Apostolic Blessing to you all.
© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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