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Pope Benedict XVI- Angelus |
Regina
Caeli Message
On the Call to Evangelize
"Christian Marriage Is Also a Missionary Vocation"
H.H. Benedict XVI
April 13, 2008
www.zenit.org
Dear brothers and sisters,
On this Fourth Sunday of Easter, in which the liturgy presents Jesus
to us as the Good Shepherd, the World Day of Prayer for Vocations is
celebrated. On every continent, church communities are united in
invoking the Lord to ask him for numerous and holy vocations to the
priesthood, the consecrated and missionary life, and Christian
matrimony, meditating on the theme: Vocations at the Service of the
Church on Mission. This year, the World Day of Prayer for Vocations
2008 is framed within the perspective of the Pauline year, which
will begin next June 28, to celebrate 2,000 years since the birth of
the Apostle Paul, the missionary par excellence.
According to the experience of the Apostle to the Gentiles, who the
Lord called to be a "minister of the Gospel," vocation and mission
are inseparable. He is, therefore, a model for all Christians, in
particular, for the "ad vitam" missionaries, that is, those men and
women who dedicate themselves totally to announcing Christ to those
who still have not known him: a vocation which continues to maintain
all of its validity.
This missionary service is carried out, in the first place, by
priests in offering the Word of God and the sacraments, and in
manifesting the healing presence of Jesus Christ with their pastoral
charity for everyone, above all for the ill, the little ones and the
poor. We give thanks to God for these our brothers, who give
themselves without reserve to pastoral ministry, sometimes sealing
their fidelity to Christ with the sacrifice of their lives, as
happened yesterday to two religious assassinated in Guinea and
Kenya. To them we direct our thankful admiration, as well as our
prayers for their souls.
We pray also that there be an increasing number of those who decide
to radically live the Gospel through the vows of chastity, poverty
and obedience -- men and women who have a primary role in
evangelization. Some of them dedicate themselves to contemplation
and prayer, others to a multifaceted educational and charitable
work. All of them, nevertheless, are united in the same objective:
to give witness to the primacy of God over all and to spread his
Kingdom in every sphere of society.
Many of them, as the Servant of God Paul VI wrote, "are enterprising
and their apostolate is often marked by an originality, by a genius
that demands admiration. They are generous: Often they are found at
the outposts of the mission, and they take the greatest of risks for
their health and their very lives."
Finally, it mustn't be forgotten that Christian marriage is also a
missionary vocation: The couple, in fact, is called to live the
Gospel in the family, in the workplace and in parish and civil
communities. In certain cases, moreover, they offer their valuable
contribution to the missions "ad gentes."
Dear brothers and sisters: Let us invoke the maternal protection of
Mary for the many vocations that exist in the Church so that they
are developed with an intense missionary character. To her, Mother
of the Church and Queen of Peace, I also commend the special
missionary experience that I will live in the next few days with the
apostolic trip to the United States and the visit to the United
Nations, as I ask all of you to accompany me with your prayers.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[After praying the Regina Caeli, the Pope greeted the people in
several languages. In English, he said:]
I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here today.
This Tuesday I leave Rome for my visit to the United Nations
Organization and the United States of America. With the various
groups I shall meet, my intention is to share our Lord's word of
life. In Christ is our hope! Christ is the foundation of our hope
for peace, for justice, and for the freedom that flows from God's
law fulfilled in his commandment to love one another. Dear brothers
and sisters, I ask you all to pray for the success of my visit, so
that it may be a time of spiritual renewal for all Americans. Upon
each of you present, I invoke the protection and guidance of Jesus
the Good Shepherd.
© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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