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Pope Benedict XVI- Angelus |
For
Vocations, Life, Lent
"A People's Civilization Is Measured by Its Capacity to Serve"
H.H. Benedict XVI
February 3, 2008
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Today I would like to entrust various intentions to your prayers.
Firstly, recalling that yesterday, the liturgical feast of the
Presentation of the Lord, we celebrated the Day for Consecrated
Life, I invite you to pray for those whom Christ calls to follow him
more closely with a special consecration. Our gratitude goes out to
these brothers and sisters of ours who dedicate themselves to the
total service of God and the Church with the vows of poverty,
chastity and obedience. May the Holy Virgin obtain many and holy
vocations to the consecrated life, which constitutes inestimable
riches for the Church and for the world.
Another prayer intention is offered by the Day for Life, which is
celebrated today in Italy, and has “Serving Life” as its theme. I
greet and salute those who have come here to St. Peter’s Square to
bear witness to their commitment to the defense and promotion of
life and to reaffirm that “a people’s civilization is measured by
its capacity to serve life” [Message of the Italian Bishops’
Conference for the 30th National Day for Life].
Everyone, according to their own possibilities, profession and
competence, always feels compelled to love and serve life, from its
beginning to its natural end. It is, in fact, the duty of all to
welcome human life as a gift to be respected, safeguarded and
promoted, especially when it is fragile and in need of care, whether
prior to birth or at its end. I join with the Italian bishops to
encourage those who, with toil but with joy, without clamoring and
with great dedication, help elderly or disabled family members, and
those who regularly give part of their own time to help those
persons of every age whose life is tried by many and different forms
of poverty.
Let us pray also that the season of Lent, which will begin Wednesday
with the Rite of the Ashes -- which I celebrate, as every year, at
the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine -- will be a time of
authentic conversion for all Christians, called to an ever more
authentic and courageous witness of their faith. We entrust these
prayer intentions to the Madonna.
Beginning yesterday and continuing through Feb. 11, the memorial of
the Blessed Virgin of Lourdes and the 150th anniversary of the
apparitions, it is possible to receive a plenary indulgence,
applicable to the dead, with the usual conditions -- confession,
Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions -- by praying before
a blessed image of Our Lady of Lourdes exposed for public
veneration. For the elderly and the sick this is possible through
the desire of the heart. Mary, Mother and Star of Hope, illuminate
our path and make us always more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.
[After the Angelus the Holy Father said the following in Italian:]
I invite you to unite yourselves with the brothers and sisters of
Kenya -- some of whom are here present in St. Peter’s Square -- in
prayer for reconciliation, justice and peace in their country.
Assuring my nearness to all, I hope that the efforts at mediation
presently being undertaken might have success and lead, through the
goodwill and the cooperation of all, to a rapid solution to the
conflict, which has already claimed too many victims.
Malevolence, with its burden of suffering, does not seem to know any
limits in Iraq, as the very sad news of these days tells us. Again I
raise up my voice on behalf of that sorely tried population and I
ask the peace of God for them.
In my message for the recent World Day of Peace, I emphasized the
fact that it is in the family that one learns the lexicon of civil
common life and discovers human values. The festivities of the Lunar
New Year will see the families of the various Asian countries
gathered together in joy. I wish them every good and prosperity and
I hope that they will know how to preserve and value these beautiful
and fruitful traditions of family life, to the benefit of their
respective nations and in those countries in which they presently
find themselves living.
Today in the Diocese of Rome, the “Diocesan Week of Life and the
Family” begins. It will culminate next Sunday, at the shrine of the
Madonna of Divine Love, with the celebration of the “Diocesan Feast
of the Family.” I encourage all parents to rediscover the grandeur
and beauty of the educative mission. Indeed, education is very
demanding but exciting! Make your children feel, from the most
tender age, that nearness that testifies to love. Give yourselves,
so that they in turn will open to others and to the world with
serenity and generosity. The soul of education is always trust in
God, who “gives hope to our future!"
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
[In Spanish, he said:]
I also raise ceaseless and fervent prayers to God for Colombia,
where for some time, many sons and daughters of that beloved country
are suffering the effects of extortion, kidnapping and the violent
loss of their loved ones.
May such inhuman suffering come to a definitive end, and ways be
found for reconciliation, mutual respect and genuine harmony, thus
recreating fraternity and solidarity which are the solid foundations
upon which to construct just progress and stable peace.
[In English, said:]
I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking visitors gathered for
this Angelus prayer. In a few days we will celebrate Ash Wednesday,
the beginning of our annual Lenten journey towards Easter. May this
season of spiritual renewal be for all Christians an occasion to
draw nearer to the Lord in prayer, penance and the pursuit of
holiness. Upon you and your families I invoke God’s blessings of joy
and peace!
© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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