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Pope Benedict XVI- Angelus |
Angelus
On the Trinity
"We Are Called Daily to be Open to the Action of Grace"
H.H. Benedict XVI
May 30, 2010
www.zenit.org
Dear brothers and sisters!
After the Easter season, which concluded last Sunday with Pentecost, the
liturgy returned to Ordinary Time. That does not mean that the
commitment of Christians must diminish, rather, having entered into the
divine life through the sacraments, we are called daily to be open to
the action of grace, to progress in the love of God and our neighbor.
This Sunday, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, recapitulates, in a
sense, God's revelation in the paschal mysteries: Christ's death and
resurrection, his ascension to the right hand of the Father and the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The human mind and language are
inadequate for explaining the relationship that exists between the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and nevertheless the Fathers of the
Church tried to illustrate the mystery of the One and Triune God, living
it in their existence with profound faith.
The divine Trinity, in fact, comes to dwell in us on the day of baptism:
"I baptize you," the minister says, "in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit." We recall the name of God in which we
were baptized every time that we make the sign of the cross. In regard
to the sign of the cross the theologian Romano Guardini observes: "We do
it before prayer so that … we put ourselves spiritually in order; it
focuses our thoughts, heart and will on God. We do it after prayer, so
that what God has granted us remains in us … It embraces all our being,
body and soul, … and every becomes consecrated in the name of the one
and triune God" ("Lo spirito della liturgia. I santi segni," Brescia
2000, 125-126).
Thus in the sign of the cross and in the name of the living God the
proclamation that generates faith and inspires prayer is contained. And,
as in the Gospel Jesus promises the apostles that "the Spirit of truth,
when he comes, will guide you in all truth" (John 16:13), the same
happens in the Sunday liturgy, when the priests dispense, week after
week, the bread of the Word and the Eucharist. The holy Curé d'Ars
reminded his faithful of this: "Who welcomed your soul," he said, "at
the beginning of your life? The priest. Who feeds your soul and gives it
strength for its journey? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear
before God, bathing it one last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? The
priest, always the priest" ("Letter Proclaiming a Year for Priests").
Dear friends, let us make the prayer of St. Hilary of Poitiers our own:
"Preserve undefiled in me this right faith and, to my last breath, grant
me also this voice of my conscience, so that I remain faithful to that
which I professed in my regeneration, when I was baptized in the Father,
and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit" ("De Trinitate," XII, 57, CCL
62/A, 627). Invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first creature in whom
the Most Holy Trinity dwelled fully, let us ask her protection to
journey well on our earthly pilgrimage.
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
[The Pontiff then greeted those present in various languages. In
English, he said:]
On this Trinity Sunday, I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and
visitors present at today's Angelus. This week I am making an Apostolic
Journey to Cyprus, to meet and pray with the Catholic and Orthodox
faithful there and to consign the Instrumentum Laboris for the upcoming
Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East. I ask for
your prayers for the peace and prosperity of all the people of Cyprus,
as well as for the preparations for the Special Assembly. Upon each of
you and your loved ones at home, I invoke the blessings of the most holy
Trinity.
©Copyright 2010 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[In Italian, he said:]
This morning in Rome in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the
beatification of Maria Pierina De Micheli was celebrated. She was a
religious of the Institute of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception
of Buenos Aires. Giuseppina -- this was he baptismal name -- was born in
Milan in 1890, in a deeply religious family, where different vocations
to the priesthood and to the consecrated life blossomed. At 23 she also
set out on this road, dedicating herself with passion to service in
education in Argentina and in Italy. The Lord granted her an
extraordinary devotion to his Holy Face, which always sustained her in
trials and sickness. She died in 1945 and her remains are at the
Institute of the Holy Spirit in Rome.
Look
at the One they Pierced!
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