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Pope Benedict XVI- Apostolic Journey to the Holy Land |
I Give Thanks for "the
Hidden Apostolate of the Contemplatives Who Are Present Here"
Words
at Latin Patriarchate Co-Cathedral
H.H. Benedict XVI
Latin patriarchate's co-cathedral of the Most Holy Name of Jesus
May 12, 2009
Your Beatitude,
I thank you for your words of welcome. I also greet the Patriarch
Emeritus and I assure you both of my fraternal good wishes and
prayers.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, I am happy to be here with you
today in this Co-Cathedral, where the Christian community in
Jerusalem continues to gather, as it has been doing for centuries,
ever since the earliest days of the Church. Here in this city, Peter
first preached the Good News of Jesus Christ on the day of
Pentecost, when about three thousand souls were added to the number
of the disciples. Here too the first Christians "devoted themselves
to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread
and the prayers" (Acts 2:42). From Jerusalem, the Gospel has gone
out "to all the earth ... to the ends of the world" (Ps 19:4), yet
all the time, the Church's missionary effort has been sustained by
the prayers of the faithful, gathered around the altar of the Lord,
invoking the mighty power of the Holy Spirit upon the work of
preaching.
Above all, it is the prayers of those whose vocation, in the words
of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, is to be "love, deep down in the heart
of the Church" (Letter to Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart) that
sustains the work of evangelization. I want to express a particular
word of appreciation for the hidden apostolate of the contemplatives
who are present here, and to thank you for your generous dedication
to lives of prayer and self-denial. I am especially grateful for the
prayers you offer for my universal ministry, and I ask you to
continue to commend to the Lord my work of service to God's people
all over the world. In the words of the Psalmist, I ask you also to
"pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Ps 122:6), to pray without
ceasing for an end to the conflict that has brought so much
suffering to the peoples of this land. And now, I give you my
blessing.
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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