{"id":24660,"date":"2009-05-24T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-24T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/05\/pope-benedict-follow-the-witne\/"},"modified":"2009-05-24T19:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-24T23:30:00","slug":"pope-benedict-follow-the-witne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/05\/pope-benedict-follow-the-witne\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Benedict: follow the witness of Saint Benedict"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"PAX.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Every time we celebrate Holy Mass, we hear echo in our heart
\nthe words that Jesus left with his disciples at the Last Supper as a precious
\ngift: “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you” (John 14:27). How much
\nthe Christian community and the whole of humanity need to taste completely the
\nriches and the power of Christ’s peace! St. Benedict was a great witness,
\nbecause he welcomed it in his existence and fructified it in works of authentic
\ncultural and spiritual renewal. “Pax” (“Peace”) is posted
\nas a motto at the entrance to the Abbey of Monte Cassino and every other
\nBenedictine monastery: the monastic community in fact is called to live
\naccording to this peace, which is the paschal gift par excellence<\/span><\/span>. As you know,
\nin my recent trip to the Holy Land, I went as a pilgrim of peace, and today —
\nin this land marked by the Benedictine charism — I have the opportunity to
\nemphasize, once again, that peace is in the first place a gift of God, and
\ntherefore its power is in prayer.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It is a gift given, however, to human care. Even the energy
\nthat is needed to actualize it is drawn from prayer. So, it is essential to
\ncultivate an authentic prayer life to assure the social progress of peace<\/span>. Once
\nagain the history of monasticism teaches us that a great growth in civilization
\nis prepared by daily listening to the Word of God<\/span>, which moves believers to a
\npersonal and communal effort in the struggle against egoism and injustice<\/span><\/span><\/span>. Only
\nin learning, with the grace of Christ, to combat and defeat the evil within
\nourselves and in relationships with others, can we become authentic builders of
\npeace and civil progress. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, help all
\nChristians, in their different vocations and situations in life, to be
\nwitnesses of that peace that Christ gave us and left us as a demanding mission
\nto realize everywhere.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Today, March 24, liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin
\nMary, Help of Christians — who is venerated with great devotion at the shrine
\nof Sheshan in Shanghai — we celebrate the Day of Prayer for the Church in
\nChina. My thoughts turn to all the people of China. In particular I greet the
\nCatholics of China with great affection and I exhort them to renew on this day
\ntheir communion of faith in Christ and of fidelity to the Successor of Peter.
\nMay our common prayer obtain an effusion of gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that
\nunity of all Christians, the catholicity and the universality of the Church
\nalways will be deeper and more visible.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pope Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli Address, Miranda Square, May 24, 2009<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every time we celebrate Holy Mass, we hear echo in our heart the words that Jesus left with his disciples at the Last Supper as a precious gift: “Peace I leave you, my peace I give you” (John 14:27). How much the Christian community and the whole of humanity need to taste completely the riches … Continue reading Pope Benedict: follow the witness of Saint Benedict<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[32089,32088,1746],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24660\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}