{"id":25185,"date":"2009-12-22T10:50:49","date_gmt":"2009-12-22T14:50:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/12\/the-search-for-god-of-all-peop\/"},"modified":"2009-12-22T10:50:49","modified_gmt":"2009-12-22T14:50:49","slug":"the-search-for-god-of-all-peop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/12\/the-search-for-god-of-all-peop\/","title":{"rendered":"The search for God of all people, believers and non-believers concerns us, Pope said"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Holy Father’s annual address to the Roman Curia -the
\nCardinals and bishops resident in Rome and other officials of the Roman Curia who assist him in
\nhis governance of the Universal Church– took place yesterday. In it the Pope points to some notable concerns that he thinks that ought to be the concern of all
\nof us who believe faith is central our lives. Namely, belief and unbelief,
\ndoubt and certainty and freedom with regard to God and humanity’s search for God. In my humble opinion, this papal address should be an essential point in any diocesan, parish or ecclesial movement’s pastoral plan in 2010 and beyond. In part the Holy Father said,<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Even the
\npeople who describe themselves as agnostics or atheists must be very important
\nto us as believers. When we talk about a new evangelization, these people may
\nbecome afraid<\/i>. They do not want to see themselves as an object of mission, nor
\ndo they want to renounce their freedom of thought or of will<\/b>. But the question
\nabout God nonetheless remains present for them as well, even if they cannot
\nbelieve in the concrete nature of his attention to us. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

\"Benedict<\/a><\/p>\n

In Paris, I talked
\nabout the search for God<\/b> as the fundamental motive from which Western
\nmonasticism was born, and with it, Western culture. As the first step in
\nevangelization<\/span>, we must try to keep this search alive<\/b>; we must take pains that
\nman not set aside the question of God as an essential question of his
\nexistence<\/i>. Take pains that he accept this question and the longing concealed
\nwithin it.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
Here I am reminded of the words that Jesus quoted from the prophet
\nIsaiah, that the temple should be a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Isaiah
\n56:7; Mark 11:17). He was thinking about what was called the court of the
\ngentiles, which he cleansed of extraneous business so that it could be the
\nspace available for the gentiles who wanted to pray to the one God there, even
\nif they could not take part in the mystery, for service of which the interior
\nof the temple was reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
A place of prayer for all peoples: by this was
\nmeant the people who know God, so to speak, only from afar; who are
\ndissatisfied with their gods, rites, myths; who desire the Pure and the Great,
\neven if God remains for them the “unknown God” (cf. Acts 17:23). They
\nneeded to be able to pray to the unknown God, and so be in relation with the
\ntrue God, although in the midst of obscurities of various kinds.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
I think that
\nthe Church should also open today a sort of “court of the gentiles”
\nwhere men can in some manner cling to God, without knowing him and before they
\nhave found the entryway to his mystery, which the interior life of the Church
\nserves<\/b>. To the dialogue with the religions it must above all add today a
\ndialogue with those for whom religion is something foreign, to whom God is
\nunknown, and who nonetheless would not like simply to remain without God, but
\nat least to approach him as the Unknown.<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Holy Father’s annual address to the Roman Curia -the Cardinals and bishops resident in Rome and other officials of the Roman Curia who assist him in his governance of the Universal Church– took place yesterday. In it the Pope points to some notable concerns that he thinks that ought to be the concern of … Continue reading The search for God of all people, believers and non-believers concerns us, Pope said<\/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":[55,7,32,47],"tags":[1716,32081,2264,1792],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25185"}],"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=25185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}