Category Archives: Benedict XVI
A paradoxical path
Benedict XVI is giving a series of teachings on the Creed. Here is a teaser from his first one: Faith leads Abraham to tread a paradoxical path. He will be blessed, but without the visible signs of blessing: he receives the promise to become a great nation, but with a life marked by the barrenness …
The God who has a human face
“The God who has a human face and who has loved us to the end . . . “: “[W]e need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who …
He is not absent
“We are in the liturgical season of Advent, which prepares us for Christmas. As we all know, the word ‘Advent’ means ‘coming’, ‘presence’, and originally meant specifically the arrival of the king or emperor to a particular province. For us Christians it means a wonderful and overwhelming reality: God himself has crossed his Heavens and …
“You shall have grace sufficient . . . “
Last week, in his Wednesday audience, Pope Benedict spoke of St. Paul and his ability to find the strength of God in his weakness. Commenting on Paul’s petition to be delivered from the thorn in his flesh, Pope Benedict said: Let us reflect a moment more on this event, which occurred during the years when …
Our travel companion
We are not alone. In the selection below, Pope Benedict encourages us to recognize that the Lord has given us Mary as our travel companion in life. What a gift. When we are needed to go to places that we are uncomfortable going to, when we are called to do things beyond our confidence, or …
The Spirit helps us in our weakness
In his weekly audience last week, Pope Benedict spoke some very encouraging words to those of us who struggle in prayer: In the Letter to the Romans [Paul] writes: “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with …
Where is Christ today?
[A repost from the past] This is the day when everything is silent. We can go about the day not giving much of a thought to it–just seeing it as the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Yet monumental things were happening in the spiritual realm. Christ descended to hell to set captives free. …
When God is silent
What sense can we make of those times when God is silent? Does that mean that He is absenting Himself from our lives? Pope Benedict profoundly reflected on this a couple of weeks ago during his Wednesday audience: “Often in our prayer, we find ourselves before the silence of God; we experience a sense of …
A star of hope
“Just as the presence of the memory of God’s goodness helps us and becomes a star of hope for us in our common, collective history, so also each of us has his own personal history of salvation, and we must truly treasure this history, keeping always in mind the great things He has also done …
The strength of hope
Just to underline what Pope Benedict said in his meditation on Ps 136 this past Wednesday: “Remembering becomes the strength of hope. Remembering tells us: God is; God is good, and His mercy is eternal.” This is so important for us to cultivate, this art, this habit of remembering. Life can move too fast, and …
