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VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
ANNO XXII - N° 56
DATA 14-03-2012
Summary:
- VENERATING THE MOTHER OF GOD MEANS LEARNING TO BECOME A COMMUNITY OF PRAYER
- BENEDICTINE TORCH IN ROME
- POPE TO VISIT ROME'S SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
___________________________________________________________
VENERATING THE MOTHER OF GOD MEANS LEARNING TO BECOME A COMMUNITY OF PRAYER
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - During his general audience this morning
the Holy Father began a new cycle of catecheses, dedicated to the subject of
prayer in the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St. Paul. The Pope
focused his remarks today
on the figure of Mary as she appears in the Acts, when with the Apostles she
awaits the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Benedict XVI told the more than 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square
that "it was with Mary that Jesus' earthly life began, and it was with her
that the Church took its first steps. ... She discreetly followed her Son's
journey during His
public life, even unto the foot of the cross. Then, with silent prayer, she
continued to follow the progress of the Church", he explained.
The stages of Mary's own journey from the house of Nazareth to the Upper Room
of Jerusalem "were marked by her capacity to maintain an ongoing state of
contemplation, meditating upon each event in the silence of her heart, before
God. The Mother of
God's presence with the Eleven after the Ascension ... has great significance
because with them she shared the most precious of things: the living memory of
Jesus in prayer".
After Jesus' Ascension to heaven, the Apostles met with Mary to await the gift
of the Holy Spirit, without which it is not possible to bear witness to
Christ. "She, who had already received the Spirit in order to generate the
incarnate Word, shared the
entire Church’s expectation of the same gift. ... If it is true that
there could be no Church without Pentecost, it is also true that there could
have been no Pentecost without the Mother of Jesus, because she had a unique
knowledge of what the
Church experiences every day by the action of the Holy Spirit".
The Pope went on to recall how the Vatican Council II Dogmatic Constitution
"Lumen gentium" had emphasised this special relationship between the Virgin
and the Church. "We see the Apostles before the day of Pentecost 'constantly
devoting themselves to
prayer, together with certain women including Mary the mother of Jesus'", he
said. "Mary's place is in the Church, 'wherefore she is hailed as a
pre-eminent and singular member, ... and as its type and excellent exemplar in
faith and charity'.
"Venerating the Mother of Jesus in the Church means, then, learning from her
how to become a community of prayer", the Holy Father added. "This is one of
the essential aspects of the first description of the Christian community
given in the Acts of the
Apostles".
Our prayers "are often dictated by difficult situations, by personal problems
which cause us to turn to the Lord in search of light, comfort and aid. But
Mary invites us to open prayer to other dimensions, to address God not only in
moments of need and
not only for ourselves, but unanimously, perseveringly, faithfully and with
'one heart and soul'".
Benedict XVI also pointed out that Mary "was placed by the Lord at decisive
moments of the history of salvation, and she always responded with complete
readiness as a result of her profound bond with God matured through assiduous
and intense prayer. ...
Between the Ascension and Pentecost, she was 'with' and 'in' the Church, in
prayer. Mother of God and Mother of the Church, Mary exercises her maternity
until the end of history".
The Pope concluded by saying that "Mary teaches us the need for prayer and
shows us how only through a constant, intimate and complete bond of love with
her Son can we courageously leave our homes ... to announce the Lord Jesus,
Saviour of the world".
___________________________________________________________
BENEDICTINE TORCH IN ROME
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience,
Benedict XVI greeted a delegation led by Archbishop Renato Boccardo of Norcia,
Italy, and by the abbots of the Montecassino and Subiaco. They have recently
returned from Malta
where last Sunday the Benedictine torch "Pro Pace et Europa Una" was lit. The
torch will return to the saint's home town of Norcia on 20 March.
The Benedictine torch has been carried around European capital cities since
the year 1964 which Paul VI proclaimed St. Benedict as patron saint of Europe.
The torch is intended to symbolise the fraternity and peace proclaimed in the
Gospel, beyond all
political, ideological and religious divides. In the past it has been lit in
Berlin, Prague, Bucharest, Strasbourg, Budapest, Madrid, Lisbon, Warsaw,
Brussels, Vienna, Moscow and Jerusalem. In 2001 it was taken to New York to
bring a message of hope
following the attacks of 11 September, while last year it was lit in London
during the course of an ecumenical ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
___________________________________________________________
POPE TO VISIT ROME'S SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - At 11 a.m. on Thursday 3 May the Holy
Father will visit the Roman campus of the Sacred Heart Catholic University,
where he will pronounce an address to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the
foundation of the "Agostino
Gemelli" Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, according to a communique released
today by the Holy See Press Office.
___________________________________________________________
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:
- Bishop Adalberto Martinez Flores of San Pedro, Paraguay, as military
ordinary for Paraguay.
- Fr. Eduardo Jose Castillo Pino of the clergy of the archdiocese of
Guayaquil, Ecuador, pastor and episcopal vicar of "Santa Elena", as auxiliary
of Portoviejo (area 21,000, population 1,332,723, Catholics 1,298,917, priests
111, religious 311),
Ecuador. The bishop-elect was born in Guayaquil in 1970 and ordained a priest
in 1994. After studying for his doctorate in Rome, he worked in his home
country as a professor in seminaries and schools. He collaborates with the
Ecuadorian Episcopal
Conference and is author of numerous historical and theological works.
___________________________________________________________
Per ulteriori informazioni e per la ricerca di documenti consultare il
sito: www.wisnews.org e www.vatican.va
Il servizio del VIS viene inviato soltanto agli indirizzi di posta
elettronica che ne hanno fatto richiesta. Se per qualunque motivo
non si desidera continuare a riceverlo, si prega di visitare nostra pagina
dinizio:
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vis/italinde.php
Copyright (VIS): Le notizie contenute nei servizi del Vatican
Information Service possono essere riprodotte parzialmente o totalmente
citando la fonte: V.I.S. - Vatican Information Service.
--Boundary_(ID_J5M/2mAItRCBgpav4abyww)
Content-type: text/html; CHARSETUS-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
VISnews120314
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE ANNO XXII - N° 56DATA 14-03-2012
Summary: - VENERATING THE MOTHER OF GOD
MEANS LEARNING TO BECOME A
COMMUNITY OF PRAYER - BENEDICTINE TORCH IN ROME - POPE TO VISIT
ROME'S SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS ___________________________________________________________
VENERATING THE MOTHER OF GOD MEANS LEARNING TO BECOME A COMMUNITY OF
PRAYER
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - During his general audience this
morning the Holy Father began a new cycle of catecheses, dedicated to the
subject of prayer in the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St. Paul. The
Pope focused his remarks
today on the figure of Mary as she appears in the Acts, when with the Apostles
she awaits the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Benedict XVI told the more than 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's
Square that "it was with Mary that Jesus' earthly life began, and it was with
her that the Church took its first steps. ... She discreetly followed her
Son's journey during His
public life, even unto the foot of the cross. Then, with silent prayer, she
continued to follow the progress of the Church", he explained.
The stages of Mary's own journey from the house of Nazareth to the Upper
Room of Jerusalem "were marked by her capacity to maintain an ongoing state of
contemplation, meditating upon each event in the silence of her heart, before
God. The Mother of
God's presence with the Eleven after the Ascension ... has great significance
because with them she shared the most precious of things: the living memory of
Jesus in prayer".
After Jesus' Ascension to heaven, the Apostles met with Mary to await the
gift of the Holy Spirit, without which it is not possible to bear witness to
Christ. "She, who had already received the Spirit in order to generate the
incarnate Word, shared
the entire Church’s expectation of the same gift. ... If it is true that
there could be no Church without Pentecost, it is also true that there could
have been no Pentecost without the Mother of Jesus, because she had a unique
knowledge of what
the Church experiences every day by the action of the Holy Spirit".
The Pope went on to recall how the Vatican Council II Dogmatic Constitution
"Lumen gentium" had emphasised this special relationship between the Virgin
and the Church. "We see the Apostles before the day of Pentecost 'constantly
devoting themselves
to prayer, together with certain women including Mary the mother of Jesus'",
he said. "Mary's place is in the Church, 'wherefore she is hailed as a
pre-eminent and singular member, ... and as its type and excellent exemplar in
faith and charity'.
"Venerating the Mother of Jesus in the Church means, then, learning from
her how to become a community of prayer", the Holy Father added. "This is one
of the essential aspects of the first description of the Christian community
given in the Acts of
the Apostles".
Our prayers "are often dictated by difficult situations, by personal
problems which cause us to turn to the Lord in search of light, comfort and
aid. But Mary invites us to open prayer to other dimensions, to address God
not only in moments of need
and not only for ourselves, but unanimously, perseveringly, faithfully and
with 'one heart and soul'".
Benedict XVI also pointed out that Mary "was placed by the Lord at decisive
moments of the history of salvation, and she always responded with complete
readiness as a result of her profound bond with God matured through assiduous
and intense prayer.
... Between the Ascension and Pentecost, she was 'with' and 'in' the Church,
in prayer. Mother of God and Mother of the Church, Mary exercises her
maternity until the end of history".
The Pope concluded by saying that "Mary teaches us the need for prayer and
shows us how only through a constant, intimate and complete bond of love with
her Son can we courageously leave our homes ... to announce the Lord Jesus,
Saviour of the
world".
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience,
Benedict XVI greeted a delegation led by Archbishop Renato Boccardo of Norcia,
Italy, and by the abbots of the Montecassino and Subiaco. They have recently
returned from
Malta where last Sunday the Benedictine torch "Pro Pace et Europa Una" was
lit. The torch will return to the saint's home town of Norcia on 20 March.
The Benedictine torch has been carried around European capital cities since
the year 1964 which Paul VI proclaimed St. Benedict as patron saint of Europe.
The torch is intended to symbolise the fraternity and peace proclaimed in the
Gospel, beyond
all political, ideological and religious divides. In the past it has been lit
in Berlin, Prague, Bucharest, Strasbourg, Budapest, Madrid, Lisbon, Warsaw,
Brussels, Vienna, Moscow and Jerusalem. In 2001 it was taken to New York to
bring a message of hope
following the attacks of 11 September, while last year it was lit in London
during the course of an ecumenical ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - At 11 a.m. on Thursday 3 May the Holy
Father will visit the Roman campus of the Sacred Heart Catholic University,
where he will pronounce an address to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the
foundation of the
"Agostino Gemelli" Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, according to a communique
released today by the Holy See Press Office.
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:
- Bishop Adalberto Martinez Flores of San Pedro, Paraguay, as military
ordinary for Paraguay.
- Fr. Eduardo Jose Castillo Pino of the clergy of the archdiocese of
Guayaquil, Ecuador, pastor and episcopal vicar of "Santa Elena", as auxiliary
of Portoviejo (area 21,000, population 1,332,723, Catholics 1,298,917, priests
111, religious 311),
Ecuador. The bishop-elect was born in Guayaquil in 1970 and ordained a priest
in 1994. After studying for his doctorate in Rome, he worked in his home
country as a professor in seminaries and schools. He collaborates with the
Ecuadorian Episcopal
Conference and is author of numerous historical and theological works.
Per ulteriori informazioni e per la ricerca di documenti consultare il
sito: www.wisnews.org e www.vatican.va Il servizio del
VIS viene inviato soltanto agli indirizzi di posta elettronica che ne
hanno
fatto richiesta. Se per qualunque motivo non si desidera continuare a
riceverlo, si prega di visitare nostra pagina dinizio: http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vi
/italinde.php
Copyright (VIS): Le notizie contenute nei servizi del Vatican
Information Service possono essere riprodotte parzialmente o totalmente
citando la fonte: V.I.S. - Vatican Information Service.
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