Let us go forward with the Lord for the good of the Church and the world.

On 28 February 2013, shortly after 5:00 pm, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican for the last time as Supreme Pontiff…. In full military regalia, the Swiss Guard troops paid him homage. Many of the workers of the Vatican City State, with their families, were also in attendance and greeted the Pope with warm applause.

Before leaving the Vatican, Benedict XVI issued his last tweet: “Thank you for your love and support. May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.”

Shortly afterwards the Holy Father, accompanied by his private secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, prefect of the Papal Household, took a car to the Vatican heliport where he boarded the helicopter that carried him to Castel Gandolfo. As the helicopter lifted off, the bells of St. Peter's Basilica and the churches of Rome began ringing.

The Pope's helicopter flew over the city of Rome, passing by the Colosseum and St. John Lateran Basilica, and landed at the Castel Gandolfo heliport just after 5:20 pm….The Pope was then taken by car to the Castel Gandolfo Apostolic Palace, where he was greeted by hundreds of people while the bells of Castel Gandolfo's parishes rang out.

Shortly afterwards, Benedict XVI appeared at the balcony of the Apostolic Palace and said to the many faithful who were waiting to thank him for his pontificate: “Thank you. Thank you all. Dear friends, I am happy to be with you, surrounded by the beauty of Creation and your well wishes, which do me such good. Thank you for your friendship and your affection. You know that this day is different for me than the preceding ones. I am no longer the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church, or I will be until 8:00 this evening and then no longer. I am simply a pilgrim beginning the last leg of his pilgrimage on this earth. But I would still—with my heart, with my love, with my prayers, with my reflection, and with all my inner strength—like to work for the common good and the Good of the Church and of humanity. I feel very supported by your kindness. Let us go forward with the Lord for the good of the Church and the world. Thank you. I now wholeheartedly impart my blessing. Blessed be God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Good night! Thank you all!”

Pope Benedict XVI's pontificate concluded at 8:00 pm (Rome time), at which time the period of the Sede Vacante began.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/benedict-xvi-to-work-for-the-good-of-the-church-an
http://www.news.va/en/news/benedict-xvi-the-end-of-a-long-goodbye
http://www.news.va/en/news/sede-vacante-the-see-of-rome-is-vacant

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"I adore you, my God, and I love you with all my heart."

On 27 February 2013, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his last general audience. In St. Peter's Square, crowded with tens of thousands of people wishing to bid him farewell, the Pontiff said:

“I feel that I am carrying everyone with me in prayer in this God-given moment when I am collecting every meeting, every trip, every pastoral visit. I am gathering everyone and everything in prayer to entrust it to the Lord: so that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding in order to live in a manner worthy of the Lord and His love, bearing fruit in every good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).”

“At this moment I have great confidence because I know, we all know, that the Gospel's Word of truth is the strength of the Church; it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews, bearing fruit, wherever the community of believers hears it and welcomes God's grace in truth and in love. This is my confidence, this is my joy.”

“When, on 19 April almost eight years ago I accepted to take on the Petrine ministry, I had the firm certainty that has always accompanied me: this certainty for the life of the Church from the Word of God. At that moment, as I have already expressed many times, the words that resounded in my heart were: Lord, what do You ask of me? It is a great weight that You are placing on my shoulders but, if You ask it of me, I will cast my nets at your command, confident that You will guide me, even with all my weaknesses. And eight years later I can say that the Lord has guided me. He has been close to me. I have felt His presence every day. It has been a stretch of the Church's path that has had moments of joy and light, but also difficult moments. I felt like St. Peter and the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee. The Lord has given us many days of sunshine and light breezes, days when the fishing was plentiful, but also times when the water was rough and the winds against us, just as throughout the whole history of the Church, when the Lord seemed to be sleeping. But I always knew that the Lord is in that boat and I always knew that the boat of the Church is not mine, not ours, but is His. And the Lord will not let it sink. He is the one who steers her, of course also through those He has chosen because that is how He wanted it. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. And that is why my heart today is filled with gratitude to God, because He never left—the whole Church or me—without His consolation, His light, or His love.”

“We are in the Year of Faith, which I desired precisely in order to strengthen our faith in God in a context that seems to relegate it more and more to the background. I would like to invite everyone to renew their firm trust in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children to God's arms, certain that those arms always hold us up and are what allow us to walk forward each day, even when it is a struggle. I would like everyone to feel beloved of that God who gave His Son for us and who has shown us His boundless love. I would like everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer, which can be recited every morning, say: 'I adore you, my God and I love you with all my heart. Thank you for having created me, for having made me Christian...' Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith. It is the most precious thing, which no one can take from us! Let us thank the Lord for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but awaits us to also love Him!”

“I also thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding with which you have received this important decision. I will continue to accompany the Church's journey through prayer and reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and His Bride that I have tried to live every day up to now and that I want to always live. I ask you to remember me to God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals who are called to such an important task, and for the new Successor of the Apostle Peter. Many the Lord accompany him with the light and strength of His Spirit.”

“We call upon the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of the Church, that she might accompany each of us and the entire ecclesial community. We entrust ourselves to her with deep confidence.”

“Dear friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.”

For the complete text, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/benedict-xvis-final-general-audience-i-asked-god-t

http://www.news.va/en/news/popes-english-remarks-during-final-general-audienc

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Certain of God's Victory

At the conclusion of this year's Lenten spiritual exercises, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI thanked the members of the Curia who had accompanied him in these days and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravisi, who led the retreat. The Pope referred to his preaching, the theme of which was “The Art of Believing, the Art of Praying” as “'beautiful' walks through the universe of faith, and the universe of the Psalms.”

“Truth is beautiful. Truth and beauty go together. Beauty is the seal of truth.”

“And yet… It almost seems that evil wants to permanently mar creation, to contradict God and to make His truth and His beauty unrecognisable…. The incarnate Son, the incarnate 'Logos' is crowned with a crown of thorns and, nevertheless, just that way, in this suffering figure of the Son of God, we begin to see the most profound beauty of our Creator and Redeemer. In the silence of the 'dark night' we can still hear the Word. Believing is nothing other than, in the darkness of the world, touching the hand of God and thus, in silence, listening to the Word, seeing Love.”

Benedict XVI again thanked Cardinal Ravasi, expressing his wish to “take other 'walks' in this mysterious universe of the faith and to always be more capable of praying, proclaiming, and being witnesses to the truth, which is beauty and which is love.”

“…Dear friends,” he finished, “I would like to thank all of you and not only for this week, but for these past eight years that you have carried with me—with great skill, affection, love and faith—the weight of the Petrine ministry. This gratitude remains with me and, even if this 'exterior', 'visible' communion—as Cardinal Ravasi said—is now ending, our spiritual closeness remains, the deep communion in prayer. We go forward with this certainty, certain of God's victory, certain of the truth of beauty and love.”

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-benedict-truth-and-beauty-go-together

http://www.news.va/en/news/popes-letter-to-cardinal-gianfranco-ravasi

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SECRETARIAT OF STATE COMMUNIQUE

Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – The freedom of the College of Cardinals, which, by law, is responsible for providing for the election of the Roman Pontiff, has always been strongly defended by the Holy See as the guarantee of a choice based solely on deliberations directed toward the good of the Church….

Never before as at this moment are Catholics focusing on what is essential: praying for Pope Benedict, praying that the Holy Spirit might enlighten the College of Cardinals, and praying for the future Pope, confident that the future of the barque of Peter is in God's hands.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/secretariat-of-state-communique

 

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A Time of Conversion and Penitence

More than one hundred and fifty thousand people attended His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI's second-to-last Angelus in St. Peter's Square on 17 February 2013. The Pope, who appeared at the window of his study at noon, focused his Sunday meditation on Lent, "a time of conversion and penitence in preparation for Easter."

"The Church, who is mother and teacher," he said, "calls on all of her members to renew their spirit, to reorient themselves toward God, renouncing pride and selfishness in order to live in love. In this Year of Faith, Lent is a favourable time to rediscover faith in God as the fundamental criterion of our lives and the life of the Church. This always implies a struggle, spiritual combat, because the spirit of evil, naturally, opposes our sanctification and tries to turn us from God's path. …"

"As the Church Fathers teach us, temptation forms part of Jesus' 'descent' into our human condition, into the abyss of sin and its consequences. It is a descent that Jesus follows to its very end, even to death on the cross and the hell of extreme distance from God. … As St. Augustine teaches, Jesus has taken temptation from us in order to give us victory over it. Therefore we too have no fear of facing the battle against the spirit of evil. What is important is that we face it with him, with Christ the Victor," the pontiff concluded.

After the Marian prayer the Pope thanked everyone for their prayers and affection, which he has felt in these days. "I ask," he said, "that you continue to pray for me and for the next Pope, as well as for the spiritual exercises that I will begin with the members of the Roman Curia this afternoon."

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-core-of-temptation-always-lies-instrumenta

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-at-sunday-angelus-lent-a-time-of-spiritual-co

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Fidelity to God's Will Must Guide Our Lives

Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Psalm 51:14, 17

 

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“…What sustains and illuminates me is the certainty that the Church belongs to Christ whose care and guidance will never be lacking. I thank you all for the love and prayer with which you have accompanied me….”

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

General Audience, 13 February 2013
 

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today, Ash Wednesday, we begin our yearly Lenten journey of conversion in preparation for Easter. The forty days of Lent recall Israel’s sojourn in the desert and the temptations of Jesus at the beginning of his public ministry. The desert, as the place of silent encounter with God and decision about the deepest meaning and direction of our lives, is also a place of temptation. In his temptation in the desert, Jesus showed us that fidelity to God’s will must guide our lives and thinking, especially amid today’s secularized society…. In this Lenten season, Christ once again knocks at our door (cf. Revelation 3:20) and invites us to open our minds and hearts to his love and his truth. May Jesus’ example of overcoming temptation inspire us to embrace God’s will and to see all things in the light of his saving truth.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

General Audience, 13 February 2013

 

For the complete text, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-pray-for-me-and-the-future-pope-the-lord-will

 

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His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has Announced Plans to Resign

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has announced that he plans on resigning the papal office on February 28th.

“… After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognize my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is….. Let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.” 

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-benedict-xvi-announces-his-resignation-at-end

http://www.news.va/en/news/the-pontificate-of-benedict-xvi-protrrait-of-a-pap

http://www.news.va/en/news/benedict-xvis-resignation-coherence-and-comprehens

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2013-02-12 L’Osservatore Romano

 Dismay, surprise, amazement and emotion at the words of Benedict XVI who announced his decision to “renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome”. These sentiments were etched on the faces of the cardinals, bishops and prelates –assembled for the Ordinary Public Consistory on Monday morning, 11 February, in the Consistory Hall of the Apostolic Palace – who heard the unexpected announcement in the Pope’s own voice.

 

Everyone’s eyes met, a light murmur swelled in the hall and astonishment faded into sorrow. Yet, after the first few moments of confusion, the unanimous recognition that the Pope’s act was a very lofty act of humility made headway among those present – who included the papal masters of ceremony, representatives of the postulations, choristers of the Sistine Chapel Choir, papal chair bearers and technicians.

It was a decision that took everyone by surprise. As did the fact that the Pope chose to communicate it personally, when, at the end of the celebration of Midday Prayer and after the announcement that the three canonizations on the agenda of the Consistory would be held next 12 May, he read the Latin text of the Declaratio written in his own hand. Speaking in a firm, calm voice, while those present listened to him in an almost unreal silence, he explained the reasons for his decision, made “with full freedom”, and “after having repeatedly examined my conscience before God”.

The prayerful, joyous atmosphere turned into sadness. The spokesman who rose to the occasion was Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals who immediately took the floor on behalf of all the cardinals. “Your Holiness, beloved and venerable Successor of Peter”, he said, “your moving message rang out in this hall like a bolt from the blue. We heard it with a sense of bewilderment, almost totally unbelieving. In your words we noted the great affection which you have always had for God’s holy Church, for this Church which you have so deeply loved”.

Now, he added, “may I be permitted to tell you on behalf of the apostolic ‘upper room’, the College of Cardinals, on behalf of your dear co-workers, that we are closer to you than ever, as we have been especially close in these luminous eight years of your pontificate….You said that you will always be close to us with your witness and with your prayers. Of course, the stars of heaven always continue to shine and thus the star of your pontificate will always shine among us. We are close to you, Holy Father, and please bless us”.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/the-unexpected-announcement-that-rang-out-in-the-c

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Let us unite in prayer for our beloved Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI

and for all the Church.

 

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.

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For reflections on World Day of the Sick, please visit:

http://theapostoliclady.blogspot.com/2012/02/stand-up-and-go-your-faith-has-saved.html

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You are invited to join a Year of Faith Pilgrimage with Msgr. Robert Lawrence to Marian Shrines in Portugal, Spain and France which is scheduled for July 15-26, 2013. We have especially set extra days in Fatima and Lourdes for private prayer and devotions. Other sites to be visited on the pilgrimage include Coimbra, Salamanca, Alba de Tormes, Avila, and Burgos. In Paris we will visit the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal at Rue de Bac, Shrine of Saint Vincent de Paul, Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Basilica of Sacre Coeur. Roundtrip airfare and airline taxes/fuel surcharges, 10 nights accommodation in First Class/4 star hotels, breakfast and dinner daily, land transportation by private deluxe motorcoach, train tickets from Lourdes to Paris, all entrance fees, Daily Mass, and more for $3,789 per person/double occupancy. A $100 early booking discount is available until March 15.  For complete details on this or other pilgrimages, please contact: George’s International Tours, (800) 566-7499, sales@georgesintl.com or Karen Hurley, (717) 919-4818, k.m.hurley1@gmail.com.

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"Believing in Charity Calls Forth Charity"

“We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”

(1 John 4:16)

 

The celebration of Lent, in the context of the Year of Faith, offers us a valuable opportunity to meditate on the relationship between faith and charity: between believing in God – the God of Jesus Christ – and love, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit and which guides us on the path of devotion to God and others….

 

Christians are people who have been conquered by Christ’s love and accordingly, under the influence of that love – “Caritas Christi urget nos” (2 Corinthians 5:14) – they are profoundly open to loving their neighbour in concrete ways (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 33). This attitude arises primarily from the consciousness of being loved, forgiven, and even served by the Lord, who bends down to wash the feet of the Apostles and offers himself on the Cross to draw humanity into God’s love.

 

“Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! … Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light – and in the end, the only light – that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working” (ibid., 39). All this helps us to understand that the principal distinguishing mark of Christians is precisely “love grounded in and shaped by faith” (ibid., 7)….

 

Faith is knowing the truth and adhering to it (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4); charity is “walking” in the truth (cf. Ephesians 4:15). Through faith we enter into friendship with the Lord, through charity this friendship is lived and cultivated (cf. John 15:14ff). Faith causes us to embrace the commandment of our Lord and Master; charity gives us the happiness of putting it into practice (cf. John 13:13-17)….

 

Excerpts from:

Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for Lent 2013

For the complete text, please visit:  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/lent/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20121015_lent-2013_en.html

For more information, please visit:

http://www.news.va/en/news/believing-in-charity-calls-forth-charity-papal-mes
http://www.news.va/en/news/popes-lenten-message-2013-believing-in-charity-cal
http://www.news.va/en/news/cardinal-sarah-faith-and-charity-are-two-sides-of

 

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