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.”
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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.
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