Fun-filled vacations or hectic workweeks must never distract people from dedicating a little time each day and, especially every Sunday, to God, Pope Benedict XVI said."We must set aside time in life for God, to open our life to God with a thought, a meditation, a small prayer and to not forget Sunday is the day of the Lord," he said.
During his weekly general audience June 3 in St. Peter's Square, the pope used the example of Blessed Rabanus Maurus, a Benedictine monk and bishop, to show how a person can live a busy life without sacrificing spiritual study, meditation and prayer.
With an estimated 17,000 people gathered in the square, Pope Benedict continued his audience talks on important figures in the early church.
When Rabanus Maurus, who lived in the Frankish Empire during the Middle Ages, became archbishop of Mainz in 847, he did not give up his studies and dedication to the Scriptures, the pope said.
His life demonstrates how one can be completely at the service of others "without depriving oneself of spending a proper amount of time in reflection, study and meditation," said Pope Benedict.
The monk wrote that whoever neglects contemplating God because he or she is too caught up in the worries and tumultuous affairs of the world "is condemned to the absolute impossibility of penetrating the secrets of the invisible God," the pope said.
"During the workweek with its frenetic pace and during vacation, we must set aside time for God" either through the study of sacred writings, prayer or reflection, he said.
Sundays must be a day dedicated to the liturgy, a day for taking in "the beauty of our churches, sacred music and the word of God -- God's same beauty -- letting it enter into our beings. Only in this way will our life become great, become true life," he said.
Another "extraordinarily timely" lesson for today taught by Blessed Rabanus Maurus is the importance of lifting "the whole person -- mind, heart and senses -- to the contemplation of the truth contained in God's word."
The monk paid special attention to the liturgy as being "a synthesis of all the dimensions of our perceptions of reality," so that the mind, body and soul could touch and be penetrated by God, the pope said.
It is important that "faith is not just a thought, but touches the whole of our being," he said.
"Since God became man in flesh and bone, he entered into the tangible world (and) we must look for and meet God in every dimension of our being. That way, through faith, God's reality penetrates our being and transforms it," he added.
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