Saturday, June 02, 2012

Pope in Milan: God renew Christian families!

Pope Benedict XVI waves as the Archbishop of Milan Cardinal Angelo Scola looks on, as they arrive at the San Siro stadium in MilanPope Benedict XVI presided over daytime prayer – the hora media – on Saturday morning in the cathedral basilica of St Mary Nascent in Milan, on the first full day of his pastoral visit to the city that this weekend is hosting the VII World Meeting of Families. 

In his homily, the Holy Father spoke of liturgical prayer – the official, public praise of God – as the highest expression of the mystery of the Church. 

“Our lips, our hearts and our minds,” he said, “are, in the prayer of the Church, interpreters of the needs and aspirations of all humanity.”

The Pope called the daily prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours, “an essential task of the ordained ministry in the Church,” all of whose members together constitute God’s very own family.
 
Pope Benedict went on to say, “Through the Divine Office, which prolongs the central mystery of the Eucharist throughout the day, priests are especially united to the Lord Jesus, living and working in time.”

Pope Benedict encouraged seminarians – many of whom were present for the daytime office in Milan’s cathedral on Saturday - to learn to enjoy the prayer right now and live their time in seminary with commitment, saying, “If Christ, in order to build up His Church, places Himself in the hands of the priest, these priests must in turn entrust themselves to Him without reserve.”

“Love for the LORD Jesus,” said Pope Benedict, “is the soul and the reason for the priestly ministry, just as it was also the premise upon which He assigned Peter the mission of feeding his flock.

The Holy Father also had words of gratitude, praise and encouragement for consecrated men and women religious, calling on them to look to the future with confidence, relying on the faithfulness of God and the power of His grace, which, he said, “is able to work ever new wonders.”

Calling on the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the vast array of saints who have emerged from the bosom of the Church in Milan throughout the centuries, Pope Benedict prayed that God, “Giver of all gifts, might make the ministry of priests ever fruitful." 

He asked God, "to strengthen the witness of consecrated persons." 

Finally, Pope Benedict prayed that God might renew all Christian families according to His plan, "that they might be places of grace and holiness, fertile ground for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life."