Pope Benedict XVI
Posted on 06/08/2009 1:34:40 PM PDT by NYer
.- Twenty thousand people gathered in St Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer on Sunday despite poor weather. Prior to the Marian prayer, Pope Benedict told those present that “the ‘name’ of the Holy Trinity is impressed on everything that exists, because everything comes from love, reaches out for love and is moved by the spirit of love.”
Benedict XVI began by explaining that following the Easter Season, which concluded with the Pentecost, the liturgy is marked by three solemnities of Our Lord: the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity; next Thursday, that of Corpus Domini and finally; the following Friday, the Church will celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Pope explained that each of these days are all part of the mystery of salvation, “from the Incarnation to the Resurrection and the Ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
“Today,” the Pope continued, “we contemplate the Holy Trinity as it was made known to us by Christ. He revealed to us that God is love 'not in the unity of a single person but in the Trinity of one substance.'”
“He is Creator and merciful Father; he is the only Son, eternal wisdom made flesh, who died and rose again for us; he is the Holy Spirit who moves everything, cosmos and history, towards the full and final recapitulation,” he added. “Three Persons who are one God alone because the Father is love, the Son is love and the Holy Spirit is love.”
He elaborated that God’s love is “pure, infinite and eternal.” God “does not live in splendid solitude, rather he is an inexhaustible source of life that ceaselessly gifts itself and communicates. We can, to some extent, perceive this by observing both the macro-universe, our earth, the planets, stars, galaxies, and by observing the micro-universe, cells, atoms and elementary particles.”
“The ‘name’ of the Sacred Trinity is impressed on everything that exists, because everything comes from love, reaches out for love and is moved by the spirit of love, naturally with differing degrees of awareness and freedom,” the Holy Father exclaimed.
“The greatest proof that we are all made in the image of the Trinity is that only love makes us happy, because we live to love and to be loved,” the Pontiff declared. “Borrowing an analogy from biology, we could say that the human 'genome' is profoundly imprinted with the Trinity of God who is Love.”
The Holy Father concluded by calling on Mary because “she welcomed the will of the Father and conceived the Son by the power of the Holy Sprit. The Omnipotent built a temple worthy of Him within her, and made her the model and image of the Church, mystery and home of communion for all mankind. Help us Mary, mirror of the Holy Trinity, to grow in faith in the Trinitarian mystery.”
Thank you, Lord, for Pope Benedict XVI!
He is a wiley guy..... a POPE for the Times...
Always wonderful.
Regards,
Beautiful, just beautiful. Anything he writes has to be studied and savored. Saved for later.
I love, love, love, Pope Benedict. God’s blessings on him and long may he live.
Thanks for the link and your confidence in my ability to copare two sermons ;-) I'm at home and on dial up. To download that file would take more than 1 hour, so that is out of the question. This article does not provide the complete text. I will check the Vatican web site tomorrow and post the link. On first glance, though, what are your thoughts on the pope's message?
I think the Pope’s message is much in accord with the preaching in my home parish, which happens not to be Roman Catholic but Evangelical Lutheran. Perhaps I can find the text of the same to post so it would not take so long to see/download.
Thanks for the reply.
The English translation is not yet posted on the Vatican's Web site. However, Zenit has a translation posted - On the Holy Trinity. Here it is:
On the Holy Trinity
"Inexhaustible Font of Life That Unceasingly Gives Itself"
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 7, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered before praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter's Square.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
Following Eastertide, which culminates with the feast of Pentecost, the liturgy foresees these three solemnities of the Lord: today, the Most Holy Trinity; on Thursday, that of Corpus Domini, which, in many countries, Italy among them, is celebrated next Sunday; finally, on Friday in two weeks, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Each one of these liturgical observances manifests a perspective from which the whole mystery of the Christian faith is embraced: respectively, the reality of God one and three, the sacrament of the Eucharist and the divine-human center of the Person of Christ. They are in truth aspects of the one mystery of salvation, which, in a certain sense, summarize the whole path of the revelation of Jesus, from the incarnation to the death and resurrection to the ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Today we contemplate the Most Holy Trinity as it was made known to us by Jesus. He revealed to us that God is love “not in the unity of a single person, but in the Trinity of a single substance” (Preface): the Trinity is Creator and merciful Father; Only Begotten Son, eternal Wisdom incarnate, dead and risen for us; it is finally the Holy Spirit, who moves everything, cosmos and history, toward the final recapitulation. Three Persons who are one God because the Father is love, the Son is love, the Spirit is love. God is love and only love, most pure, infinite and eternal love. The Trinity does not live in a splendid solitude, but is rather inexhaustible font of life that unceasingly gives itself and communicates itself.
We can in some way intuit this, whether we observe the macro-universe: our earth, the planets, the stars, the galaxies; or the micro-universe: cells, atoms, elementary particles. The “name” of the Most Holy Trinity is in a certain way impressed upon everything that exists, because everything that exists, down to the least particle, is a being in relation, and thus God-relation shines forth, ultimately creative Love shines forth. All comes from love, tends toward love, and is moved by love, naturally, according to different grades of consciousness and freedom. “O Lord, our Lord, / how wondrous is your name over all the earth!” (Psalm 8:2) -- the Psalmist exclaims. In speaking of the “name” the Bible indicates God himself, his truest identity; an identity that shines forth in the whole of creation, where every being, by the very fact of existing and by the “fabric” of which it is made, refers to a transcendent Principle, to eternal and infinite Life that gives itself, in a word: to Love. “In him,” St. Paul says, on the Areopagus in Athens, “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). The strongest proof that we are made in the image of the Trinity is this: only love makes us happy, because we live in relation, and we live to love and be loved. Using an analogy suggested by biology, we could say the human “genome” is profoundly imprinted with the Trinity, of God-Love.
The Virgin Mary, in her docile humility, made herself the handmaid of divine Love: she accepted the will of the Father and conceived the Son by the work of the Holy Spirit. In her, omnipotence made a temple worthy of Himself, and made her the model and image of the Church, mystery and house of communion for all men. May Mary, mirror of the Most Holy Trinity, help us to grow in the faith of the Trinitarian mystery.
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
[After the Angelus the Pope greeted the pilgrims in various languages. In English he said:]
I extend cordial greetings to all the English-speaking pilgrims here today on this feast of the Most Holy Trinity, especially the members of the Holy Trinity Prayer Group from Texas. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, and with your families and loved ones at home. And may your stay in Rome strengthen your faith, fill you with hope in God’s promises and inflame your hearts with his love. God bless all of you!
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
© Innovative Media, Inc.
Thank you very much. We confessed the Athanasian Creed responsvely, verse by verse this past Sunday. Although I’ve been raised Lutheran over a period of decades I have an affinity for the Church of Rome inasmuch as she holds in very high regard the eternal nature of history, not willing to conform to every whim that spins out of our own hearts.
Regards,
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