(Photo courtesy of EWTN)
Posted on 05/12/2009 3:30:12 PM PDT by NYer
Jerusalem, Israel, May 12, 2009 (CNA).- Just a few minutes after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Pope Benedict XVI paid a visit to the Western Wall, known as the “Wailing Wall,” and placed a prayer in the wall asking for peace in the Holy Land and the Middle East.
The Holy Father was welcomed to the Western Wall—the only remaining retaining wall of the Second Temple—by the Chief Rabbi and several other rabbis.
After remarks by the Israeli Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov, and the Rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Pope read Psalm 120 in Latin and then placed a prayer in the Western Wall.
The full prayer reads:
God of all the ages,
on my visit to Jerusalem, the "City of Peace",
spiritual home to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike,
I bring before you the joys, the hopes and the aspirations,
the trials, the suffering and the pain of all your people throughout the world.
God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
hear the cry of the afflicted, the fearful, the bereft;
send your peace upon this Holy Land, upon the Middle East,
upon the entire human family;
stir the hearts of all who call upon your name,
to walk humbly in the path of justice and compassion.
"The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul that seeks him!” MORE
Was he made to remove his cross?
No ... neither he nor any of the other members of his entourage were required to remove their crosses. You can be certain that if that requirement had remained in place, they would have canceled the visit.
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