Posted on 04/20/2011 1:49:57 PM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - April 19, 2011 marked the sixth anniversary of the election of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger to the Chair of Peter. He took the name Benedict XVI. In an interview with the Catholic News Agency Raymond Cardinal Burke spoke of the "profound goodness" of this Pope. He called this pontificate one of "great dynamism" and "intense evangelization".
The Cardinal continued, "I think the Holy Father has shown he has many outstanding qualities not least his ability to teach very profound things in a very accessible way. Whether that's through his visits, his Wednesday audiences or his many homilies, without exaggeration he manages to make the very profound very understandable. And I hear that from so many people I meet."
Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI's election I wrote an article quoting these words from Alisdair MacIntyre's book "After Virtue": "It is always dangerous to draw too precise parallels between one historical period and another; and among the most misleading of such parallels are those which have been drawn between our own age in Europe and North America and the Epoch in which the Roman Empire declined into the Dark Ages.
"Nonetheless, certain parallels there are. A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman Imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of the Imperium.
"What they set themselves to achieve instead- often not recognizing fully what they were doing- was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct,
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
He is exactly what he told us all six years ago, a "simple, humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord." Notice how little fanfare accompanied his birthday as well as this six year anniversary of his election. Clearly, to this successor of Peter, it is not about him, but about the Lord whom he serves. His diminutive size and humble manner reveal the holy heart of this man totally given over to the Lord. Looks like he is just getting warmed up.
Are the few practicing Catholics are living in some altered state of reality, if they think this article says anything.
The few practicing Catholics, are living in some altered state of reality, if they think this article says anything.
re; “I think the Holy Father has shown he has many outstanding qualities not least his ability to teach very profound things in a very accessible way. “
Really? I think the complete opposite. i think that the Holy Father (and JPII also) makes the simple complicated, the complete opposite of what you believe. Can you give me some examples of where he shows his “ability to teach very profound things in a very accessible way”.
That’s just the book picture. Can you give me some examples of where he shows his “ability to teach very profound things in a very accessible way”, in this book?
Give me some quotes.
Wow, six years have passed. I remember being on the FR live thread covering the conclave, and when his election was announced, I went out in the street and whooped so I wouldn’t wake up the baby ... whatever baby it was ... James, I guess. Made dogs howl all over the block!
Click on the picture. Then click to look inside. The first six pages of the book are there.
Yes, six years. I think it’s a sign of aging that the older I get the faster the time flies. ;)
What I remember of the conclave was praying. And then gratitude. We are blessed.
verdugo:
Jesus of Nazareth both volumes are excellent. In the thread that cites the liberal Jesuit Reese’s article from National Catholic Distorter, I have summarized and quoted from Pope Benedict’s “Spirit of the Liturgy” in post #179.
If you are interested in some of his thoughts on Liturgy, check out my post #179 over in that thread [not blowing my own horn here, as the arguments in that post are are based on the Pope’s thoughts from his book with some commentary here and there by me].
I have his picture on the wall right here above my printer. My parents must have gone to Italy some time after the election, because that’s how I get my Pope pictures ;-).
“We love our German shepherd,” as we all said six years ago ... and I certainly haven’t changed my mind.
My dear husband had relatives in Germany who emailed us their joy...
A priest I knew from Oklahoma was there in Rome for the announcement; I saw him in some of the news reports, leaping as well as a rather large gent in a cassock can leap ;-).
What a happy day that was.
How does it compare with Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen (Original)
from: http://literarycompass.blogspot.com/2006/12/fulton-sheens-life-of-christ.html
How does a person combat the commercialism of Christmas? Now that Advent is upon us, what can we do to keep focused on the Incarnation rather than on the carnage of Christmas shopping? Here is one suggestion: I love to begin Advent by reading the first twenty pages or so of Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ. Here is an excerpt:
Of every other child that is born into the world, friends can say that it resembles his mother. This was the first instance in time that anyone could say that the mother resembled the Child. This is the beautiful paradox of the Child who made His mother; the mother, too, was only a child. It was also the first time in the history of the world that anyone could ever think of heaven as being anywhere else than "somewhere up there"; when the Child was in her arms, Mary now looked down to Heaven.
In the filthiest place in the world, a stable, Purity was born. He, Who was later to be slaughtered by men acting as beasts, was born among beasts. He, Who would call Himself the "living Bread descended from Heaven," was laid in a manger, literally, a place to eat. Centuries before, the Jews had worshipped the golden calf, and the Greeks, the ass. Men bowed down before them as before God. The ox and the ass now were present to make their innocent reparation, bowing down before their God.
LOL.
The right Pope at the right time. We're so fortunate.
I'm hoping to make it to Rome in the next few years. Til then I have my crucifix he blessed.
“Clearly, to this successor of Peter, it is not about him, but about the Lord whom he serves.”
Exactly!! I’m sure you’ve heard about the fact that he often approached tourists to the Vatican who seemed confused and personally assisted them without any fanfare whatsoever. There have been some tourists who had NO idea of who he was. Of course, this was before God placed him in a higher position where he doesn’t have the same freedom as before.
We need to keep this good Pope in our prayers. ;-)
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