Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Since the beginning, the Church has lived in prayerful waiting for the return of her Lord, watching for the signs of the times and warning the faithful to beware of recurrent messianisms which, now and then, announce the imminent end of the world. In actual fact history must run its course, which includes also human dramas and natural calamities. Through history there develops the plan for salvation which Christ has already brought to completion with his incarnation, death and resurrection. This mystery the Church continues to announced and actuate with preaching, with the celebration of the sacraments and witness of charity.” These were the words, referring to the Gospel of the 33rd Week of the Liturgical Year, with which the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI introduced the midday Marian prayer on Sunday 18 November. “ Let us accept Christ's call to face daily events trusting in his providential love - the Pope said -. Let us not fear for the future, even when it appears to be gloomy, because the God of Jesus Christ, who assumed history in order to open it to its transcendent realisation, is its alpha and omega, beginning and end. He promises us that every small but sincere act of love contains the whole meaning of the universe, and that those who do not hesitate to lose their life for Him, will find it again in abundance.”
The Pope then recalled that consecrated persons “who have placed their lives without reserve at the service of the Kingdom of God”, and especially those called to contemplation in convents and monasteries, to whom the Church dedicates a special Day on 21 November, feast day of the Presentation at the Temple of the Blessed Virgin Mary. “We owe so much to these people - said Pope Benedict XVI - who live off that which Providence sends them through the generosity of the faithful” and he recalled what he said in September at Heilinkreuz Monastery in Germany with regard to life in a monastery “like a spiritual oasis, indicates to the world of today the most important thing, indeed ultimately the only decisive thing: there is one ultimate reason for living, that is God and his fathomless love ”.
At the end of the Angelus prayer, Benedict XVI appeal for aid for the people of Bangladesh, he said: “I offer the expression of my deepest condolences to the families" of Bangladesh, for the cyclone that struck the country a number of days ago "causing numerous victims and grave damage." "I appeal to international solidarity," the Pope continued, "which has already been activated to meet immediate necessities. And I encourage people to make every possible effort to help these our brothers and sisters who have been so sorely tried."
The Pope also expressed his encouragement for the outcome of the 8th Meeting of Nations which have signed the States signatories to the "Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Antipersonnel Mines and on their Destruction". The Pope said he hoped “ these devices, which continue to reap victims including many children, may be completely banned." The Pope also mentioned the Beatification of the Servant of God Antonio Rosmini, “great priestly figure of a priest and illustrious man of culture”: “may his example help the Church, especially the ecclesial communities of Italy, to grow in awareness that the light of human reason and that of Grace, when they go together, become a source of blessing for the human person and for society ”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 19/11/2007 - righe 39, parole 567)
