VATICAN - “The Church lives not of herself but of the Gospel and from the Gospel she continue sto draw new light for her journeying … only those who listen to the Word can then proclaim it”: the Pope addresses participants at partecipants at a Congress on “Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church”

Saturday, 17 September 2005

Castel Gandolfo (Fides Service) - “I offer heartfelt thanks to all who work at the service of translation and diffusion of the Bible, offering the means to explain, teach and interpret its message. In this sense I thank in a special way the Catholic Biblical Federation for its activity to promote biblical pastoral care and faithful coherence with the indications of the Magisteriaum and for its spirit of openness to ecumenical collaboration in the biblical field.” Pope Benedict XVI said this on September 16 in Castel Gandolofo when he received in audience participants at a Congress on ‘Sacred Scripture in the life of the Church’. The congress held in Rome was organised by the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Catholic Biblical Federation to mark the 40th anniversary of the Dei Verbum issued by the Second Vatican Council.
The Pope said he was pleased to see participants included “Fraternal Delegates” from Churches and ecclesial communities of the East and the West as well as representatives of the great world religions. He told those present that as a ‘young theologian’ he was present at the ‘lively duscussions which accompanied’ the elaboration of the Council constitution Dei Verbum”. In the first words of that Constitution the Council affirmed a qualifying aspect of the Church: “a community which listens to the Word of God and proclaims it. The Church lives not of herself but of the Gospel and from the Gospel she continues to draw light for her journeying … only those who listen to the Word can then proclaim it”.
The Holy Father continued: “The Church and the Word of God are inseparabile linked together. The Church lives of the Word of God and the Word of God resounds in the Church, in her teaching and in her life.” Thanks to new impulse from the Council’s Dei Verbum constitution in these forty years “the fundamental importance of the Word of God has been reasserted” with a consequent movement of renewal in Church life, “above all in preaching, catechesis, theology, spirituality and ecumenical activity. The Church needs continually to renew and rejuvenate herself and the Word of God, which never grows old or runs dry, is the privileged means for doing this”. Lastly Benedict XVI recommended a return to the custom of Lectio divina: regular reading Sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer. “This practice, if effectively promoted - I am convinced - will lead to a new springtime for the Church. As the anchor of biblical pastoral care Lectio divina should therefore be encouraged with new carefully pondered methods in keeping with the times.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 18/6/2005, righe 32, parole 443)


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