Instrumentum mensis Februarii pro lectura Magisterii Summi Pontificis Benedicti XVI pro evangelizatione in terris missionum

Saturday, 15 March 2008

During the usual annual visit to 'his' seminary, on the first day of February, the Feast of Our Lady of Trust, Patroness of the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary, Benedict XVI underlined the call to holiness which especially those called to the priesthood are bound to heed: “ holiness is the secret of the true success of your priestly ministry. From this moment holiness must be the goal of your every choice and decision.”.
Holy Mass at the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill on Ash Wednesday, 6 February, for the 1st Lenten Station, gave the Holy Father an opportunity to recall the importance of prayer in the life of every Christian: “Prayer nourishes hope because nothing expresses the reality of God in our life better than praying with faith.”. The next day Benedict XVI had a meeting with the clergy of the diocese of Rome in which he treated various matters in a ample debate with his interlocutors. Addressing the participants at an international conference on "Man and woman, the humanum in its entirety", on 9 February, the Holy Father reaffirmed that the dual unity of man and woman is founded on the dignity of every human person, “created in the image and likeness of God, ‘male and female he created them”. From 11 to 16 February Benedict XVI participated in Spiritual Exercises for the Roman Curia given by Cardinal Albert Vanhoye.
In his address to members of the Council for Relations between the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life and international unions of men and women Superiors General USG and UISG, the Pope dwelt on the fact that “ Institutes that have preserved or chosen a tenor of life that is often very austere and which in any case are faithful to the Gospel lived "sine glossa", abound in vocations’”.
On 21 February, during an audience with participants at the General Congregation of the Society of Jesus, Benedict XVI urged the sons of St Ignatius to strive for the same “impulse and fervour” with which the Spirit gave rise to the Society in the Church. On the 23 February, in St Peter's Square, the Holy Father officially presented his "Letter on the urgent task of education " to the diocese and the people of Rome and next day, Sunday, he made a pastoral visit to the Roman parish of Santa Maria Liberatrice on the occasion of the centenary if its consecration. Of great importance his address to participants at a Conference organised by the Pontifical Academy for Life on the theme “ "Close by the Incurable Sick Person and the Dying: Scientific and Ethical Aspects”, during which the Holy Father called for a united effort “which must aim not only to ensure that all live a dignified and responsible life, but also, experience the moment of trial and death in terms of brotherhood and solidarity”.
At the Sunday Angelus addresses in this month of February, the Holy Father launched several appeals for nations in situations of violence or devastation due to natural disasters: Kenya, Iraq, Colombia, Lebanon, Ecuador.


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