CHRISTIAN LIFE IS MYSTERY OF COMMUNION WITH JESUS

VATICAN CITY, MAY 14, 2006 (VIS) - The Eucharist and the intercession of the Virgin Mary provided the theme for Benedict XVI's remarks prior to praying the "Regina Coeli" today.

  "On this fifth Sunday of Easter," said the Holy Father to thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, "the liturgy presents us with the episode from the Gospel of John in which Jesus, talking to His disciples at the Last Supper, exhorts them to remain united to Him as the branch to the vine."

  This, he continued, "is a truly significant parable because it very effectively expresses how Christian life is mystery of communion with Jesus. ... The secret of spiritual fecundity is union with God, a union achieved above all in the Eucharist, which is also rightly called 'Communion'."

  Benedict XVI recalled the fact that, during this period, many children are receiving First Communion, and he greeted them expressing the hope that they may become "branches of the vine, which is Jesus, and grow as His true disciples."

  The Pope then went on to highlight how to rely upon the intercession of Mary is "a sure way to remain united to Christ." He also recalled the apparition of the Virgin to the shepherd children at Fatima on May 13, 1917. "The message she entrusted to them," the Holy Father said, "was a powerful call to prayer and conversion; a truly prophetic message if we consider the twentieth century's burden of unprecedented destruction caused by wars and totalitarian regimes, as well as the widespread persecutions against the Church."

  Benedict XVI also mentioned the attack against John Paul II on May 13, 1981 when the Pope "felt he had been saved from death by the intercession of 'a maternal hand,' ... and his entire pontificate was marked by what the Virgin had announced at Fatima."

  He concluded: "Although there has been no lack of worries and suffering, and if there are still reasons for apprehension over the future of humanity, there is comfort to be had in what the 'White Lady' promised the shepherd children: 'In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph'."
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