VATICAN CITY, APR 15, 2007 (VIS) - In St. Peter's Square, at the end of the Eucharistic celebration marking his 80th birthday, the Holy Father prayed the Regina Coeli with the pilgrims gathered there.
The Pope thanked those present and noted how over these days "the entire Church, as a true family," was surrounding him with affection.
The Holy Father then went on to recall that it was Servant of God John Paul II who instituted Divine Mercy Sunday, and that he died on the eve of that Feast.
"This Sunday," said Pope Benedict, "marks the end of the week - or more correctly the 'Octave' - of Easter, which the liturgy considers as a single day, 'the day that the Lord has made.' It is not a chronological time, but a spiritual time that God opened in the fabric of the days when He raised Christ from the dead. The Creator Spirit, infusing new and eternal life into the buried body of Jesus of Nazareth, brought the work of creation to completion giving rise to a 'novelty', the novelty of a new humanity which, at the same time, is a novelty of a new world and a new era.
"This renewal of the world," he added, "can be summarized in a word: the word that the Risen Christ pronounced to His disciples as a greeting and, even more so, as an announcement of His victory: 'Peace be with you.'
"Peace is the gift that Christ left to His friends as a blessing intended for all men and all peoples. Not peace as a balance of power according to the mentality of the 'world,' but as a new reality, fruit of God's Love and of His Mercy. This is the peace that Jesus Christ bought at the price of His Blood and that He communicates to those who believe in Him."
Benedict XVI called upon Mary, "incarnation of Divine Mercy," to help us "allow ourselves to be renewed by the Spirit in order to cooperate in the work of peace that God is achieving in the world," a work "that makes no noise, but is accomplished in the innumerable gestures of charity of all His children."
ANG/DIVINE MERCY/... VIS 20070417 (380)
The Pope thanked those present and noted how over these days "the entire Church, as a true family," was surrounding him with affection.
The Holy Father then went on to recall that it was Servant of God John Paul II who instituted Divine Mercy Sunday, and that he died on the eve of that Feast.
"This Sunday," said Pope Benedict, "marks the end of the week - or more correctly the 'Octave' - of Easter, which the liturgy considers as a single day, 'the day that the Lord has made.' It is not a chronological time, but a spiritual time that God opened in the fabric of the days when He raised Christ from the dead. The Creator Spirit, infusing new and eternal life into the buried body of Jesus of Nazareth, brought the work of creation to completion giving rise to a 'novelty', the novelty of a new humanity which, at the same time, is a novelty of a new world and a new era.
"This renewal of the world," he added, "can be summarized in a word: the word that the Risen Christ pronounced to His disciples as a greeting and, even more so, as an announcement of His victory: 'Peace be with you.'
"Peace is the gift that Christ left to His friends as a blessing intended for all men and all peoples. Not peace as a balance of power according to the mentality of the 'world,' but as a new reality, fruit of God's Love and of His Mercy. This is the peace that Jesus Christ bought at the price of His Blood and that He communicates to those who believe in Him."
Benedict XVI called upon Mary, "incarnation of Divine Mercy," to help us "allow ourselves to be renewed by the Spirit in order to cooperate in the work of peace that God is achieving in the world," a work "that makes no noise, but is accomplished in the innumerable gestures of charity of all His children."
ANG/DIVINE MERCY/... VIS 20070417 (380)
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