VATICAN CITY, 27 APR 2008 (VIS) - At 9.30 a.m. today, the sixth Sunday of Easter, Benedict XVI presided at a Eucharistic celebration in the Vatican Basilica during which he ordained 28 deacons from the diocese of Rome and one from the Pontifical Urban College.
Thirteen of the new priests from the diocese of Rome come from the city's major seminary, nine from the "Redemptoris Mater" College, and the other six from the "Almo Collegio Capranica", the Priestly Society of the Sons of the Cross and the Seminary of the Virgin of Divine Love.
In his homily Holy Father noted how his ordination of new priests usually takes place on the fourth Sunday of Easter, "Good Shepherd" Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, but that this year it had had to be postponed because of preparations for his apostolic trip to the United States.
"The icon of the Good Shepherd, more than any other, seems to highlight the role and ministry of the priest in the Christian community", observed the Holy Father before turning his attention to today's biblical readings which, he said, "throw light from a different angle on the mission of priests".
Benedict XVI examined the first reading, the passage in the Acts of the Apostles narrating the persecution in Jerusalem against the first Christian converts, the scattering of the disciples including Philip's flight to Samaria, and his preaching being welcomed there "with great joy".
"Bringing the Gospel to everyone, that everyone may experience the joy of Christ and that there may be great joy in every city; what could be more beautiful than this? What could be greater? What could create greater enthusiasm than helping to spread the Word of Life throughout the world, than communicating the living water of the Holy Spirit? Announcing and bearing witness to this joy: this is the very heart of your mission", said the Pope to the ordinands.
"These are elemental words for all priests", he told them. "To collaborate in other people's joy - in an often sad and negative world - the fire of the Gospel must burn within each of you, the joy of the Lord must live in you. Only then will you be able to convey and multiply this joy, bringing it to everyone, especially those who are sad and disillusioned".
The Holy Father then went on to consider the rite of laying on of hands, which also figures in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, highlighting how "such a sign is inseparable from prayer, of which it is a silent continuation. Without saying a word the consecrating bishop - and after him the other priests - places his hands on the heads of the ordinands, thus expressing an invocation to God to effuse His Spirit upon them, to transform them and to make them participants in the priesthood of Christ".
"A meeting of two freedoms comes about in that silent prayer: the freedom of God, working though the Holy Spirit, and the freedom of man, ... a mysterious Trinitarian 'movement' which brings the Holy Spirit and the Son to dwell in the disciples. ... Without love for Christ, which is put into effect by observing His commandments, people exclude themselves from the Trinitarian movement and begin to turn in on themselves, losing the capacity to receive or communicate God".
Benedict XVI encouraged the new priests "to adore Christ the Lord in your hearts: that is, carve our a personal relationship of love with Him" in which "to live, purify, illuminate and sanctify all other relationships".
"Our hope, your hope, is God in Jesus and in the Spirit", the Pope concluded. "From today, that hope becomes in you a 'priestly hope', the hope of Jesus the Good Shepherd Who dwells within you and shapes your desires in accordance with His divine Heart: a hope of life and forgiveness for the people who will be entrusted to your pastoral care; ... a hope of openness to faith and to the meeting with God for those who will come to you in their search for peace; a hope for peace and comfort for the suffering and the injured of life".
BXVI-HML/PRIESTLY ORDINATION/... VIS 20080428 (710)
Thirteen of the new priests from the diocese of Rome come from the city's major seminary, nine from the "Redemptoris Mater" College, and the other six from the "Almo Collegio Capranica", the Priestly Society of the Sons of the Cross and the Seminary of the Virgin of Divine Love.
In his homily Holy Father noted how his ordination of new priests usually takes place on the fourth Sunday of Easter, "Good Shepherd" Sunday and the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, but that this year it had had to be postponed because of preparations for his apostolic trip to the United States.
"The icon of the Good Shepherd, more than any other, seems to highlight the role and ministry of the priest in the Christian community", observed the Holy Father before turning his attention to today's biblical readings which, he said, "throw light from a different angle on the mission of priests".
Benedict XVI examined the first reading, the passage in the Acts of the Apostles narrating the persecution in Jerusalem against the first Christian converts, the scattering of the disciples including Philip's flight to Samaria, and his preaching being welcomed there "with great joy".
"Bringing the Gospel to everyone, that everyone may experience the joy of Christ and that there may be great joy in every city; what could be more beautiful than this? What could be greater? What could create greater enthusiasm than helping to spread the Word of Life throughout the world, than communicating the living water of the Holy Spirit? Announcing and bearing witness to this joy: this is the very heart of your mission", said the Pope to the ordinands.
"These are elemental words for all priests", he told them. "To collaborate in other people's joy - in an often sad and negative world - the fire of the Gospel must burn within each of you, the joy of the Lord must live in you. Only then will you be able to convey and multiply this joy, bringing it to everyone, especially those who are sad and disillusioned".
The Holy Father then went on to consider the rite of laying on of hands, which also figures in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles, highlighting how "such a sign is inseparable from prayer, of which it is a silent continuation. Without saying a word the consecrating bishop - and after him the other priests - places his hands on the heads of the ordinands, thus expressing an invocation to God to effuse His Spirit upon them, to transform them and to make them participants in the priesthood of Christ".
"A meeting of two freedoms comes about in that silent prayer: the freedom of God, working though the Holy Spirit, and the freedom of man, ... a mysterious Trinitarian 'movement' which brings the Holy Spirit and the Son to dwell in the disciples. ... Without love for Christ, which is put into effect by observing His commandments, people exclude themselves from the Trinitarian movement and begin to turn in on themselves, losing the capacity to receive or communicate God".
Benedict XVI encouraged the new priests "to adore Christ the Lord in your hearts: that is, carve our a personal relationship of love with Him" in which "to live, purify, illuminate and sanctify all other relationships".
"Our hope, your hope, is God in Jesus and in the Spirit", the Pope concluded. "From today, that hope becomes in you a 'priestly hope', the hope of Jesus the Good Shepherd Who dwells within you and shapes your desires in accordance with His divine Heart: a hope of life and forgiveness for the people who will be entrusted to your pastoral care; ... a hope of openness to faith and to the meeting with God for those who will come to you in their search for peace; a hope for peace and comfort for the suffering and the injured of life".
BXVI-HML/PRIESTLY ORDINATION/... VIS 20080428 (710)
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