HOLY FATHER TAKES HIS LEAVE OF CASTELGANDOLFO

VATICAN CITY, 30 SEP 2010 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon Benedict XVI bid farewell to staff who work at the Pontifical Villas in Castelgandolfo, thanking them for their prayers and their efforts on his behalf during the period he had spent there.

  "Dear friends", he said, "continue to offer daily witness of your faith, especially by humbly listening to the Word of God. ... All Christians are called to accept and to live, day after day with simplicity and joy, the Word of truth which the Lord communicated to us. ... It is vital that each Christian should live in contact and personal dialogue with the Word of God, given to us in Sacred Scripture, reading it not as a word of the past, but as a living Word addressed to us today".

  The Holy Father assured the staff of the Pontifical Villas of his "constant recollection in my prayers, that each of you may increasingly and more profoundly come to know and assimilate the Word of God, stimulus and source of Christian life in all situations and for all people, The Most Holy Virgin is a model of such obedient attention; learn from her".

  The Pope is due to return to the Vatican this evening.

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BENEDICT XVI'S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR OCTOBER

VATICAN CITY, 30 SEP 2010 (VIS) - Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for October is: "That Catholic universities may more and more be places where, in the light of the Gospel, it is possible to experience the harmonious unity existing between faith and reason".

  His mission intention is: "That World Mission Day may afford an occasion for understanding that the task of proclaiming Christ is an absolutely necessary service to which the Church is called for the benefit of humanity".
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, 30 SEP 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

 - Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

 - Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.

 - Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant'Egidio Community, accompanied by Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni-Narni-Ameila.

 - Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Lviv of the Latins, Ukraine.
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MATILDA OF HACKEBORN: LITURGY AND SPIRITUALITY

VATICAN CITY, 29 SEP 2010 (VIS) - St. Matilda of Hackeborn (1241/1242 - 1298), one of the outstanding figures of the German convent of Helfta, was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis during his general audience, which took place this morning in St. Peter's Square.

  Matilda was daughter of the barons of Hackeborn. At an early age she entered the convent of Helfta where her sister, St. Gertrude, was abbess for forty years. Gertrude gave "a particular imprint to the spirituality of the convent, causing it to flourish as a centre of mysticism and culture, a place of scientific and theological education". The nuns of Helfta enjoyed "a high level of intellectual learning which enabled them to cultivate a spirituality founded on Sacred Scripture, the liturgy and patristic tradition, and on the Rule and spirituality of the Cistercians".

  The main source for Matilda's life is a book written by her sister and entitled "The Book of Special Grace", in which she is described as possessing exalted natural and spiritual qualities such as "science, intelligence, knowledge of human literature, and a voice of great beauty".

  While still very young Matilda became the head of the convent school of Helfta, and later director of the choir and mistress of novices. She also possessed "the divine gift of mystic contemplation" and was "a teacher of faithful doctrine and great humility, a counsellor, a consoler and a guide in discernment". For this reason "many people, within the convent but also from elsewhere, ... testified that this holy virgin had freed them from their sufferings and that they had never known such consolation as they had with her", said Benedict XVI.

  "During her long life in the convent, Matilda was afflicted by continuous and intense suffering, to which she added her own great penance for the conversion of sinners. In this way she shared in the Lord's passion until the end of her life.

  "Prayer and contemplation", the Pope added. "were the vital 'humus' of her life. It was there that her revelations, her teachings, her service to others, and her journey in faith and love had their roots and their context. ... Of the liturgical prayers, Matilda gave particular emphasis to the canonical hours, and to the celebration of Mass especially Holy Communion. ... Her visions, her teachings, and the events of her life are described with expressions evocative of liturgical and biblical language. Thus do we come to appreciate her profound knowledge of Sacred Scripture, which was her daily bread".

  This saint, "allowing herself to be guided by Sacred Scripture and nourished by the Eucharistic bread, followed a path of intimate union with the Lord, always maintaining complete fidelity to the Christ. For us too, this is a powerful call to intensify our friendship with the Lord, especially through daily prayer and attentive, faithful and active participation in Mass. The liturgy is a great school of spirituality", the Pope concluded.
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PRAYERS FOR NIGERIA AND HAITI, BEGINNING OF MARIAN MONTH

VATICAN CITY, 29 SEP 2010 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience, the Pope mentioned "the grave humanitarian crisis which has recently struck northern Nigeria, where some two million people have been forced to flee their homes because of severe flooding. To all those affected I express my spiritual closeness and I assure them of my prayers", he said.

  He then addressed some remarks to a group of pilgrims from Haiti assuring them of his continuing "prayers to God to bring Haitians relief in their misery".

  Noting then that Friday marks the beginning of the Marian month of October, he encouraged the faithful "to learn from the Virgin of Nazareth always to be ready to fulfil the will of God".
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