SUMMARY:
- THE
LITURGY, A SCHOOL OF PRAYER
- THE
RULE OF LAW REQUIRES A LEGAL SYSTEM BASED ON NATURAL LAW
- OTHER
PONTIFICAL ACTS
______________________________________
THE
LITURGY, A SCHOOL OF PRAYER
Vatican
City, 26 September 2012 (VIS) - The liturgy as a school of prayer, as
a "special place in which God addresses each one of us ... and
awaits our response", was the theme of Benedict XVI's catechesis
during his general audience, held this morning in St. Peter's Square.
The Pope
explained how, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "we read
that the word 'liturgy' originally meant a 'service in the name of/on
behalf of the people'. If Christian theology took this word from the
Greek, clearly it did so thinking of the new People of God, born of
Christ Who opened His arms on the Cross to unite mankind in the one
peace of God; 'service in the name of the people', a people which
exists not of itself but which has come into being thanks to the
Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ".
"The
Catechism also states that in Christian tradition, the word 'liturgy'
means the participation of the People of God in the work of God".
In this context Pope Benedict recalled how the document on the
liturgy had been the first fruit of Vatican Council II. "By
beginning with the issue of liturgy, light was very clearly thrown on
the primacy of God, on His absolute precedence. ... Where the gaze on
God is not decisive, everything becomes disoriented. The fundamental
criterion for the liturgy is that it should be oriented towards God,
in order to ensure we participate in His work.
"Yet,
we might ask ourselves", the Holy Father added, "what is
this work of God in which we are called to participate? ... And what
makes the Mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ, Who
brought salvation, real for me today? The answer is this: the action
of Christ through the Church and the liturgy; in particular the
Sacrament of the Eucharist which causes the sacrificial offer of the
Son of God Who redeemed us to be present; the Sacrament of Penance in
which we pass from the death induced by sin to new life; and the
other Sacraments which sanctify us".
Quoting
again from the Catechism of the Catholic Church the Pope affirmed
that "a sacramental celebration is a meeting of God's children
with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes
the form of a dialogue, through actions and words'. Thus", he
explained, "the first requirement for a good liturgical
celebration is that it be prayer and dialogue with God, first
listening then responding. ... Sacred liturgy offers us the words, it
is up to us to enter into their meaning, absorb them, harmonise
ourselves with them. ... One fundamental and primordial element of
dialogue with God in the liturgy is concordance between what we say
with our mouths and what we carry in our hearts", he said.
The Pope
then referred to a particular moment in which the liturgy calls upon
us and helps us to find such concordance: the celebrant's invitation
before the Eucharistic prayer: "sursum corda", meaning "let
us lift up our hearts"; lift them up, that is, "out of the
mire of our concerns and desires, our worries and our distraction.
Our hearts, the most intimate part of us, must open meekly to the
Word of God and join the prayer of the Church, in order to be
oriented towards God by the very words we hear and pronounce".
"We
celebrate and experience the liturgy well", the Pope concluded,
"only if we maintain an attitude of prayer, uniting ourselves to
the mystery of Christ and to His dialogue of a Son with His Father.
God Himself teaches us to pray. ... He has given us the right words
with which to address Him, words we find in the Psalter, in the great
prayers of sacred liturgy and in the Eucharistic celebration itself.
Let us pray to the Lord that we may become increasingly aware of the
fact that the liturgy is the action of God and of man; a prayer that
arises from the Holy Spirit and from us; entirely addressed to the
Father in union with the Son of God made man".
Following
the catechesis the Holy Father addressed greetings to, among others,
faithful from Latin America, including a group of Chilean
parliamentarians whom he reminded of Catholic politicians' duty
"generously to seek the common good of all citizens, in a manner
coherent with the convictions held by the children of the Church".
THE
RULE OF LAW REQUIRES A LEGAL SYSTEM BASED ON NATURAL LAW
Vatican
City, 26 September 2012 (VIS) - In New York on 24 September,
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States,
addressed the United Nations High-level Meeting on the Rule of Law at
the National and International Levels.
Archbishop
Mamberti spoke in his capacity as Holy See delegate to the
sixty-seventh Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Brief extracts from his English-language remarks are given below.
"Faced
as we are by challenges old and new, the calling of the High-Level
Meeting on the Rule of Law is an important opportunity to reaffirm
the will to find political solutions applicable at the global level
with the aid of a juridical order solidly based upon the dignity and
nature of humanity, in other words, upon the natural law.
"This
is the best path to follow if we wish to realise the grand designs
and purpose of the United Nations Charter and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which remain relevant by means of
various treaties on human rights, disarmament, and the codification
of the great principles of international law and in the gathering and
progress made in the norms of humanitarian law.
"It
will be possible to advance if, as well as working through ever more
specialised organs, including in economic and financial matters, the
United Nations remains a central point of reference for the creation
of a true family of nations, where the unilateral interest of the
most powerful ones does not trump the needs of the weaker ones. Such
will be possible if legislation at the international level is marked
by respect for the dignity of the human person, beginning with the
centrality of the right to life and to freedom of religion".
OTHER
PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican
City, 26 September 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:
- Bishop
Tome Ferreira da Silva, auxiliary of Sao Paulo, Brazil, as bishop of
the diocese of Jose do Rio Preto (area 14,423, population 934,000,
Catholics 701,000, priests 136, permanent deacons 17, religious 175),
Brazil.
-
Appointed Fr. Joao Francisco Salm of the clergy of the archdiocese of
Florianopolis, Brazil, archdiocesan bursar, as bishop of Tubarao
(area 4,531, population 363,000, Catholics 316,000, priests 52,
permanent deacons 1, religious 102), Brazil. The bishop-elect was
born in Sao Pedro de Alcantara, Brazil in 1952 and ordained a priest
in 1979. Among other roles, he has worked as formator and later
rector of the Seminary of Azambuja, and as a coordinator for pastoral
care.
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