|
Pope Reflects on Finding Faith in a
Secular World
At his
weekly general audience, the Holy Father
says human hearts continue to yearn for
God’s love
|
In The Year of Faith. The
desire for God.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Continuing our catechesis
for the Year of Faith, we
now consider the mysterious
desire for God which lies
deep in the human heart. God
has created us for himself
and, in the words of Saint
Augustine, our hearts are
restless until they find
their rest in him. Even in
today’s secularized society,
this desire for God
continues to make itself
felt, above all in the
experience of love. In love,
which seeks the good of the
other, we find ourselves by
giving ourselves away, in a
process involving the
purification and healing of
our hearts. So too in
friendship, in the
experience of beauty and the
thirst for truth and
goodness: we sense that we
are caught up in a process
which points us beyond
ourselves to a mystery in
which we dimly perceive the
promise of complete
fulfilment. Thanks to this
innate religious sense, we
can open our hearts to the
gift of faith which draws us
ever closer to God, the
source of all good and the
fulfilment of our deepest
desire. During this Year of
Faith, let us pray for our
contemporaries who seek the
truth with a sincere heart,
that they may come to know
the joy and freedom born of
faith.
Pope Benedict XVI
GENERAL AUDIENCE :
Saint Peter's Square,
Wednesday, 7 November
2012
[
READ MORE ]
|
VATICAN CITY
—
( by
Matthew A. Rarey/CNA 11/08/2012 )
Pope Benedict XVI continued his series
of teachings on faith by observing that
although secularism is on the rise,
everyone has a desire for God, and this
can be seen in the experience of love.
“Even
in today’s secularized society, this
desire for God continues to make itself
felt, above all in the experience of
love,” he told thousands of pilgrims
assembled in St. Peter’s Square for the
Nov. 7 general audience.
The
Pope quoted St. Augustine’s famous words
about hearts remaining restless until
they rest in God. And love, he
noted, is the way to begin satisfying
that longing, which finds its
fulfillment in faith in God.
Love by
its very nature means encountering
another, the Holy Father said, noting
that this can be in another person or in
God himself.
The
essence of love is “seeking the good of
the other,” he noted, and by loving we
“find ourselves by giving ourselves
away.”
Pope
Benedict explained that when people go
beyond themselves, it nurtures their
built-in sense of a greater reality
beyond them, even beyond fellow human
beings.
“Thanks
to this innate religious sense, we can
open our hearts to the gift of faith
which draws us ever closer to God, the
source of all good and the fulfillment
of our deepest desire,” the Pope said
toward the end of his remarks.
Noting
that this is the Year of Faith, he
invited Catholics to pray for all
sincere seekers of the truth, “that they
may come to know the joy and freedom
born of faith.”
After
acknowledging groups of pilgrims from
different countries in their native
tongues, with huge delegations of
flag-waving Poles and Croats
enthusiastically responding to his
words, the Pope sung the Our Father in
Latin.
A group
of 34 pilgrims from St. Mary’s Church in
Nutley, N.J., lingered a while
afterward, holding bags of blessed
rosaries, crucifixes and holy medals.
“It’s
just truly amazing to be here, even
though I only caught some of what the
Pope said in English,” said Lily Tremari.
“My niece is receiving her confirmation
next Tuesday, and I’ll be giving her a
crucifix blessed by the Pope.”
[
REFERENCE
]
|
