TIME FOR PHYSICAL REST & SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT?
Many with families have entered upon the “holiday period”. As is traditional here, this will be the last newsletter before September. Some parishioners will leave the city, others may stay. We pray that those travelling, those at work over this period, those looking after their families, and those going on our parish youth trips and the day at the seaside, may receive the gifts they need at this time.
Pope Benedict XVI recently prayed the Sunday Angelus at the Castle of Mirabello, near the chalet where he is resting in the alpine locality of Lorenzago di Cadore, Italy.
Before the Marian prayer, the Pope addressed some words to the hundreds of people who had gathered to see him. "Before this panorama of fields, woods and peaks towering up to the sky," he said, "we feel a spontaneous desire to praise God for the wonders of His work, and our admiration for such natural beauty is easily transformed into prayer.
"Each good Christian," he added, "knows that holidays are an appropriate moment for physical relaxation, as well as for nourishing the spirit by giving greater space to prayer and mediation, in order to grow in our personal relationship with Christ and to adapt ourselves ever more to His teachings."
The Pope then went on to consider today's Gospel reading on the Good Samaritan, saying that "each of us must be a neighbour to everyone we come across. ... Love, says Jesus, is to behave like the Good Samaritan. And we know that the Good Samaritan par excellence is He; for although He is God, He did not hesitate to lower Himself to becoming a man and to giving His life for us.
"Love, then, is the 'heart' of Christian life. In fact only love, aroused in us by the Holy Spirit, makes us witnesses of Christ," said the Holy Father
He recently gave a practical example of this, for those getting in their cars to travel away, encouraging them to “responsibility of the highways” and reminding them that “correct conduct when driving is a specific way to respect one’s own and others’ life.”
Pope Benedict XVI recently prayed the Sunday Angelus at the Castle of Mirabello, near the chalet where he is resting in the alpine locality of Lorenzago di Cadore, Italy.
Before the Marian prayer, the Pope addressed some words to the hundreds of people who had gathered to see him. "Before this panorama of fields, woods and peaks towering up to the sky," he said, "we feel a spontaneous desire to praise God for the wonders of His work, and our admiration for such natural beauty is easily transformed into prayer.
"Each good Christian," he added, "knows that holidays are an appropriate moment for physical relaxation, as well as for nourishing the spirit by giving greater space to prayer and mediation, in order to grow in our personal relationship with Christ and to adapt ourselves ever more to His teachings."
The Pope then went on to consider today's Gospel reading on the Good Samaritan, saying that "each of us must be a neighbour to everyone we come across. ... Love, says Jesus, is to behave like the Good Samaritan. And we know that the Good Samaritan par excellence is He; for although He is God, He did not hesitate to lower Himself to becoming a man and to giving His life for us.
"Love, then, is the 'heart' of Christian life. In fact only love, aroused in us by the Holy Spirit, makes us witnesses of Christ," said the Holy Father
He recently gave a practical example of this, for those getting in their cars to travel away, encouraging them to “responsibility of the highways” and reminding them that “correct conduct when driving is a specific way to respect one’s own and others’ life.”
posted by Sinead Reekie at 9:50 am