PAPAL AUDIENCE: ONE WORLD, ONE FAMILY, ONE LOVE

Almost a week ago, a shocking news caught the Catholic world, that Pope Benedict XVI resigns.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/9862278/Pope-Benedict-XVI-resigns-pontiffs-statement-in-full.html

Pope Benedict XVI resigns: pontiff's statement in full

The full statement from Pope Benedict XVI, who has announced he will resign on February 28.

11:19AM GMT 11 Feb 2013

Pope Benedict XVI resigns, live updates

Dear Brothers,

I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonisations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. I am well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, in today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome, Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the Cardinals on 19 April 2005, in such a way, that as from 28 February 2013, at 20:00 hours, the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, will be vacant and a Conclave to elect the new Supreme Pontiff will have to be convoked by those whose competence it is.

Dear Brothers, I thank you most sincerely for all the love and work with which you have supported me in my ministry and I ask pardon for all my defects. And now, let us entrust the Holy Church to the care of Our Supreme Pastor, Our Lord Jesus Christ, and implore his holy Mother Mary, so that she may assist the Cardinal Fathers with her maternal solicitude, in electing a new Supreme Pontiff. With regard to myself, I wish to also devotedly serve the Holy Church of God in the future through a life dedicated to prayer.

From the Vatican, 10 February 2013

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

I just want to share my own experience listening to the Pope, which I felt was most inspiring and heartwarming!

 

"ONE WORLD, ONE FAMILY, ONE LOVE"

There were so many people today, Wednesday, June 6, 2012 at the Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano (St. Peter's Basilica) since at 10 a.m. to about 2 p.m., we attended the Papal Audience. 

I thought you can only get in with ticket, but actually, anybody can enter. Of course, those who had tickets can come closer! 

This was a very moving experience for me... it was the ambience (inspite of the heat of the sun!), it was the people (of different races who came for the purpose and of course, the tourists) and it was the message of Pope Benedict XVI : ONE WORLD, ONE FAMILY, ONE LOVE!!

It is amazing how this message is so UNIVERSAL. The Pope relayed his message, that inspite of the economic situation, families must dedicate Sunday as the Day for the Lord and for the family!!!

My friend, Emie who works in Rome shared that even if she has attended the Papal Masses and Audiences several times, she always feels spiritually touched! 
Thanks to Emie, I was able to go closer than where I was standing, if I were not with her!

And after the Papal Audience, I had to have a picture with the Vatican Guard in the background! 

from Wikipedia: Swiss Guards are the Swiss soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign Europeancourts since the late 15th century. Apart from household and guard units, regular Swiss mercenary regiments have served as line troops in various armies; notably those of France, Spain and Naples up to the 19th century (see Swiss Mercenaries). In contemporary usage, the name Swiss Guards generally refers to the Pontifical Swiss Guard of Holy See.

P.S.
I have also posted the message which was so touching for me. He delivered the message in English and in all other languages, that is why the Papal Audience lasts for about 4 hours! 
Since the message was quite long, I decided to just share part of the message. 

Here is an excerpt (last three paragraphs) from:

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/homilies/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_hom_20120603_milano_en.html

PASTORAL VISIT TO THE ARCHDIOCESE OF MILAN
AND 7th WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES
(1-3 JUNE 2012)

EUCHARISTIC CELEBRATION

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

Bresso Park
Sunday, 3 June 2012

In the Book of Genesis, God entrusts his creation to the human couple for them to guard it, cultivate it, and direct it according to his plan (cf. 1:27-28; 2:15). In this indication of Sacred Scripture we may recognize the task of man and woman to collaborate with God in the process of transforming the world through work, science and technology. Man and woman are also the image of God in this important work, which they are to carry out with the Creator’s own love. In modern economic theories, there is often a utilitarian concept of work, production and the market. Yet God’s plan, as well as experience, show that the one-sided logic of sheer utility and maximum profit are not conducive to harmonious development, to the good of the family or to building a just society, because it brings in its wake ferocious competition, strong inequalities, degradation of the environment, the race for consumer goods, family tensions. Indeed, the utilitarian mentality tends to take its toll on personal and family relationships, reducing them to a fragile convergence of individual interests and undermining the solidity of the social fabric.

One final point: man, as the image of God, is also called to rest and to celebrate. The account of creation concludes with these words: “And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it” (Gen 2:2-3). For us Christians, the feast day is Sunday, the Lord’s day, the weekly Easter. It is the day of the Church, the assembly convened by the Lord around the table of the word and of the eucharistic Sacrifice, just as we are doing today, in order to feed on him, to enter into his love and to live by his love. It is the day of man and his values: conviviality, friendship, solidarity, culture, closeness to nature, play, sport. It is the day of the family, on which to experience together a sense of celebration, encounter, sharing, not least through taking part in Mass. Dear families, despite the relentless rhythms of the modern world, do not lose a sense of the Lord’s Day! It is like an oasis in which to pause, so as to taste the joy of encounter and to quench our thirst for God.

Family, work, celebration: three of God’s gifts, three dimensions of our lives that must be brought into a harmonious balance. Harmonizing work schedules with family demands, professional life with fatherhood and motherhood, work with celebration, is important for building up a society with a human face. In this regard, always give priority to the logic of being over that of having: the first builds up, the second ends up destroying. We must learn to believe first of all in the family, in authentic love, the kind that comes from God and unites us to him, the kind that therefore “makes us a ‘we’ which transcends our divisions and makes us one, until in the end God is ‘all in all’ (1 Cor15:28)” (Deus Caritas Est, 18). Amen.