Prayer for the Chinese Catholic Community

World Day of Prayer for the Catholic Church in China - 24th May

Prayer composed by Pope Benedict XVI

Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Incarnate Word and our Mother,
venerated in the Shrine of Sheshan under the title "Help of Christians,"
the entire Church in China looks to you with devout affection.
We come before you today to implore your protection.
Look upon the People of God and, with a mother's care, guide them
along the paths of truth and love, so that they may always be
a leaven of harmonious coexistence among all citizens.

When you obediently said "yes" in the house of Nazareth,
you allowed God's eternal Son to take flesh in your virginal womb
and thus to begin in history the work of our redemption.
You willingly and generously co-operated in that work,
allowing the sword of pain to pierce your soul,
until the supreme hour of the Cross, when you kept watch on Calvary,
standing beside your Son, Who died that we might live.

From that moment, you became, in a new way,
the Mother of all those who receive your Son Jesus in faith
and choose to follow in His footsteps by taking up His Cross.
Mother of hope, in the darkness of Holy Saturday you journeyed
with unfailing trust towards the dawn of Easter.
Grant that your children may discern at all times,
even those that are darkest, the signs of God's loving presence.

Our Lady of Sheshan, sustain all those in China,
who, amid their daily trials, continue to believe, to hope, to love.
May they never be afraid to speak of Jesus to the world,
and of the world to Jesus.
In the statue overlooking the Shrine you lift your Son on high,
offering him to the world with open arms in a gesture of love.
Help Catholics always to be credible witnesses to this love,
ever clinging to the rock of Peter on which the Church is built.
Mother of China and all Asia, pray for us, now and for ever. Amen!

Obedience to God and Freedom of Man

Obedience to God and freedom of Man

Synthesis of the Pope’s homily to the members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission gathered in Rome for its Plenary Assembly.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, during the homily he celebrated on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Biblical Commission in Rome pointed out that Peter’s response before the Sanhedrin – very similar to that uttered by Socrates before the Athenian courts – namely, that man owes the primacy of obedience to God alone - should serve as a beacon in a world lured with the prospective of freedom understood as full autonomy. This conception of freedom is nothing but an ontological, political and practical lie. If God did not exist the only authoritative voice to remain would be that of the collective majority, however unfortunate occurrences in history have shown that man can reach a common position to endorse even what is evil is essence.

The obedience of the numerous martyrs who in the history of the church have opposed the rule of dictatorships (which could not accept a God above their ideologies) is an act of liberation in which the freedom given by Christ reaches the whole of mankind.

Even today, the Pope asserted, there exist a number of dictatorships, and the subtle (or in some instance, less subtle) acts of aggressions against the Church illustrate this point clearly.

Subsequently the Pope pointed out that to be in communion with Christ means to embark on a journey towards eternal life. We should not be afraid to tackle this point since a Christianity which refuses to mention this fundamental element would be only part-Christianity.

His holiness explained the nexus between grace and penitence – a word which has been placed in the shadow in the last decades as it was deemed to be too rigorous. In the wake of the attacks hurled by the world when speaking on the sins committed by church-members, the Church experiences an occasion of grace and penitence, that it is necessary to do penance, recognize what is mistaken, opening oneself to forgiveness and transformation.

refer to the original article:

http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_quo/text.html#2