.- Prior to reciting the Angelus today in Nicosia, Cyprus, the Holy Father spoke of the confident hope of Mary that God “will never abandon us.”
Benedict XVI began saying that the Angelus joyfully recalls Mary’s “ready acceptance of the Lord’s invitation to become the mother of God. It was an invitation that filled her with trepidation, one which she could scarcely even comprehend. It was a sign that God had chosen her, his lowly handmaid, to cooperate with him in his saving work.”
“Some thirty years later, as Mary stood weeping at the foot of the cross, it must have been hard to keep that hope alive,” the Pontiff continued. “The forces of darkness seemed to have gained the upper hand. And yet, deep down, she would have remembered the angel’s words.”
We, the faithful, can now “live in the same confident hope that the Word made flesh in Mary’s womb will never abandon us. He, the Son of God and Son of Mary, strengthens the communion that binds us together, so that we can bear witness to him and to the power of his healing and reconciling love."
The Holy Father concluded asking Mary’s intercession for the Church in the Middle East.
For the Pope's full remarks, visit: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/cyprus10/resource.php?res_id=1431
