Vatican City, Sep 5, 2012 / 10:12 am
Pope Benedict XVI says the final book of the Bible, which he referred to as the Book of the Apocalypse, provides Christians with a vision of a Church fully in communion with Jesus Christ in prayer.
"The Apocalypse presents us with a community gathered in prayer, because it is in prayer that we gain an increasing awareness of Jesus's presence with us and within us," the Pope said during his Sept. 5 general audience at the Vatican.
"The more and the better we pray with constancy and intensity, the more we are assimilated to him, and the more he enters into our lives to guide them and give them joy and peace. And the more we know, love and follow Jesus, the more we feel the need to dwell in prayer with him, receiving serenity, hope and strength for our lives," he explained.
Pope Benedict flew in by helicopter from his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo to deliver his reflections to over 8,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall. The address formed another chapter in the Pope's continuing exploration of the "school of prayer" in the story of salvation.