Pope Benedict sums up Pauline Year as Year for Priests begins
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St. Paul / Pope Benedict XVI

Vatican City, Jun 28, 2009 / 10:17 am (CNA).- On Sunday Pope Benedict XVI addressed thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the recitation of the Angelus prayer. Benedict XVI summed up the Pauline Year, which comes to an end tonight, and told those present to follow St. Paul in their passion for Christ and the Gospel.

The Pope launched the Pauline Year to remember the 2,000 years since the birth of the Apostle of Tarsus. The Pauline Year, the Holy Father explained, was "a true period of grace in which, through pilgrimages, catecheses, publications and various initiatives, the figure of Saint Paul was offered again to the entire Church. His vibrant message among Christian communities revived everywhere the passion for Christ and the Gospel.”

The Apostle Paul, Pope Benedict added, represents “a splendid model to follow” in the Year for Priests, which began on June 19, a year which can strengthen priests’ commitment to inner renewal, making them "stronger and more incisive evangelical witnesses in today’s world.”

Pope of Tarsus, he continued, exemplifies the priest who identifies totally with his ministry, as did the Curé d’Ars, conscious that he carries a priceless treasure, which is the message of salvation, but in an “earthen vessel.”

“For this reason he is at the same time both strong and humble, intimately convinced that everything is due to God, everything is his grace.”

“The presbyter must belong wholly to Christ and the Church, to whom he must devote his undivided love, like a faithful husband to his wife,” the Pontiff expounded.

Pope Benedict XVI concluded: “Dear friends, together with Sts. Peter and Paul the Apostles, we now invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary that she may obtain from the Lord many blessings for priests during the Year for Priests which just began. May Our Lady, whom Saint Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney loved so much and who persuaded his parishioners to love, help each and every priest to reinvigorate the gift of God which in him is virtue of the holy Ordination, so that he may grow in holiness and be ready to bear witness, if necessary through martyrdom, of the beauty of his total and final consecration to Christ and the Church.”

After the recitation of the Angelus, the Pope greeted Maronite Catholic faithful from Latakiyah, Syria and their parish priest.

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Published by: dAVID LARSEN
scituate Mass 06/28/2009 12:59 PM EST
To Paul,Christ was what He said He was,"The way the Truth and The Life,The Only Way To The Father"! Paul was joined specifically to the Cross of Christ. For Paul the mystery of the sacrifice of Christ at calvary redefined His own character,and that of every other Christian, in this saving act of Jesus Christ.
The Priest has no definition in a ritual nor has his congregation. Only when everything that ritual points to is an indicator to reveal Christ,does any ritual have a meaning. The Priest reveals in every mannerism in the Mass the incredible significance of Jesus Christ,as the way to the Father,through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Mass redefines all life and recreates the very meaning of it through the significance of every act in Christ,of whom the Father said: He was pleased in this His Son,as the Holy Spirit was seen to be upon Him by John the Baptist.
Paul was like John the Baptist,as in Christ,he saw that it was the power of the Holy Spirit,that redefined and renewed all things,for the glory of God,who is the creator of all.
Grace is for the glory of God working in all the members of the Church because God is All in All. For Paul,Christ is the defining member that is the total value for every member of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
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