Depending On The Crucified Love Of The Incarnate Word

...no one who depends on the crucified love of the Incarnate Word can ever lose. - Pope Benedict XVI

The Relationship Between Eros And Agape Is Deeply Rooted In The Mystery Of The Incarnation

What Pope Benedict teaches about the proper relationship between eros (human love) and agape (divine love) is deeply rooted in the mystery of the Incarnation and, in turn, the Trinity. Eros is distinct from agape, just as the human nature in Christ is distinct from the divine. Furthermore, just as the human and divine natures in Christ are profoundly and indissolubly united, so are erotic and divine love (or at least, they should be). Indeed, the proper unity of eros and agape flows precisely from the mystery of the Incarnation, in which the human and divine meet in an embrace that never ends. - Christopher West

Faith In The God Who Became Man Is Believing In A God With A Body...This Faith Is Real And Fulfilled; It Brings Full Union Only If It Is Corporeal, If It Is A Sacramental Event In Which The Corporeal Lord Seizes Hold Of Our Bodily Existence

We have just heard the dramatic and incomparably explicit words of Jesus from John's Gospel: "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you...My flesh is food indeed" (6:53, 55). When the murmuring of the Jews arose, the controversy could easily have been quieted by the assurance: Friends, do not be disturbed; this was only metaphorical language; the flesh only signifies food, it isn't actually that! - But there is nothing of that in the Gospel. Jesus renounces any such toning down.; he just says with renewed emphasis that this bread has to be literally, physically eaten. He says that faith in the God who became man is believing in a God with a body and that this faith is real and fulfilled; it brings full union only if it is corporeal, if it is a sacramental event in which the corporeal Lord seizes hold of our bodily existence. In order to express fully the intensity and reality of this fusion, Paul compares what happens in Holy Communion with the physical union between man and woman. To help us understand the Eucharist, he refers us to the words in the creation story: "The two [= man and wife] shall become one" (Gen 2:24). And he adds: "He who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit [that is, shares a single new existence in the Holy Spirit] with him" (1 Cor 6:17)


When we hear this, we at once have some notion of how the presence of Jesus Christ is to be understood. It is not something at rest but is a power that catches us up and works to draw us within itself. Augustine had a profound grasp of this in his teaching on Communion. In the period before his conversion, when he was struggling with the incarnational aspect of Christian belief, which he found impossible to approach from the point of view of Platonic idealism, he had a sort of vision, in which he heard a voice saying to him: "I am the bread of the strong, eat me! But you will not transform me and make me part of you; rather, I will transform you and make you part of me." In the normal process of eating. He takes things in, and they are assimilated into him, so that they become part of his own substance. They are transformed within him and go to build up his bodily life. But in the mutual relation with Christ it is the other way around; he is the heart, the truly existent being. When we truly communicate, this means that we are taken out of ourselves, that we are assimilated into him, that we become one with him and, through him, with the fellowship of our brethren. - Pope Benedict XVI, God Is Near Us

The Christian Family, Through A Process Of Ongoing Conversion Supported By The Grace Of God, Reflects The Splendour Of Christ In The World

Just like the Church, [the family] is called to welcome, radiate and show the world the love and the presence of Christ. The Christian Family to the extent it succeeds in living love as communion and service as a reciprocal gift open to all, through a process of ongoing conversion supported by the grace of God, reflects the splendour of Christ in the world and the beauty of the divine Trinity. – Pope Benedict XVI

Don't Let Yourselves Be Intimidated By An Environment That Pretends To Exclude God

‎Don't let yourselves be intimidated by an environment that pretends to exclude God, and in which power, possessions and pleasure are often the criteria by which people judge their lives. - Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict Is Trying To Revitalize Our Catholic Identity As A Bulwark Against The Dictatorship Of Relativism

After the devastation in WWII, the USA helped to rebuild Europe in order to foster trade and support a bulwark against Communism. In the wake of the devastation caused by a hermeneutic of discontinuity after the Second Vatican Council, Pope Benedict is trying to revitalize our Catholic identity as a bulwark against the dictatorship of relativism. - Fr. Z

It Is God, The Thrice Holy Who Makes Us Saints

Can I do so with my own strength? The answer is clear: A holy life is not primarily the fruit of our own effort, of our actions, because it is God, the thrice Holy (cf. Isaiah 6:3), who makes us saints, and the action of the Holy Spirit who encourages us from within; it is the life itself of the Risen Christ, which ... transforms us. - Pope Benedict XVI

Man Finds Himself Betwixt A Twofold Gravitational Force

The Fathers of the Church maintained that human beings stand at the point of intersection between two gravitational fields. First, there is the force of gravity which pulls us down – towards selfishness, falsehood and evil; the gravity which diminishes us and distances us from the heights of God. On the other hand there is the gravitational force of God’s love: the fact that we are loved by God and respond in love attracts us upwards. Man finds himself betwixt this twofold gravitational force; everything depends on our escaping the gravitational field of evil and becoming free to be attracted completely by the gravitational force of God, which makes us authentic, elevates us and grants us true freedom. - Pope Benedict XVI

Be Thoughtful, But Not Complicated

Be united but not closed off. Be humble, but not fearful. Be simple, but not naive. Be thoughtful, but not complicated. Enter into dialog with everyone, but remain yourselves. - Pope Benedict XVI

Do Not be Afraid of The Truth

I would like to say to those passing through a difficult moment in their journey of faith, and those who take little part in the life of the Church or live "as though God did not exist," not to be afraid of the Truth, never stop searching for the profound truth about yourselves and other things. God will not fail to provide Light to see by and Warmth to make the heart feel that he loves us. - Pope Benedict XVI

You Are Called to Throw Out The Nets of The Gospel Into The Stormy Seas of Our Time

You have been called to play roles that concern the Universal Church. You are called to throw out the 'nets of the Gospel', into the stormy seas of our time...to obtain the adherence of men and women to Christ, so as to draw them out-so to speak-from the salty waters of death and from the dark...to live in communion with Jesus Christ. - Pope Benedict XVI

Arbitrary Deformations of The Liturgy Caused Deep Pain

Many people who clearly accepted the binding character of the Second Vatican Council, and were faithful to the Pope and the Bishops, nonetheless also desired to recover the form of the sacred liturgy that was dear to them. This occurred above all because in many places celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal, but the latter actually was understood as authorizing or even requiring creativity, which frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear. I am speaking from experience, since I too lived through that period with all its hopes and its confusion. And I have seen how arbitrary deformations of the liturgy caused deep pain to individuals totally rooted in the faith of the Church. - Pope Benedict XVI, letter to present the Motu Proprio

The World Promises You Comfort, But You Were Not Made For Comfort

‎The world promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness. - Pope Benedict XVI

The Ecclesial Crisis in Which we Find Ourselves Today Depends in Great Part on The Collapse of The Liturgy

"...The drastic manner in which Pope Paul VI reformed the Mass in 1966 provoked extremely serious damage to the Church...Some changes were needed, but the suppression of the old Mass marked a break in the history of the liturgy, the consequences of which could only be tragic...I am convinced that the ecclesial crisis in which we find ourselves today depends in great part on the collapse of the liturgy." - Pope Benedict XVI From La Vita Mia, ("My Life")

People Are Seeing Through The Banality and The Pathetic Homemade Liturgies

"...we can...explain the fundamental change that has come about in the understanding of ritual and liturgy...: the primary subject of liturgy is neither God nor Christ, but the 'we' of the ones celebrating. And liturgy cannot of course have adoration as its primary content since, according to the deistic understanding of God, there is no reason for it. To an increasing degree people are seeing through the banality and the childish rationalism of the pathetic homemade liturgies with their artificial theatrics; it is becoming obvious how trivial they are. The authority of mystery has disappeared..." - Pope Benedict XVI

The Holy Father on Relativism in the World Today

Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the Church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, looks like the only attitude acceptable to today's standards. - Pope Benedict XVI

The Church Stands and Falls With the Liturgy

The Church stands and falls with the Liturgy. For that reason, the true celebration of the Sacred Liturgy is the center of any renewal of the Church whatsoever. - Pope Benedict XVI

No Pope Has Ever Spoken in Favor of Communion in The Hand

If you support Communion in the hand, you are in opposition to at least the personal opinion of *every single Pope* that's gone on record in history on this issue. No Pope has ever spoken *in favor* of Communion in the hand, and it seems that the two longest-reigning post-Conciliar popes both had very strong opinions indeed against it. - The Catholic Thinker

http://www.catholicthinker.net/our-lady-of-akita-communion-o/

The Pope on The Pope

Pope Benedict