Pope: “Open Your Soul to the Light of the Lord”
“Through Christ we know that we are not wanderers into an abyss, towards the silence of nothingness and death, but we are the pilgrims to a promised land.” With these words the Holy Father greeted the seminarians gathered at the Cathedral of Santa María la Real de la Almudena to participate in the Eucharistic celebration. In the joyous atmosphere of World Youth Day, Benedict XVI invited all to live these years of preparation in an interior silence, in constant prayer, and diligent study to understand whether the path taken, which “requires courage and authenticity,” is the real choice for life. “We have to be saints so as not to create a contradiction between the sign that we are and the reality that we wish to signify,” the Pope stated. Configure your life to the “mystery of the cross of the Lord”, for this in fact is the ‘only way to deal, in love and realism, with the problems that distinguish every historical epoch. “Do not be intimidated by surroundings that would exclude God and in which power, wealth and pleasure are frequently the main criteria ruling people’s lives,” Pope Benedict acknowledged. You may be shunned along with others who propose higher goals or who unmask the false gods before whom many now bow down. That will be the moment when a life deeply rooted in Christ will clearly be seen as something new and it will powerfully attract those who truly search for God, truth and justice.”
