“ The Christian faith can never be separated from the soil of sacred events, from the choice made by God, who wanted to speak to us, to become man, to die and rise again, in a particular place and at a particular time. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ On the one hand, faith is a profoundly personal contact with God, which touches me in my innermost being and places me in front of the living God in absolute immediacy in such a way that I can speak with Him, love Him, and enter into communion with Him. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One that loves you. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One that loves you. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is... One of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation... Poverty is often produced by a rejection of God's love, by man's basic and tragic tendency to close in on himself, thinking himself to be selfsufficient or merely an insignificant and ephemeral fact, a "stranger" in a random universe...The human being develops when ... his soul comes to know itself and the truths that God has implanted deep within, when he enters into dialogue with himself and his Creator... It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with God. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ If in my life I fail completely to heed others, solely out of a desire to be 'devout' and to perform my 'religious duties', then my relationship with God will also grow arid. It becomes merely 'proper', but loveless. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ The great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God.... He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope and love. It is only because of our hardness of heart that we think this is too little. Yes indeed, God's power works quietly in this world, but it is the true and the lasting power. Again and again, God's cause seems to be in its death throes. Yet over and over again it proves to be the thing that truly endures and saves. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ The glory of God is the living man, but the life of man is the vision of God', says St. Irenaeus, getting to the heart of what happens when man meets God on the mountain in the wilderness. Ultimately, it is the very life of man, man himself as living righteously, that is the true worship of God, but life only becomes real life when it receives its form from looking toward God. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ God is our Father and loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ God's love for his people is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ The 'commandment' of love is only possible because it is more than a requirement. Love can be 'commanded' because it has first been given. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation. These considerations should make us realize the care which is needed, if the liturgical action is to reflect its innate splendour. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ Knowing is not simply a material act, since the object that is known always conceals something beyond the empirical datum. All our knowledge, even the most simple, is always a minor miracle, since it can never be fully explained by the material instruments that we apply to it. In every truth there is something more than we would have expected, in the love that we receive there is always an element that surprises us. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ The great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God.... He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope and love. It is only because of our hardness of heart that we think this is too little. Yes indeed, God's power works quietly in this world, but it is the true and the lasting power. Again and again, God's cause seems to be in its death throes. Yet over and over again it proves to be the thing that truly endures and saves. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ The capacity to accept suffering for the sake of goodness, truth and justice is an essential criterion of humanity, because if my own wellbeing and safety are ultimately more important than truth and justice, then the power of the stronger prevails, then violence and untruth reigns supreme. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ Ultimately, in the battle against lies and violence, truth and love have no other weapon than the witness of suffering. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One that loves you. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ Faith, hope and charity go together. Hope is practised through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness. Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the sure hope that God holds the world in his hands and that, as the dramatic imagery of the end of the Book of Revelation points out, in spite of all darkness he ultimately triumphs in glory. Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working. Love is possible, and we are able to practise it because we are created in the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world—this is the invitation I would like to extend with the present Encyclical. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ God is our Father and loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ First [Simeon] takes the child Jesus into his arms and praises God, saying: "At last, allpowerful Master, you give leave to your servant to go in peace, according to your promise..." (Lk 2:29) ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ Faith, hope and charity go together. Hope is practised through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness. Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the sure hope that God holds the world in his hands and that, as the dramatic imagery of the end of the Book of Revelation points out, in spite of all darkness he ultimately triumphs in glory. Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working. Love is possible, and we are able to practise it because we are created in the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world—this is the invitation I would like to extend with the present Encyclical. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ So Jesus in the throes of his Passion is an image of hope: God is on the side of those who suffer. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ Knowing is not simply a material act, since the object that is known always conceals something beyond the empirical datum. All our knowledge, even the most simple, is always a minor miracle, since it can never be fully explained by the material instruments that we apply to it. In every truth there is something more than we would have expected, in the love that we receive there is always an element that surprises us. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ God is glorious, he is indestructible truth, eternal beauty. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ First [Simeon] takes the child Jesus into his arms and praises God, saying: "At last, allpowerful Master, you give leave to your servant to go in peace, according to your promise..." (Lk 2:29) ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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“ Finally, as we have seen, Simeon's Passion prophecy becomes quite specific in the words spoken directly to Mary: "a sword will pierce through your own soul" (Lk 2:35). We may assume that this saying was preserved in the early Jewish Christian community as a personal recollection of Mary herself. The community would also have known, from the same source, what the saying had actually meant in practice. But we too can know this, in union with the believing and praying Church. The contradiction against the Son is also directed against the mother and it cuts her to the heart. For her, the Cross of radical contradiction becomes the sword that pierces through her soul. From Mary we can learn what true compassion is: quite unsentimentally assuming the sufferings of others as one's own. In the writing of the Church Fathers, a lack of feeling insensitivity toward the suffering of others is considered typical of paganism. In contrast to this attitude, the Christian faith holds up the God who suffers with men, and thereby draws us into his "compassion." The Mater Dolorosa, the mother whose heart is pierced by a sword, is an iconic image of this fundamental attitude of Christian faith. ”
- Pope Benedict XVI- Copy
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