Well the translation of the Holy Father's Wednesday Angelus is out thanks to the good people here at the Ratizinger Forum. It is also where I got the cool pic of the Holy Father from TODAY. Usually he talks about the Church Fathers as a part of his teaching us about our Catholic Faith that comes to us from the apostles.
However today he talked about his recent huge trip to Austria. I am working through the text of his speeches right now that occured on that trip. For instance I posted this great one on the importance of Sunday the Pope did a couple of days ago. The Pope here is just not giving us a rundown on what he saw. He has a lot of teaching here. By the way he references a lot of the talks he did in the angelus. Those too can be accessed at the Ratizinger forum all translated into English starting on about page 4 of this thread APOSTOLIC VOYAGE TO AUSTRIA, SEPT. 7-9, 2007. As my custom I will post the entire Angelus.
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words at the General Audience at St. Peter's Square today.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, I intend to reflect on the pastoral visit which I had the joy of making recently to Austria, a country which is particularly familiar to me, both because it adjoins my native land and for the numerous contacts which I have always had with it.
The specific reason for this visit was the 850th anniversary of the Shrine of Mariazell, Austria's most important sanctuary, equally favored by Hungarian faithful, and much visited by pilgrims from other surrounding nations. Therefore, the visit was above all a pilgrimage, with the motto "Look at Christ' - an encounter with Mary who shows us Jesus.
With all my heart, I thank Cardinal Schoenborn, Archbishop of Vienna, and all the bishops of the nation for the great effort with which they prepared for my visit and accompanied me through it. I thank the Austrian government and all the civilian and military authorities who gave it their valuable collaboration. In particular, I thank the Federal President for the cordiality with which he welcomed me and accompanied me at various events during the visit.
My first stop was at the Marian pillar, a historic monument with the statue of the Immaculate Virgin, where I met thousands of young people and began my pilgrimage. I then went to the adjoining Judenplatz to pay my homage at the memorial which commemorates the Austrian victims of the Shoah. In view of Austria's history and its close relationship with the Holy See, as well as the importance of Vienna in international politics, the program for my pastoral visit included meetings with the president of the Republic and with the diplomatic corps. These were valuable occasions on which the Successor of Peter is able to exhort responsible authorities to always work for the cause of peace and authentic economic and social development. Looking at Europe in particular, I renewed my encouragement to carry on with the current process of unification on the basis of values inspired by our common Christian patrimony.
Mariazell itself is one of the symbols of encounter among European peoples centered around the Christian faith. How can we forget that Europe is the bearer of a tradition of thought which links, faith, reason and sentiment? Illustrious philosophers, even independent of the faith, have acknowledged the central role of Christianity in preserving the modern conscience from the dangerous trends of nihilism or fundamentalism. The meeting with political and diplomatic authorities in Vienna was therefore a very propitious occasion to place my apostolic voyage in the actual context of the situation in the European continent.
I carried out the true and actual pilgrimage on Saturday, September 8, feast of the Nativity of Mary, to whom the Shrine of Mariazell is dedicated. It all started in 1157, when a Benedictine monk from the nearby abbey of St. Lambrecht, on his way to preach in the region, experienced the miraculous help of Mary, whose small wooden image he was carrying. The 'cell' (Zell) in which the monk first kept the image eventually began a place of pilgrimage, and after two centuries, an important sanctuary was built in which today we venerate the Madonna of Grace called Magna Mater Austriae (Great Mother of Austria).
For me, it was a great joy to return as the Successor of Peter to that place which is so holy and dear to the peoples of central and eastern Europe. I admired the exemplary courage of thousands of pilgrims who, notwithstanding rain and cold, chose to attend the annual feast of Our Lady with great joy and faith, and to whom I illustrated the central theme of my visit, "Looking at Christ,' a theme that the bishops of Austria developed wisely in the spiritual preparations during the nine months that preceded my visit. Simply by coming to the Sanctuary, we completely understood the sense of the motto 'to look at Christ'. Before us was the statue of the Madonna who points with one hand to the Baby Jesus, and above the altar of the Basilica was the Crucifix. Here our pilgrimage reached its goal. We looked at the face of God in that baby held in his mother's arms, and in the Man with his arms spread wide open on the Cross.
To look at Jesus with the eyes of Mary means to meet God who is Love, who, for us, became man and died on the Cross. At the end of the Mass in Mariazell, I conferred a 'mandate' on the members of the parochial pastoral councils who were recently elected throughout Austria. With this ecclesial gesture, I placed under Mary's protection the great 'network' of parishes in their service of communion and mission. Later, at the Sanctuary, I experienced moments of joyous brotherhood with the bishops of Austria and the Benedictine community. I met priests, religious, deacons and seminarians, and celebrated Vespers with them.
Spiritually united to Mary, we praised the Lord for the humble dedication of so many men and women who entrust themselves to his mercy and have consecrated themselves to the service of God. These persons, with all their human limitations, but in their very simplicity and humility, try daily to offer to all a reflection of the goodness and beauty of God, following Jesus in their life of poverty, chastity and obedience - three vows which must be understood well in their authentic Christologic significance, not individualistic, but relational and ecclesial.
On Sunday morning, I celebrated the Solemn Eucharist in the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Vienna. In the homily, I wished to speak in depth of the significance and value of Sunday, in support of the movement called 'Alliance for the defense of a free Sunday', which includes many non-Christian groups. As believers, we of course have deep reasons for living the Lord's day as the Church teaches us. 'Sine dominica non possumus!' - Without the Lord and his day, we cannot live - declared the martyrs of Abitene (in what is now Tunisia) in the year 304. Even we, Christians in the third millennium, cannot live without Sunday - a day which gives sense to both work and rest, makes us realize the meaning of creation and redemption, and expresses the value of freedom and service to one's neighbor - all this is Sunday, which is so much more than a precept. If the peoples of the early Christian civilizations had abandoned this meaning and allowed Sunday to be reduced to a 'weekend', to an occasion for worldly and commercial interests, it would have meant deciding to renounce their own culture. Not far from Vienna is the Abbey of Heiligenkreuz, of the Holy Cross. It was for me a joy to visit that flourishing community of Cistercian monks which has existed without interruption for 874 years.
Annexed to the Abbey is the College of Philosophy and Theology, which was recently named a Pontifical institution. [The pope modestly omits that the college was also formally named for him - the BenedictXVI College of Philosopy and Theology.] Addressing the monks in particular, I spoke to them of the teachings of St. Benedict about the Divine Office, which underscores the value of prayer as a service of praise and adoration offered to God for his infinite goodness and beauty. Nothing should come ahead of such a sacred service, says the Benedictine rule (43,3) - all of life, with its rhythms of work and rest, should be reflected in the liturgy and oriented to God. Even theological study cannot be separated from the spiritual life and from prayer, as St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who was a Cistercian, once forcefully stated. The presence of a theological academy at the Abbey testifies to this marriage between faith and reason, between heart and mind. The last encounter during my trip was with the world of volunteer workers. I wished to show my appreciation to so many people, of different ages, who dedicate themselves without pay to service for their fellowmen, within the church community as in civilian society.
Volunteer work is not simply 'doing': above all, it is a way of being, which comes from the heart, from gratitude towards life, which impels one to 'return' and share with others the good th e good that one has received. In this context, I wished to encourage the culture of volunteer work, which should not be seen as a stopgap measure relative to the work of the state and public institutions, but as a complementary and always necessary presence, to focus attention on those who are considered least in society and to promote a person-to-person manner of intervention. Everyone can be a volunteer - even the most indigent and disadvantaged person has much to share with others in helping to build a civilization of love.
Finally, I renew my thanks to the Lord for this pilgrimage-visit to Austria. My central goal, to repeat, was to visit the Marian shrine of Mariazell where I had a powerful ecclesial experience as I did one week earlier with the youth of Italy in Loreto. In Vienna as in Mariazell, the living reality of the Catholic Church, faithful and multiform, was evident in all the events. It was the joyful and engaged presence of a Church which, like Mary, is called on to always 'look at Christ' to be able to show and offer him to everyone; a Church which is both teacher and witness of a generous Yes to life in its every dimension; a Church which realizes its bimillennial tradition in the service of a future of peace and true social progress for the entire human family.
Later, he synthesized his report in English, thus:
Dear Brothers and Sisters, My recent Pastoral Visit to Austria was above all a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Mariazell on its 850th anniversary. The venerable statue of Our Lady pointing to her infant Son inspired the theme of the visit – To Look to Christ. Austria is a land of ancient Christian culture, and its capital, Vienna, is today a centre of international institutions. In my meeting with the President and the Diplomatic Corps I expressed the Church’s support for global efforts to foster peace and authentic development, and I encouraged the process of Europe’s unification on the basis of values inspired by its shared Christian heritage. At Mass in Saint Stephen’s Cathedral, I stressed the importance of respecting the rich religious and cultural meaning of our tradition of Sunday rest.
While visiting Heiligenkreuz Abbey I spoke of the value of monasticism and liturgical prayer, and the inseparable link between theology and the spiritual life. At the end of my journey, I met with representatives of Austria’s impressive network of volunteer organizations and expressed appreciation for their generosity to others. Throughout my visit, I saw the vitality of the Church, which, in today’s Europe, is called "to look to Christ" ever anew, as she carries out her mission in service of the Gospel and the true progress of the human family.
I am pleased to welcome the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially those from England, Wales, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Malta and the United States.
Upon all of you I cordially invoke joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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