Yesterday's Papal Angelus- The Pope SPeaks on Life, Lent, Lourdes, Indulgences and other things

The Holy Father spoke on life yesterday. Needless to say when we as free Americans go vote that is a issue. If you are in a Super Tuesday State tomorrow make your vote a prayful one. Again thanks to the Ratzinger Forum for the translation.

Dear brothers and sisters!

Today I wish to count on your prayers for various intentions. In the first place, remembering that yesterday, the liturgical feast of the Presentation of the Lord, we celebrated the Day for Consecrated Life, I invite you to pray for those whom Christ has called to follow him more closely by special consecration. Our gratitude goes to these brothers and sisters of ours, who dedicate themselves totally in service to God and to the Church with vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, May the Holy Virgin obtain many more holy vocations to the consecrated life, which constitutes an invaluable wealth for the Church and for the world.

Another prayer intention is offered us by the Day for Life, which is celebrated today in Italy, with the theme "Serve life". I greet and thank all those who are gathered here in St. Peter's Square today to bear witness to their commitment to the defense and promotion of life and to reaffirm that "the civilization of a people is measured by its capacity to serve life" (Message of the Italian bishops conference for the XXX National Day for Life). In fact, it is the commitment of everyone to welcome human life as a gift to respect, protect and promote, more so when it is fragile and most needful of attention and care, as before birth or in its terminal stage.

I join the Italian bishops in encouraging all those who, with great effort but with joy, without publicity but with great dedication, devote themselves to helping aged and disabled family members, and those who regularly consecrate part of their time to help people of every age whose lives are sorely afflicted by so many various forms of poverty.

Let us pray also that Lent, which will start on Wednesday with the Rite of the Ashes - that I will celebrate as I do yearly at the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine - may be a time of authentic conversion and penitence for all Christians, who are called to an ever more authentic and courageous testimony of their own faith.

Let us entrust these prayer intentions to Our Lady. Starting yesterday, up to the entire day of February 11 - commemorating the Holy Virgin of Lourdes and the 150th anniversary of her apparitions - it will be possible to receive a plenary indulgence applicable to the deceased with the customary conditions - Confession, Communion and praying with the intentions of the Pope, as well as praying before an blessed image of Our Lady of Lourdes that is exposed for public veneration.

For older people and the sick, thus will be possible through the desire in their hearts. Mary, Mother and Star of Hope, light our steps and make us ever more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

After the Angelus prayers, the Pope had several more special messages.

In Italian, he said:

I invite you all to join our brothers and sisters in Kenya - some of them present today at this Piazza - in praying for reconciliation, justice and peace. Assuring everyone of my closeness, I hope that the mediation efforts now under way may be successful and lead - thanks to the goodwill and collaboration of everyone - to a rapid solution of the conflict which has already claimed too many victims. Evil, with its weight of sorrow and pain, does not seem to know limits in Iraq, as the very sad news these days tells us. Once again, I raise my voice i behalf of that people who have been severely tried and invoke for them the peace of God.

In Spanish, he continued:

I continue to offer fervent pleas to God for Colombia, where for some time now, many sons and daughters of that beloved nation have suffered extortion, abduction and the violent loss of their dear ones. I ask the Lord to put an end to such inhuman suffering and that ways may be found towards reconciliation, mutual respect and sincere agreement, thus restoring fraternity and solidarity which are the solid basis for obtaining a just progress and constructing a stable peace.

Resuming in Italian, he said:
In my message for the recent World Day for Peace, I underscored the fact that it is in the family where the vocabulary for civil coexistence is learned and where human values are first discovered.

The festivities for the Lunar New Year in the next few days will see the families of the various Asian nations of the East reunited in joy. I wish them all every good and prosperity, and I hope that they may conserve and value their beautiful and fruitful traditions of family life for the benefit of their respective nations and the other countries where they now live.

In the Diocese of Rome, the Diocesan Week for Life and the Family begins today and will end next Sunday at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love, with the celebration of the Diocesan Feast of the Family. I encourage all parents to rediscover the greatness and beauty of the educative mission. Yes, to educate is very demanding but it is also exciting. Let your children experience, from the most tender age, that nearness which shows love, give yourselves to them, so that in their turn, they may open up to others and to the world with serenity and with generosity. May the spirit of education always be trust in God who 'gives hope to our future'.

In English, he said:

I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking visitors gathered for this Angelus prayer. In a few days we will celebrate Ash Wednesday, the beginning of our annual Lenten journey towards Easter. May this season of spiritual renewal be for all Christians an occasion to draw nearer to the Lord in prayer, penance and the pursuit of holiness. Upon you and your families I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace!