Selected quotes of Pope Benedict XVI offered daily for prayer and reflection….

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The Church
 


The Lord Jesus is the stone which supports the weight of the world, which maintains the cohesion of the Church and brings together in ultimate unity all the achievements of mankind. In him, we have God’s word and presence and from him the Church receives her life, her teaching and her mission.

 
Homily
Dedication of the Church of the Sagrada Familia
Barcelona, Spain
7 November 2010

 
 
 
The Church
 


(The) Church is this embrace of God,
in which men and women learn also to embrace their brothers and sisters
and to discover in them the divine image and likeness
which constitutes the deepest truth of their existence,
and which is the origin of genuine freedom.

 
Address
Tomb of St. James
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
6 November, 2010

 
 
 
The Church
 


Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. The Church, which is entrusted with the task of prolonging the mission of Christ over space and time, cannot ignore these two essential activities: evangelisation and caring for the sick in body and spirit. God, in fact, wishes to heal all of man, and in the Gospel the healing of the body is a sign of a more profound restoration: the remission of sins.

 
Homily
St. Peter's Basilica
World Day of the Sick
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes
11 February 2010

 
 
 
The Church
 


For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity ... but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.

 
Encyclical Letter
'Deus Caritas Est'

 
 
 
The Church
 


Whoever loves Christ loves the Church, and desires the Church to be increasingly the image and instrument of the love which flows from Christ.

 
Encyclical Letter
'Deus Caritas Est'

 
 
 
The Church
 


The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her threefold responsibility: the proclaiming of the Word of God, celebrating the sacraments, and exercising the ministry of charity.

 
Encyclical Letter
'Deus Caritas Est'

 
 
 
The Church
 


"God's temple is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Cor 3: 9c, 17). The beauty and the harmony of churches, destined to render praise to God, invites us human beings too, though limited and sinful, to convert ourselves to form a "cosmos", a well-ordered construction, in close communion with Jesus, who is the true Holy of Holies. This reaches its culmination in the Eucharistic liturgy, in which the "ecclesia" that is, the community of baptized finds itself again united to listen to the Word of God and nourish itself on the Body and Blood of Christ. Gathered around this twofold table, the Church of living stones builds herself up in truth and in love and is molded interiorly by the Holy Spirit, transforming herself into what she receives, conforming herself ever more to her Lord Jesus Christ. She herself, if she lives in sincere and fraternal unity, thus becomes a spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God.

 
Angelus Address
St. Peter's Square
9 November 2008

 
 
 
The Church
 


It is precisely in Christ and in the Spirit that the Church is one and holy; in other words, an intimate communion which transcends human capacities and supports them.

 
Angelus Address
St. Peter's Square
24 January 2010

 

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