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

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Feast, Ascension
 


In Christ ascended into Heaven, the human being has entered into intimacy with God in a new and unheard-of way; man henceforth finds room in God for ever. “Heaven”: this word Heaven does not indicate a place above the stars but something far more daring and sublime: it indicates Christ himself, the divine Person who welcomes humanity fully and forever, the One in whom God and man are inseparably united forever. Man’s being in God, this is Heaven.

 
Vespers
Benedictine Archabbey
Monte Cassino, Italy
24 May 2009

 
 
 
Feast, Ascension
 


After having instructed his disciples for the last time, Jesus ascended into heaven. He, however, "did not separate himself from our condition", in fact, in his humanity, he took mankind with him in the intimacy of the Father, and so has revealed the final destination of our earthly pilgrimage.

 

Regina Caeli
St Peter's Square
20 May 2012

 
 
 
Feast, Ascension
 


The Lord opening the way to Heaven, gives us a foretaste of divine life already on this earth.
A 19th-century Russian author wrote in his spiritual testament: "Observe the stars more often. When you have a burden in your soul, look at the stars or the azure of the sky. When you feel sad, when they offend you... converse... with Heaven. Then your soul will find rest."

 
Regina Caeli
St Peter's Square
Seventh Sunday of Easter
16 May 2010

 
 
 
Feast, Ascension
 


With his Incarnation, with his death and Resurrection and with the gift of the Holy Spirit Jesus has inserted the human being into a new relationship with God, his own relationship with the Father. For this reason the Risen Jesus says: ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’ (Jn 20:17). It is a relationship that is already totally real but not yet totally revealed: it will be in the end when, if God pleases, we shall see his face without a veil.

 
Homily
Priestly Ordinations
St. Peter's Basilica
4th Sunday of Easter
29 April 2012

 
 
 
Feast, Ascension
 


The Lord draws the gaze of the Apostles our gaze toward Heaven to show how to travel the road of good during earthly life. Nevertheless, he remains within the framework of human history; he is near to each of us and guides our Christian journey: he is the companion of those persecuted for the faith, he is in the heart of those who are marginalized, he is present in those whom the right to life is denied. We can hear, see, and touch our Lord Jesus in the Church, especially through the word and the sacraments.

 
Regina Caeli
Seventh Sunday of Easter
St Peter's Square
16 May 2010

 
 
 
Feast, Ascension
 


Since God embraces and sustains the entire cosmos, the Ascension of the Lord means that Christ has not departed from us, but that he is now, thanks to his being with the Father, close to each one of us for ever. Each one of us can be on intimate terms with him; each can call upon him. The Lord is always within hearing. We can inwardly draw away from him. We can live turning our backs on him. But he always waits for us and is always close to us.

 
Homily
Mass of Possession of the
Chair of the Bishop of Rome
Basilica of St John Lateran
7 May 2005

 
 
 
Feast, Ascension
 


Christ's Ascension means that he no longer belongs to the world of corruption and death that conditions our life. It means that he belongs entirely to God. He, the Eternal Son, led our human existence into God's presence, taking with him flesh and blood in a transfigured form.

 
Homily
Mass of Possession of the Chair
of the Bishop of Rome
Basilica of St. John Lateran
7 May 2005

 
 
 
Feast, Ascension
 


‘Be my witnesses throughout the world” (Acts 1:8).
These were the very last words which Jesus spoke before his Ascension into heaven. How the Apostles felt upon hearing them, we can only imagine. But we do know that their deep love for Jesus, and their trust in his word, prompted them to gather and to wait; to wait not aimlessly, but together, united in prayer, with the women and Mary in the Upper Room.

 
Evening Vigil
WYD, Australia
20 July 2008

 

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