Benedict XVI's Speech Before Departing Angola

"I Have Found the Church Here to Be So Alive"

LUANDA, Angola, MARCH 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the farewell address Benedict XVI gave this morning at Angola's Quatro de Fevereiro airport before departing Africa for Rome, concluding his pastoral visit to the continent.

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Mr. President,
Distinguished Civil, Military and Ecclesiastical Authorities,
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Dear Angolan Friends,

Keenly aware of your presence as I depart, Mr. President, I would like to express to you my appreciation and my thanks for the courteous treatment you have given me and for the efforts made to ensure the smooth progress of all the meetings I have had the joy of experiencing. To the civil and military authorities and to the Pastors and leaders of the ecclesial communities and institutions involved in those meetings, I express my warmest thanks for all the courtesy with which they honored me during these days that I was able to spend among you. A word of gratitude is owed to the media personnel, to the security forces and to all the volunteers who generously, efficiently and discreetly contributed to the successful outcome of my visit.

I thank God that I have found the Church here to be so alive and full of enthusiasm, despite the difficulties, able to take up its own cross and that of others, bearing witness before everyone to the saving power of the Gospel message. She continues to proclaim that the time of hope has come, and she is committed to bringing peace and promoting the exercise of fraternal charity in a way that is acceptable to all, respecting the ideas and sensitivities of each person. It is time to say goodbye and to set off once more for Rome, sad at having to leave you, but glad to have known a courageous people determined to begin again. Despite the problems and obstacles, the people of Angola intend to build their future by travelling along paths of forgiveness, justice and solidarity.

If I may be permitted to make one last appeal, I would ask that the just realization of the fundamental aspirations of the most needy peoples should be the principal concern of those in public office, since their intention -- I am sure -- is to carry out the mission they have received not for themselves but for the sake of the common good. Our hearts cannot find peace while there are still brothers and sisters who suffer for lack of food, work, shelter or other fundamental goods. If we are to offer a definite response to these fellow human beings, the first challenge to be overcome is that of building solidarity: solidarity between generations, solidarity between nations and between continents, which should lead to an ever more equitable sharing of the earth’s resources among all people.

From Luanda I broaden my gaze to include the whole of Africa, confirming our appointment for the coming month of October in Vatican City, when we shall gather for the Second Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops dedicated to this continent, where the incarnate Word in person found refuge. I ask God to grant his protection and assistance to the countless refugees who have fled their country, and are now at large, waiting to be able to return home. The God of Heaven says to them once again: "Even if a woman should forget the child at her breast, yet I will not forget you" (Is 49:15). God loves you like sons and daughters; he watches over your days and your nights, your labors and your aspirations.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, friends from Africa, dear Angolans, take heart! Never tire of promoting peace, making gestures of forgiveness and working for national reconciliation, so that violence may never prevail over dialogue, nor fear and discouragement over trust, nor rancor over fraternal love. This is all possible if you recognize one another as children of the same Father, the one Father in Heaven. May God bless Angola! May he bless each of her sons and daughters! May he bless the present and the future of this beloved nation. May God be with you!

© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Divine Mercy In my soul

Introduction

Introduction
To the Polish Edition, 1981

4. CHRONOLOGY IN THE WRITING OF THE DIARY.
From Rev. M. Sopocko we learn that Sister Faustina burned a certain section of the Diary. Informed of this, he made her rewrite from memory, as a penance, the destroyed portion and simultaneously to note her current experiences. It was this precisely that caused a confusion in the chronology of facts in the greater part of the Servant of God’s notebooks. Anyway, aware of this fact, she would sometimes include the date of the happening; about other matters she writes without dates, using the term at one time. As a result, there occurred several repetitions of the same fact or experience, for example, see numbers 993 and 996. It is evident that the author was not concerned with chronology; that is, the sequence of facts, but with the noting of the facts themselves.

The Servant of God began to write the Diary in 1934. The first poem and notation is dated: July 28, 1934. In addition, she wrote retrospectively, returning to recollections firs from the year 1925, after which she went to the year 1929 and then to 1931. Skipping 1930 and 1932, she begins with facts from the year 1933. She then interrupts the flow of the narration and quite unexpectedly returns to the year 1928. After this recollection she notes some affairs of the current year, which again she interrupts, in order to complete the previous year 1933. On the remaining pages in the first notebook, she later wrote, in January 1937, her retreat resolutions.

Basically, from this point, Sister Faustina begins to write everything as it occurs; and the recollected elements go back to only a few past days or weeks. Thus, she first completes the year 1934, then presents the year 1935, continues with the year 1936 and the year 1937. the years of her illness gave her somewhat more time for writing and for this reason are most substantially represented on the pages of the Diary. The year of her death (1938) fills up the last part of the Diary.

5. THE TEXT OF THE MANUSCRIPT.
The entire text of her writings is contained in six notebooks, 20 x 16 cm (size of first and second), or 191/2 x 151/2 cm (size of the third and fifth). The fourth notebook is the narrowest, its width being scarcely 12 cm. the sixth notebook likewise is narrow, being 15 cm wide. All these copybooks are of squared or lined sheets quite closely written on both sides. The number of written pages is: 105 + 160 + 33 + 30 + 71, the total of 477 pages of manuscript. The last notebook is not filled.

The writings in essence show no sign of damage. Only one page was torn out (which is noted near the text) by an unknown person. In the individual notebooks we find several blank pages, which evidently were intended to be used to add something, but from which the servant of God desisted. The notebook pages were not numbered. Presently they do possess a pagination, made in pencil for practical reasons by Father J. Andrasz, S.J. and Sister Xavier Olszamowska of the Congregation of the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy.

After the completion of the Informative Process in Cracow, all of the notebooks, with the exception of the fourth, were bound with a green cloth glued to a stiff cardboard. A digit was printed on the cover of each notebook, indicating the consecutive number of the pad. The fourth notebook was left in its original form, and only the wires were removed to protect it from rust. The wires were replaced by ordinary thread. On each notebook cover, with the exception of the fourth, Sr. Faustina wrote her religious name and some maxim. It was always a thought about the Divine Mercy. These subtitles were taken into account only in the present editing of the text. They have been omitted in previous transcripts.

6. THE MANNER OF WRITING OF THE DIARY.
The servant of God very often interlaces the factual accounts with prayers. Into her own words she weaves words of the Lord Jesus, or she ends a started narrative with the words of the Lord Jesus. a lack of punctuation marks caused, as a result, a lack of clarity in the text. It often happens that she begins an account of some fact or matter, and ends it with a prayerful turning to God or with an act of adoration and admiration for the unfolding Divine activity.

Besides ordinary prayers, as was already stated, we find in the Diary many verses which almost always are a poetic form of prayer. Especially the second half of the Diary, where facts and experiences are noted day by day, contains many elements which indicate a constant remembrance of the presence of God. To the ever-present God she turns with petition and thanksgiving, rejoicing in His Love, diligently recording all that she is experiencing.

In the original Diary manuscript we find a series of words superfluously repeated. This leads one to assume that the servant of God was forbidden to cross out what she had written. And perhaps it was for this reason that she left the repeated words as well as the wrong or unnecessary ones. The state of the manuscript allows one also to suppose that she did not reread what she wrote, for then she certainly would have inserted, for example, a letter missing in some word.

We find a whole series of underlined words and sentences in the manuscript. This was done at the request of Fr. Sopocko, who several times instructed her to note in this fashion what the Lord Jesus demanded of her. The number of these underlinings bears witness that Sr. Faustina seriously considered everything she wrote as a command of the Lord Jesus.

This I confess with utmost humility. http://our.homewithgod.com/divinemercy/book5/

Benedict XVI's Homily at Angola's São Paolo Church

"Let Us Make Haste to Know the Lord"

LUANDA, Angola, MARCH 21, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the homily Benedict XVI gave today at a Mass with bishops, priests, religious, ecclesial movements and catechists of Angola and São Tomé at São Paolo Church in Luanda.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Beloved laborers in the Lord's vineyard,

As we have just heard, the children of Israel said to one another, "let us make haste to know the Lord." They encouraged one another with these words amid their many tribulations. These misfortunes had overtaken them -- the Prophet explains -- because they lived without knowledge of God; their hearts were poor in love. The only physician capable of healing them was the Lord. Indeed, he himself, as a good physician, opened their wounds so that the sore might heal. And the people made up their mind: "Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, that he may heal us" (Hosea 6:1). Thus human poverty was to intersect with divine mercy, which desires only to embrace the poor.

We see this in the Gospel passage that we have just heard: "Two men went up into the temple to pray"; the one "went down to his house justified rather than the other" (Luke 18:10, 14). The latter had paraded all his merits before God, virtually making God his debtor. Deep down, he felt no need for God, even though he thanked him for letting him become so perfect, "not like this tax collector." And yet it was the tax collector who went down to his house justified. Conscious of his sins, and so not even lifting his head -- although in his trust he is completely turned towards Heaven -- he awaits everything from the Lord: "O God, be merciful to me, a sinner" (Luke 18:13). He knocks on the door of mercy, which then opens and justifies him, for, as Jesus concludes: "everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Luke 18:14).

St. Paul, the patron saint of the city of Luanda and of this splendid church built some fifty years ago, speaks to us from personal experience about this God who is rich in mercy. I wanted to highlight the second millennium of the birth of St. Paul by celebrating the present Pauline Year, so that we can learn from him how to know Jesus Christ more fully. This is the testimony which Paul has bequeathed to us: "The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of sinners; but I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience for an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life" (1 Timothy 1:15-16). In the course of the centuries, the number of people touched by grace has continually grown. You and I are among them. Let us give thanks to God because he has called us to be part of this age-long procession and thus to advance towards the future. In the footsteps of all Jesus' followers, let us join them in following Christ himself and thus enter into the Light.

Dear brothers and sisters, I feel great joy to be here today with you, my fellow-workers in the Lord's vineyard, where you labor daily to prepare the wine of divine mercy and to pour it out as balm on the wounds of your people who have suffered so many tribulations. Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi has spoken of your hopes and your struggles in his gracious words of welcome. With a heart full of gratitude and hope I greet you all -- women and men devoted to the cause of Jesus Christ -- those of you who are here and the many others whom you represent: bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, seminarians, catechists, leaders of the many different movements and associations present in this beloved Church of God. I would also like to mention the contemplative women religious, an unseen but extremely fruitful presence for our common journey. Finally, let me offer a particular greeting to the Salesian community and the faithful of this parish of St. Paul; they have welcomed us to their church, without hesitating to yield the place which is usually theirs in the liturgical assembly. I know that they are gathered in the field next door, and I hope, at the end of this Eucharist, to see them and give them my blessing, but even now I say to them: "Many thanks! May God raise up in you, and through you, many apostles modeled on your patron."

The decisive event in Paul's life was his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus: Christ appeared to him as a dazzling light, he spoke to him and he won him over. The Apostle saw the Risen Jesus; and in him he beheld the full stature of humanity. As a result Paul experienced an inversion of perspective; he now saw everything in the light of this perfect stature of humanity in Christ: what had earlier seemed essential and fundamental, he now considered nothing more than "refuse"; no longer "gain" but loss, for now the only thing that mattered was life in Christ (cf. Philippians 3:7-8). Far from being merely a stage in Paul's personal growth, this was a death to himself and a resurrection in Christ: one form of life died in him, and a new form was born, with the Risen Christ.

My brothers and sisters, "let us make haste to know the Lord", the Risen One! As you know, Jesus, perfect man, is also our true God. In him, God became visible to our eyes, to give us a share in his divine life. With him a new dimension of being, of life, has come about, a dimension which integrates matter and through which a new world arises. But this qualitative leap in universal history which Jesus brought about in our place and for our sake -- how is it communicated to human beings, how does it permeate their life and raise it on high? It comes to each of us through faith and Baptism. This sacrament is truly death and resurrection, transformation and new life, so much so that the baptized person can say together with Paul: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). I live, but no longer I. In a certain way, my identity has been taken away and made part of an even greater identity; I still have my personal identity, but now it is changed and open to others as a result of my becoming part of Another: in Christ I find myself living on a new plane. What then has happened to us? Paul gives us the answer: You have become one in Christ Jesus (cf. Galatians 3:28).

Through this process of our "christification" by the working and grace of God's Spirit, the gestation of the Body of Christ in history is gradually being accomplished in us. At this moment I would like to go back in thought five centuries, to the years following 1506, when, in these lands, then visited by the Portuguese, the first sub-Saharan Christian kingdom was established, thanks to the faith and determination of the king, Dom Alphonsus I Mbemba-a-Nzinga, who reigned from 1506 until his death in 1543. The kingdom remained officially Catholic from the sixteenth century until the eighteenth, with its own ambassador in Rome. You see how two quite different ethnic groups -- the Bantu and the Portuguese -- were able to find in the Christian religion common ground for understanding, and committed themselves to ensuring that this understanding would be long-lasting, and that differences -- which undoubtedly existed, and great ones at that -- would not divide the two kingdoms! For Baptism enables all believers to be one in Christ.

Today it is up to you, brothers and sisters, following in the footsteps of those heroic and holy heralds of God, to offer the Risen Christ to your fellow citizens. So many of them are living in fear of spirits, of malign and threatening powers. In their bewilderment they end up even condemning street children and the elderly as alleged sorcerers. Who can go to them to proclaim that Christ has triumphed over death and all those occult powers (cf. Ephesians 1:19-23; 6:10-12)? Someone may object: "Why not leave them in peace? They have their truth, and we have ours. Let us all try to live in peace, leaving everyone as they are, so they can best be themselves." But if we are convinced and have come to experience that without Christ life lacks something, that something real -- indeed, the most real thing of all -- is missing, we must also be convinced that we do no injustice to anyone if we present Christ to them and thus grant them the opportunity of finding their truest and most authentic selves, the joy of finding life. Indeed, we must do this. It is our duty to offer everyone this possibility of attaining eternal life.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us say to them, in the words of the Israelite people: "Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, that he may heal us." Let us enable human poverty to encounter divine mercy. The Lord makes us his friends, he entrusts himself to us, he gives us his Body in the Eucharist, he entrusts his Church to us. And so we ought truly to be his friends, to be one in mind with him, to desire what he desires and to reject what he does not desire. Jesus himself said: "You are my friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:14). Let this, then, be our common commitment: together to do his holy will: "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:15). Let us embrace his will, like St. Paul: "Preaching the Gospel [...] is a necessity laid upon me; woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16).

Divine Mercy in My Soul

Introduction (continued)

Benedict XVI's Speech Before Departing Angola

Benedict XVI's Homily at Angola's São Paolo Church