Vatican
City, 27 February 2013 (VIS) – Today, Benedict XVI celebrated his last
general audience. In St. Peter's Square, crowded with tens of thousands
of people wishing to bid him farewell, the Pontiff said: “Thank you for
coming in such large numbers to this, my last general audience. Thank
you, I am truly moved! And I see the Church is alive! I think we also
have to thank the Creator for the beautiful weather that He is giving us
now, even in winter.”
Following is the entire text of the Holy Father's words.
“Like
the Apostle Paul in the Biblical text that we have heard, I feel in my
heart that I have to especially thank God who guides and builds up the
Church, who plants His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His People.
At this moment my heart expands and embraces the whole Church throughout
the world and I thank God for the 'news' that, in these years of my
Petrine ministry, I have received about the faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ and for the love that truly circulates in the Body of the Church,
making it to live in the love and the hope that opens us to and guides
us towards the fullness of life, towards our heavenly homeland.”
“I
feel that I am carrying everyone with me in prayer in this God-given
moment when I am collecting every meeting, every trip, every pastoral
visit. I am gathering everyone and everything in prayer to entrust it to
the Lord: so that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will
through all spiritual wisdom and understanding in order to live in a
manner worthy of the Lord and His love, bearing fruit in every good work
(cf. Col 1:9-10).”
“At
this moment I have great confidence because I know, we all know, that
the Gospel's Word of truth is the strength of the Church; it is her
life. The Gospel purifies and renews, bearing fruit, wherever the
community of believers hears it and welcomes God's grace in truth and in
love. This is my confidence, this is my joy.”
“When,
on 19 April almost eight years ago I accepted to take on the Petrine
ministry, I had the firm certainty that has always accompanied me: this
certainty for the life of the Church from the Word of God. At that
moment, as I have already expressed many times, the words that resounded
in my heart were: Lord, what do You ask of me? It is a great weight
that You are placing on my shoulders but, if You ask it of me, I will
cast my nets at your command, confident that You will guide me, even
with all my weaknesses. And eight years later I can say that the Lord
has guided me. He has been close to me. I have felt His presence every
day. It has been a stretch of the Church's path that has had moments of
joy and light, but also difficult moments. I felt like St. Peter and the
Apostles in the boat on the See of Galilee. The Lord has given us many
days of sunshine and light breezes, days when the fishing was plentiful,
but also times when the water was rough and the winds against us, just
as throughout the whole history of the Church, when the Lord seemed to
be sleeping. But I always knew that the Lord is in that boat and I
always knew that the boat of the Church is not mine, not ours, but is
His. And the Lord will not let it sink. He is the one who steers her, of
course also through those He has chosen because that is how He wanted
it. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. And that is
why my heart today is filled with gratitude to God, because He never
left—the whole Church or me—without His consolation, His light, or His
love.”
“We
are in the Year of Faith, which I desired precisely in order to
strengthen our faith in God in a context that seems to relegate it more
and more to the background. I would like to invite everyone to renew
their firm trust in the Lord, to entrust ourselves like children to
God's arms, certain that those arms always hold us up and are what allow
us to walk forward each day, even when it is a struggle. I would like
everyone to feel beloved of that God who gave His Son for us and who has
shown us His boundless love. I would like everyone to feel the joy of
being Christian. In a beautiful prayer, which can be recited every
morning, say: 'I adore you, my God and I love you with all my heart.
Thank you for having created me, for having made me Christian...' Yes,
we are happy for the gift of faith. It is the most precious thing, which
no one can take from us! Let us thank the Lord for this every day, with
prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but awaits us
to also love Him!”
“It
is not only God who I wish to thank at this time. A pope is not alone
in guiding Peter's barque, even if it is his primary responsibility. I
have never felt alone in bearing the joy and the weight of the Petrine
ministry. The Lord has placed at my side so many people who, with
generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been
close to me. First of all, you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom,
your advice, and your friendship have been precious to me. My
collaborators, starting with my secretary of state who has accompanied
me faithfully over the years; the Secretariat of State and the whole of
the Roman Curia, as well as all those who, in their various areas, serve
the Holy See. There are many faces that are never seen, remaining in
obscurity, but precisely in their silence, in their daily dedication in a
spirit of faith and humility, they were a sure and reliable support to
me. A special thought goes to the Church of Rome, my diocese! I cannot
forget my Brothers in the episcopate and in the priesthood, consecrated
persons, and the entire People of God. In my pastoral visits, meetings,
audiences, and trips I always felt great care and deep affection, but I
have also loved each and every one of you, without exception, with that
pastoral love that is the heart of every pastor, especially the Bishop
of Rome, the Successor of the Apostle Peter. Every day I held each of
you in prayer, with a father's heart.”
“I
wish to send my greetings and my thanks to all: a pope's heart extends
to the whole world. And I would like to express my gratitude to the
Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which makes the great
family of Nations present here. Here I am also thinking of all those who
work for good communication and I thank them for their important
service.”
“At
this point I would also like to wholeheartedly thank all of the many
people around the world who, in recent weeks, have sent me touching
tokens of concern, friendship, and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone.
I feel this again now in such a great way that it touches my heart. The
Pope belongs to everyone and many people feel very close to him. It's
true that I receive letters from the world's notables—from heads of
states, from religious leaders, from representatives of the world of
culture, etc. But I also receive many letters from ordinary people who
write to me simply from their hearts and make me feel their affection,
which is born of our being together with Christ Jesus, in the Church.
These people do not write to me the way one would write, for example, to
a prince or a dignitary that they don't know. They write to me as
brothers and sisters or as sons and daughters, with the sense of a very
affectionate family tie. In this you can touch what the Church is—not an
organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian ends,
but a living body, a communion of brothers and sisters in the Body of
Jesus Christ who unites us all. Experiencing the Church in this way and
being able to almost touch with our hands the strength of His truth and
His love is a reason for joy at a time when many are speaking of its
decline. See how the Church is alive today!”
“In
these last months I have felt that my strength had diminished and I
asked God earnestly in prayer to enlighten me with His light to make me
make the right decision, not for my own good, but for the good of the
Church. I have taken this step in full awareness of its seriousness and
also its newness, but with a profound peace of mind. Loving the Church
also means having the courage to make difficult, agonized choices,
always keeping in mind the good of the Church, not of oneself.”
“Allow
me here to return once again to 19 April, 2005. The gravity of the
decision lay precisely in the fact that, from that moment on, I was
always and for always engaged by the Lord. Always—whoever assumes the
Petrine ministry no longer has any privacy. He belongs always and
entirely to everyone, to the whole Church. His life, so to speak, is
totally deprived of its private dimension. I experienced, and I am
experiencing it precisely now, that one receives life precisely when
they give it. Before I said that many people who love the Lord also love
St. Peter's Successor and are fond of him; that the Pope truly has
brothers and sisters, sons and daughters all over the world and that he
feels safe in the embrace of their communion; because he no longer
belongs to himself but he belongs to all and all belong to him.”
“'Always'
is also 'forever'--there is no return to private life. My decision to
renounce the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this. I am
not returning to private life, to a life of trips, meetings, receptions,
conferences, etc. I am not abandoning the cross, but am remaining
beside the Crucified Lord in a new way. I no longer bear the power of
the office for the governance of the Church, but I remain in the service
of prayer, within St. Peter's paddock, so to speak. St. Benedict, whose
name I bear as Pope, will be a great example to me in this. He has
shown us the way for a life that, active or passive, belongs wholly to
God's work.”
“I
also thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding
with which you have received this important decision. I will continue to
accompany the Church's journey through prayer and reflection, with the
dedication to the Lord and His Bride that I have tried to live every day
up to now and that I want to always live. I ask you to remember me to
God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals who are called to such an
important task, and for the new Successor of the Apostle Peter. Many the
Lord accompany him with the light and strength of His Spirit.”
“We
call upon the maternal intercession of Mary, the Mother of God and of
the Church, that she might accompany each of us and the entire ecclesial
community. We entrust ourselves to her with deep confidence.”
“Dear
friends! God guides His Church, always sustaining her even and
especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith,
which is the only true vision of the path of the Church and of the
world. In our hearts, in the heart of each one of you, may there always
be the joyous certainty that the Lord is beside us, that He does not
abandon us, that He is near and embraces us with His love. Thank you.” (Thanks to VIS:here)
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