Pope Benedict XVI - Books and Quotes

"The world needs renewal! In so many of our societies, side by side with material prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed fear, a quiet sense of despair. How many of our contemporaries have built broken and empty cisterns (cf. Jer 2:13) in a desperate search for meaning – the ultimate meaning that only love can give? This is the great and liberating gift which the Gospel brings: it reveals our dignity as men and women created in the image and likeness of God. It reveals humanity’s sublime calling, which is to find fulfilment in love. It discloses the truth about man and the truth about life."

Pope Benedict XVI, World Youth Day, Sydney, 20 July 2008.

 

14 September
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

“We adore you O Christ and we praise you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

 

"The person who abandons himself totally in God's hands does not become God's puppet, a boring 'yes man'; he does not lose his freedom. Only the person who entrusts himself totally to God finds true freedom, the great, creative immensity of the freedom of good."

Pope Benedict XVI, Homily,
8 December 2005.

 

Exactly what I needed to read. Thank u

 

"The important question we ask ourselves today is: how can we talk about God in our time? How can we communicate the Gospel so as to open roads to his saving truth in our contemporaries’ hearts — that are all too often closed — and minds — that are at times distracted by the many dazzling lights of society? Jesus, the Evangelists tell us, asked himself about this as he proclaimed the kingdom of God: “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?” (Mk 4:30).

How can we talk about God today? The first answer is that we can talk about God because he has talked to us; so the first condition for speaking of God is listening to all that God himself has said. God has spoken to us! God is therefore not a distant hypothesis concerning the world’s origin; he is not a mathematical intelligence far from us. God takes an interest in us, he loves us, he has entered personally into the reality of our history, he has communicated himself, even to the point of taking flesh. Thus God is a reality of our life, he is so great that he has time for us too, he takes an interest in us. In Jesus of Nazareth we encounter the face of God, who came down from his heaven to immerse himself in the human world, in our world, and to teach “the art of living”, the road to happiness; to set us free from sin and make us children of God (cf. Eph 1:5; Rom 8:14). Jesus came to save us and to show us the good life of the Gospel.

Talking about God means first of all expressing clearly what God we must bring to the men and women of our time: not an abstract God, a hypothesis, but a real God, a God who exists, who has entered history and is present in history; the God of Jesus Christ as an answer to the fundamental question of the meaning of life and of how we should live. Consequently speaking of God demands familiarity with Jesus and his Gospel, it implies that we have a real, personal knowledge of God and a strong passion for his plan of salvation without succumbing to the temptation of success, but following God’s own method. God’s method is that of humility — God makes himself one of us — his method is brought about through the Incarnation in the simple house of Nazareth; through the Grotto of Bethlehem; through the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience, Year of Faith: How to speak about God?, 28 November 2012.

Full text
https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2012/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20121128.html

 

Dave, thanks for all these articles. It’s striking that many of these Ultra-traditionalists are very critical of Benedict. A lot of them are very nearly sedevacantist back to Pius XII, just like the actual sedes. They’re a tough crowd.

Wouldn’t we all be glad now to have a John XXIII, a John Paul I or II, a Benedict or even a Paul VI (who gave us the wonderful Humane vitae) on the papal throne?

 

Thanks DeG, a lot of the pieces come from a Facebook page: Benedict XVI - The Court of the Gentiles.
I know many people aren't on Fb, so I share some of them here.
Yes, the Popes you name would be a welcome return to Catholicism.
I suppose Pope Benedict's style and way of communicating his (considerable) understanding of Christianity and the Gospel strike a chord with me. His clarity and insight is such a contrast to recent occupants of the throne of St. Peter.
I didn't realise he was so out of favour with the Ultra-Trads. To be honest I try not to get too involved in factions.
No doubt there may be some criticisms which could be levelled at Pope Benedict but I feel his works are a beacon of light in these increasingly dark times. If I recall correctly, it was mainly because of reading J. Ratzinger's books that Scott Hahn was drawn to embrace Catholicism.

 

I have a soft spot for any Pope that can so enjoy a pint!

 

Yes, there is that too

 

200 million Catholics were added to the Church under Pope Francis.

God can work his ways no matter who the pontiff is.

 

Sláinte!