Pope Benedict XVI - Books and Quotes

"Hope will always remain stronger than all else! The Church, built upon the rock of Christ, possesses the promises of eternal life, not because her members are holier than others, but because Christ made this promise to Peter: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). In this unfailing hope in God’s eternal presence to the souls of each of us, in this joy of knowing that Christ is with us until the end of time, in this power that the Spirit gives to all those who let themselves be filled with him."

Pope Benedict XVI, Paris,
13 September 2008.

 

From Ignatius Press:

Happy Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord!

Pope Benedict XVI says the Transfiguration was an encounter of prayer between Christ and the Father. May we too commune with the Father through prayer, and be “transfigured in hope” as we pick up our cross and follow the Savior to heavenly glory.

Text: “Holiness is always in Season” by Pope Benedict XVI

Image: “Transfiguration” by Fra Angelico, 1440-1442

 

"Once again the mountain serves – as it did in the Sermon on the Mount and in the nights spent by Jesus in prayer – as the locus of God’s particular closeness. Once again we need to keep together in our minds the various mountains of Jesus’s life: the mountain of the temptation; the mountain of his great preaching; the mountain of his prayer; the mountain of the transfiguration; the mountain of his agony; the mountain of the cross; and finally, the mountain of the risen Lord, where he declares – in total antithesis to the offer of world dominion through the devil’s power: “All power in Heaven and on Earth is given to me.” (Matthew 28:18) But in the background we also catch sight of Sinai, Horeb, Moriah – the mountains of Old Testament revelation. They are all at one and the same time mountains of passion and of revelation, and they also refer in turn to the Temple Mount, where revelation becomes liturgy.

When we inquire into the meaning of the mountain, the first point is of course the general background of mountain symbolism. The mountain is the place of ascent – not only outward, but also inward ascent; it is a liberation from the burden of everyday life, a breathing in of the pure air of creation; it offers a view of the broad expanse of creation and its beauty; it gives one an inner peak to stand on and an intuitive sense of the creator. History then adds to all this the experience of the God who speaks, and the experience of the passion, culminating in the sacrifice of Isaac, in the sacrifice of the lamb that points ahead to the definite Lamb sacrificed on Mount Calvary. Moses and Elijah were privileged to receive God’s revelation on the mountain, and now they are conversing with the one who is God’s revelation in person."

Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI,
Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration (2008).

 

"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.

 

Commentary of the day
Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus,
28 August 2011

"Thinking as the world thinks is to set God aside, not accepting his plan of love, preventing him, as it were, from doing his wise will. For this reason Jesus says some particularly harsh words to Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me” (ibid.). The Lord teaches that “the way of discipleship [is] the way to follow him [walk behind him], the Crucified. In all three Gospels he also interprets this ‘following’ on the way of the Cross” as “the indispensable way for man to ‘lose his life’, without which it is impossible for him to find” himself” (Jesus of Nazareth, English edition, New York, p. 287).

As he invited the disciples, Jesus also addresses an invitation to us: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). A Christian follows the Lord when he accepts lovingly his own cross, which in the world's eyes seems a defeat and to “lose life” (cf. vv. 25-26), knowing that he is not carrying it alone but with Jesus, sharing his same journey of self-giving.

The Servant of God Paul VI wrote: “In a mysterious way, Christ himself accepts death... on the Cross, in order to eradicate from man's heart the sins of self-sufficiency and to manifest to the Father a complete filial obedience” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino, 9 May 1975). By willingly accepting death, Jesus carries the cross of all human beings and becomes a source of salvation for the whole of humanity.

St Cyril of Jerusalem commented: “The glory of the Cross led those who were blind through ignorance into light, loosed all who were held fast by sin and brought redemption to the whole world of mankind” (Catechesis Illuminandorum XIII, 1: de Christo crucifixo et sepulto: PG 33, 772 B)."