On Sunday, February 24, 2013, for his final time as our Holy Father, Pope Benedict prayed the Angelus with all the pilgrims in Saint Peter’s Square. Thousands of people showed up to pray in union with the Holy Father, receive his blessing, and show their love and affection for him. Below is a translation of his message:
Dear
brothers and sisters!
Thank you for your affection!
Today, the second Sunday of Lent, we
have a particularly beautiful Gospel, that of the Lord’s transfiguration. The
evangelist Luke especially emphasizes the fact that Jesus is transfigured while
he prays: Jesus’ is a profound experience of relationship with the Father
during a kind of spiritual retreat on a high mountain together with Peter,
James, and John, the 3 disciples who are always present in the moments of the
Master’s divine manifestations (Luke 5:10, 8:51, 9:28). The Lord, who a short
time ago foretold his death and resurrection (Luke 9:22), offers to his
disciples an anticipation of his glory. And in the transfiguration too, as in
the baptism, the voice of the heavenly Father resounds: “This is my Son, the
chosen one. Listen to him!” (Luke 9:35). The presence then of Moses and Elijah,
who represent the Law and the Prophets of the Old Covenant, is of great
significance: the whole history of covenant is ordered to him, the Christ, who
accomplishes a new “exodus” (Luke 9:31), not toward the promised land as in the
time of Moses, but toward heaven. Peter’s words: “Master, how good it is for us
to be here” (Luke 9:33), represent the impossible attempt to freeze such a
mystical experience. St. Augustine
Meditating on this passage of the
Gospel, we can take from it a very important teaching. First of all, there is
the primacy of prayer, without which all of the work of the apostolate and
charity is reduced to activism. During Lent we learn to give the right amount
of time to both personal and communal prayer, which gives breath to our
spiritual life. Moreover, to pray is not to isolate oneself from the world and
its contradictions, as Peter wished to do on Tabor. Prayer, rather, leads us
back to the journey, to action. “The Christian life,” I wrote in my Message for
this Lent, “consists in continuously scaling the mountain to meet God and then
coming back down, bearing the love and strength drawn from him, so as to serve
our brothers and sisters with God’s own love” (n. 3).
Dear brothers and sisters, I hear this
Word of God addressed to me in a special way during this moment of my life.
Thank you! The Lord is calling me to “scale the mountain,” to dedicate myself
still more to prayer and to meditation. But this does not mean abandoning the
Church – on the contrary, if God asks this of me, it is to serve the Church
with the same dedication and the same love with which I have tried to do so
hitherto, but in a way that is more adapted to my age and my strength. Let us
invoke the intercession of the Virgin Mary: may she help us always to follow
the Lord Jesus in prayer and in active charity.
[In
English he said:]
I
offer a warm greeting to all the English-speaking visitors present for this
Angelus prayer, especially the Schola Cantorum of the London Oratory
School
Translation from http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/on-the-transfiguration--4
With
trust and courage, may we join together in prayer with and for Pope Benedict
XVI, his successor, and guidance of the Holy Spirit for the College of
Cardinals as they prepare for the upcoming Conclave to elect a new Holy Father.
Today's final general audience will be posted tomorrow.
The Holy Father will depart from the Vatican at 5:00 p.m. on February 28th in his helicopter and be flown to Castel Gandalfo. He will remain there for the duration of the Sede vacante and the conclave.
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