Full Text of Pope's Angelus Remarks

(10 Sept. 07 -RV) Below is the full text of Pope benedict XVI's remarks before and after the Angelus prayer on the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time at St. Stephen's Square, Vienna...

APOSTOLIC VISIT TO AUSTRIA

Address of the Holy Father
before the Recitation of the Angelus
Vienna, Stephansplatz
Sunday, 9 September 2007


Dear Brothers and Sisters!

It was a particularly beautiful experience this morning to celebrate the Lord’s Day with all of you in such a dignified and solemn manner. The celebration of the Eucharist, carried out with due dignity, helps us to realize the immense grandeur of God’s gift to us in the Holy Mass, and fills us with deep joy. So I thank all those who, by their active contribution to the preparation of the liturgy or by their recollected participation in the sacred mysteries, created an atmosphere in which we truly felt God’s presence.

Our reflections on the meaning of Sunday and on today’s Gospel made us realize that the love of God, who surrendered himself into our hands for our salvation, gives us the inner freedom to let go of our own own lives, in order to find true life. Mary’s participation in this love also gave her the strength to say “yes” unconditionally. In her encounter with the gentle, respectful love of God, who awaits the free cooperation of his creature in order to bring about his saving plan, the Blessed Virgin was able to overcome all hesitation and to entrust herself into his hands. With complete availability, interior openness and freedom, she allowed God to fill her with love, with his Holy Spirit. Mary could thus receive within herself the Son of God, and give to the world the Saviour who had first given himself to her.

In today’s celebration of the Eucharist, the Son of God has also been given to us. Those who have received Holy Communion, in a special way, carry the Risen Lord within themselves. Just as Mary bore him in her womb – a defenceless little child, totally dependent on the love of his Mother – so Jesus Christ, under the species of bread, has entrusted himself to you, dear brothers and sisters. Love him as Mary loved him! Bring him to others, just as Mary brought him to Elizabeth as the source of joyful exultation! The Virgin gave the Word of God a human body, and thus enabled him to come into the world as a man. Give your own bodies to the Lord, and let them become ever more fully instruments of God’s love, temples of the Holy Spirit! Bring Sunday, and its immense gift, into the world!

Let us ask Mary to teach us how to become, like her, inwardly free, so that in openness to God we may find true freedom, true life, and genuine and lasting joy.

Angelus Domini…


With these sentiments I would now like to join you in looking to Mary Immaculate, entrusting to her intercession the prayers which you have just now presented, and imploring her maternal protection upon this country and its people:

Holy Mary, Immaculate Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, in you God has given us the model of the Church and of genuine humanity. To you I entrust the country of Austria and its people. Help all of us to follow your example and to direct our lives completely to God! Grant that, by looking to Christ, we may become ever more like him: true children of God! Then we too, filled with every spiritual blessing, will be able to conform ourselves more fully to his will and to become instruments of his peace for Austria, Europe and the world. Amen.