Prayers for Peace, Work and China from Monte Cassino

(24 May 09 - RV) Pope Benedict marked the feast of Our Lord’s Ascension Sunday with an appeal for Christians to “put Christ First”.

Echoing the words of St Benedict, the Holy Father paid homage to the founder of western monasticism and patron saint of Europe during mass celebrated in town of Cassino southern Italy, beneath the shadow of the birthplace of Benedictine monasticism, the Abbey of Montecassino, from where he said St Benedict’s Rule still resounds for all believers today.

Four times destroyed four times rebuilt, the Pope was there Sunday to mark the 65th anniversary of the Abbey and surrounding town’s rebirth from the rubble of the Second World War.

Over 20 thousand people withstood searing temperatures to celebrate Ascension Sunday with Pope Benedict. In his homily he told them the feast “calls on us to renew our faith in the presence of Christ; without him we can do nothing of use in our life or in our apostolate”. The Church, he added, “was not born and does not exist to mourn the “absence” of the Lord, rather it finds the very meaning of its being and mission in the invisible presence of Jesus, who works through the power of his Spirit”. The duty to proclaim Christ’s love, concluded the Pope, urges us to follow the motto ora et labora et lege: prayer, work and culture. Regarding the world of work, Pope Benedict XVI had the following message: “I know how critical the situation currently is for many factory workers. I express my solidarity with all those who live a worrying situation of instability, to those workers in redundancy or those who have even been fired. May the wound of unemployment that afflicts this territory urge public authorities, industrialists and all those who have the possibility to search for valid solutions to the employment crisis, creating new jobs to safeguard the many families affected. And regarding families, how can we overlook that the family needs better protection because the very roots of its institution are being insidiously undermined. I think of the young couples who struggle to find a dignified working situation that will allow them to create a family. To them I want to say: do not be discouraged, my dear friends, the Church will not abandon you!”

At the end of mass, from the square which from now on will bear his name, Pope Benedict also drew attention to another important anniversary marked on May 24^th, when from the land of St. Benedict he launched a message for the Church in China:

“Today May 24th is the liturgical memory of Our Lady Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion in the Sanctuary of Sheshan Shangahi , and when we also celebrate the World Day of Prayer for the Church in China”. My thoughts – continued the Pope - go to all the people of China, in particular the Catholics in China”. Pope Benedict urged the Catholics of China to “renew their communion of faith in Christ and fidelity to the Successor of Saint Peter”. “May our common prayer”, he concluded “obtain a spreading of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that unity between all Christians, the Catholicity and universality of the Church be ever more visible and profound”

Then Pope Benedict raised his eyes to the abbey that dominates the view from every angle of the valley of Cassino, as a “a constant call to heaven”, and taking his leave of the faithful of the diocese took their prayers up the mountain to the tomb of St Benedict and the company of his monks.