(February 08, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged priests not to focus on their
limitations but to look up to Christ and his wonderful mercy, to convert the hearts
and continue to joyfully leave everything to Him. Speaking to a large crowd gathered
in St. Peter’s Square to pray the weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer with him, the Pope
reflected on Sunday’s Mass readings. Drawing from the experiences of Isaiah and Sts.
Peter and. Paul, the Holy Father noted how a genuine encounter with God leads man
to recognize his own inadequacy, poverty, limits and sin. But, despite this weakness,
the Lord, full of mercy and forgiveness, transforms the life of man and calls him
to be His intrepid apostle and herald of salvation. "In this Year for Priests, the
Pope said, we pray to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers for His harvest,
so those who hear the Lord's invitation to follow him, after the necessary discernment,
will respond with generosity, not trusting in their strength, but opening themselves
to the action of His grace. After praying the ‘Angelus’ the Pope said he was
joining in the observance of the Day for Life by the Italian Bishops, on the theme,
'The force of life, a challenge in poverty'. The Pope noted that during the current
period of economic difficulty, those mechanisms that lead to poverty and create great
social inequalities become even more dramatic, hurting and offending life, affecting
especially the weakest and most defenceless. This situation, therefore, commits us
to promote integral human development to overcome poverty and need, and above all
to remember that man’s goal is not wellbeing, but God, and that human life must be
defended and promoted in every stage. No one is master of his own life, but we are
all called to preserve and respect it, from the moment of conception until its natural
end". The Pope also wished the success of the "Week for life and family" by Rome
diocese, encouraging “the activities of clinics, associations and movements, as well
as university teachers engaged in support of life and family." In this regard he
reminded all that on the Church’s World Day for the Sick, February 11, on the feast
of the Blessed Virgin of Lourdes on Thursday, he would be celebrating Mass with the
sick in St. Peter’s Basilica.