Pope says Word of God helps all to fulfil call to holiness
(November 12, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI is urging all Christians to read, meditate and pray the sacred Scriptures in order to live better their lifelong personal call to holiness. The Pope urged this in his post-synodal apostolic exhortation, "Verbum Domini" (The Word of God), that the Vatican released on Thursday. The document is the fruit of the 12th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops held in the Vatican, Oct. 5-26, 2008, on the theme, “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.” In the exhortation addressed to bishops, clergy, consecrated persons and the lay faithful the Pope said the Word of God "calls each one of us personally, revealing that life itself is a vocation from God." He urged the clergy to a profound personal relationship with the Word of God, particularly in ‘lectio divina’, or a prayerful reading of scriptures so that this relationship will in turn nurture their vocation. He urged for great care to ensure that seminarians always cultivate this reciprocity between study and prayer in their lives. He affirmed that contemplative men and women in particular, "by their lives of prayer, attentive hearing and meditation on the Word of God, remind us that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." The Holy Father urged dioceses to provide lay faithful with opportunities to be familiar with the Word of God, under the guidance of legitimate pastors," so that they can live out their specific vocation to holiness while engaged in temporal matters. With the institutions of marriage and the family under attack from the current mentality that trivializes the human body and sexual differentiation, the Pope said “the word of God reaffirms the original goodness of the human being, created as man and woman and called to a love which is faithful, reciprocal and fruitful. The Holy Father thus urged the fostering of family prayer, attentive hearing of the word of God, and knowledge of the Bible.
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