Pope's last General Audience of 2009

Every week on Wednesday, the Pope holds a public meeting, called the general audience, during which pilgrims and tourists who come to Rome have a chance of seeing and hearing him speak. The Holy Father delivers a spiritual reflection and greets various groups in their languages, including in English. The General Audience of December 30, the last of 2009, was held in the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall. It began with aides taking turns reading a scripture passage in various languages. One of the aides greeted the Pope on behalf of the English-speaking pilgrims, and presented the various groups to him. Pope Benedict then delivered a reflection in English.
Listen:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In our catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now turn to Peter Lombard, an outstanding theologian of the twelfth century. Peter taught at the celebrated school of Notre Dame, and died as Bishop of Paris. His best-known work, the Sentences, is a collection in four books of patristic texts, carefully selected and ordered for use in the teaching of theology. The Sentences became the standard introduction to theology for centuries, influencing the thought of scholars such as Saints Albert the Great, Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas. The Church requires such organic presentations of the Catholic faith, in which each individual article of faith reflects the unity of God’s revealed truth and the majesty of his saving plan. Peter Lombard’s work thus served a need which, in our day, is also met by the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Among the most enduring contributions of the Sentences is Peter’s definition of a sacrament as an outward sign and cause of grace, and his teaching on the sevenfold number of the sacraments. During this Year for Priests, I encourage priests, as ministers of the sacraments, and all the faithful, to grow in appreciation of the beauty and harmony of our faith, to cultivate the sacramental life, and thus to grow in union with Christ and his Church.
I am pleased to greet the pilgrimage groups from Ireland, Switzerland and the United States of America, and I thank the choirs for their praise of God in song. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, I invoke the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, our Newborn Saviour!