Pope's Sunday 'Angelus' of July 25

(July 26, 2010) The voice of one who prays is interwoven with the voice of the Church, since "no one who prays is ever alone," said Pope Benedict XVI. He was speaking on Sunday before reciting the weekly midday Marian ‘Angelus’ prayer with those who had gathered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, just south-east of Rome. The Holy Father reflected on Sunday’s Gospel on Christ teaching of the ‘Our Father’ prayer, which the Pope said is among the "the first words of sacred Scripture that we have known since childhood. He reflected on how the Our Father "incorporates and expresses human material and spiritual needs." "It is not an asking to satisfy one’s own wants," he said, "but rather to keep alive one’s friendship with God, who, the Gospel always says, 'shall give the Holy Spirit to those who ask for him!'" The Holy Father referred to a text of St. Teresa of Avila, who exhorted her sisters: "We must beg God always to free us from every danger and to take away every evil from us. And however imperfect our desire, we must make an effort to persist in this request. What does it cost us to ask so much, given that we address the Omnipotent?" Pope Benedict noted that each time we pray the Our Father, "our voice interweaves with the voice of the Church, because no one who prays is ever alone." He concluded, citing a 1989 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “Each one of the faithful must try to seek and can find in the truth and wealth of Christian prayer, taught by the Church, his own way, his own style of prayer … he will thus let himself be guided … by the Holy Spirit, who leads him, through Christ, to the Father."
After reciting the ‘Angelus’, Pope Benedict XVI expressed his condolence over a tragedy in his native Germany on Saturday where 19 people were killed and 342 injured at a music festival that erupted into a panicked stampede. The Pontiff recalled the tragedy that hit the traditional "Love Parade" techno music festival in the western city of Duisburg. Nearly 1.5 million people were reported to be in attendance at the event, which has been held annually in various cities since its beginning in Berlin in 1989. In greetings in Italian and German, the Pontiff commended the dead and injured and their families to God in prayer. "I learned with sadness of the tragedy that occurred in Duisburg, Germany, where many young people were killed," he said in Italian. And in German he said: "I ask the comfort and nearness of the Holy Spirit for their relatives and friends who are grieving and for those who were injured."
After the ‘Angelus’ Pope Benedict also recalled Sunday’s feast of St. James, and greeted pilgrims gathered in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, the site traditionally regarded as the tomb of the apostle. Santiago is the Spanish for James, and whenever his July 25 feast falls on a Sunday, it is declared a Holy Year, like this year. For this purpose Pope Benedict has scheduled a visit Santiago de Compostela on November 6. The Holy Father noted the Apostle James, known as "the Greater," who "left his father and his work as a fisherman to follow Jesus and give his life for him - the first among the apostles to do so." "Following the footsteps of the apostle," Pope Benedict said, "let us walk the path of our lives giving a constant testimony of faith, hope and charity." He wished that the Virgin Mary help all to rediscover the beauty and the profundity of Christian prayer.