Pope Reflects on Scripture with Seminarians

(February 16, 2012) Through our meditation of Sacred Scripture we learn to discern the will of God in our lives, and discover what is good and essential said Pope Benedict XVI. In this way we can learn to be obedient, and humble to the Word of God, the Church and the Sacraments. The Pope said this on Wednesday during the Lectio Divina with Seminarians from Rome who met him at the Lateran University on the Feast of Our Lady of Trust. "Lectio Divina", a Latin term, means "divine reading" and describes a way of reading the Scriptures whereby we gradually let go of our own agenda and open ourselves to what God wants to say to us. This contains reading the Word of God, reflection, prayer and contemplation. The Pontiff’s reflection referred to the Letter to the Romans, in which, as he stressed in his address to the future priests of the Diocese of Rome, “Paul speaks to us, because he speaks to Romans of all times.” During his reflections the Pope also warned Seminarians against the power of finance and the media which are necessary and even useful, but so open to abuse that they can go against man. The power of finance, the Pope said, transforms money from instrument to greed, a power that oppresses man. Christians oppose conformism and submission, he added. This does not mean that we want to escape from the world, that we are not interested in the world, on the contrary we want to transform ourselves and let ourselves be transformed, thus transforming the world. In as far as public opinion is concerned, we need information, but this can not be overcome by the power of appearance, which in the end only gives importance to what is said rather than to the truth and man becomes only concerned with appearances. “May God help us to be free people,” the Pope concluded.