November 14, 2012 - Every week on Wednesday, the Pope holds a public meeting, called
the general audience, where pilgrims and tourists who come to Rome have a chance of
seeing and hearing him speak in several languages and receive his blessing. The
general audience of Nov 14 was held indoors in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall.
It began with aides reading a passage from the First Letter of Peter in several languages.
After an aide greeted the Pope on behalf of the English speaking pilgrims, Pope Benedict
spoke in English.
Listen: Dear
Brothers and Sisters, In our catechesis for the Year of Faith, we have seen
that a mysterious desire for God lies deep with the human heart. By his grace, God
inspires and accompanies our efforts to know him and to find our happiness in him.
Yet today, in our secularized world, faith often seems difficult to justify; we are
faced with a “practical” atheism, a tendency to think and live “as if God did not
exist”. Yet once God is removed from our lives, we become diminished, for our greatest
human dignity consists in being created by God and called to live in communion with
him. As believers, we need to offer convincing reasons for our faith and hope. We
can find such reasons in the order and beauty of creation itself, which speaks of
its Creator; in the longing for the infinite present in the human heart, which finds
satisfaction in God alone; and in faith, which illumines and transforms our lives
through our daily union with the Lord. By the witness of our living faith, may we
lead others to know and love the God who reveals himself in Christ. I greet
the participants in the Conference of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers.
I also greet the El Shaddai European Convention. I welcome the Westminster Cathedral
Choir and I thank them, and the other choirs present, for their praise of God in song.
Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, including those
from England, Denmark, Gibraltar, South Africa, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States,
I cordially invoke God’s abundant blessings.