Sunday, October 07, 2012

Angelus: Rediscovering the Rosary in the Year of Faith

Pope Benedict XVI, standing on a car at right, waves to faithful as he is leaves after celebrating a mass for the opening of the synod of bishops in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 7 , 2012. Pope Benedict XVI has also named two new "doctors" of the church, conferring the Catholic Church's highest honor on a 16th-century Spanish preacher St. John of Avila, and  to St. Hildegard of Bingen, and a 12th— century German mystic who wasn't even officially recognized as a saint until earlier this year. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)In his Angelus address, delivered at the close of Mass Sunday in St Peter’s square, Pope Benedict XVI invited faithful worldwide to rediscover the gift of the Holy Rosary, Mary’s school of prayer:

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 


We now turn in prayer to Mary, whom we venerate today as Queen of the Holy Rosary. 

At this time, at the Shrine of Pompeii, the traditional "Supplication" is being elevated to which countless people throughout the world are joined. 

While we associate ourselves spiritually in this choral prayer, I would like to suggest to everyone to renew the prayer of the Rosary in the upcoming Year of Faith. 

With the Rosary, we allow ourselves to be guided by Mary, model of faith, in meditating on the mysteries of Christ, and day after day we are helped to assimilate the Gospel, so that it shapes all our lives. 

Therefore, in the wake of my predecessors, especially the Blessed John Paul II, who ten years ago gave us the Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, I invite you to pray the Rosary personally, in the family and in the community, learning at the school of Mary, which leads us to Christ, the living centre of our faith.
 

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims here today! 

I ask all of you to pray for the work of the Synod on the New Evangelization, beginning today. 

Later this week, on the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Year of Faith begins. 

May these events confirm us in the beauty and joy of our faith in Jesus Christ which comes to us through the Church! 

Entrusting these intentions to our Lady of the Rosary, I invoke upon all of you God’s abundant blessings!