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Pope Benedict XVI Quotes

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Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.

Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed. Each of us is loved. Each of us is necessary.

Pope Benedict XVI
Results
Mass, Imposition Of The Pallium And Conferral Of The Fisherman's Ring For The Beginning Of The Petrine Ministry Of The Bishop Of Rome, w2.vatican.va. April 24, 2005.

The world promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faith, Inspiration, Greatness

God seeks us where we are, not so that we stay there, but so that we may come to be where He is, so that we may get beyond ourselves.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faith, Inspiration, Christian Inspirational
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) (2016). “Joseph Ratzinger Collected Works: Theology of the Liturgy”, p.86, Ignatius Press

Dear friends, may no adversity paralyze you. Be afraid neither of the world, nor of the future, nor of your weakness. The Lord has allowed you to live in this moment of history so that, by your faith, his name will continue to resound throughout the world.

Pope Benedict XVI
Adversity, Names, Weakness

Holiness does not consist in not making mistakes or never sinning. Holiness grows with capacity for conversion, repentance, willingness to begin again, and above all with the capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness.

Pope Benedict XVI
Mistake, Doe, Holiness

Each of us has a mission . . . each of us is called to change the world, to work for a culture of life, a culture forged by love and respect for the dignity of each human person.

Pope Benedict XVI
Culture, World, Dignity

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.

Pope Benedict XVI
Rosary, Shapes, Mystery

Truth is not determined by a majority vote.

Pope Benedict XVI
Majority Vote, Catholic, Determined

Make sure that every person, of whatever background, can find in you a welcoming heart.

Pope Benedict XVI
Heart, Welcome, Backgrounds

Anyone who has discovered Christ must lead others to him. A great joy cannot be kept to oneself. It has to be passed on.

Pope Benedict XVI
Joy, Christ, Catholicism
Pope Benedict XVI (2010). “Heart of the Christian Life: Thoughts on the Holy Mass”, p.25, Ignatius Press

If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One that loves you.

Pope Benedict XVI
Love You, Catholic, Foundation
Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger (2007). “Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration”, p.38, Image

God is always faithful to His promises, but He often surprises us in the way He fulfills them.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faithful, Promise, Way

May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.

Pope Benedict XVI
Servant Of God, Joy, May
“'I'm just a pilgrim,' Benedict XVI says in public farewell” by Laura Smith-Spark and Richard Allen Greene, www.cnn.com. March 1, 2013.

We live in a society in which it seems that every space, every moment must be 'filled' with initiatives, activity, sound; often there is not even time to listen and dialogue... Let us not be afraid to be silent outside and inside ourselves, so that we are able not only to perceive God's voice, but also the voice of the person next to us, the voices of others.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faith, Inspiration, Voice

The cross reminds us that there is no true love without suffering, there is no gift of life without pain.

Pope Benedict XVI
Pain, Suffering, Crosses

Do you want to know yourself better? Then discover silence.

Pope Benedict XVI
Silence, Want, Know Yourself

Hope is practiced through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness.

Pope Benedict XVI
Humility, Darkness, Faces

Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. That light is both the light of reason and the light of faith, through which the intellect attains to the natural and supernatural truth of charity: it grasps its meaning as gift, acceptance, and communion. Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way.

Pope Benedict XVI
Life, Acceptance, Love Is
Pope Benedict XVI's Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, w2.vatican.va. June 29, 2009.

This world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart, and is that precious fruit which resists the erosion of time, which unites generations and enables them to be one in admiration. And all this through the work of your hands . . . Remember that you are the custodians of beauty in the world.

Pope Benedict XVI
Heart, Hands, Order

Do not be afraid of Christ. He takes nothing away and he gives you everything.

Pope Benedict XVI
Giving, Christ
"CNN Live" with Fionnuala Sweeney, edition.cnn.com. April 24, 2005.

Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think.

Pope Benedict XVI
Thinking, People, Evil

Look at the face of the other... discover that he has a soul, a history and a life, that he is a person and that God loves this person.

Pope Benedict XVI
Soul, Looks, Faces

We can fall, but in the end we fall into God's hands, and God's hands are good hands.

Pope Benedict XVI
Fall, Hands, Ends
Pope Benedict XVI (2008). “Mary”, USCCB

I have a mustard seed; and I am not afraid to use it.

Pope Benedict XVI
Catholic, Use, Mustard Seed

The Holy Spirit gives us joy. And he is joy. Joy is the gift in which all the other gifts are included. It is the expression of happiness, of being in harmony with ourselves, that which can only come from being in harmony with God and with his creation. It belongs to the nature of joy to be radiant; it must communicate itself. The missionary spirit of the Church is none other than the impulse to communicate the joy which has been given.

Pope Benedict XVI
Expression, Giving, Joy

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