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Pope Benedict XVI Quotes - Page 5

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We are no longer able to hear God - There are too many frequencies filling our ears.

We are no longer able to hear God - There are too many frequencies filling our ears.

Pope Benedict XVI
Catholic, Ears, Able

It is when we attempt to avoid suffering by withdrawing from anything that might involve hurt, when we try to spare ourselves the effort and pain of pursuing truth, love, and goodness, that we drift into a life of emptiness, in which there may be almost no pain, but the dark sensation of meaninglessness and abandonment is all the greater.

Pope Benedict XVI
Hurt, Pain, Dark
"Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful, and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed.

Pope Benedict XVI
Beautiful, Faith, Inspiration
Pope Benedict XVI (2006). “God's Revolution: World Youth Day and Other Cologne Talks”, p.35, Ignatius Press

God loves us; we need only to summon up the humility to allow ourselves to be loved.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faith, Inspiration, Humility
Pope Benedict XVI, Stephan Otto Horn, Vinzenz Pfnür (2003). “God is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life”, p.37, Ignatius Press

To desire the common good and strive towards it is a requirement of justice and charity.

Pope Benedict XVI
Justice, Desire, Charity
Pope Benedict XVI (2009). “Charity in Truth”, p.15, Ignatius Press

I, retired in prayer, will always be with you, and together we will move ahead with the Lord in certainty. The Lord is victorious.

Pope Benedict XVI
Prayer, Moving, Together

In a world where there is so much noise, so much bewilderment, there is a need for silent adoration of Jesus concealed in the Host. Be assiduous in the prayer of adoration and teach it to the faithful. It is a source of comfort and light, particularly to those who are suffering.

Pope Benedict XVI
Jesus, Prayer, Holy Eucharist
Address by the Holy Father during pastoral visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in Poland at the meeting with the clergy, w2.vatican.va. May 25, 2006.

The Church is not an association that wishes to promote a certain cause. It is not about a cause. It is about the person of Jesus Christ.

Pope Benedict XVI
Jesus, Wish, Church

I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes. But I think it's very important to be able to see the funny side of life and its joyful dimension and not to take everything too tragically. I'd also say it's necessary for my ministry. A writer once said that angels can fly because they don't take themselves too seriously. Maybe we could also fly a bit if we didn't think we were so important.

Pope Benedict XVI
Angel, Men, Thinking
"Pope Benedict XVI: 'We Have a Positive Idea to Offer'". German television interview, www.dw.com. August 13, 2006.

Love is the very process of passing over, of transformation, of stepping outside the limitations of fallen humanity - in which we are all separated from one another and ultimately impenetrable to one another - into an infinite otherness.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faith, Inspiration, Love Is

The new evangelization ... begins in the confessional.

Pope Benedict XVI

Islam has a total organization of life that is completely different from ours; it embraces simply everything,...There is a very marked subordination of woman to man; there is a very tightly knit criminal law, indeed, a law regulating all areas of life, that is opposed to our modern ideas about society. One has to have a clear understanding that it is not simply a denomination that can be included in the free realm of a pluralistic society.

Pope Benedict XVI
Men, Law, Organization
"Tough-talking pope has history with Muslims, refuses to give in". www.washingtontimes.com. September 20, 2006.

The deepest poverty is the inability of joy, the tediousness of a life considered absurd and contradictory. This poverty is widespread today, in very different forms in the materially rich as well as the poor countries. The inability of joy presupposes and produces the inability to love, produces jealousy, avarice - all defects that devastate the life of individuals and of the world. This is why we are in need of a new evangelization - if the art of living remains an unknown, nothing else works... this art can only be communicated by [one] who has life - he who is the Gospel personified.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faith, Country, Art

Do not believe that living together before marriage guarantees the future. By burning certain stages, you risk burning love itself. Time needs to be respected gradually, just like the expressions of love.

Pope Benedict XVI
Believe, Expression, Risk

Friends, do not be afraid of silence or stillness. Listen to God. Adore Him in the Eucharist.

Pope Benedict XVI
Silence, Adore, Eucharist
Pope Benedict XVI (2008). “Pope Benedict in America: The Full Texts of Papal Talks Given During His Apostolic Visit to the United States”, p.84, Ignatius Press

I am consoled by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and how to act, even with insufficient tools.

Pope Benedict XVI
Inspiration, Tools, Facts
"Pope Benedict XVI resigns, leaving princes of the church speechless" by John Hooper, www.theguardian.com. February 12, 2013.

Our first experience of God is so important, we either experience Him as the police guard that wants to punish or as Creative Love that awaits.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faith, Inspiration, Creative

God's heart calls to our hearts, inviting us to come out of ourselves, to forsake our human certainties, to trust in him and, by following his example, to make ourselves a gift of unbounded love.

Pope Benedict XVI
Heart, Example, Certainty
Pope Benedict XVI (2012). “Holy Days: Meditations on the Feasts, Fasts, and Other Solemnities of the Church”, p.35, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

The "name" of the Most Holy Trinity is in a certain way impressed upon everything that exists, because everything that exists, down to the least particle, is a being in relation, and thus God-relation shines forth, ultimately creative Love shines forth. All comes from love, tends toward love, and is moved by love, naturally, according to different grades of consciousness and freedom... The strongest proof that we are made in the image of the Trinity is this: only love makes us happy, because we live in relation, and we live to love and be loved.

Pope Benedict XVI
Faith, Inspiration, Names

Purity of heart is what enables us to see.

Pope Benedict XVI
Heart, Purity
Pope Benedict XVI (2009). “Jesus of Nazareth”, Rizzoli International Publications

It is theologically and anthropologically important for woman to be at the center of Christianity. Through Mary, and the other holy women, the feminine element stands at the heart of the Christian religion.

Pope Benedict XVI
Christian, Women, Heart
Pope Benedict XVI, Peter Seewald (2002). “God and the World: Believing and Living in Our Time : a Conversation with Peter Seewald”, p.199, Ignatius Press

Following Jesus in faith is to walk with him in the communion of the Church. You cannot follow Jesus alone.

Pope Benedict XVI
Jesus, Church, Communion

Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light.

Pope Benedict XVI
Children, Humility, Light
"Pope calls for worshipers to remember 'essence' of Christmas", www.cnn.com. March 29, 2012.

The first priority will consist in restoring a sense of the acceptance of life as a gift from God. According to both Sacred Scripture and the wisest traditions of your continent, the arrival of a child is always a gift, a blessing from God. Today it is high time to place greater emphasis on this: every human being, every tiny human person, however weak, is created 'in the image and likeness of God' (Gen 1:27)

Pope Benedict XVI
Children, Acceptance, Blessing

It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.

Pope Benedict XVI
Beautiful, Memories, Doors
Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI (2007). “Seek That Which Is Above: Meditations Through the Year”, p.17, Ignatius Press

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