United Nations and Natural Law

My comments on Pope Benedict XVI's address to the United Nations General Assembly can be found on the Arrival: The Parousian Weblog.

Apostolic Journey to the United States

Here is a link to the Vatican website that includes all the addresses Pope Benedict XVI gave while in the United States.

I find the number and types of groups Benedict addressed with his message of "Christ our Hope" interesting. These groups included: our nations leaders, the bishops, Catholics, Catholic educators, Catholic seminarians, Jewish leaders, other religious leaders, the Jewish community, the United Nations, young people, religious men and women, disabled youth, rescuers and families at ground zero, as well as the rest of the nation.

I like the advice of Richard John Neuhaus in his article "Benedict and the Human Face of God" at First things:

As some of us have been repeating incessantly, the important thing is to listen carefully to what he is saying. And then to download all the addresses and read them carefully, and then read them again. During his visit, he laid out an astonishingly comprehensive program for the renewal of the Church and the Church’s witness to the world. Consider, too, that his arguments—and he is always making arguments—must be understood within the context of more than four decades of scholarship intimately tied to devotional and pastoral reflection.

How blessed we are to have a wonderful wealth of wise words directed at our American society to reflect upon!

Benedict XVI's Address to the United Nations

Must read! I will comment on it latter.

Benedict XVI's address to the United Nations

Childhood Devotions of the Ratzinger Family

Pope Benedict XVI’s only remaining sibling, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, answers questions about his younger brother in an interview with the National Catholic Register. Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, a priest in Germany, is known for his work as a director of the Regensburger Domspatzen, the cathedral choir of Regensburg.

During the interview Msgr. Georg Ratzinger describes the childhood devotions that help foster his family’s faith during a troubled Bavaria.

The Mother of God has played an integral part in our spiritual life.

At our parents’ house we often prayed the Rosary, we knelt on the ground, leaning on chairs. That showed us very early how important the Mother of God is for a Christian.

We also observed the many Marian feasts. My mother and my sister were called Maria. Obviously, the name has been important in my family. We also traveled to Altötting [one of Europe’s greatest Marian shrines]. We know we are indebted to the Mother of God and can carry all our worries to her.

The Rosary, the midday prayers on Sunday, the festive Corpus Christi processions in Bavaria: These practices of popular piety makes one’s faith becomes personal — not abstract or formal, but personal, human, kind and precious, a faith which enters our life story and claims an essential place.

This quote tells us something important about family devotion. The social teaching of the Catholic Church very clearly refers to the family as the first seminary. This was obviously true with the Ratzinger brothers. Devotional practices and prayer shape the faith perspective of the participants. Rituals and devotions are not impersonal and abstract but aide in reaffirming the sacredness of life by stressing the importance of God.

Msgr. Ratzinger, like his brother, also spent time in an American prisoner of war camp until the end of the war. He recalled the uncertainty of knowing the whereabouts of his parents and siblings and the state of his home. Fortunately the Ratzinger family had a happy reunion at the end of the war.

In describing his relationship with Pope Benedict, Msgr. Ratzinger cited the practical benefit of attending divine liturgy with the Holy Father.

There is also an important dimension in the Eucharist: Here is the Vicar of Christ celebrating Mass. There is a special atmosphere around that.

We Are the Living Stones

My post on We Are the Living Stones at Arrival: The Parousian Weblog.