Pope Benedict in Meditation
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Posted by Dr. Chris Burgwald

Yesterday (August 17th) Pope Benedict continued his Wednesday audience catechetical series on the nature and importance of prayer. The focus of this particular address was the prayer of meditation, in which the Holy Father discussed the importance of regularly reflecting upon the mysteries of God and His teachings. Honestly, it's such an excellent address that I couldn't decide on an excerpt for this post! Fortunately, it's also a short address and hence can easily be read in a few minutes, which I highly encourage you to do. The official Vatican translation will be online in a few days here, but in the meantime you can find an unofficial translation here.

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What is Holiness, and How Do We "Get" It?
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Posted by Dr. Chris Burgwald

Back on April 13th of this year, Pope Benedict devoted his Wednesday catechetical address to the topic of holiness. It's an outstanding address, given in understandable language in a relatively short length. I highly recommend it for an easy explanation of the nature of holiness and how we are to attain it.

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The Eucharist: an Antidote to Individualism
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Posted by Dr. Chris Burgwald

Last month on the Sunday on which we celebrated the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, Pope Benedict spoke the following powerful words about the Eucharist:

In an ever more individualistic culture, such as the one in which we are immersed in western society and which tends to spread throughout the world, the Eucharist constitutes a sort of “antidote” that works in the minds and hearts of believers and continually sows in them the logic of communion, service and sharing, in short, the logic of the Gospel. The first Christians in Jerusalem were a visible sign of this new lifestyle, because they lived in brotherhood and shared their possessions so that no one was in need (cf. Acts 2:42-47). What does all this derive from? From the Eucharist, that is, from the Risen Christ, really present in the midst of his disciples and acting with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let us pray that our Communion with the Lord at each Mass might bear fruit and lead us into greater communion with Him and with one another.

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God Always Respects Our Freedom
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Posted by Dr. Chris Burgwald

"Ultimately, the true "Parable" of God is Jesus himself, his Person who, through the sign of humanity at the same time conceals and reveals the divinity. In this way God does not force us to believe in him, but he draws us to himself with the truth and goodness of his incarnate Son: love, in fact, always respects freedom." -- Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus address, July 10, 2011 I understand why some wonder, "why doesn't God just show Himself to us in an obvious way?" Pope Benedict points to the divine logic at work: God wants us to want Him, and hence He -- to a certain degree -- hides Himself.

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The Goal of Prayer: Conversion
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Posted by Dr. Chris Burgwald

Since early May, Pope Benedict has been focusing his Wednesday catechetical audiences on the topic of prayer, beginning by looking at various Old Testament figures and seeing how they prayed. In his address on June 15th the Holy Father looked at the example of the prophet Elijah, and in the conclusion of his address Benedict made this observation:

The primary aim of prayer is conversion, the flame of God that transforms our heart and enables us to see God and so to live in accordance with God and live for others.

Too often we tend to think of prayer exclusively as petition... asking God for things for ourselves or others. Benedict reminds us that prayer is much more than this, that the goal of prayer is actually our conversion. Let us ask the Lord for the gift of conversion as well as the gift of a deep prayer life.

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