15 November 2007
Only through a deep spirit of prayer and the help of the Holy Spirit are we able to understand the Bible.
- General Audience, 14 November 2007
In truth, to converse with God and with his word means to be in heaven's presence, that is to say, in God's presence.
- General Audience, 14 November 2007
We must never forget that the Word of God transcends time. Human opinions come and go. What is very modern today will be very antiquated tomorrow. On the other hand, the Word of God is the Word of eternal life, it bears within it eternity and is valid for ever. By carrying the Word of God within us, we therefore carry within us eternity, eternal life.
- General Audience, 7 November 2007
The privileged place for reading and listening to the Word of God is the liturgy, in which, celebrating the Word and making Christ's Body present in the Sacrament, we actualize the Word in our lives and make it present among us.
- General Audience, 7 November 2007
We must not read Sacred Scripture as a word of the past but as the Word of God that is also addressed to us, and we must try to understand what it is that the Lord wants to tell us. However, to avoid falling into individualism, we must bear in mind that the Word of God has been given to us precisely in order to build communion and to join forces in the truth on our journey towards God. Thus, although it is always a personal Word, it is also a Word that builds community, that builds the Church. We must therefore read it in communion with the living Church.
- General Audience, 7 November 2007
He wants to make us - sometimes through periods of emptiness and inner isolation - attentive and capable of "hearing" his silent presence not only "above the star-strewn vault", but in the innermost depths of our soul. It is here that the spark of divine love glows that can set us free for what we truly are.
- Address after a Vatican Concert
[T]rue joy is rooted in that freedom which, basically, God alone can give.
- Address after a Vatican Concert
The Lord desires to give each one the grace of a beautiful and good existence and the hope that makes it possible to find life's true meaning through the dangers of daily life.
- Address to the Bishops of Gabon
Yes, true hope is only born from the Blood of Christ and blood poured out for him. There is blood which is the sign of death, but there is also blood that expresses love and life.
- Homily, 21 October 2007
God cannot change things without our conversion, and our true conversion begins with the "cry" of the soul imploring forgiveness and salvation. Christian prayer is not, therefore, an expression of fatalism or inertia; on the contrary, it is the opposite of evasion from reality, from consoling intimism. It is the force of hope, the maximum expression of faith in the power of God who is Love and does not abandon us.
- Homily, 21 October 2007
Faith assures us that God hears our prayers and grants them at the appropriate moment, although our daily experience seems to deny this certainty.
- Homily, 21 October 2007
[T]he power that changes the world and transforms it into the Kingdom of God, in silence and without fanfare, is faith - and prayer is the expression of faith. When faith is filled with love for God, recognized as a good and just Father, prayer becomes persevering, insistent, it becomes a groan of the spirit, a cry of the soul that penetrates God's Heart. Thus, prayer becomes the greatest transforming power in the world. In the face of a difficult and complex social reality, as yours certainly is, it is essential to strengthen hope which is based on faith and expressed in unflagging prayer.
- Homily, 21 October 2007
Truth is not dependent upon consensus but precedes it and makes it possible, generating authentic human solidarity.
- Address to the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea
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