CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 29, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is praying that young people will experience the thirst for God, and that they will recognize where to find answers in life.
At the same time, the Pope is recognizing that those who have known God since their youth too often fail to “take the light of his face to men.”
The Holy Father made this reflection in a prayer Sunday at the beginning of a Mass with his former students.
The students, known as the Ratzinger Schulerkreis, were having their annual meeting at Castel Gandolfo. Some 40 individuals took part, among them Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna; Auxiliary Bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke of Hamburg; and Monsignor Barthelemy Adoukonou, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Referring to the Psalm from Sunday’s liturgy, the Pontiff spoke of the aridity of souls in this “time of absence of God.”
“We want to pray for those who seek the living water elsewhere, that [God] show them that this water is he himself, and that he not permit the life of men, their thirst for what is great, for fullness, to drown and suffocate in the transient,” he said. “We want to ask him, above all for young people, that thirst for him become alive in them and that they recognize where the answer is.”
Benedict XVI also proposed that those who have known God from their youth ask for pardon, “because we so meagerly take the light of His face to men.”
“We want to ask him to forgive us,” the Pope said, “that he renew us with the living water of his Spirit.”
The group of Ratzinger’s former students this year discussed the theme of the new evangelization.
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: www.zenit.org/article-33307?l=english
