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Castel Gandolfo, Italy, September 18 (CNA/EWTN News) .-

Pope Benedict XVI called upon all Catholics Sept. 18 to participate in a new evangelization of the world.

"Today's liturgy reminds us that we are all called to work in the vineyard of the Lord," he told pilgrims gathered to pray the midday Angelus at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.

"He has given us diverse gifts, has assigned diverse tasks and determined diverse times for their performance. However, if we assume the work of our life with full dedication, we can expect the same pay: the joy of eternal participation the goodness of the Lord," he said.

The Pope based his comments on today's gospel reading in which Jesus recounts the parable of the vineyard owner who paid each of his workers the same wage regardless of how long they worked.

He also drew upon St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, written while the apostle was imprisoned and awaiting his death, in which he states that "for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

This "new sense of life" comes from communion with Jesus Christ who, said the Pope, is "not just a historical figure, a master of wisdom, a religious leader," but is "a man in whom God dwells personally."

"His death and resurrection is the good news that, starting from Jerusalem, is intended to reach all individuals and peoples," said Pope Benedict. Thus all cultures are changed by being open to the truth that "God is love, he became man in Jesus and his sacrifice has redeemed humanity from the slavery of evil, making it a trustworthy hope."

"Today we live in an era of new evangelization," Pope Benedict said, drawing a parallel between the era of St. Paul and today. New evangelization is also a favored theme of his pontificate – the call to re-evangelize traditionally Christian parts of the world or, as the Pope put it today, the need for "regions of ancient Christian tradition" to "rediscover the beauty of faith."

"The protagonists of this mission are men and women who, like St. Paul can say: 'For me to live is Christ.' People, families and communities that agree to work in the vineyard of the Lord."

These are people who are "humble and generous" and who do not "ask for any reward other than to participate in the mission of Jesus and the Church."

"Dear friends," concluded the Pope, "the Gospel has transformed the world, and still is turning, like a river that irrigates a huge field."

After the Angelus, Pope Benedict addressed various language groups, including German pilgrims. He said he looked forward to his four-day visit to Germany later this week and hoped the people of his native land will "respond generously to the offer of the boundless love of God and work for the good that is in the world."

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God is never far from the persecuted, says Pope Benedict

By David Kerr

Vatican City, Sep 14, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-

Pope Benedict XVI said Sept. 14 that Christians should continue to call upon God even in times of trial, when he may seem distant.

“The shadow of the Cross gives way to the bright hope of the Resurrection,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall for his weekly audience.

“We too, when we call upon him in times of trial, must place our trust in the God who brings salvation, who conquers death with the gift of eternal life.”

The Pope drew his observations from Psalm 22, which he described as “a heartfelt prayer of lamentation from one who feels abandoned by God.”

The writer of the psalm is “surrounded by enemies who are persecuting him,” and so he “cries out by day and by night for help, and yet God seems to remain silent.”

“My God , my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” is the cry of the psalmist to the Almighty.

Pope Benedict explained how the writer is despairing of the Lord rescuing him even though “the people of Israel called trustingly upon the Lord in times of trial, and he answered their prayer,” and in his own life “the Lord cared for him personally in his earlier life, as a child in his mother’s womb, as an infant in his mother’s arms.”

“Despite such adverse circumstances, though,” observed the Pope, “the psalmist’s faith and trust in the Lord remains.” So much so that he “ends on a note of confidence, as God’s name is praised before all the nations.”

The Pope said this is also the attitude all Christians should learn to have in times of near despair.

The best example of this trust in God the Father, said the Pope, is Jesus Christ himself, who also utters the words of Psalm 22 as he hangs on the cross of Calvary.

“He too seems to have been abandoned to a cruel fate,” noted the Pope, “while his enemies mock him, attacking him like ravenous and roaring lions, dividing his clothing among them as if he were already dead.”

Yet in his passion on Good Friday “in obedience the Father, the Lord Jesus, through abandonment and death, comes to give life and give it to all believers.”

Thus, by praying the “heartfelt and touching” Psalm 22, the individual Christian is brought to the foot of the Cross of Christ “to live out his passion and share the fruitful joy of the resurrection.”

Pope Benedict concluded the audience by imparting his apostolic blessing, before returning by helicopter to his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, 15 miles south of Rome.

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Pope speaks of God's presence during 'times of darkness'

Vatican City, September 7 (CNA/EWTN News) .-

Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square that they should look to the Bible's third psalm to recall that God is near "even in times of difficulty, problems, and darkness."

"In the Psalmist's lament," Pope Benedict observed in his September 7 general audience, "each of us may recognize those feelings of pain and bitterness, accompanied by faith in God, which, according the biblical narrative, David experienced as he fled from his city."

Pope Benedict presided over the Wednesday general audience at the Vatican before returning to Castel Gandolfo, his summer vacation residence.

His discussion of Psalm 3 served as the beginning of his treatment of the Psalms – which he called "the book of prayer par excellence" – as part of his continuing series of lessons on "the school of prayer."

Psalm 3, Pope Benedict recalled, comes from "one of the most dramatic episodes" in the life of King David, to whom the Church has traditionally ascribed the entire book of Psalms. It represents David's cry for help after his son Absalom usurped his throne, forcing David to flee from Jerusalem in fear.

The incident prompts David to exlaim: "How many are my foes, Lord! How many rise against me! How many say of me, 'God will not save that one.'"

David's persecutors, Pope Benedict noted, not only threaten his life, but "also seek to break his bond with God and to undermine the faith of their victim by insinuating that the Lord cannot intervene."

Their aggression against "the central core of the Psalmist's being" subjects David to one of the most serious temptations a believer can suffer, "the temptation of losing faith and trust in the closeness of God."

But the author of Psalm 3 also recalls that God is "a shield around me," and declares: "Whenever I cried out to the Lord, I was answered from the holy mountain … I do not fear, then, thousands of people arrayed against me on every side."

"By praying this Psalm," Pope Benedict told the crowd of pilgrims, "we share the sentiments of the Psalmist: a just but persecuted figure which would later be fulfilled in Jesus. In pain, danger and the bitterness of misunderstanding and offense, the words of this Psalm open our hearts to the comforting certainty of faith."

"God is always close, even in times of difficulty, problems and darkness," the Pope taught. "He listens, responds and saves." David's cry of desperation, then, is also "an act of faith in God's closeness and His willingness to listen."

Pope Benedict explained that the third psalm, like the entirety of the Old Testament, points to Jesus' experience of suffering, death, and final deliverance.

Through the words of this psalm, Christians can learn to "recognize (God's) presence and accept his ways, like David during his humiliating flight from his son Absalom … and, finally and fully, like the Lord Jesus on Golgotha."

When darkness and pain arrive, the ability to recognize God's presence makes an immense difference, as it did when Christ died in circumstances that seemed to have no redeeming value.

"In the eyes of the unrighteous it appeared that God did not intervene and that his son died," the Pope said. "But for believers it was at that precise moment that true glory was manifested and definitive salvation achieved."

"May the Lord give us faith," Pope Benedict concluded. "May he come in aid of our weakness and help us to pray in moments of anguish, in the painful nights of doubt and the long days of pain, abandoning ourselves trustingly to him – our shield and our glory."

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