As I ponder these few remaining days of Pope Benedict XVI’s pontificate, I’d like to write and share some words that I feel will be remembered long after he has left his public ministry.
At his General Audience on June 3, 2009, His Holiness focused Blessed Rabanus Maurus titled “A Truly Extraordinary Personality of the Latin West”. He closed with a quote from this 8th century monk and then applied to our 21st century lives—as only a good teacher can do.
“’He who neglects contemplation is deprived of the vision of the light of God; he who is carried away with worry and allows his thoughts to be crushed by the tumult of the things of the world is condemned to the absolute impossibility of penetrating the secrets of the invisible God’ (Lib. I, PL 112, col. 1263A). I believe that Rabanus Maurus addressed these words to us today: while at work, with its frenetic rhythms, and during vacation, we have to reserve moments for God. [We have to] open our lives up to him, directing a thought to him, a reflection, a brief prayer. And above all, we mustn’t forget that Sunday is the day of Our Lord, the day of the liturgy, [the day] to perceive in the beauty of our churches, in the sacred music and in the Word of God, the same beauty of our God, allowing him to enter into our being. Only in this way is our life made great; it is truly made a life.”