"I Wanted To Receive A Word"

The day before he was ordained a priest...

When Pope Benedict XVI sought a word from the Lord ...

"[H]e opened the Scriptures..."

Well ?! "What did he find?"

The Pope's answer:

My gaze fell upon this passage...

"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth."



This concluding snippet is adapted from Inside The Vatican magazine. May 2009. By Pope Benedict XVI. The editor informs us that His Holiness gave this during his chrism Mass homily in Rome on April 9.

"On the eve of my priestly ordination, 58 years ago, I opened the Sacred Scripture, because I wanted to receive once more a word from the Lord for that day and for my future journey as a priest.

"My gaze fell on this passage: Sanctify them in the truth: your word is truth.

"Then I realized: the Lord is speaking about me, and he is speaking to me.

"This very same thing will be accomplished tomorrow in me.

"When all is said and done, we are not consecrated by rites, even though rites are necessary.

"The bath in which the Lord immerses us is himself -- the Truth in person.

"Priestly ordination means: being immersed in him, immersed in the Truth.

"I belong in a new way to him and thus to others, that his Kingdom may come.

"Dear friends, in this hour of the renewal of promises, we want to pray to the Lord to make us men of truth, men of love, men of God.

"Let us implore him to draw us ever anew into himself, so that we may become truly priests of the New Covenant.

"Amen."