Pope Benedict XVI Quotes
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101. “Humor is in fact an essential element in the mirth of creation. We can see how, in many matters in our lives, God wants to prod us into taking things a bit more lightly.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

102. “Joy is the true gift of Christmas...”

— Pope Benedict XVI

103. “God’s love does not distinguish between the infant in the mother’s womb or the child or the youth or the adult or the older person. In each one God sees His image and likeness. Human life is a manifestation of God and His glory.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

104. “Est autem fides sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium. – Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

105. “Listen to the voice of the earth...”

— Pope Benedict XVI

106. “Grace, lavished upon us by God and communicated through the Mystery of the Incarnate Word, is an absolutely free gift with which nature is healed, strengthened and assisted in pursuing the innate desire for happiness in the heart of every man and of every woman.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

107. “Following Jesus in faith is to walk with him in the communion of the Church. You cannot follow Jesus alone.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

108. “Holiness never goes out of fashion.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

109. “Poverty is a plague against which humanity must fight without cease.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

110. “In the pierced heart of the Crucified, God’s own heart is opened up – here we see who God is and what he is like. Heaven is no longer locked up. God has stepped out of his hiddenness.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

111. “Today, the need to avoid confusing marriage with other types of unions based on weak love is especially urgent. It is only the rock of total, irrevocable love between a man and a woman that can serve as the foundation on which to build a society that will become a home for all mankind.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

112. “You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated. We are all scandalized by the sins and failures of some of the Church’s members.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

113. “An authentic updating of sacred music can take place only in the lineage of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

114. “Only if there is love, if hearts are opened, can one person truly know the other.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

115. “We are still awaiting Easter; we are not yet standing in the full light but walking toward it full of trust.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

116. “Let us allow ourselves to be ‘infected’ by St. Joseph’s silence! We need it greatly, in a world that is often too noisy, that does not favor meditation or listening to the voice of God.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

117. “Every human being is loved by God the Father. No one need feel forgotten, for every name is written in the Lord’s loving heart.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

118. “The language of art is a ‘parabolic’ language, with a special openness to the universal: the ‘Way of Beauty’ is a way capable of leading the mind and heart to the Lord, to elevate them to the heights of God.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

119. “Discovering the beauty and joy of faith is a path that every new generation must take on its own.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

120. “While we too always seek other signs, other wonders, we do not realize that he is the real sign, God made flesh; he is the greatest miracle of the universe: all the love of God hidden in a human heart, in a human face.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

Featured in: Real Quotes

121. “Mission is a workshop where there is room for all.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

122. “Intelligence and love are not in separate compartments: love is rich in intelligence and intelligence is full of love.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

123. “The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by “attraction”: just as Christ “draws all to himself” by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross, so the Church fulfills her mission...”

— Pope Benedict XVI

124. “Human pride and egoism always create divisions, build walls of indifference, hate and violence. The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, makes hearts capable of understanding the languages of all, as he re-establishes the bridge of authentic communication between earth and Heaven.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

125. “Our first experience of God is so important, we either experience Him as the police guard that wants to punish or as Creative Love that awaits.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

126. “God’s heart calls to our hearts, inviting us to come out of ourselves, to forsake our human certainties, to trust in him and, by following his example, to make ourselves a gift of unbounded love.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

127. “When politicians presume to do God’s work, they do not become divine but diabolical.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

128. “Young people in particular, I appeal to you: bear witness to your faith through the digital world.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

129. “Standards of conduct appropriate to civil society or the workings of a democracy cannot be purely and simply applied to the Church.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

130. “This clash is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

131. “The Eucharistic sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ embraces in turn the mystery of our Lord’s continuing passion in the members of his mystical body, the church in every age.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

132. “We can learn from him that suffering and the gift of himself is an essential gift we need in our time.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

133. “God’s dialogue with us becomes truly human, since God conducts his part as man.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

134. “The way we order our time is dependent on the way we order our Sunday.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

135. “Thank you from the heart to all those who in various ways are near me or follow me spiritually with affection and prayers from afar. To each one of you, I ask you to continue to support me by praying to God to let me be his gentle and firm pastor of his church.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

136. “A theologian who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental; they necessarily are reflected in his theology.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

137. “How much filth there is in the church, even among those who, in the priesthood, should belong entirely to Him. How much pride, how much self-sufficiency.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

138. “Freedom is not only a gift, but a summons to personal responsibility.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

139. “Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church is often labeled today as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and swept along by every wind of teaching, look like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

140. “The need to proclaim Christ boldly and courageously is a continuing priority for the Church; indeed it is a solemn duty laid upon her by Christ who enjoined the Apostles to ‘go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good News to all creation.’”

— Pope Benedict XVI

141. “Meaning that is self-made is in the last analysis no meaning. Meaning, that is, the ground on which our existence as a totality can stand and live, cannot be made but only received.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

142. “We were looking for a ‘good shepherd,’ and instead we got a German shepherd.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

143. “Before it’s too late, we need to make courageous choices that will recreate a strong alliance between man and Earth. We need a decisive ‘yes’ to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making the situation of decay irreversible.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

Featured in: Strong Quotes

144. “We must trust in the mighty power of God’s mercy. We are all sinners, but His grace transforms us and makes us new.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

145. “In the Eucharist, the Son of God comes to meet us and desires to become one with us; eucharistic adoration is simply the natural consequence of the eucharistic celebration, which is itself the Church’s supreme act of adoration.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

146. “Ultimately, in the battle against lies and violence, truth and love have no other weapon than the witness of suffering.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

147. “A world marked by so much injustice, innocent suffering, and cynicism of power cannot be the work of a good God.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

148. “We can fall, but in the end we fall into God’s hands, and God’s hands are good hands.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

149. “Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene is a classic example of science fiction.”

— Pope Benedict XVI

150. “It is not by sidestepping or fleeing from suffering that we are healed, but rather by our capacity for accepting it, maturing through it and finding meaning through union with Christ, who suffered with infinite love.”

— Pope Benedict XVI