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Many people perceive Christianity as something institutional - rather than as an encounter with Christ - which explains why they don't see it as a source of joy.

Pope Benedict XVI

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Pope Benedict XVI
Age: 97
Born: 1927
Born: April 16
Philosopher
Pianist
Religious Writer
Roman Catholic Priest
Theologian
Transitional Deacon
University Teacher
Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger
Pope Benedict XVI
Josef Ratzinger
Benedetto XVI
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
Joseph Alois Ratzinger
Rather
Institutional
Christ
Explains
Many
Encounter
Something
Encounters
People
Perceive
Christianity
Source
Joy

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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.
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Being a Christian means having love. That is unbelievably difficult and, at the same time, incredibly simple.
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In Latin America in general, it's very important that Christianity not be simply a thing of reason, but also of the heart.
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Everything is a gift from God: it is only by recognizing this crucial dependence on the Creator that we will find freedom and peace.
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The diligent reading of Sacred Scripture accompanied by prayer brings about that intimate dialogue in which the person reading hears God who is speaking, and in praying, responds to him with trusting openness of heart. If it is effectively promoted, this practice will bring to the Church-I am convinced of it-a new spiritual springtime.
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Saint Paul asks his disciple Timothy to aim at faith (2 Tim 2:22) with the same constancy as when he was a boy (cf. 2 Tim 3:15). This invitation is directed to each of us, that none of us grow lazy in the faith. It is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the marvels that God works for us.
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The happiness you have a right to enjoy has a name and a face: it is Jesus of Nazareth, hidden in the Eucharist.
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We cannot live, we cannot look at the truth about ourselves without letting ourselves be looked at and generated by Christ in daily Eucharistic Adoration.
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Men and women cannot rest content with a superficial and unquestioning exchange of skeptical opinions and experiences of life - all of us are in search of truth and we share this profound yearning today more than ever.
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I encourage all of you to discover ever more fully in the Eucharist, the sacrament of Christ's sacrificial love, the inspiration and strength needed to work ever more generously for the spread of God's Kingdom and the growth of the civilization of love.
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The highest things, the things that really matter, we cannot achieve on our own we have to accept them as gifts and enter in to the dynamic of the gift, so to speak.
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The wrath of God is a way of saying that I have been living in a way that is contrary to the love that is God. Anyone who begins to live and grow away from God, who lives away from what is good, is turning his life toward wrath.
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The new evangelization ... begins in the confessional.
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The Gospel is not merely a communication of things that can be known - it is one that makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has hope lives differently the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life.
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In this regard, I reiterate that the prohibition against torture cannot be contravened under any circumstances.
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Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth.
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You must know your faith with the same precision with which a specialist in information technology knows the operating system of a computer.
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In the eyes of the unrighteous it appeared that God did not intervene and that His Son died, but for believers it was at that precise moment that true glory was manifested and definitive salvation achieved.
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The fundamental human right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. This is true of life from the moment of conception until its natural end. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right – it is the very opposite. It is “a deep wound in society”.
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Dear young people, let me now ask you a question. What will you leave to the next generation? Are you building your lives on firm foundations, building something that will endure?
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