Gerald has translated the lovely homily that Benedict gave at Vespers in the Munich cathedral, with a crowd of children gathered around:

Dear parents! I want to heartily invite you to help your children believe and to accompany them on the way to Communion, which continues on after First Communion, on their wayt to Jesus and with Jesus.

Please, go to church with your children for the Sunday Eucharist. You will see: This is no wasted time, that holds the family together properly and gives it a focus. The Sunday becomes more beautiful, the whole week becomes more beautiful, if you attend God’s service (Mass) together.

And please, also pray together at home: at meals, before going to sleep. Praying not only leads us to God but also to one another. It is a force of peace and of joy. Life within the family becomes more special and of greater importance when God is there and His presence is experienced, lived in prayer.

Dear religious education teachers and educators! I ask you with all my heart to keep present the question about God, about the God that showed Himself to us in Jesus Christ in your schools. I know that it is difficult to speak of the faith in school in our pluralistic world.

But, it is not sufficient when children and young people only learn abilities and technical know-how in school, but learn no (moral) standards that give meaning and direction to ability. Encourage the students to not only ask about this or that, that is fine, but to above all ask about the Where from and the Where to of our life. Help them to recognize that all answers that do not reach all the way to God fall short.

Dear pastors and all who help in parishes! I ask you to do everything so that a parish can become an internal home for the people – a big family, in which we at the same time experience the even bigger family of the worldwide Church – through the Eucharist, the catechesis and through all manners of parish life learn to walk the way of true life together.

All three locations – family, school, parish – belong togethre and help us to find the sources, the wellsprings of life – and, dear children, dear parents and dear educators, after all, we all want to have "life in full". Amen.

Catholic News Agency summarizes the service.

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