{"id":157,"date":"2007-09-07T08:53:16","date_gmt":"2007-09-07T08:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/pilgrims.html"},"modified":"2007-09-07T08:53:16","modified_gmt":"2007-09-07T08:53:16","slug":"pilgrims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/pilgrims.html","title":{"rendered":"Pilgrims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looks like Vatican Radio<\/a> is the go-to spot for quick translations today.
\nAt the airport:<\/a>
\nMariazell does not only represent 850 years of history<\/a>, but shows us on the basis of that history \u2013 as reflected in the statue of the Blessed Mother pointing to Christ her Son \u2013 the way to the future. In view of this, today I would like, along with Austria\u2019s political authorities and the representatives of international organizations, to take another look at our present and our future.<\/em>Tomorrow, the Feast of the Nativity of Mary,<\/a> the patronal feast of Mariazell, will bring me to that holy place. In the Eucharistic celebration in front of the Basilica we will gather, as Mary has shown us, around Christ who comes into our midst. We will ask him to help us better to contemplate him, to see him in our brothers and sisters, to serve him in them, and to walk with him on the way that leads to the Father. As pilgrims to the Shrine, we will be united in prayer and, thanks to the communications media, united also with the faithful and all men and women of good will within this country and far beyond its borders.<\/em>
\nPilgrimage means more than just journeying to a shrine. The journey back to our everyday life is also fundamental.<\/strong> Each week of our ordinary life begins with Sunday \u2013 with this liberating gift of God which we wish to receive and treasure. And so we will celebrate Mass this Sunday in Saint Stephen\u2019s Cathedral \u2013 in communion with all those gathered for Holy Mass in the parish churches of Austria and throughout the world.<\/em>
\n
\nPrayer Meeting at the \u201cMariens\u00e4ule<\/a><\/em>
\nFrom earliest times, faith in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, has been linked to a particular veneration for his Mother, for the Woman in whose womb he took on our human nature, sharing even in the beating of her heart.<\/strong> Mary is the Woman who accompanied Jesus with sensitivity and deference throughout his life, even to his death on the Cross. At the end, he commended to her maternal love the beloved disciple and, with him, all humanity. In her maternal love, Mary continues to take under her protection people of all languages and cultures, and to lead them together, within a multiform unity, to Christ. In our problems and needs we can turn to Mary. Yet we must also learn from her to accept one another lovingly in the same way that she has accepted all of us: each as an individual, willed as such and loved by God. In God\u2019s universal family, in which there there is a place for everyone, each person must develop his gifts for the good of all. <\/p>\n

The Mariens\u00e4ule, built by the Emperor Ferdinand III in thanksgiving for the liberation of Vienna from great danger and inaugurated by him exactly 360 years ago, must also be a sign of hope for us today. How many persons, over the years, have stood before this column and lifted their gaze to Mary in prayer! How many have experienced in times of trouble the power of her intercession! Our Christian hope includes much more than the mere fulfilment of our wishes and desires, great or small. We turn our gaze to Mary, because she points out to us the great hope to which we have been called (cf. Eph 1:18), because she personifies our true humanity!<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is what we have just heard in the reading from the Letter to the Ephesians: even before the creation of the world, God chose us in Christ. From eternity he has known and loved each one of us! And why did he choose us? To be holy and immaculate before him in love! This is no impossible task: in Christ he has already brought it to fulfilment. We have been redeemed!<\/strong> By virtue of our communion with the Risen Christ, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Let us open our hearts; let us accept this precious legacy! Then we will be able to sing, together with Mary, the praises of his glorious grace. And if we continue to bring our everyday concerns to the immaculate Mother of Christ, she will help us to open our little hopes ever more fully towards that great and true hope which gives meaning to our lives and is able to fill us with a deep and imperishable joy. <\/em>
\nGerald at Closed Cafeteria already has a photo up – impressive. Well done!<\/a>
\nJohn Allen has three posts up so far, including one reporting on the Pope’s conversation with reporters on the plane.<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps the best way to express what\u2019s happened in Austrian Catholicism over the last twelve years is to imagine living through the anguish of the American sexual abuse crisis, twice, in a small country of just over 8 million, where all traumas are particularly local.<\/font>
\nIn the papal plane on the way to Vienna this morning, Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged the heartache of the Catholic church in Austria, telling Catholics here, \u201cI know you\u2019ve suffered.\u201d<\/font>
\n\u201cI\u2019d like to say thank you to all those who suffered in these recent years,\u201d the pope said.<\/font>
\n\u201cI know that the church in Austria has lived through difficult times, and I\u2019m grateful to everyone \u2013 laity, religious, priests \u2013 who, during all these difficulties, remained faithful to the church, to its witness to Jesus, and who in this church of sinners nevertheless recognized the face of Jesus.\u201d<\/font>
\nBenedict said that today he sees \u201cnew momentum\u201d in the Austrian church.<\/font>
\n\u201cI would not say that all the difficulties have been solved,\u201d the pope said. \u201cLife in this century, in all centuries, remains difficult, and the faith too always lives in difficult contexts. I hope that I can be of some help in healing these wounds. I also see today that there\u2019s a new joy in the faith, a new momentum in the church. As much as I can, I want to encourage this willingness to go forward with the Lord, to have faith that the Lord remains present in his church, and thus, that with the faith of the church, we too can arrive at the goal of our lives and contribute to a better world.\u201d<\/font>
\nThe comments reflect the bitter controversies that have rocked Austrian Catholicism since 1995.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Looks like Vatican Radio is the go-to spot for quick translations today. At the airport: Mariazell does not only represent 850 years of history, but shows us on the basis of that history \u2013 as reflected in the statue of the Blessed Mother pointing to Christ her Son \u2013 the way to the future. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pope"],"yoast_head":"\nPilgrims - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/09\/pilgrims.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pilgrims - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Looks like Vatican Radio is the go-to spot for quick translations today. 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