Ave Maria! On Sunday past, Pope Benedict XVI was scheduled to visit the Shrine of La Verna, the Chapel of Stigmata, on the summit of Monte Penna where St. Francis received the stigmata. While this was cancelled due to inclement weather, the address that the Holy Father prepared for this occasion has been published. Let us contemplate the Cross of Christ that we might make "the Passover with Him."
"To contemplate the Cross of Christ! ...The glorious Cross of Christ sums up the world's sufferings, but it is above all a tangible sign of love, the measure of God's goodness to man....we too are called to rediscover life's supernatural dimension, to lift our eyes from what is contingent, and to return to complete reliance upon the Lord, with a free heart and in perfect joy, by contemplating the Crucified, that He may wound us with His love....The contemplation of the Crucified has an extraordinary efficacy, for it causes us to pass from the order of things thought, to that of experience lived; from hoped-for salvation to the sweet and blessed homeland. St. Bonaventure affirms: 'He who gazes intently [upon the Crucified]...makes the Passover with Him – that is, the passage'".
We adore You, O Christ, and we bless You
because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world!
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