Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Peter in Africa, Reflections

Though there surely will be more, these first reflections by the Holy Father about his just concluded several days visit to Africa, are beautiful.

An excerpt from the Vatican News Service.

“VATICAN CITY, 24 MAR 2009 (VIS) - During his return to Rome, following his apostolic visit to Cameroon and Angola, Benedict XVI again made remarks to journalists accompanying him on the flight.

“The Holy Father said that during the course of his visit he had been particularly impressed by "this almost exuberant cordiality, this delight, of a rejoicing Africa. I felt they saw in the Pope ... the personification of the fact that we are the children and the family of God. This family exists and we, with all our limitations, are part of it, and God is with us. ... I was also moved by the spirit of meditative absorption in liturgy, the powerful sense of the sacred; in the liturgies there was no self-presentation of groups, no self-animation, but the presence of the sacred, of God Himself; even the movements were always movements of respect and awareness of the divine presence".