Pope Benedict: God Calls Humanity to the Mysterious Encounter of Prayer

By F. K. Bartels
5/12/2011

VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) -- During Wednesday's general audience celebrated in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI continued his reflection on prayer, highlighting the manner in which it is an integral aspect of the human person.

"There has never been a great civilization, from time immemorial to our age, that has not been religious," stated the Pope. "The human being is religious by nature. . . . The image of the Creator is engraved on human beings, who feel the need to find a light to answer the questions regarding the profound meaning of reality; an answer that we cannot find in ourselves, in progress, or in empirical science.

"We know that we cannot respond alone to our basic need to understand. For however much we think we are self-sufficient, we experience that we do not suffice. We need to open ourselves to something else, something or someone, that can give us what is missing. We must go out of ourselves and go toward the One who is capable of satisfying the width and breadth of our desire." the rest-lovely!

Pope Benedict affirmed that "even though human beings are forgetful of their Creator, the true and living God never stops calling humanity first to the mysterious encounter of prayer.


"We must learn to spend more time in front of God, before the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ; we must learn to recognize in silence, within our very selves, his voice that calls us and leads us to the depth of our existence, to the fount of life and the source of salvation, so that we might overcome the limit of our lives and open ourselves to the measure of God, the relationship with He who is Infinite Love."