All mankind must be guided by Word of God, Pope emphasizes

Vatican City, Jan 8, 2008 / 05:33 am

During the recitation of the Angelus at St. Peter’s Square on Sunday’s Feast of the Epiphany, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized the importance of being faithful to one’s vocation in order to help guide the steps of fellow believers.

From its first appearance, then, the light of Christ began to draw to itself the men "whom God loves", of every language, people and culture,” the Pope said before the traditional prayer.

“It is the power of the Holy Spirit that moves hearts and minds to seek truth, beauty, justice, peace,” he continued.

Quoting John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio, the Pope noted that the Wise men found in the Child of Bethlehem the goal of their “search for the truth and a search for a person to whom they might entrust themselves.”

Men and women of every generation, in this their pilgrimage, have need of direction,” the Pope continued, and “the star that guided the Magi had completed its function, but its spiritual light is ever present in the word of the Gospel…which is nothing if not the reflection of Christ, true man and true God,” he said.

The Pope stressed that every Christian is “called to help guide the steps of his brothers by word and the witness of his life.  How important it is, then, that we Christians are faithful to our vocation!”

In conclusion, the Pontiff offered “cordial greetings to the brothers and sisters of the Eastern Churches who, following the Julian calendar, celebrate holy Christmas tomorrow: It is a great joy to share in the celebration of the mysteries of faith, in the multiform riches of the rites that attest to the bi-millennial history of the Church.”