WORDS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
INTRODUCING THE HOLY MASS
CELEBRATED ON THE OCCASION OF THE ANNUAL MEETING
 WITH THE MEMBERS OF THE "RATZINGER SCHÜLERKREIS"

Chapel of the Mariapoli Centre, Castel Gandolfo
Sunday, 28 August 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today let us respond to the First Reading from the Prophet Jeremiah with Ps 62[63]: my soul is thirsting for you, for the living God; like the earth, it is parched, lifeless and without water. My soul is thirsting for you, the living God.

In this time of God’s absence when the earth of souls is arid and people do not yet know where the living water comes from, let us ask the Lord to show himself to us. Let us ask him to show those who are seeking the living water elsewhere, that this water is he himself and that he does not let the life of human beings, their thirst for what is great, for fullness, be denied or suffocated by the ephemeral.

Let us ask him, especially for young people, that the thirst for him may come to life within in them and that they may know where to seek the response.

And let us, who have been acquainted with him since the days of our youth, ask forgiveness because we bring so little of the light of his face to others, and emanate so feebly the certainty that “he is, he is present and he is the great and complete reality that we are all awaiting”. Let us ask him to forgive us, to renew us with the living water of his Spirit and to grant that we may celebrate worthily the sacred Mysteries.