Yesterday, Benedict celebrated Mass at a parish in Castel Gandolfo – Teresa at PRF has translated the text of his homily, which was delivered extemporaneously.

In Mary, God truly dwelt and became present here on earth. Mary became His shelter. That which all cultures have desired – that God live among us – was realized through her.

St. Augustine said: "Before she conceived God in her body, she already conceived Him in spirit." She gave to the Lord the space of her soul and thus became the true Temple in which God was incarnated, became present on this earth. Thus, being God’s dwelling on earth, her own eternal dwelling was already prepared in her, for always.

This is what is contained in the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in body and soul to the glory of the Heavens. Mary is "blessed" because she had become – totally, in body and soul, and forever – the dwelling of God.

If this is so, Mary not only, not simply, invites our admiration and veneration, but guides us, shows the way of life to us, shows us how to become blessed ourselves and find the way to happiness.

Let us listen once more to the words of Elizabeth that are completed in Mary’s Magnificat: "Blessed is she who believed." The first and fundamental act to becoming a dwelling of God, and to find happiness thereby, is to believe. Belief is faith, faith in God, that God who showed Himself to us in Jesus Christ and who makes Himself heard in the divine words of Sacred Scripture.

To believe is not to add another opinion to others. And the conviction, the faith that God exists, is not like any other information. Most information, whether true or false, means nothing to us, does not change our life. But if there is no God, life is empty, the future is empty. If God exists, everything changes – life is light, our future is light, we have an orientation for living.

And so, believing is the fundamental orientation of our life. To believe, to say, "Yes, I believe you are God, I believe that in your incarnated Son, You are present among us" orients my life, inspires me to attach myself to God, to unite myself to God and therefore find the place where I should live, the way that I should live.

Believing is not just a kind of thought, an idea. It is, as I have indicated, a way to behave, a way of life. To believe means to follow the path indicated to us by the Word of God.

Mary, beyond her fundamental act of faith, which is an existential act, a stand one takes for life, also says: "His mercy extends to all who fear Him." She speaks, with all of Scripture, of "fear of God." This perhaps a word which we do not all understand or that we do not welcome.

But "fear of god" is not terror – it’s something else. As children, we are not terrified of our father, but this "fear of God" is our concern not to destroy the love on which our life is based. Fear of God is that sense of responsibility that we should have, a responsiblity for that portion of earth which is entrusted to us in life. A responsibility for administering well our share of the world and of its history, and thus contribute to building a just world, towards the triumph of good and of peace.

There was a General Audience today, but I’ve not yet found any text or report on it.