Today, the Pope led a penance service especially for young people at St. Peter’s. The CNS report:
The sacrament of penance is the sacrament of God’s mercy and an outpouring of God’s healing love, Pope Benedict XVI told young people from Rome.
"With this sacrament’s penitential cleansing, we are readmitted into full communion with God and with the church," the pope told the young people attending a March 29 penance service.
The evening prayer service was held in a packed St. Peter’s Basilica where Pope Benedict and some 200 priests heard individual confessions and offered absolution.
So many young people requested the free tickets to the liturgy that hundreds of them had to watch on television screens in the Vatican audience hall; they were joined by dozens of priests who ensured they, too, had an opportunity to receive the sacrament.
In his homily, Pope Benedict said the service was "an encounter around the cross, a celebration of the mercy of God, which each of you can experience personally in the sacrament of confession."
"Yes, the cross reveals the fullness of God’s love for us, a crucified love that does not end with the scandal of Good Friday, but culminates in the joy of the Resurrection and Ascension into heaven and in the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love through whom, including this evening, sins will be forgiven and pardon and peace will be given," he said.
After the communal prayers, Pope Benedict removed his heavy purple cope and, dressed in an alb with a purple stole, went into a confessional where he spent 35 minutes offering the sacrament to penitents behind a screen.
From Italian press reports translated at PRF:
The penitential vigil was called by the Pope to prepare for the XXII World Youth Day which
will take place on the diocesan level on Palm Sunday, April 1.
More than 200 priests, wearing the violet stole for Lent, heard confessions in the Basilica after the Mass. Some sat in simple chairs because there are not that many confessional booths.
While the confessions took place, the choir and orchestra of the Diocese of Rome performed meditative music for Lent alternating with spiritual readings, including the message of the Pope for this World Youth Day.
Earlier, the Pope described the penitential liturgy as "an encounter around the Cross, a celebration of the mercy of God whom each of you can experience personally through the sacrament of confession."
"God’s love for man," the Pope said in his homily, "is best described by the word agape – which is sacrificial love, which seeks only the good of the other."
But it can also be described as eros, he continued, citing his Lenten message. "The heart of God, the omnipotent, waits for the Yes from his creatures as a young husband awaits his wife’s yes."
And on this subject, he aded, "Christianity has never rejected eros as such, but only against its destructive misuse."
In the heart of every man, "there is a thirst for love," the Pope said in his homily. "Even more so, the Christian cannot live without love – rather, unless he meets true love in Christ, he cannot even call himself Christian."
"Christ draws us to Him to unite with each of us so that, in turn, we can learn to love our brothers the way He loves them."
"There is such need," he said, "for a renewed ability to love our brothers."
The Pope then went on to the subject of Confession, reminding the faithful that the ‘new life’ which begins with baptism does not suppress human nature nor the tendency to sin. But from the forgiveness of sins, he said, a new impulse for love is born.
The Pope expressed the hope that "the love and he mercy of God may move your hearts." In confession, he said, "you will experience the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with the Church, the recovery – if you have lost it – of a state of grace."
"Coming out of this celebration," he told them, "with your hearts filled with the experience of God’s love, be prepared to dare to love in your families, in your relationship with friends and even with those who have offended you."
Addressing himself to engaged couples, he said, "Live your engagement in true love, which means reciprocal respect that is chaste and responsible."
And to those who may have a vocation, he said, "If the Lord calls any of you to a life of particular consecration, be ready to respond with a generous Yes that allows no compromise."
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