Just a few notes:
The Pope’s book on Jesus has sold well. Still #1 on German Amazon. Teresa at PRF translates a news item that says it sold 50,000 copies in Italy on the first day, and that there are now 420,000 copies in print so far.
Fr. Robert Imbelli notes an error – identifying Scripture scholar John Meier as a Jesuit. Magister notes Imbelli’s note here.
(Zadok is continuing his look at the book – today he summarizes the material on the Baptism of Jesus:
That last point is pure Ratzinger. He points out that Christ can be closer to us than we can imagine, precisely because he is so unlike us. The Holy Father has a taste for the striking paradoxes of our faith, and yet is sufficiently sensitive to their meaning to resist the temptation to reduce them to confusing or meaningless dialectic. (Again, another Augustinian dimension to his thought – Erich Pryzwara identified this quasi-dialectic aspect of Augustine’s thought as one of the reasons for his eternal relevance – his thought never grows stale)
From the Vatican Press office – a chart with the estimated numbers at General Audiences for the past year.
On Monday evening, a concert was presented in honor of the Pope’s birthday. CNA reports:
The concert, which was held in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, was given by the Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) of Stuttgart, Germany. The orchestra, directed by the Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, played pieces by Giovanni Gabrieli (1554/57-1612), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) and Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904).
At the end of the concert, the Pope thanked the conductor and musicians, expressing his conviction that music “truly is the universal language of beauty, capable of uniting men and women of good will all over the world, bringing them to raise their gaze to the Heights and aspire to absolute Good and Beauty, the ultimate source of which is God Himself.”
“In looking back over my own life,” he added, “I thank God for having given me music which, almost as a traveling companion, has always brought me comfort and joy.”
The Holy Father also expressed his gratitude "to the people who, from the earliest years of my infancy, introduced me to this source of inspiration and serenity. I thank those who unite music and prayer in harmonious praise of God and His works. They help us to glorify the Creator and Redeemer of the world.”
“This is my desire,” he concluded, “that the greatness and beauty of music may also give you, dear friends, a new and continual inspiration to build a world of love, solidarity and peace.”
After the concert, those present sang "Happy Birthday" to the Pope in Italian and German.
Two papal trips coming up. The Brazil journey is at the forefront of the news, but this weekend, the Pope takes another trip – to Pavia, in Lombardy, about 35 miles south of Milan. From Zenit:
Benedict XVI will go on pilgrimage to pray before the tomb of St. Augustine, whom he considers one of the great teachers of his life.
The Pope will visit the Italian dioceses of Vigevano and Pavia this Saturday and Sunday and while there, visit the tomb of the bishop of Hippo.
St. Augustine was a fascination for the young Father Joseph Ratzinger, who dedicated his doctoral thesis to the saint’s ecclesiology.
Augustinian Father Vittorino Grossi spoke with the press about the Pope’s studies of St. Augustine.
The priest mentioned that the Pope has "manifested his love for St. Augustine, explaining that Augustine’s theology fascinated him because his principal objective was not a system of theology — even though it is that, and a good one — but the human person and his concrete existence."
"Joseph Ratzinger, after being elected Pope, frequently recalls the thought of St. Augustine in his ministry, referring above all to the Hippo bishop’s commentaries on the Psalms," Father Grossi added.
The Holy Father will visit Augustine’s tomb, located in the Basilica of St. Peters in the Golden Sky in Pavia. The prior-general of the Augustinians, Father Robert Prevost, invited Benedict XVI to visit shortly after his election as Pope.
Father Prevost explained that the visit will mark the blessing of the cornerstone of the cultural center that the order is building, which will be named after the Pope, "due to the strong spiritual and theological links which unite Benedict XVI with the Father of the Church."
The pilgrimage also marks the 750th anniversary of Pope Alexander IV’s bull "Licet Ecclesiae Catholicae," which unified the Augustinians.
Augustinian Father Giustino Casciano, prior of the monastery of St. Peter’s in the Golden Sky, also mentioned that the pilgrimage dates nearly coincide with the anniversary of Augustine’s conversion and baptism, April 24.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, recalled: "The urn with the mortal remains of the saint has four locks, guarded by the bishop, the prior of the basilica, the mayor of the city and the council of the cathedral, thereby demonstrating that Augustine belongs to all of the components of the city, without distinction."
More on San Pietro del’ Oro – Boethius is also buried there.
More on the visit from the Augustinian website:
The Pope will land by helicopter in the stadium of the small city of Vigevano around 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, 21st April 2007.
There will be a 5:30 p.m. Eucharistic celebration in the Ducal Square, with a capacity for about 5,000 people.
A large screen will be set up in the adjacent square for the overflow.
At the end of the Mass, the Pontiff will visit the local Cathedral of St Ambrose, where he will meet volunteer workers and handicapped people.
Around 8.00 p.m. the Pope will travel by helicopter to Pavia, and attend a concert of music by Motzart and Schubert.
On Sunday, 22nd April, he will celebrate Mass in Pavia at 10.30am, and at 4.00pm will meet with students and staff of the University of Pavia.
After the meeting, at 5.30 p.m. Pope Benedict XVI will travel to the Church of St Peter in Ciel d’Oro and pray in front of the tomb of St Augustine. This will include liturgical Vespers.
He will also bless the first stone of a new Cultural Centre to be named in his honour, which is being established to increase the appreciation of the presence and cultural heritage of St Augustine in Pavia.
Vespers will involve the participation of various representatives of the Order of Saint Augustine and of other religious orders, plus clergy of the Diocese of Pavia.
The Pope will return to Rome that night.
St. Augustine was the topic of the Pope’s doctoral thesis: "People and House of God in St Augustine ‘s Doctrine of the Church."
The Pope’s high regard for Augustine is long-standing. For example, when previously as Cardinal Ratzinger in the 1980s he delivered a keynote address at the Augustinianum, the Augustinian patristic institute in Rome, he said that he felt he knew Augustine better than he knew any person alive, because when he read St Augustine he read not just the cold theory of theology, for Augustine never approached life in a cold, detached way.
The Augustinians have more links on Benedict, Augustine and the Augustinians here.
His recognition of Augustine is evident in his new papal coat of arms . A third of its shield is taken up by a shell, with primary significance to a legend about Augustine.
The legend, which comes to us from the Middle Ages in a variety of versions, is that Augustine was walking along the seashore, meditating about the unfathomable mystery of the Holy Trinity. There he met a boy who was using a shell to pour sea water into a hole he had made in the sand.
When asked what he was doing, the boy explained, "I am emptying the sea into this hole." Augustine said that the task was impossible, to which the boy replied that for Augustine to explain the Blessed Trinity was equally impossible.
Thus the shell on the coat of arms of the Pope is a symbol for plunging into the unfathomable sea of the Blessed Trinity.
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