Quotes from Pope Benedict XVI

I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who gave his son for us and showed us his boundless love. I want everyone to feel the joy of being Christian.

In Latin America in general, it's very important that Christianity not be simply a thing of reason, but also of the heart.

The real 'action' in the liturgy in which we are all supposed to participate is the action of God himself. This is what is new and distinctive about the Christian liturgy: God himself acts and does what is essential.

No law made by man can overturn that of the Creator without dramatically affecting society in its very foundation.

I'm not a man who constantly thinks up jokes.

An authentic updating of sacred music can take place only in the lineage of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and of sacred polyphony.

The Church's mission is not political in nature. Her task is to open the world to the religious sense by proclaiming Christ.

Everything is a gift from God: it is only by recognizing this crucial dependence on the Creator that we will find freedom and peace.

God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the Earth.

A theologian who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental; they necessarily are reflected in his theology.

I believe that the most important thing...is to revive in the whole Church that positive tension, that yearning to announce Christ again to contemporary man.

God is always faithful to His promises, but He often surprises us in the way He fulfills them.

Every human being is loved by God the Father. No one need feel forgotten, for every name is written in the Lord's loving heart.

May you always experience the joy that comes from putting Christ at the centre of your lives.

We are no longer able to hear God - There are too many frequencies filling our ears.

The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people.

God loves us; we need only to summon up the humility to allow ourselves to be loved.

We can fall, but in the end we fall into God's hands, and God's hands are good hands.

Only from God does true revolution come... the definitive way to change the world.

In Jesus Christ, God took on a human face and became our friend and brother.

Friends, do not be afraid of silence or stillness. Listen to God. Adore Him in the Eucharist.

With the Synod Assembly, therefore, I heartily recommend to the Church's pastors and to the People of God the practice of Eucharistic Adoration, both individually and in community

Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel. Certainly it is in the hands of God how and when the unification of Jews and Christians into the people of God will take place.

During the season of Lent which begins today, we renew our commitment to the path of conversion, making more room for God in our lives.