Quotes from Pope Benedict XVI

I, retired in prayer, will always be with you, and together we will move ahead with the Lord in certainty. The Lord is victorious.

Because the truth of God is love, conversion to God is conversion to love.

Being a Christian means having love. That is unbelievably difficult and, at the same time, incredibly simple.

In the face of horror ... there is no other answer than the cross of Christ: Love that descends to the abyss of evil.

Everything in this world will pass away. In eternity only Love will remain.

Only if there is love, if hearts are opened, can one person truly know the other.

There are those who argue that the public celebration of festivals such as Christmas should be discouraged, in the questionable belief that it might somehow offend those of other religions or none.

The wrath of God is a way of saying that I have been living in a way that is contrary to the love that is God. Anyone who begins to live and grow away from God, who lives away from what is good, is turning his life toward wrath.

A just laicism allows religious freedom. The state does not impose religion but rather gives space to religions with a responsibility toward civil society, and therefore it allows these religions to be factors in building up society.

Music has no borders, no race or color, no limits of country, no ethnicity. Music makes the people come together. Dance it,Dance all.

But Palm Sunday tells us that ... it is the cross that is the true tree of life.

We must trust in the mighty power of God's mercy. We are all sinners, but His grace transforms us and makes us new.

We are still awaiting Easter; we are not yet standing in the full light but walking toward it full of trust.

You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry. I know that nothing can undo the wrong you have endured. Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated.

God's heart calls to our hearts, inviting us to come out of ourselves, to forsake our human certainties, to trust in him and, by following his example, to make ourselves a gift of unbounded love.

Truth is not determined by a majority vote.

Dear young people, do not be satisfied with anything less than Truth and Love, do not be content with anything less than Christ

Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life.

God is our Father and loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible.

God is not solitude, but perfect communion. For this reason the human person, the image of God, realizes himself or herself in love, which is a sincere gift of self.

Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave.

Liberty isn't liberalism, arbitrariness, but it's connected; it's conditioned by the great values of love and solidarity and in general by the good.

Each generation, as it seeks to advance the common good, must ask anew: 'What are the requirements that governments may reasonably impose upon citizens, and how far do they extend? By appeal to what authority can moral dilemmas be resolved?'

For me, it is one of the 'signs of the times' that the idea of God's mercy is becoming increasingly central and dominant.