On Friday, May 10, the Pope received in audience the professors and students of the Institute of Liturgy of the University of Saint Passion from Barcelona (Spain). Francis invited them to make the daily liturgy alive so that they could be “God’s tabernacle among men”.
Jānis Evertovskis – Vatican
At the beginning of the address, the Holy Father reminded that he has dedicated this year to prayer. Therefore, it is important that studies focus on the need to strive for unity with the Lord and use the means He has given us through the Church to achieve this.
The liturgy reminds us that the encounter with God is for everyone. “Man is for the liturgy because he is for God, but the liturgy without this unity of man with God is a deviation”, the Pope emphasized, reminding that the liturgy must promote the unity of man with God. Perhaps that is why Saint Benedict used their participation in the liturgy as a criterion in order to evaluate the authenticity of the vocation of his monks. To determine whether a person is truly seeking God, one must see how ready he is for the “work of God”, participation in the divine liturgy, which is a personal and joint encounter with God. In this sense, every Christian can learn from Saint Benedict.
Francis added that we must not forget obedience with the aim of serving, living out the mandate of fraternal neighborly love, and we must not forget the humiliations of accepting the cross, allowing God to shape us and touching the open scar of the Lord in the members of His mystical Body. At the end of the speech, the Pope invited those present to make their daily liturgy alive so that the communities of believers become “tabernacles of God among people”.
