Encouragement from an unexpected source.

For my Christian Ethics class, we were asked to read the first papal encyclical from Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est. Taking exception to parts 40-42 which discuss Mary and the saints, this Presbyterian was greatly encouraged and exhorted by his writing about God's love. Some bits and pieces:

"Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction." (part 1)

"God loves man... with a personal love. His love, moreover, is an elective [!] love; among all the nations he chooses Israel and loves her--but he does so precisely with a view to healing the whole human race." (part 9)

"God's passionate love for his people--for humanity--is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice. Here... [is]... the mysery of the Cross: so great is God's love for man that by becoming man He follows him even into death, and so reconciles justice and love." (part 10)

"Christ took the lowest place in the world--the Cross--and by this radical humility he redeemed us and constantly comes to our aid. Those who are in a position to help others will realize that in doing so they themselves receive help; ...we are not acting on the basis of any superiority or greater personal efficiency, but because the Lord has graciously enabled us to do so. There are times when the burden of need and our own limitations might tempt us to become discouraged. But precisely then we are helped by the knowledge that, in the end, we are only instruments in the Lord's hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world. In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord. It is God who governs the world, not we." (part 35)

"Prayer, as a means of drawing ever new strength from Christ, is concretely and urgently needed. People who pray are not wasting their time, even though the situation appears desperate and seems to call for action alone." (part 36)

"Often we cannot understand why God refrains from intervening. Yet he does not prevent us from crying out, like Jesus on the Cross: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Matthew 27:46) We should continue asking this question in prayerful dialogue before his face: 'Lord, holy and true, how long will it be?' (Revelation 6:10)." (part 38)

And my personal favorite (and new mantra, which I have added to my sidebar above!)... "Hope is practised through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness. Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love! It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the sure hope that God holds the world in his hands and that... in spite of all darkness he ultimately triumphs in glory." (part 39)