BENEDICT XVI
Signs of New Life
Homilies on the Church’s Sacraments
With an Introduction by
BISHOP STEFAN OSTER, S.D.B
Selected and edited by
MANUEL SCHLÖGL
Translated by Michael J. Miller
IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO
Zeichen des neuen Lebens: Predigten zu den Sakramenten der Kirche
© 2017 by Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln, Freiburg im Breisgau
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from Revised Standard Version of the Bible—Second Catholic Edition (Ignatius Edition) copyright © 2006 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved worldwide.
Cover art:
The Baptism of Christ
Toros of Toron (13th–14th century a.d.)
The Matendaran Library
Yerevan, Armenia
© Scala/Art Resource, New York
Cover design by Roxanne Mei Lum
©2020 by Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©2020 by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-62164-297-8 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-64229-116-2 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number 2019952980
Foreword by the Editor
Introduction by Bishop Stefan Oster, S.D.B.
What Holds It All Together—Church as Foundation of Faith
He Restores to Us Our Dignity as His Children
Transformation Occurs in Prayer
In Bread and Wine He Gives Himself Entirely
Abandoning Oneself to God’s Mercy
I No Longer Call You Servants, but Friends
To Stay United with Jesus—Church as Communion around the Altar
The celebration of the Church’s sacraments, even in our “secular age” (Charles Taylor), is still an occasion on which many people encounter God’s saving work. Now as before there is a demand for Baptisms and weddings, First Communion and Confirmation; confession is experiencing a renaissance in many places; the Anointing of the Sick is often received with relatives and friends in attendance. Wherever sacraments are celebrated, they are also an opportunity to proclaim and deepen the faith.
Someone who preaches when the sacraments are administered must not only have experience in dealing with the word of God and with the historical-critical and spiritual exegesis of Scripture, but also have the ability to interpret the signs and symbolic actions, the rites and gestures in which God’s invisible grace becomes visible and efficacious.
Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI endeavored as a theologian to develop the hermeneutics of the sacraments in a new way and to make fruitful the participation of others in the celebration of them. Last but not least, many of his homilies refer to individual sacraments and connect them with a profound interpretation of Scripture and of the Christ event.
For this volume, two texts were selected from his homiletic work for each of ...
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About Signs of New Life: Homilies on the Church’s SacramentsAt life’s many crossroads, the sacraments of the Church—Baptism, Confirmation, Confession, Holy Eucharist, Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Anointing of the Sick—bring people into contact with the saving work of God. In this collection of homilies, Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) explains these celebrations of the Church and shows how they always offer an opportunity to announce our faith in Christ and to deepen our understanding of it. Ratzinger endeavored as a theologian to develop an understanding of the sacraments that would help to make participation in them, and in the Paschal Mystery, more fruitful. Many of these homilies connect the sacraments with a profound interpretation of Scripture. The scriptural passages interpreted in each homily are listed at the beginning of the chapter, so that this volume can also be used for scriptural meditation. Since the Church herself is both a sacrament—that is, a sign of God’s saving action in the world—and the place where the sacraments take place, two of the chapters are about the Church, the body of believers where God dwells. |
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