"The soul of prayer", he went on, is "the praise, the thanking, the thankful joy" of Mary. But it is the following lines, with their more choral tone, that show "the ‘style’ from which the Lord of history takes inspiration for His behaviour: He takes sides with the last. His is a plan that is often hidden under the dull ground of human events, that see the triumph of ‘the proud, the powerful and the rich’. Yet, its secret strength is bound to be eventually revealed, to show who God’s elects really are: ‘Those who fear Him’, faithful to His word; ‘the humble, the hungry, Israel His servant’, that is, the community of God’s people who, like Mary, is composed of those who are ‘poor’, pure and simple of heart". Then, the Pope greeted the pilgrims who arrived from Spain and Latin America, Poland, Germany, Slovenia, England, Norway, Denmark and the USA. Then, he sent an "affectionate thought" to the singers of the Sistine Chapel and their master, Giuseppe Liberto, thanking them for the service they render in the liturgical celebrations and at the audiences. More greetings to the bishops of the Focolari movement, the Oblates of Saint Joseph and the sick and the newly-wed.
