"We take care of the development of our faith, with the aim of letting it really pervade all our attitudes, thoughts, actions and intentions". It is the Pope’s advice for the man and woman religious, seminarians and representatives of the movements and of the consecrated life, met this afternoon at the Jasna Gora Sanctuary. "Faith went on the Pope – has a place in the moods and in religious experiences, but first of all, it has a place in thought and action, in daily work, in the struggle against oneself, in community life and in the apostolate, since it renders our lives pervaded by the presence of God himself. Faith can always take us back to God, even when our sin hurts us". The speech of Benedict XVI – spoken before leaving the Sanctuary where they worship the Black Madonna of Czestochowa to reach Cracow, home town of John Paul II – was based on the figure of Mary, who "supported the faith of Peter and the Apostles with womanly delicacy at the Cenacle, and today supports my faith and yours", said the Pope, inviting to "faith perseverance" and to "faith in God". "Preserve the primacy of your consecrated life in your heart", ha exclaimed, encouraging the religious to foster the "enthusiasm" of the beginning, and to never "lose the original impetus".
