At the dawn of the rising Church, said Benedict XVI, Peter’s shadow "was believed to have a healing power". "Peter’s shadow, through the community of the Catholic Church, has covered highlighted the Holy Father my life since the very beginning, and I have learnt that it is a good shadow, a healing shadow, precisely because it ultimately comes from Christ Himself". "Let’s keep looking for Peter’s shadow he exhorted to be in Christ’s light!". Then the Pope recalled his call to priesthood. On the day of his ordination (29th June 1951) in the cathedral of Freisingen, mentioned the Pontiff, "the awareness of the smallness of my life before such task lay heavy on me", but "the fact the protection of God’s saints" was "invoked on us" in the litanies "was a consolation". "I knew I would not be alone", explained Benedict XVI, who added: "The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the power of forgiveness. It is the power of the Divine Mercy". Therefore being friends with Jesus Christ "means being friends with He who makes us forgiving people, with He who forgives us as well, He who lifts us again and again from our weakness and in so doing teaches us, imbues us with the awareness of the inner duty of love, of the duty of returning His trust with our faithfulness".
