” “” “"Without the Lord and without His Day, we cannot live": this is the sentence of the martyrs of Abitene, who was said in 304, but still applies, said the Pope, as he went over his journey to Austria during today’s general audience. "We, Christians of the year 2000 exclaimed Benedict XVI , cannot live without Sundays either: a day that gives meaning to work and rest, gives relevance to the meaning of the Creation and Redemption, expresses the value of freedom and serving one’s neighbours". "If the populations of ancient Christian civilisation forgo this meaning and let Sundays be reduced to a weekend or an occasion for mundane or commercial interests warned the Pope , it means they have decided to renounce their own culture". Then, with reference to his visit to the Abbey of Heiligenkreuz, the Holy Father recalled the "great lesson of Saint Benedict", starting from the "value of prayer as a service of praise and worship, owed to God for His infinite beauty and goodness. Nothing must be placed before this sacred service says the Benedictine Rule , so that all one’s life, with its time for work and its time for rest, may be summed up in the liturgy and directed to God". As to the Academy of Theology near the Abbey, the Pope "attests this marriage between faith and reason, between heart and mind".” “” “” “” “
