"With unfailing trust in God (…) I pray for the unity of the Church. I greet again with cordial respect the representatives of the Christian Churches and Church communities who are gathered in this Cathedral to pray with us the vespers. The power of God’s word is such that we can all rely on it, as before us did St Paul, our special intercessor this year." With these words, Pope Benedict XVI addressed "his friends of the non-Catholic Churches and Churches Communities," who were present at the celebration of the vespers in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. A sanctuary that "rises above the hearth of the city as a living sign of God’s presence among his people," said the Pope. "It is hard not to praise Him who created the material and the spirit making up the beauty of the building in which we are meeting," he added. “Important religious and public events had taken place here" and "architects, painters, carvers and musicians had done their best". “The Son of God became incarnate in the womb of a Woman, a Virgin. Your Cathedral is a living praise; its stones and its light are giving praise to this unique moment in the history of humankind: the eternal Word of God who entered the human history”, explained the Pope. (continued)
