"God is love": this is "the essential message" that contemporary men need. It was said last night by Benedict XVI as he officiated the Vespers in the basilica of S. Pietro in Ciel d’Oro, at the end of his visit to Pavia, which took "the form of a pilgrimage" to "worship the mortal spoils of Saint Augustine", to whom the Pope expressed his "personal devotion and gratitude" for the "large part" he played in his life. From the shrine of Saint Augustine, where he burnt incense before the urn of the relics, in front of which he stopped in prayer, the Holy Father drew "a significant message for the path of the Church", which comes "from the encounter between God’s Word and the personal experience of the great bishop of Hippo". Saint Augustine actually fixed his glance on the mystery that Jesus "is the revelation of the face of God-Love to every human being walking on the paths of time towards eternity". "Here explained Benedict XVI lies the heart of the Gospel, the central core of Christianity. The light of this love opened up Augustine’s eyes, made him meet the ‘ancient and ever-new beauty’ in which man’s heart only finds its peace". The Pope symbolically gave back to the Church and the world, before the Saint’s grave, his encyclical, "Deus caritas est". (continued)
