Why was Eve formed from Adam's Rib?

In a new feature, messages from the Holy Father will be featured on a regular basis. These words of wisdom will include quotes from addresses by the Holy Father along with a link to learn more about the full text and context of the address.

This installment is from the Holy Father's Wednesday Audience on December 30, 2009. His address focused on Peter Lombard and the impact that this Twelfth Century theologian had and continues to have especially through his seminal work known as The Sentences. In this quote, Benedict XVI illustrates the reason that here is still interest today in Peter Lombard's work.

"Inspired by St Augustine's Commentary on the Book of Genesis, Peter wonders why woman was created from man's rib and not from his head or his feet. And Peter explains: 'She was formed neither as a dominator nor a slave of man but rather as his companion' (Sentences 3, 18, 3). Then, still on the basis of the Patristic teaching he adds: 'The mystery of Christ and of the Church is represented in this act. Just as, in fact, woman was formed from Adam's rib while he slept, so the Church was born from the sacraments that began to flow from the side of Christ, asleep on the Cross, that is, from the blood and water with which we are redeemed from sin and cleansed of guilt' (Sentences 3, 18, 4). These are profound reflections that still apply today when the theology and spirituality of Christian marriage have considerably deepened the analogy with the spousal relationship of Christ and his Church."

-- Wednesday Audience, December 30, 2009.

From Zenit.

Family is an Icon of God

In a new feature, messages from the Holy Father will be featured on a regular basis. These words of wisdom will include quotes from addresses by the Holy Father along with a link to learn more about the full text and context of the address.

This installment is excerpts taken from the Holy Father's address during the praying of the Angelus on the Feast of the Holy Family on December 27, 2009. The Gospel reading upon which part of his address is based on the account of the twelve-year-old Jesus remaining behind in the Temple unbeknownst to his parents.

"God wished to reveal Himself by being born in a human family, and hence the human family has become an icon of God."

"God is Trinity. He is communion of love, and the family - with all the difference that exists between the Mystery of God and His human creature - is an expression thereof which reflects the unfathomable mystery of God-Love. ... The human family is, in a certain sense, the icon of the Trinity because of the love between its members and the fruitfulness of that love."

"Jesus' decision to remain in the Temple was above all the fruit of his intimate relationship with the Father, but also the fruit of the education received from Mary and Joseph."

"Here we may catch a glimpse of the authentic meaning of Christian education. It is the result of a collaboration that must always be sought between the educators and God. The Christian family is aware that children are God's gift and project. Hence it cannot consider them as it own possessions but, serving God's plan through them, is called to educate them in the greatest of freedoms which is that of saying 'yes' to God in order to accomplish His will."

"God, by having come into the world in the bosom of a family, shows that this institution is a sure way to meet and know Him, and a permanent call to work for the loving unity of all people. Thus, one of the greatest services which we as Christians can offer our fellow men and women is to show them the serene and solid witness of a family founded upon marriage between a man and a woman, defending it and protecting it, because it is of supreme importance for the present and future of humankind."

"In truth, the family is the best school in which to learn to live the values that dignify individuals and make peoples great. There too sufferings and joys are shared, as everyone feels cloaked in the affection that reigns in the home by the mere fact of being members of the same family."

-- Sunday Angelus, December 27, 2009.

From VIS.

God loves to light Little Lights

In a new feature, messages from the Holy Father will be featured on a regular basis. These words of wisdom will include quotes from addresses by the Holy Father along with a link to learn more about the full text and context of the address.

This installment is taken from the Holy Father's Christmas homily.

"At first, beside the manger in Bethlehem, that 'us' was almost imperceptible to human eyes. As the Gospel of Saint Luke recounts, it included, in addition to Mary and Joseph, a few lowly shepherds who came to the cave after hearing the message of the Angels. The light of that first Christmas was like a fire kindled in the night. All about there was darkness, while in the cave there shone the true light 'that enlightens every man' (Jn 1:9). And yet all this took place in simplicity and hiddenness, in the way that God works in all of salvation history. God loves to light little lights, so as then to illuminate vast spaces. Truth, and Love, which are its content, are kindled wherever the light is welcomed; they then radiate in concentric circles, as if by contact, in the hearts and minds of all those who, by opening themselves freely to its splendor, themselves become sources of light. Such is the history of the Church: she began her journey in the lowly cave of Bethlehem, and down the centuries she has become a People and a source of light for humanity. Today too, in those who encounter that Child, God still kindles fires in the night of the world, calling men and women everywhere to acknowledge in Jesus the 'sign' of his saving and liberating presence and to extend the us" 'of those who believe in Christ to the whole of mankind."

-- Christmas homily, December 25, 2009.

From ZENIT.

Study with a "Little Soul"

In a new feature, messages from the Holy Father will be featured on a regular basis. These words of wisdom will include quotes from addresses by the Holy Father along with a link to learn more about the full text and context of the address.

This first installment is from the Holy Father's meditation during the celebration of Vespers with students in the Roman universities. This is an Advent tradition that was held this year on December 17th.

"At this point, let us ask ourselves: who was there on that Christmas night in the grotto of Bethlehem? Who welcomed newborn Wisdom? ... Not the doctors of law, the scribes or the wise men. Mary and Joseph were there, so were the shepherds. What does this mean? ... Does it mean that study serves no purpose? Even that it is harmful, counterproductive to a knowledge of the truth?

The history of two thousand years of Christianity excludes this hypothesis, and suggests the right answer. We must study, deepen our knowledge, yet while maintaining a 'little' soul, a humble and simple spirit like that of Mary, 'Seat of Wisdom'.

...

In that grotto each of us can discover the truth about God and about man. In that Child, born of the Virgin, these two truths came together. Man's longing for eternal life softened the heart of God, Who deigned to assume the human condition".

-- From meditation given during the celebration of Vespers with students of Roman universities, December 17, 2009.

From the Vatican Information Service.