Pope Benedict's farewell

Pope Benedict XVI have his final General Address today. Part of me is sad to see him step down, and part of me is excited about the conclave and seeing the next chapter of the Church's history. The massively negative/misinformed media coverage bothers me, so I've mostly been ignoring it. It's not that I don't listen to any criticisms of the Church. The leaders of the Church have been wrong about a lot of things and should be criticized. Corruption should be brought to light and eliminated. But the institution transcends her people. The Church always stands for Truth and love and Christ. Her followers often fall short, but that doesn't change what I feel about the Church. I just hope this time of transition can be used as an opportunity to show the beauty and love of the faith.

Pope Benedict said in his address today: "At this time, I have within myself a great trust [in God], because I know - all of us know - that the Gospel's word of truth is the strength of the Church:  it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews: it bears fruit wherever the community of believers hears and welcomes the grace of God in truth and lives in charity. This is my faith, this is my joy...

Making rosaries and robes look so cool.

"We are in the Year of Faith, which I desired in order to strengthen our own faith in God in a context that seems to push faith more and more toward the margins of life. I would like to invite everyone to renew firm trust in the Lord. I would like that we all entrust ourselves as children in the arms of God, and rest assured that those arms support us and us to walk every day, even in times of struggle. I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who gave His Son for us and showed us His boundless love. I want everyone to feel the joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer to be recited daily in the morning says, 'I adore you, my God, I love you with all my heart. I thank You for having created me, for having made ma Christian.' Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith: it is the most precious good, that no one can take from us! Let us thank God for this every day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but He also expects that we love Him!"