Pope reflects on marriage as a sign of God's love for all

Marriage is a sign of God's love for all humanity, the Pope said yesterday. Speaking at his general audience in St Peter's Square, the Pope reflected on the second part of Psalm 44, "The Kingdom and the bride." Addressing a crowd of 13,000, the Holy Father said: "we can dedicate this nuptial song to all couples who live their marriage with intensity and interior zeal, ... which is a sign of a great mystery, ... the love of the Father for humanity and of Christ for His Church." The psalmist, he said, exalts the beauty of the bride "as a reflection of God's splendour." In addition, he said, "genuine joy, deeper than simple happiness, is an expression of love which participates in the good of the person loved with serenity of heart." John Paul II said the psalm also speaks about children and future generations - a relevant theme, he said particularly in the West where society seems so often incapable of entrusting its own existence to the future by generating and caring for new life - in order to continue the civilization of peoples and fulfil the history of salvation." Many fathers of the Church, he concluded, have applied the figure of the royal bride to Our Lady, Mother of God, who received "the joyous announcement of the redemption of the world." When greeting Polish pilgrims present, the Pope recalled that today is the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. "I entrust the Holy Church and my ministry to her protection. I also entrust her with my hopes for peace in the world, as well as in families and in the human conscience." Before the audience, the Pope blessed a statue of the Chilean saint, Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, canonized in 1993, that was placed in an external niche of the Vatican basilica. Source: VIS