The Saintly Benedict XVI

I devote a great deal of my morning spiritual reading to rereading books that have become dear to me, many of which are books by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Each time I return to these books, they reveal greater depth. This morning I was reading from Aidan Nichols’ The Thought of Pope Benedict XVI, published in 2007. Fr. Nichols cited passages from Benedict’s writing dealing with saints as windows into the divine mystery. For Pope Benedict and for the Church on whose behalf he performed this same saintly task, chief among such saints was the Mother of Jesus. One phrase in his encomium to Mary stood out. Mary, Joseph Ratzinger wrote, “let her own life plan fall from her hands without a murmur.” Those who know how reluctant Ratzinger was to set aside the theological vocation, to which he was so devoted and for which he was so well suited, to take up the onerous tasks of Church leadership, those words have special meaning. Like the Mother of the Lord, he let his own life plans fall from his hands without a murmur.