"Many more happy returns of this day, Holy Father."

Pope Benedict XVI turns 82 on Thursday, 16th April 2009. He appeared tired and hoarse during the solemn three-hour-long Easter Vigil service Saturday, but seemed well-rested by Sunday morning.
Happy Birthday Pope Benedict XVI

Pope Benedict XVI is one of the most accomplished Roman Catholic theologians, the aim of his pontificate is not the construction of a new “grand theory” for Catholic theology. Neither is his goal to remake the Catholic Church according to the personal tastes and inclinations of Joseph Ratzinger. Instead, Benedict’s top priority is to reintroduce the fundamentals of the Christian gospel and of Catholic tradition to the modern world.

I like papa Ratzi! Let us greet Benedict XVI and pray for him on this his 82nd birthday.

My inspirations from him are the following:

1. Real love comes at a price. That’s the kind of love that Benedict describes in Deus Caristas Est.
2. My Papa Ratzi is reminding the world that, in Jesus of Nazareth, we see the definitive revelation of the meaning and ultimate destiny of human life, is a cornerstone of Benedict's papacy.
3. His moto is Cooperatores veritatis: "co-workers of the truth". The chief challenge facing the Catholic Church as a "dictatorship of relativism". I've been agitated by these waves - tossed from one extreme to the anoter; from Marxism to liberalism, from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so on... To have a clear faith, according to the Creed of the Church, is often styled as fundamentalism. Benedict believes, freedom to realize our highest potential as sons and daughters of God. Truth and freedom are thus not opposed, but interdependent.
4. Faith and Reason Need One Another.
5. The Eucharistic is the heart of the Christian Life. I will use an image well known to us today, (Consecrating the Eucharist) is like inducing nuclear fission in the very heart of being-the victory of love over hatred, the victory of love over death. The more lively the eucharistic faith of the People of God, the deeper is its sharing in ecclesial life in steadfast commitment to the mission entrusted by Christ to his disciples. Eucharistic comes with a mission. What we consume, meaning to model ourselves on Christ. On a social level, it means efforts to build a world in which the self-giving love of Christ, which is made new each time the Eucharist is celebrated, is the cornerstone upon which society is constructed, as opposed to ideology, profit, or the blind will to power. Eucharist can change the world-indeed, it's the only thing that can.
6. Chritianity is a positive message. Man and women are made for each other, that the sacle of sexuality, eros, agape, indicates the level of love and it's in this way that marriage develops, first of all, as a joyful and blessing-filled encounter beween a man and woman, and then the family, that guarantees continuity among generations and through which gnerations are reconciled to each other and ever cultures can meet.
7. The Church forms consciences but stays out of politics. In his first encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est, that "Justice is both the aim and intrinsic criterion of all politics." A christian must work toward a just social order, and special concern for the poor. Benedict endorsed what exponents of liberation theology have called the "preferential option for the poor", saying it is "implicit in the Christological faith in the God who became poor for us" For Benedict XVI, fidelity to Church teaching and Tradition are not opposed to social concern; to conceive of things that way, he believes, would be to pit faith against works, a position that Roman Catholicism rejected during Protestant Reformation more than five hundred years.
8. The importance of Catholic Identity. Catholic Church alone is the true Church willed by Christ. "Today more than ever, the Christian must be aware that he belongs to a minority and that he is in opposition to everything that appears good, obvious, and logical to the "the spirit of the world".
9. Christ and the Church are inseparable. "Profound, inseparable, and mysterious continuity""to gather and to save" a people, which is Church. One cannot truly love Jesus or follow his teachings, Benedict insists, without taking one's place in the family faith that Jesus called into being. Being part of that family comes with no guarantees of perfect contentment; like any family, the Church has its ups and downs, its moments of disappointment and heartahe. If that's true of a human family, how much more it is of a global Church of more than one billion people, carrying the weight of 2,000 years of history! But just as one does not walk away from a family when things get rough, similarly a disciple of Jesus does not walk away from his Church. In response to the cry of "Yes to Jesus, No to the Church. " Benedict XVI responds, "Yes to Jesus means Yes to the Church.
10. The virtue of Patience. He is a very patient man.

God, our times are in your hand: Look with favor, we pray, on Pope Benedict XVI as he begins another year. Grant that he may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen his trust in your goodness all the days of his life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.