Cindy Wooden: Pope Benedict XVI has spent five years bringing traditional elements and vestments back to papal liturgies, but his devotion to the saints takes a particularly modern slant. Today on the Vatican Report, we’ll look at how the Pope is urging today’s Catholics to look for fresh guidance from ancient saints. I’m Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service Rome correspondent.CG: And I’m Carol Glatz. Pope John Paul II’s approach to making saints relevant in the modern day seemed to be to make more saints from more countries and from a wider variety of backgrounds. In fact, he was sometimes accused of turning the Vatican into a saint-making factory. But he knew that every single Christian is called to holiness and that all of us need models to show us the way. By giving many countries their first saint or canonizing married people and people with ordinary backgrounds, Pope John Paul was showing that it is possible to be a saint anywhere at any time in history.CW: Pope Benedict believes the same thing about the universal call to holiness. But just like he’s taken old liturgical vestments out of the storerooms and put them back to use, he’s tried to bring longtime Catholic saints to life. At a late August audience, the Pope said people need a traveling companion for the journey of life, someone to guide you when the going gets tough. CG: The Pope said start with the saint you’re named after. In fact, Pope Benedict, the former Joseph Ratzinger, said Sts. Joseph and Benedict are important to him. But, he said, you don’t have to stop there. The scholarly Pope said St. Augustine has been "a good travel companion” in his life's journey. As the pope usually does; he pointed out what this 5th century saint has to teach people today.  The Pope said Augustine faced many hardships and he struggled to find the truth in "prestige, a career, possessions, and in promises of instant happiness.” But as most people discover, none of that brought him lasting joy. Only in Christ, did Augustine, like many others, find the fullness of truth that brings authentic freedom and happiness.CW: When tens of thousands of young altar servers -- boys and girls -- came to the Vatican in early August, the Pope told them to emulate their patron, St. Tarcisius. The young 3rd-century martyr was stoned to death for not handing over the Eucharist to a gang of thugs. The Pope told the young altar servers that the story of St. Tarcisius “teaches us the deep love and great veneration we must have for the Eucharist.”CG: The next week, the Pope looked at other early Christian martyrs, including Sts. Lawrence and Hippolytus, but also at more modern role models like Edith Stein and Maximilian Kolbe. All of them, he said, imitated Christ in freely accepting death for the salvation of the world. Their sacrifice was a supreme act of love and faith. Obviously, the Pope said, most people today aren’t called to martyrdom, but all Christians are called to love God completely and to help others just like the saints. I’m Carol Glatz.CW: And I’m Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service.

Cindy Wooden: Pope Benedict XVI has spent five years bringing traditional elements and vestments back to papal liturgies, but his devotion to the saints takes a particularly modern slant. Today on the...leggi tutto