Pope Benedict XVI Blog

The goal of man is to become like God, but this is a life-long journey—Pope Benedict XVI

Vatican City, Sep 5, 2007 / 09:21 am (CNA).- This morning, the Pope traveled by helicopter from his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo to the Vatican, where he landed shortly before 10 am. He then made his way to St. Peter's Square where he presided at his weekly general audience, attended by 16,000 people.

In keeping with his plan to extol the holiness of the Early Church Fathers, the Pope returned to consider the figure of St. Gregory of Nyssa (335-395) - who was also the subject of last week's catechesis –noting how the bishop saint always "showed a highly elevated sense of man's dignity."

For St. Gregory, "man's aim is to make himself like God ... through love, knowledge and the practice of virtues, ... in a perpetual and dynamic adherence to good, like a runner stretching forwards."

The Holy Father warned that our ability to take part in the sanctity of God is not a one-time gift, but rather, it is "a permanent journey, a constant commitment to progress ... because complete likeness to God can never be achieved. The history of each soul is that of a love ... open to new horizons, because God continually expands the possibilities of the soul, so as to make it capable of ever greater good."

"In this journey of spiritual ascent, Christ is the Model and the Master Who shows us the beautiful image of God. Looking at Him, each of us discovers ourselves to be 'the painter of our own life' in which our will undertakes the work and our virtues are the colors at our disposal."
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posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 1:04 PM