Celebrating the Liturgy with Pope Benedict XVI‪.‬

Even the New Yorker magazine has commented on the Holy Father celebrating Mass. A feature article of July 2005 titled "Vatican Notebook," though not exactly friendly, said, "Pope Benedict's deep love of the liturgy is manifest whenever he engages in the priestly acts that mean so much to him. Young Catholics describe with phosphorescent enthusiasm the delicacy and devotion with which the Pope celebrates Mass. His loving eulogy for Pope John Paul II and the funeral Mass over which he presided filled cardinals and pilgrims alike with affection for him and helped him win rapid election as Pope." (1) It's what we saw on our television screens as Cardinal Ratzinger celebrated the funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II and then the Mass for his own installation as Bishop of Rome. Pope Benedict celebrating Mass gives a powerful message for the life of the Church and her mission in the world. It is a glimpse of what the renewal of the liturgy proposed by the Second Vatican Council really means when it is understood and practiced as part of the unbroken tradition of the Catholic Church that mediates the revelation given in Jesus Christ.