Pope, at audience, says beauty includes thirst for holiness, justice

Published: 2004-09-29

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Human beauty reflects divine beauty only when it is combined with a commitment to justice and the thirst for holiness, Pope John Paul II said. "Beauty must be joined with goodness and holiness of life in order to make the glowing face of the good, wonderful and just God shine on the world," the pope said Sept. 29 at his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square. The pope, whose audience marked his return to the Vatican after three months at his summer villa, commented on Psalm 45, the "wedding hymn for the king," in his main talk. The canticle, he said, "exalts the beauty and intensity of the gift of love between spouses," highlighting the beauty first of the groom and then of the bride.

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