Pope says Eucharist should be impetus for love, charity

Published: 2005-09-26

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- The Eucharist should be an impetus for the faithful to love others and attend to their needs through charity, Pope Benedict XVI said at his Sept. 25 noontime Angelus. Jesus transformed his death into "a gift of himself, an act of love which he gives completely," said the pope. "In the Eucharist, the Lord, with his body, gives himself, his soul and his divinity to us, and we become one with him and among ourselves," he said to the people gathered in the courtyard of his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. The faithful's response to God's great act of love and sacrifice "should then be concrete," he said. "One must express an authentic conversion to love, in forgiveness, in mutual welcoming and attention to the needs of all people," said the pope. He said there were myriad ways one could serve others every day and that the faithful could look to the Eucharist as a source of energy and inspiration for performing good works.

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