"A Period to Reflect on the Great Gift of the Eucharist"

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 14, 2005 (ZENIT) - Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Saturday to Chaldean Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly of Baghdad, Iraq, and to the bishops who participated in the Special Synod of the Chaldean Church in Rome.

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Your Beatitude,
Venerated and beloved brothers:

Upon greeting all of you, I thank you for your visit, which gives me the opportunity to extend words of warmth and encouragement to your communities, and to the entire Iraqi people. In solidarity I remembered your beloved country in my prayer, so that, despite its difficult situation, it does not lose hope and continues on the path to reconciliation and peace.

During your stay in Rome, you have celebrated a special synod, in which you have been able to conclude the project of revising the texts of the Divine Liturgy of the Syrian Eastern rite, preparing a reform that should give a new push to the devotion of your communities. This work has required years of study and decisions that have not always been easy to make, but it has been a period in which the Chaldean Church has been able to reflect more profoundly on the great gift of the Eucharist.

Another important topic over which you have concentrated your attention has been the analysis of the draft of the Particular Law that should regularize the internal organization of you community. An appropriate canonical discipline is necessary for the ordered exercise of the mission that Christ has confided to us. With the synodal spirit that characterizes the Chaldean Church, you have experienced a period of intense communion, having always before you the "health of souls." Now, return to your respective sees comforted by this experience of lived communion before the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul. It is a communion that finds a particular expression here, today, upon lifting to our Lord, together with the Successor of Peter, the prayer of thanksgiving.

I exhort all of you to continue in your pastoral commitment and in your ministry of hope for the entire Iraqi nation. Upon confiding to each one of your communities the sweet protection of the Mother of God, I enthusiastically impart to you, to your priests, to your religious and to all your faithful the apostolic blessing, pledge of heavenly peace and consolation.

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Keywords

Pope, Benedict, Christ, Chaldean, Jesus, Eucharist