Acta Apostolicae Sedis - Commentarium Officiale566

to explain the fact that people who regularly received the Lord's body and

confessed their sins in the sacrament of Penance have offended in this way? It

remains a mystery. Yet evidently, their Christianity was no longer nourished

by joyful encounter with Jesus Christ: it had become merely a matter of

habit. The work of the Council was really meant to overcome this form of

Christianity and to rediscover the faith as a deep personal friendship with the

goodness of Jesus Christ. The Eucharistic Congress has a similar aim. Here

we wish to encounter the Risen Lord. We ask him to touch us deeply. May he

who breathed on the Apostles at Easter, communicating his Spirit to them,

likewise bestow upon us his breath, the power of the Holy Spirit, and so help

us to become true witnesses to his love, witnesses to the truth. His truth is

love. Christ's love is truth.

My dear brothers and sisters, I pray that the Congress will be for each of

you a spiritually fruitful experience of communion with Christ and his

Church. At the same time, I would like to invite you to join me in praying

for God's blessing upon the next International Eucharistic Congress, which

will take place in 2016 in the city of Cebu! To the people of the Philippines I

send warm greetings and an assurance of my closeness in prayer during the

period of preparation for this great ecclesial gathering. I am confident

that it will bring lasting spiritual renewal not only to them but to all the

participants from across the globe. In the meantime, I commend everyone

taking part in the present Congress to the loving protection of Mary, Mother

of God, and to Saint Patrick, the great patron of Ireland; and, as a token

of joy and peace in the Lord, I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, June 17th, 2012.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI