us to open ourselves to the transforming action of the Creator Spirit who

makes us new, makes us one with him, and fills us with his life. It invites us,

with exquisite courtesy, to consent to his dwelling within us, to welcome the

Word of God into our hearts, enabling us to respond to him in love and to

reach out in love towards one another.

In the State of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Christians form a

minority of the population. Perhaps at times you feel that your voice counts

for little. Many of your fellow Christians have emigrated, in the hope of

finding greater security and better prospects elsewhere. Your situation calls

to mind that of the young virgin Mary, who led a hidden life in Nazareth,

with little by way of worldly wealth or influence. Yet to quote Mary's words

in her great hymn of praise, the Magnificat, God has looked upon his servant

in her lowliness, he has filled the hungry with good things. Draw strength

from Mary's canticle, which very soon we will be singing in union with the

whole Church throughout the world! Have the confidence to be faithful to

Christ and to remain here in the land that he sanctified with his own pre-

sence! Like Mary, you have a part to play in God's plan for salvation, by

bringing Christ forth into the world, by bearing witness to him and spreading

his message of peace and unity. For this, it is essential that you should be

united among yourselves, so that the Church in the Holy Land can be clearly

recognized as "a sign and instrument of communion with God and of the

unity of the entire human race".5 Your unity in faith, hope and love is a fruit

of the Holy Spirit dwelling within you, enabling you to be effective instru-

ments of God's peace, helping to build genuine reconciliation between the

different peoples who recognize Abraham as their father in faith. For, as

Mary joyfully proclaimed in her Magnificat, God is ever "mindful of his

mercy, the mercy promised to our forefathers, to Abraham and his children

for ever".6

Dear friends in Christ, be assured that I constantly remember you in my

prayer, and I ask you to do the same for me. Let us turn now towards our

heavenly Father, who in this place looked upon his servant in her lowliness, and

let us sing his praises in union with the Blessed Virgin Mary, with all the choirs

of angels and saints, and with the whole Church in every part of the world.

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5 Lumen Gentium, 1. 6 Lk 1:54-55.