Pope rings bell signaling call for eucharistic congress

    Pope Benedict XVI blessed and rang the official International Eucharistic Congress bell, which has been on tour across Ireland for nearly a year, in preparation for the world meeting in June.
    An Irish delegation, led by the 2012 congress president Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, presented the pope with the small brass bell before the start of his weekly general audience March 14. Before the pope was driven into St. Peter’s Square, he met with the delegation and rang the bell.
    Congress organizers said a quarter of a million Irish pilgrims have rung the bell since the start of its pilgrimage March 17, 2011.
    The bell has been brought to parishes, schools, nursing homes and hospitals throughout Ireland to raise awareness about the eucharistic congress and to call people to attend the event.
    According to tradition, St. Patrick left a bell in every church he consecrated as a way to call people to the Eucharist, congress organizers.
    The delegation also presented the pope with a medal commemorating the congress, and a bowl of Irish shamrock to mark the March 17 feast of St. Patrick.
    The 50th International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Dublin June 10-17 with the theme: “The Eucharist: Communion With Christ and With One Another.” Pope Benedict will not be attending the congress.
    During his general audience with about 10,000 pilgrims from all over the world, the pope continued his cycle of talks on prayer and started a new chapter looking at prayer depicted in the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St. Paul.
    He spoke about Mary and her “privileged place in the church, of which she is the ‘exemplar and outstanding model in faith and charity.’”
    He said people can learn how to pray from Mary: listening patiently and humbly, and freely and fully accepting God’s will.
    Often people turn to prayer when facing great difficulty, anxiety or fear, he said, because by turning to the Lord, people can find “light, comfort and help.”
    Mary also invites people to experience another dimension of prayer and “to turn to God not just when in need and not only for oneself,” but to pray together as a Christian community, united in faith “with one heart and one soul,” he said.
    “Mary teaches us the necessity of prayer and shows us how, only with a constant and intimate bond of love with her son, can we leave ‘our home’ and step outside of ourselves with courage, in order to reach the ends of the earth and everywhere proclaim Lord Jesus, savior of the world.”
    – VATICAN CITY (CNS)