I rejoice heartily in the LORD,
PRAYER OF THE HOLY FATHER BENEDICT XVI AT THE WESTERN WALL 
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
There is a reality that goes beyond us: the tomorrow that we must build, a tomorrow that logically involves risks, but for us it is not so important to finish the work as to work for the Lord.
"We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs; in well-to-do houses there are lifts. And I was determined to find a lift to carry me to Jesus, for I was far too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection. So I sought in holy Scripture some idea of what this life I wanted would be, and I read these words: 'Whosoever is a little one, come to me.' It is your arms, Jesus, that are the lift to carry me to heaven. And so there is no need for me to grow up: I must stay little and become less and less."
In giving birth to the Son of the Most High, everlasting king with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Mary is truly the Mother of God and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, having conceived by his intervention: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy" (Lk 1:35).
Our Lord has deigned to explain this mystery to me. He showed me the book of nature, and I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would lose its springtide beauty, and the fields would no longer be enameled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our Lord's living garden. He has been pleased to create great Saints who may be compared to the lily and the rose, but He has also created lesser ones, who must be content to be daisies or simple violets flowering at His Feet, and whose mission it is to gladden His Divine Eyes when He deigns to look down on them. And the more gladly they do His Will the greater is their perfection.
I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by. Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new.
It is also through joy that we will be able to fulfill our apostolic oblation and be self-offering - a permanent, as well as a daily offering, as the essence of our consecration. An offering that permeates our intelligence, as well as our heart, that inspires all our steps and gestures. An offering that lasts through time, and that expands itself so that others, too, may receive the gifts of grace, and arrive at the wellsprings of water where they can draw water in abundance....This will give us greater hope and joy, and will enable us to give hope and courage to everyone. We will become the sowers of hope that the Lord wants us to be not only for the Institute, but also for the entire world. “Let us open wide our hearts…That is to say, let us expand our love, so that many more people, and the whole world, may enter in and be welcomed by our embrace of love. To see and to love, to love and to see! To have a practical, broad, and sincere vision of love toward all brothers and sisters, and to receive them with understanding, tolerance and collaboration” (W. Giaquinta, Homily May 1, 1989).
Mary is the first altar, and therefore the first sanctuary, where we have been ransomed. We venerate this altar, this sanctuary, the place of our first salvation, and the wonderful temple in which Jesus, for nine months, fulfilled His law of love and devotion to God. Already in the womb of Mary, Jesus offered Himself to His Eternal Father in a spirit of adoration, in a spirit of obedience to His will, in a spirit of love for the Father and for the humanity He came to ransom. He offered himself in a spirit of self-giving, ready to accomplish all that the Father might ask of Him, and ready to give of Himself to poor humanity that they might dispose of Him according to their needs.
Trust in the LORD and do good
Bring flowers of the rarest
At the core of each Oblate’s form of oblation is the Cross, for it is the greatest possible demonstration of the gratuitous, infinite live of the Father and Jesus for us. As St. Paul did, Oblates draw from the Cross the strength to live and be bearers of the love and hope of Christ through their apostolic donation, their will to participate in the immolative life of the Master, and, for the consecrated Oblates, their vows lived in their true spirit.
Realize that you do not represent only yourselves. From the moment a person has made a commitment in an Institute, she is a part of an “all.” Your actions are not only yours but your Institute’s. The person passes by and the face disappears; a veil and a gown remain. They are the veil and the gown of the Apostolic Oblate.
