Pope Benedict XVI was greeted tumultuously: “Be-ne-det-to”, “Be-ne-dic-to”, “Viva il Papa”!!!

The Holy Father responded to the joyous shouts of the young people with a calm and warm friendliness.

Holy Father being welcomed in front of the Cathedral of Cologne

“Today it is your task to live and breathe the Church’s universality. Let yourselves be inflamed by the fire of the Spirit, so that a new Pentecost will renew your hearts.” P. Benedict XVI

Prayer around the clock 20 churches had been transformed into Spiritual Centers, offering the opportunity to participate in the daily offices and in Eucharistic worship, allowing participants to live up to the motto of the XXth World Youth Day: “We have come to worship HIM”. Each Spiritual Center was directed by a different religious group: Two of them were under the care of the Missionaries of Charity.

“Here in the Sacred Host he is present before us and in our midst.... it is here that the true face of God is revealed. “ P. Benedict XVI

“...from throughout the world. You represent those distant peoples who came to know Christ through the Magi and who were brought together as the new People of God, the Church...” P. Benedict XVI

“Let us raise our hearts in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Father for the many blessings he has given us and for the gift of faith which we will celebrate together...” P. Benedict XVI

“Through you, may other young people everywhere come to recognize in Christ the true answer to their deepest aspirations... P. Benedict XVI

“It is the great multitude of the saints - both known and unknown - in whose lives the Lord has opened up the Gospel before us.” P. Benedict XVI

“In their lives, as if in a great picture-book, the riches of the Gospel are revealed. They are the shining path which God himself has traced through- out history and.” P. Benedict XVI

“… they show us the way to attain Happiness, they show us how to be truly Human.” P. Benedict XVI

“My venerable Predecessor Pope John Paul II, who is with us at this moment, beatified and canonized a great many people.... Through these individuals he wanted to show us how to be Christian: how to live life as it should be lived - according to God's way. P. Benedict XVI

The saints and the blesseds did not doggedly seek their own happiness, but simply wanted to give themselves, because the light of Christ had shone upon them.” P. Benedict XVI

“One need only think of such figures as St. Benedict, St. Francis... or the saints of our own day – Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Mother Teresa, Padre Pio.” P. Benedict XVI

“Through all the ups and downs of history, they were the true reformers... it was they who constantly shed upon it the light that was needed to make sense - even in the midst of suffering - of God's words spoken at the end of the work of creation: ‘It is very good.’ ” P. Benedict XVI

“In contemplating these figures we learn what it means ‘to adore’... and what it means to live according to the measure... of Jesus Christ and of God himself.” P. Benedict XVI

“... only from the saints, only from God does true revolution come, the definitive way to change the world.” P. Benedict XVI

“It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator...” P. Benedict XVI

“... turning to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?” P. Benedict XVI

“ ‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father’,... In Jesus Christ, who allowed his heart to be pierced for us, the true face of God is seen.” P. Benedict XVI

We will follow him together with the great multitude of those who went before us. Then we will be traveling along the right path.” P. Benedict XVI

Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, you allowed the thirsting love of Jesus on the Cross to become a living flame within you, and so became the light of His love to all. Obtain from the Heart of Jesus (here make your request). Teach me to allow Jesus to penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life, too, may radiate His light and love to others. Amen.