"The light was now within them"

I have a large number of friends who are either in seminary, about to begin seminary, or have recently completed their training and have begun their full-time ministries. For them, I post these words from Pope Benedict's homily to seminarians yesterday:

"The seminary years are a time of preparing for mission. The Magi "departed for their own country" and most certainly bore witness to their encounter with the King of the Jews. You too, after your long, necessary program of seminary formation, will be sent forth as ministers of Christ; indeed, each of you will return as an "alter Christus." On their homeward journey, the Magi surely had to deal with dangers, weariness, disorientation, doubts. … The star was no longer there to guide them! The light was now within them. Their task was to guard and nourish it in the constant memory of Christ, of his Holy Face, of his ineffable Love. "

The entire homily may be found here.

Additionally, the pope addressed leaders from several other Christian communities on ecumenism (also covered by Zenit). I found this paragraph to be particularly interesting:

"What does it mean to restore the unity of all Christians? The Catholic Church has as her goal the full visible unity of the disciples of Christ, as defined by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in its various documents (cf. "Lumen Gentium," 8, 13; "Unitatis Redintegratio," 2, 4, etc.). This unity subsists, we are convinced, in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost (cf. "Unitatis Redintegratio," 4). This does not, however, mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline."