August 11, 2010. I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims present today.


I especially welcome the young altar servers from Malta and their families, and I thank them for their faithful service in Saint Peter's Basilica. I also freet the pilgrimage groups form Nigeria, Indonesia and the Unites States. In this month of August, when the Church commemorates so many martyrs, let us give thanks for all those who followed Christ to the end by offering their own lives in with his sacrifice on the Cross. May their act of supreme love and surrender to God inspire us on the way of holyness and charity towards our brothers and sisters. Commending you and your families to their intercession, I cordially invoke upon you God's abundants blessings.