Pope (n.教宗) Benedict (n.本篤), leading the world's Roman (adj.羅馬的) Catholics (n.天主教徒) into Christmas (n.聖誕節), on Monday urged (v.敦促) people to find room (n.空間) for God (n.神、上帝、天主) in their fast-paced (adj.步伐急速的) lives filled with the latest technological (adj.科技的) gadgets (n.玩意).
The 85-year-old pope, marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate (n.教宗任期), celebrated a solemn (adj.莊嚴的) Christmas Eve (n.前夕) mass (n.彌撒、感恩祭) in St. Peter(n.伯多祿)'s Basilica (n.大殿), during which he appealed (v.呼籲) for a solution to the Arab(n.阿拉伯)-Israeli (adj.以色列的) conflict (n.衝突) and an end to the civil war (n.內戰) in Syria (n.敘利亞).
At the mass for some 10,000 people in the basilica and broadcast (v.廣播) to millions of others on television, the pope wove (v.編纂) his homily (n.講道) around the theme (n.主題) of God's place in today's modern world.
"The faster we can move, the more efficient (adj.有效率的) our time-saving (adj.節省時間的) appliances (n.電器) become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent (adj.迫切的). Our time is already completely full," he said.
The leader of the world's some 1.2 billion (n.十億) Roman Catholics said societies had reached the point where many people's thinking processes (n.過程) did not leave any room even for the existence (n.存在) of God.
(Reuters, December 25)
教宗本篤星期一帶領全球羅馬天主教徒迎接聖誕節，指出世人生活步伐急速，充斥最新款的科技玩意，敦促他們找出空間給天主。
八十五歲的教宗，今年是第八次以教宗身份慶祝聖誕佳節，並於聖誕前夕在聖伯多祿大殿舉行莊嚴的感恩祭。其間他呼籲阿拉伯和以色列尋找解決衝突的方法，而敘利亞則結束內戰。
大約有一萬人在大殿參與感恩祭，數以百萬計觀眾則收看電視廣播。教宗的講道，環繞的主題是天主在如今現代世界中的位置。
他說：“我們的節奏越快，我們的電器越有效率和越節省時間，我們便越少時間。而天主？天主這個課題從來都似乎不迫切。我們的時間已完全填滿了。”
這位全球大約十二億羅馬天主教徒的領袖說，社會已發展到一個地步，令到很多人的思考過程中，連天主存在的空間也不容許。
（路透社，十二月二十五日）
閱讀指引
1. pontificate (n) /pɔn'tIfIkit/，pon-TI-fi-kut
解讀：名詞pontiff解作教宗，相當於pope / Pope，但只用於正統行文；pontificate則是較抽象的名詞，指教宗職務、教宗任期，也可叫papacy；而形容詞則是pontifical，解作教宗的，也可叫papal。
2. basilica (n) /bə'zIlIkə/，ba-ZI-li-ka 大殿、大教堂
解讀：古希臘文basileus解作國王，而拉丁文basilica本指法院大樓，後引申指以同樣格局興建的教堂、聖殿，在羅馬尤指由君士坦丁大帝（Constantine the Great）興建的七座大殿，而文中的St. Peter's Basilica（聖伯多祿大殿）則是在原有一座的遺址重建而成。
3. homily (n) /'hɔmIli/，HOM-mi-lee 講道、說教
解讀：《聖經．新約》（the New Testament）中談到講道、sermon，便會用希臘文homilia，而源於此字的英文字homily因而指講道以至說教，例如Her parents launched into a homily on love and sacrifice（她父母熱情地展開一篇關於愛與犧牲的說教）。
文︰范斌
