Pope Benedict XVI has urged Catholics to allow the Mass to transform them into a more harmonious community radiating Christian goodness, mercy and love for others.
Preaching on the second-last day of his visit to his native Bavaria, he said a church organ he was blessing should serve as an image for the Catholic community.
The Pope's call was made in the refurbished Old Chapel in Regensburg in which a new organ has been installed.
Benedict had come to accept an invitation to name the instrument after himself and, as he put it, to dedicate the organ to the glorification of God and the strengthening of faith.
In the company of his musician-brother Fr Georg Ratzinger - who was his neighbour in the town between 1969 and 1977 when the Pope taught theology in Regensburg University - Benedict said sacred music was not just an addition to the Mass, but an important means of participation in worship.
He described the organ as the king of musical instruments, capable of echoing and expressing all the experiences of human life, but also liable, with wear and tear, to go out of tune. Then he held it up as an image for the Catholic community.
'Just as in an organ an expert hand must constantly bring disharmony back to consonance, so we in the Church, in the variety of our gifts and charisms, always need to find anew, through our communion in faith, harmony in the praise of God and in fraternal love', Benedict said.
'The more we allow ourselves through the liturgy to be transformed in Christ, the more we will be capable of transforming the world, radiating Christ's goodness, his mercy and his love for others', he said.
The Pope was to rest in Fr Georg's house before the two planned to visit the grave of their parents and sister, Maria, on the outskirts of the town later today.
