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VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI blessed and rang the official International Eucharistic Congress bell, which has been on tour across Ireland for nearly a year, in preparation for the world meeting in June.

An Irish delegation, led by the 2012 congress president Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, presented the pope with the small brass bell before the start of his weekly general audience March 14. Before the pope was driven into St. Peter's Square, he met with the delegation and rang the bell.

Congress organizers said a quarter of a million Irish pilgrims have rung the bell since the start of its pilgrimage March 17, 2011.

The bell has been brought to parishes, schools, nursing homes and hospitals throughout Ireland to raise awareness about the eucharistic congress and to call people to attend the event.

Pictured: Pope Benedict XVI rings the International Eucharistic Congress Bell before his general audience at the Vatican March 14. At left are Father Kevin Doran, secretary general of the International Eucharistic Congress, and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, president of the congress. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano) 

According to tradition, St. Patrick left a bell in every church he consecrated as a way to call people to the Eucharist, congress organizers.

The delegation also presented the pope with a medal commemorating the congress, and a bowl of Irish shamrock to mark the March 17 feast of St. Patrick.

The 50th International Eucharistic Congress is in Dublin June 10-17 with the theme: "The Eucharist: Communion With Christ and With One Another." Pope Benedict will not be attending the congress.

During his general audience with about 10,000 pilgrims from all over the world, the pope continued his cycle of talks on prayer and started a new chapter looking at prayer depicted in the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St. Paul.

He spoke about Mary and her "privileged place in the church, of which she is the 'exemplar and outstanding model in faith and charity.'"

He said people can learn how to pray from Mary: listening patiently and humbly, and freely and fully accepting God's will.

Often people turn to prayer when facing great difficulty, anxiety or fear, he said, because by turning to the Lord, people can find "light, comfort and help."

Mary also invites people to experience another dimension of prayer and "to turn to God not just when in need and not only for oneself," but to pray together as a Christian community, united in faith "with one heart and one soul," he said.

"Mary teaches us the necessity of prayer and shows us how, only with a constant and intimate bond of love with her son, can we leave 'our home' and step outside of ourselves with courage, in order to reach the ends of the earth and everywhere proclaim Lord Jesus, savior of the world."

At the end of his talk, the pope met with Cardinal Emmanuel-Karim Delly, Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad, and Chaldean Auxiliary Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad, who presented the pope with a wrapped gift.

The pope also met with Chaldean Bishop Sarhad Yawsip Jammo, head of the Catholic Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle, of San Diego. The Iraqi-born bishop has under his care Chaldean Catholics in the western United States, and he was leading a pilgrimage of about 90 Chaldean Catholics to Rome.

— Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service