ANGELUS TODAY
The Holy Father blessed the 'Bambinelli' - images of the Baby Jesus -placed by Italian children in their Christmas Nativity scenes, recalled the Day for New Churches observed today by the Diocese of Rome, and remembered four missionary priests recently killed in Africa.
In English, he said this:
The liturgy of this Third Sunday of Advent, marked by joyful expectation of the Lord’s coming, invites us to rejoice in the hope of our salvation.
May these days of preparation for Christmas be a time of genuine conversion and interior renewal for all Christians. Upon you and your families I invoke joy and peace in Jesus our Saviour.
Pope hails missionaries
murdered in Africa
VATICAN CITY, Dec. 13 (AFP) – Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute Sunday to four missionaries murdered in separate incidents in Africa this month and called for peace.
"I have heard the sad news this week from certain African countries about the murders of four missionaries," the Pope said in Sunday prayers.
"They were brave witnesses of the Gospel which they proclaimed with courage, risking their lives," he said, calling on God for "peace and reconciliation".
Armed men killed Roman Catholic priest Monsignor Daniel Cizimya in his presbytery in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on December 5.
A nun, Sister Denise Kahambo Maharirwa, was shot dead by gunmen who raided a monastery in the same area two days later.
Father Louis Blondel was shot dead December 9 in his rectory during a burglary in a shantytown in South Africa.
Irish priest Jerry Roche was killed in Kenya on December 11 in what reports said was a violent robbery.
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words at the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters!
We have come to the third Sunday of Advent. In the liturgy today, the Apostle Paul's appeal resounds: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near" (Phil 4,4-5).
Mother Church, as she accompanies us towards the Holy Nativity, helps us to rediscover the sense and taste of Christian joy, so different from that of the world.
On this Sunday, following a beautiful tradition, the children of Rome come to have the Pope bless their images of the Baby Jesus to be placed in their creches.
Indeed, today I see so many children with their parents, teachers and catechists here today in Piazza San Pietro. Dearest ones, I greet you all with great affection and I thank you for coming.
It is a great cause of joy for me to know that in your families you keep the practice of putting up a Nativity scene for Christmas. But it is not enough to carry on a traditional practice, as important as that is.
One must seek to live in the reality of every day that which the creche represents - which is, the love of Christ, his humility and his poverty.
That is what St. Francis did in Greccio: he recreated a living Nativity scene so that he could contemplate and adore the Son of God, but above all, to put into practice the message of Him who for love of us, stripped himself of everything to become a little baby.
The blessing of the 'Bambinelli', as we say in Rome, reminds us that the creche is a school of life, where we can learn the secret of true joy. This does not consist in having many things, but in feeling loved by the Lord, in giving ourselves to others, and in loving each other.
Let us look at the Nativity scene: Our Lady and St. Joseph do not seem to be a very fortunate family - they had their first child in the middle of great discomfort - but yet they are full of intimate joy, because they love each other, they help each other, and above all, they are certain that God was at work in their story, making himself present in the tiny Jesus.
What about the shepherds? What reason did they have to rejoice? That Newborn would certainly not change their condition of poverty and emargination. But faith helps them to recognize in the "infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger", the sign of the fulfillment of God's promise to all men "on whom his favor rests'(Lk 2,12-14), including themselves.
And that, dear friends, is what true joy consists of: it is to feel that our personal and communitarian existence has been visited and filled with a great mystery, the mystery of God's love.
In order to rejoice, we do not need things alone, but love and truth: we need a God who is near us, who warms our heart and responds to our profound expectations.
This God manifested himself in Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary. That is why this Bambinello, whom we place in a cave or in a humble hut, is the center of everything - he is the heart of the world.
Let us pray so that every man, like the Virgin Mary, may welcome as the center of his own life the God who became a Baby, source of true joy.
After the prayers, he said this:
As I thank the Centro Oratori Romani who organized this event of the Bambinelli, I also wish to recall that today is the Day for New Churches in the Diocese of Rome.
In our city, there are sill communities who do not have a proper place for worship - in which the Lord dwells with us - nor do they have structures for their formative activities.
Therefore, I renew my appeal to everyone to contribute for the completion of the necessary pastoral centers. Thank you for your generosity.
This week, sad news has come to me from some African countries regarding the killing of four missionaries - Fathers Daniel Cizimya, Louis Blondel and Gerry Roche, and Sister Denise Kahambu.
They were faithful witnesses to the Gospel which they announced with courage even at the risk of their own lives. As I express my closeness to their families and communities in their sorrow, I call on everyone to join my prayers that the Lord may welcome them into his home, comfort those who mourn them, and bring reconciliation and peace with his coming.
A pilgrim holds up a 'Bambinello' from a spot next to the 'curtained' area next to the Vatican Christmas tree,
where the Nativity scene will be unveiled on Christmas Eve.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/12/2009 22:48]