ANGELUS
St Peter’s Square
First Sunday of Advent
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
With this first Sunday of Advent a new liturgical year begins: the People of God begin again on the way to living the mystery of Christ in history. Christ is the same yesterday, today and for ever (cf. Heb 13: 8); history, instead, changes and requires constant evangelization; it needs to be renewed from within and the only true novelty is Christ: he is its fulfilment, the luminous future of humanity and of the world. Risen from the dead, Jesus is the Lord to whom God subjects all enemies, including death itself (cf. I Cor 15: 25-28). Advent is therefore the propitious time to awaken in our hearts the expectation of he “who is and who was and who is to come” (Rv 1: 8). The Son of God has already come to Bethlehem about 20 centuries ago, he comes in each moment in the soul and in the community disposed to receive him, he will come again at the end of time “to judge the living and the dead”. The believer is therefore always vigilant, inspired by the intimate hope of encountering the Lord, as the Psalm says: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning” (Ps 130[129]: 5-6).
This Sunday is therefore a day specially suited to offering the entire Church and to all men and women of good will my second Encyclical, which I wanted to dedicate precisely to the theme of Christian hope. It is entitled Spe Salvi, because it opens with the expression “Spe salvi facti sumus - in hope we were saved” (Rm 8: 24). In this, as in other passages of the New Testament, the word “hope” is strictly connected with the word “faith”. It is a gift that changes the life of the one who receives it, as the experience of so many men and women saints demonstrates. In what does this hope consist, so great and so “trustworthy”, to make us say that in it we have “salvation”? In essence it consists in the knowledge of God, in the discovery of the heart of the good and merciful Father. Jesus, with his death on the Cross and his Resurrection, has revealed his Face to us, the face of a God so great in love as to communicate to us an uncrushable hope that not even death can break, because the life of the one who entrusts himself to this Father opens itself to the prospect of eternal beatitude.
The development of modern science has always confined faith and hope to the private and individual sphere, so that today it appears in a clear and sometimes dramatic way that man and the world need God - the true God! - otherwise, they remain deprived of hope. Science contributes much to the good of humanity, but it is not able to redeem it. Man is redeemed by love, which makes one’s personal and social life good and beautiful. This is why the great hope, the full and definitive one, is guaranteed by God who is love, by God who has visited us and has given us life in Jesus, and who will return at the end of time. We hope in Christ, we await him! With Mary, his Mother, the Church goes to meet her Spouse: she does so with works of charity, because hope, like faith, is demonstrated in love.
A good Advent to all!
http://reflectionsonthesacredliturgy.blogspot.com/2010/11/first-sunday-of-advent-28-nov-2010-pope.html
Please pray the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary EVERY DAY for the Divine Mercy and Divine Grace of Jesus upon all souls, for peace,the salvation of expecting mothers, the ending of abortion, the salvation of all souls, and for the intentions of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVII Instructions on how to pray the Rosary- http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/prayers/rosary/how_to.htm
Please pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Daily for the mercy of God upon us,the souls of all sinners, the souls of the dying, the faithful, the Pope, all Bishops, all Priests, all religious, the Holy souls in purgatory, those who do not believe in God and who do not yet know Jesus, all who are suffering and in need. May Jesus have mercy on us all.Instructions on how to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet-http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/mercy/dmmap.htm
Please pray the Stations of the Cross daily to remember the Divine Mercy and Grace of Jesus, the sacrifice Jesus made for us and to encourage us to do the same for others. Abortion is a national tragedy and will not end without the intercession of Jesus and Mary. Jesus, we trust in you.Instructions on the Stations of the Cross-http://www.cptryon.org/xpipassio/stations/
Please pray that we help the New Evangelism and reach 3 million who will be devoted to these prayers, with the intercession of Mary and Jesus this can actively change our world for the better!
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