At this morning’s mass in St. Peter’s, Bergoglio regarding the 21 new cardinals created iei said: ‘They come from many parts of the world, bearers of a single Wisdom with many faces.’ The homily dedicated to the beauty of Mary – daughter, wife and mother – and her yes: “Flower that grew unnoticed ready to bloom.” At the Angelus again a call for peace, also in Syria: “Reach Christmas with a ceasefire on all fronts.”
Vatican City () – “Let us then pause for a moment to contemplate it, this beauty, in the light of the Word of God.” These are words of Pope Francis pronounced this morning in his homily, referring to Mary, “immaculate conception”, whose solemnity is celebrated today, December 8. The celebration took place in the papal chapel of San Pedro starting at 9:30 a.m., in the presence of the 21 new cardinals “created” yesterday, four of whom come from Asia. The young woman from Nazareth said her yes to the angel Gabriel who visited her: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord: let it be done to me according to your word.” “Servant not in the sense of a slave and humiliated, but of a trusted, esteemed person, to whom the Lord entrusts the most beloved treasures and the most important missions,” said the Pontiff.
Regarding the new cardinals, whose creation was announced from the window of the Vatican Apostolic Palace on Sunday, October 6, 2024, Pope Francis said: “They are brothers whom I have asked to help me in the pastoral service of the universal Church. They come from many parts of the world, bearers of a single Wisdom with many faces, to contribute to the growth and spread of the Kingdom of God. In his homily this morning, the Bishop of Rome explained the beauty of Mary, describing her in three aspects: Mary daughter, Mary wife and Mary mother. This beauty is not “distant” or “unattainable.” We also receive it as a gift, in Baptism,” said Francisco. “The Immaculate Conception is, therefore, not a myth, an abstract doctrine or an impossible ideal: it is the proposal of a beautiful and concrete project, the fully realized model of our humanity,” added Pope Francis.
Regarding the first aspect, Mary in the filial dimension, said: “She is the virgin (cf. Lk 1:27), in whose gaze the love of the Father is reflected.” And regarding the moment of her yes: “She appears to us as beautiful as a flower that has grown unnoticed and is finally ready to bloom in the gift of itself.” Mary is also a wife in that God has chosen her “as a companion in his plan of salvation.” «The Council says this: God chose Mary, he chose a woman as a companion in his plan of salvation. There is no salvation without a woman because the Church is also a woman,” he added. Regarding Mary ‘mother’, the most common way in which she is represented, Bergoglio said: “The Immaculate Conception is beautiful in her fertility, that is, in her knowing how to die to give life, in her forgetting herself to care for others. those who, small and defenseless, cling to it.
Before the Angelus, he shared some advice with those present. «Today is a good day to decide to make a good confession. If you can’t go today, in these weeks, until next Sunday, open your heart, the Lord forgives everything, everything. And so, with Mary’s hand we will be happier.”
After the celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica, in front of a packed St. Peter’s Square decorated with the Christmas tree – a gift from the autonomous Italian province of Trento – and the nativity scene, after praying the Marian prayer of the Angelus, Pope Francis He spoke again about peace. “Let us continue to pray for peace, in the martyred Ukraine, in the Middle East, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, now Syria, Myanmar, South Sudan, and wherever people suffer from the war of violence,” he said. He then appealed to rulers and the international community so that, along this Advent path, “we can reach the Christmas holiday with a ceasefire on all war fronts.”
He also shared with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in San Pedro the invitation to pray “for the detainees who are on death row in the United States.” «I think there are thirteen or fifteen. We pray that his sentence be commuted, changed. We think of these brothers and sisters of ours. And we ask the Lord for the grace to save them from death. The Pontiff recalled the inhumanity of capital punishment, provided for in more than 50 States around the world. Finally, he dedicated a thought to the members of Catholic Action today in Italian parishes. “I wish all members a good path of formation, service, and apostolic commitment.”
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