Await Christmas with child-like awe, Pope urges audience
December 22, 2010
“This Christmas, may the Christ Child find all of us spiritually prepared for his coming,” said Pope Benedict XVI at his weekly public audience on December 22.
The traditional Christmas crèche, which is lovingly prepared in so many homes, is a “visible sign of our awaiting the coming of the Lord,” the Pope said. He remarked that children always approach Christmas with a sense of wonder, and adults should “purify our minds and our lives” to feel the same sense of awe at the message of the Nativity.
The birth of Jesus, the Pope said, should prompt this reaction because it is “the fulfillment of humanity’s deepest hopes and expectations.” He reminded the audience in the Paul VI auditorium of the longing that the Jewish people felt through the ages, leading up to this moment. “The entire Old Testament constitutes a single great promise which was to be fulfilled with the coming of a savior,” he said.
"In the night of the world, let us still allow ourselves to be surprised and illuminated by this coming, by the Star which, rising in the East, has inundated the universe with joy,” the Pope said. He concluded his remarks by wishing everyone in the audience a joyful and blessed Christmas.
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Further information:
- Joyful Expectation of Christmas among Christians (VIS)
- Christmas, a quiet joy that fills hearts (Vatican Radio)
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