Selected quotes of Pope Benedict XVI offered daily for prayer and reflection….

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Advent
 


As the celebration of Our Lord's birth draws near let us join with Mary in prayerful trust, ready to embrace God's will as a sign of hope for our world.

 
Angelus Address
St Peter's Square
18 December 2005

 
 
 
Advent
 


“Strengthen your hearts”. The journey to the Grotto of Bethlehem is a journey of inner liberation, an experience of profound freedom, because it impels us to come out of ourselves and to go towards God who has made himself close to us, who heartens us with his presence and with his freely-given love, who precedes and accompanies us in our daily decisions, who speaks to us in the secrecy of our hearts and in the Sacred Scriptures.

 
Vespers
St Peter's Basilica
16 December 2010

 
 
 
Advent
 


In this time of preparation for Christmas, let us cultivate interior recollection so as to receive and keep Jesus in our lives.

 
Angelus Address
St Peter's Square
18 December 2005

 
 
 
Advent
 


The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has revealed himself, he has shown his Face and has taken up residence in our flesh, in Jesus, Son of Mary — true God and true man — whom we shall meet once again in the Grotto of Bethlehem. To return there, to that humble, narrow place, is not merely a journey in spirit: it is the path we are called to take, experiencing this day God’s closeness and his action that renews and sustains our existence.

 
Vespers
St Peter's Basilica
16 December 2010

 
 
 
Advent
 


"Watch", Jesus tells us in Luke's short parable about the master of the house who goes on a journey but the date of whose return is unknown (cf. Mk 13: 33-37). Watching means following the Lord, choosing what Christ chose, loving what he loved, conforming one's own life to his; watching means passing every instant of our time in the sphere of his love without letting oneself be disheartened by the inevitable difficulties and problems of daily life.

 
Homily
St Lawrence Outside the Walls
First Sunday of Advent
30 November 2008

 
 
 
Advent
 


Advent is the spiritual season of hope par excellence, and in it the whole Church is called to become hope, for herself and for the world. The whole organism of the Mystical Body acquires, so to speak, the "color" of hope. The whole People of God continue on their journey, attracted by this mystery: that our God is "the God who comes" and calls us to go to meet him.

 
Homily at Vespers
First Sunday of Advent
St Peter's Basilica
29 November 2008

 
 
 
Advent
 


"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice... The Lord is at hand" (Phil 4: 4-5).
The entrance antiphon of Holy Mass on this Third Sunday of Advent begins with this invitation to joy, and for this very reason is called "Gaudete" Sunday. Actually, the whole of Advent is an invitation to rejoice because "the Lord comes", because he comes to save us.

 
Homily
Third Sunday of Advent
16 December 2007

 
 
 
Advent
 


In Advent, the liturgy frequently repeats and assures us, as if to overcome our natural diffidence, that God "comes": he comes to be with us in every situation of ours, he comes to dwell among us, to live with us and within us; he comes to fill the gaps that divide and separate us; he comes to reconcile us with him and with one another.

 
Angelus Address
St Peter's Square
3 December 2006

 

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