VATICAN - The Pope's Angelus on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception: “I think of young people today, growing up in an environment saturated with messages offering false models of happiness…they are in danger of losing hope because they often seem to be orphans of true love”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “On our journey of Advent there shines the star of Immaculate Mary… To reach Jesus, authentic light, the sun who has dissipated the shadows of history, we need lights which are close to us, human persons who reflect the light of Christ and illuminate the path we are to travel. And who is more luminous than Mary?” On the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Saturday 8 December, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI underlined the value of the feast-day on which Catholics adore “the mystery of the grace of God who enfolded the creature destined to become the Mother of the Redeemer from the very beginning of her existence, preserving her from all contagion of original sin ”. Looking at Mary Christians recognise “the loftiness and beauty of God's plan for every human person…What a great gift it is to have Immaculate Mary as our Mother! A mother of resplendent beauty, in whom the love of God shines through”.
The Pope then expressed his concern for the younger generations: “ I think of young people today, growing up in an environment saturated with messages offering false models of happiness These boys and girls are in danger of losing hope because they often seem to be orphans of true love which fills life with meaning and joy … Sad to say no few experiences demonstrate that adolescents, young people and even children are easy prey for the corruption of love, misled by adults without scruples who, lying even to themselves, lure them into the blind alleys of consumerism: even the most sacred realities, such as the human body, temple of the God of love and life, become in this way consumer objects; and this happens ever earlier already in preadolescence. How sad it is when children lose wonder and fascination for the most beautiful sentiments, the value of respect for the body, manifestation of the person and his or her unfathomable mystery!”
Lastly the Holy Father invited Christians to pray to Immaculate Mary and to contemplate “in all her beauty and holiness”, the woman who became on Golgotha “ Mother, Mother of hope for all humanity”, and to make a pilgrimage in spirit to Lourdes on the occasion of the 150th anniversary year of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary there. Before reciting the Angelus the Pope concluded citing his new encylical: “Mary Immaculate, start of the sea, shine on us and guide us on our way!” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 10/12/2007 - righe 27, parole 390)