Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - In keeping with tradition, in the afternoon of December 8th the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI paid homage to the Blessed Virgin by laying a bouquet of white roses at the foot of a statue of Immaculate Mary in Piazza di Spagna. The Pope said this was a "gesture of faith and devotion which our Christian community makes every year almost as if to reaffirm its commitment of fidelity to the One, who under every circumstance of daily life, assures us of her help and maternal protection … and it is at the same time an opportunity to offer people who live in Rome or are here for a few days as pilgrims and tourists, the opportunity to feel that, despite differences in cultures, we are one family gathered around a Mother who experienced the daily fatigue of every wife and mother.”
In his message read out at the foot of the statue of the Blessed Virgin the Holy Father recalled Mary as “a singular mother, chosen by God for a unique and mysterious mission, that of generating to earthly life the Word of the eternal Father, who came into the world for the salvation of all mankind. Immaculate Mary, conceived without sin,… walked her earthly pilgrimage sustained by intrepid faith, unswerving hope and humble and boundless love, following in the footsteps of her son Jesus”. From the Cross Jesus gave her to us as our mother, entrusting us to her as her children and the Holy Father urged those present to turn to Mary to implore her help and learn from her teaching: “Does not she our heavenly Mother urge us to flee evil and do good, docile to divine law written in the heart of every Christian? She kept on hoping even during trials, does she not urge us not to lose heart when suffering and death knock at the doors of our homes? Does she not ask us to look with confidence to the future? Does Immaculate Mary not urge us to be brothers and sisters to each other, and work together to build a world of justice, solidarity and peace?”
The Pope continued: “Once again on this solemn day the Church indicates Mary to the world as a sign of sure hope and definitive triumph of good over evil. She, whom we invoke ‘full of grace', reminds us that we are brothers and sisters and that God is our Creator and our Father. Without Him, or worse, against Him, we humans could never find the path which leads to love, we could never defeat the power of hatred and violence, we could never build a stable peace.” Benedict XVI urged men and women of all nations and cultures to accept “the message of light and hope” which comes as a gift from the “hands of Mary, Mother of all humanity”. Citing his second encyclical Spe salvi, the Pope recalled that the Church turns to Mary invoking her as "star of hope". We too today, “as we journey together on the sea of history need ‘lights of hope'… and who better than Mary to be our ‘Star of hope? With her ‘yes’, and with the generous offering of her freedom received from the Creator, she enabled the hope of millenniums to become reality, to enter in our world and its history. Thanks to her God became man and came to live among us, He pitched his tent in our midst.”
The Pope concluded his address with a message in French to pilgrims gathered at the Marian shrines of Lourdes and Fourvière (Lyons) “to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary in the jubilee year of the 150th anniversary of Our Lady's apparitions to Saint Bernardette”. On their spiritual journey “pilgrims should develop the grace of their baptism, nourish themselves with the Eucharist and draw from prayer the strength to bear witness and show solidarity to their brothers and sisters”. The Holy Father said he hoped “Shrines will develop their vocation to pray and to welcome people anxious to find, especially through the sacrament of Forgiveness, their way back to God”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 10/12/2007; righe 45, parole 705)
