It has been a tradition since the days of Paul VI. Every third Sunday of Advent, children bring the figurines of baby Jesus to St. Peter\u2019s Square for the pope\u2019s blessing. This year, this endearing event was not missed.<\/p>\n
POPE FRANCIS <\/strong> Pope Francis said that the arrival of Jesus is joyful news. Therefore, Christians should not be sad.<\/p>\n POPE FRANCIS <\/strong> The pope gave the recipe for that joy: not to think of oneself and to imitate saints like John the Baptist. <\/p>\n POPE FRANCIS <\/strong> The pope recommended following the saints\u2019 example, who did not seek personal fame but to lead people to Christ.<\/p>\n Javier Romero<\/p>\n Translation: Christian Campos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 14, 2020. He maintained the tradition of blessing the \"bambinelli,\" the figurines of baby Jesus that families will place in the manger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15499,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/npVsYAgWWqw","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bangelus1412eng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bangelus1412int.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThis year few of you are here due to the pandemic. Still, I know that many children and young people have gathered in the youth centers and their homes and are following us via means of communication. I offer my greeting to everyone, and I bless the figurines of Jesus, which will be placed in the Nativity scene, a sign of hope and joy. In silence, let us bless the Baby Jesus figurines: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n\u201cThink well today: how do I behave? Am I a joyful person who knows how to transmit the joy of being Christian, or am I always like those sad people, as I said before, who seem to be at a funeral? If I do not have the joy of my faith, I cannot bear witness, and others will say: \u201cBut if faith is so sad, it is better not to have it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThis is joy: directing toward Jesus. Joy must be the characteristic of our faith. In dark moments, that inner joy, of knowing that the Lord is with me, that the Lord is with us, that the Lord is Risen. The Lord! The Lord! The Lord! This is the center of our life.<\/em><\/p>\n