In his homily at Casa Santa Marta, the pope warned against the danger of forgetting the profound meaning of Christmas. <\/p>\n
POPE FRANCIS<\/strong> Pope Francis said the Advent period is a period that serves to purify the heart and prepare one for a personal encounter with God.<\/p>\n EXTRACTS FROM THE PAPAL HOMILY<\/strong><\/p>\n (Source: Vatican News)<\/p>\n \u201cThe Lord is born, the Redeemer who has come to save us. Yes, it is a celebration\u2026 [but] we always face the danger, we will always have within us the temptation to make Christmas mundane, worldly\u2026 When the celebration stops being about contemplation\u2014a beautiful family celebration with Jesus at the center\u2014it begins to be a worldly celebration: all about shopping, presents, this and that\u2026 and the Lord remains there, forgotten. Even in our own life: yes, He is born, at Bethlehem, but [then what?]\u2026 Advent is [a time] for purifying the memory of this time past, of that dimension.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBecause the Lord who came then will return! He will return! He will return to ask us: \u201cHow did your life go?\u201d It will be a personal encounter. We have a personal encounter with the Lord, today, in the Eucharist; we cannot have such a personal with the Christmas of 2000 years ago: we have the memorial of that. But when He will return, we will have that personal encounter. It is purifying hope.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe third dimension is more daily: purifying our watchfulness. Vigilance and prayer are two words for Advent: Because historically the Lord came in Bethlehem; and He will come, at the end of the world and also at the end of our individual lives. But every day, every moment, He comes into our hearts, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" December 3, 2018. In his daily homily, Pope Francis gave advice on how to live the Advent season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":27020,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195],"tags":[],"acf":{"video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/4oLDn1giyNw","video_descarga":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstamarta0312eng.mp4","international_url":"http:\/\/attuale.romereports.com\/news\/bstamarta0312int.mp4","type":"bn","newsletter":"si"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48641"}],"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=48641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.romereports.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cYes, the feast... we are always in danger, we will always have in us the temptation to make Christmas mundane; to 'mundanize' it. When the feast ceases to be contemplation, a beautiful family feast with Jesus in the center, and begins to be a 'worldly' feast: shopping, gifts, this and that... then the Lord remains there, forgotten.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n