Pope prays for children, aged, sick and jobless at feet of Mary near Spanish Steps

(Dec.09,2008) Laying a basket of white roses at the foot of a statue of Mary, Pope Benedict XVI said Catholics can lay everything at the feet of their heavenly mother. “ Symbolically, these roses can express everything beautiful and good that we have done during the year," the Pope said during his visit to the center of Rome on Monday evening (Dec. 8 ) for the traditional ceremony alongside the statue of the Immaculate Conception near the Spanish Steps. "But, as the saying goes, 'Every rose has its thorn,” and the stems of these stupendous white roses are not lacking thorns, which represent the difficulties, sufferings and ills that have marked and still mark the lives of people and of our community," the Pope said.
Thousands of Romans and tourists jammed the square around the Spanish Steps to see the Pope and pray with him. Offering the roses to Mary, the Pope also entrusted to her - his special prayers for children, particularly those who are sick, disadvantaged or suffering because of family problems. He also prayed for elderly people living alone, for the sick, for immigrants struggling to build a new life in a new country, for families who barely make ends meet, and especially for people who recently have lost their jobs. "Mary, teach us to be in solidarity with those who are in difficulty, to bridge the increasingly vast social disparities” Pope Benedict prayed.
The Pope also noted that Dec. 8 marked the end of the yearlong celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes, who identified herself to St. Bernadette Soubirous as "the Immaculate Conception."