Pope invites all to imitate the recollection of Mary and Joseph

(December 22, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday invited all Christians to learn from Mary and Joseph the secret of recollection in order to relish the joy of Christmas. Speaking before the traditional weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer with a large crowd of pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope commented on Sunday’s Gospel episode of the Annunciation. “Just a few days from the feast of Christmas, we are invited to fix our eyes on the ineffable mystery that Mary kept for nine months in her virginal womb: the mystery of God who becomes man.” “This is the first hinge of redemption,” he said speaking from his studio window overlooking the square. “The second,” he said, “is the death and resurrection of Jesus, and these two inseparable hinges manifest a single divine plan: to save humanity and its history by assuming them to the utmost, taking on the entire weight of all the evil oppressing them.” He urged all to learn from Mary and Joseph, “the secret of recollection, in order to savour the joy of Christmas.”

Pope Benedict also used his ‘Angelus’ to speak on the unity between faith and science saying understanding the laws of nature can stimulate understanding and appreciation of the Lord’s works. Noting that with the winter solstice on Dec 21^st, the days in the northern hemisphere start to get longer, the Pope said, “this highlights the fact that Christ is the son of grace, who, with his light, “transfigures and ignites the expectant universe.” He greeted all those who will be participating in various ways in the initiatives for UNESCO’s World Year of Astronomy, 2009, to mark the 400^th anniversary of the first telescopic observations of Galileo Galilei, whose scientific theories that the sun and not the earth was the centre of the universe had drawn the wrath of the Church. However, Pope Benedict specified, some of his predecessors were devotees of this science, like Sylvester II, who taught it, Gregory XIII, to whom we owe our calendar, and St. Pius X, who knew how to make sundials. There is therefore a friendship between faith and science, astronomy and faith. If according to Psalm 19, the heavens ‘proclaim the glory of God’, Pope Benedict said, then the laws of nature, are also a great stimulus to contemplate with gratitude the works of the Lord.”

Pope Benedict also greeted English-speaking pilgrims in St. Peter's Squre. Listen: