Pope Francis added: “We need this in the Church, where, instead of splitting into groups based on our own ideas, we are called to put God back at the center.”
After the Mass, the pope continued to reflect on the Magi’s example when he delivered his Angelus reflection for an estimated 40,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
He said the adoration of God is akin to “finding the path of life again in the simplicity of a silence that nourishes the heart.”
Confronted with this reality, Christians ought to remain in awe at the coming of Christ, for “if we stay in front of baby Jesus and in the company of children we will learn to be amazed and we will start again simpler and better, like the Magi,” Pope Francis said, adding that “we will be able to have new perspectives, creative perspectives when faced with the problems of the world.”
The pope closed his reflection by asking the faithful to reflect on several questions.
“In these days, have we stopped to adore, have we made a little space for Jesus in silence, praying before the crib? Have we dedicated time to the children, to speaking and playing with them?” he asked. “And finally, are we able to see the problems of the world through the eyes of children?”
Following the recitation of the Angelus prayer, Francis marked the anniversary of the seminal meeting in Jerusalem between Pope St. Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964.
Hailed as a turning point in ecumenical relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, the historic encounter broke “a wall of incommunicability that for centuries had kept Catholics and Orthodox apart,” the Holy Father observed.
Matthew Santucci is a CNA Rome correspondent based in EWTN’s Vatican bureau. He grew up in Connecticut and has been living in Rome since 2020. He has a B.A. in History from Fordham and an M.A. in International Relations from Luiss Guido Carli.
Credit: Source link
