Pope Benedict celebrates Advent 2010

29 Nov 2010

Related videos from the Vatican

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Saint Joseph announced the marvels of the Lord and bore witness to Mary’s virginity, God’s selfless deed, whilst protecting the early life of the Messiah. Let us venerate Jesus’ lawful father, because in him we see a new man, who looked to the future with confidence and courage, who disregarded his own goals, but entrusted himself completely to the infinite mercy of the One who fulfils prophecies and opens time to salvation.

On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, Pope Benedict XVI wanted to tell about the birth of Jesus from the perspective of St. Joseph. He was betrothed to Mary, who, “before they lived together, was found with child through the Holy Spirit.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr7VBEKMNVk

Inauguration of the Christmas Tree in St Peter’s Square

20 December 2010 | On a cold winter afternoon, St Peter’s Square was dressed in light, a light of hope that shines forth from the dawn of time and speaks to humanity of the savior’s birth. The Christmas tree in the middle of the Square was inaugurated Friday in a ceremony that is much beloved of Romans and pilgrim faithful, alike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZNhtGqI2j8

Third Sunday of Advent

12 December 2010 | Before the Angelus prayer on Sunday, recited by the window of his study above St Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict said St James wrote about the value of perseverance and patience, they virtues of our fathers that are now less popular in a world that exalts change. Advent calls us instead to increase “tenacity that inner strength in the soul that enables us not to despair waiting for a good that is slow to come.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtL73otr6fM

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

8 December 2010 | On the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Benedict XVI made his traditional veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, laying a wreath at the foot of a monument in Piazza di Spagna in Rome. But the most beautiful gift, he said, “is our prayer”, thanksgiving for the gift of faith and the good we receive from God and prayer “for any difficulties that life brings us.” And in his prayer, the Pope thanked the Immaculate Mother, for “always being with us”and he asked her to watch over the City, comforting the sick, encouraging young people, and supporting families:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0PnyZburo

Second Sunday of Advent

5 December 2010 | “In Advent we are called to hear God’s voice, echoing in the wilderness of the world through the Holy Scriptures, especially when preached with the power of the Holy Spirit.” Speaking to the faithful gathered in St.Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer on the second Sunday of Advent Pope Benedict said faith is strengthened when it is enlightened by the Word of God, for whatever was written previously – as the Apostle Paul reminds us – was written for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0PnyZburo

First Sunday of Advent

28 November 2010 | “Our moral and spiritual stature can be measured by that, which we await, and that, in which we hope.” These were some of the words of Pope Benedict XVI at the Angelus prayer with the faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square on the first Sunday of Advent:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QPTouC1CRc

Vigil for Unborn Life

27 November 2010 | “The embryo in the maternal womb” is not “a pile of organic material,” but a “new living being, dynamic and wonderfully ordered, a new and unique individual of the human species,” “so it was for Jesus in Mary’s womb, so was for each of us in our mother’s womb.” With these words, Pope Benedict XVI once again stressed the duty to preserve “nascent life,” which is, he said, “most fragile, most threatened by adults, by selfishness and the willful darkening of consciences.” The Holy Father was speaking during the solemn celebration on Saturday evening of First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent in St Peter’s Basilica, as part of an unprecedented worldwide vigil for unborn life:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZoZuLGnGhc