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POPE-AUDIENCE Nov-23-2005 (290 words) With photos. xxxi
Prepare for Advent, Christmas with 'spiritual fervor,' pope says
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Wearing a heavy red cape to protect him from the cold, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged Christians to prepare for Advent, which begins Nov. 27, and for Christmas with "spiritual fervor."
"I ask you all to prepare for Advent with spiritual fervor, drawing from the word of God and the Eucharist interior energy for welcoming the Lord who comes," he said at the end of his Nov. 23 general audience.
Because more than 25,000 people requested free tickets to the audience, the morning gathering was held in St. Peter's Square, where the temperature stayed below 45 degrees Fahrenheit and a cold breeze blew.
In his main audience talk, the pope focused on the hymn of blessing found at the beginning of St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians.
The pope said the hymn picks up similar "blessings" found in the Jewish tradition, but praises God as the "Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
The central figure is Christ, "in whom the work of God the Father is revealed and accomplished," the pope said.
By professing that Christians are chosen in Christ, filled with abundant grace and are made adopted sons and daughters of God through Christ, the hymn underlines the Christian vocation to brotherhood, unity and holiness, the pope said.
The hymn, he said, emphasizes the "excess, the giving without limit or reserve" of God's grace out of love and the fact that all creation was destined from the beginning of time to be united in Christ.
Pope Benedict ended his talk by saying, "Let us pray: 'Yes, Lord, draw us to yourself, draw the world to yourself and give us peace.'"
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Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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