ANGELUS REFLECTIONS ON ADVENT, IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

VATICAN CITY, DEC 5, 1999 (VIS) - Speaking to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square to pray the angelus with him, Pope John Paul reflected today on the season of Advent, and on the December 8 solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

He began by citing the words in today's Gospel of John the Baptist "who cried out in the desert: 'Prepare the way for the Lord, set straight His paths'." The Pope said that "preparing the way for the Lord this year means preparing oneself to cross the threshold of the Holy Door, and thus to receive the superabundance of grace that Christ has brought to the world and which the Jubilee Year will place at everyone's disposition."

"Straighten out the Lord's paths." continued the Holy Father. "To meet our Redeemer means 'converting oneself', walking, that is, towards the Lord with joyous faith, abandoning those ways of thinking and living which impede us from following Him fully."

"In the face of the good news of a God who, for love of us, reveals Himself and takes on our human condition, we cannot fail to open our hearts to repentance; we cannot close ourselves in pride and hypocrisy, precluding the possibility of finding true peace. The shadow of the Holy Door, which is now near, reminds us that God is overflowing with tender and merciful love."

After meditating on the coming of the Redeemer, John Paul II spoke of His mother Mary and the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. He observed that "in Mary, 'full of grace' is what God intends to fulfill in every man. The Mother of the Redeemer was preserved from sin and filled with divine grace. Her spiritual beauty invites us to trust and to hope."

After praying the angelus, the Pope greeted blood donor organizers from the Italian Red Cross "who are gathered to remind the public of the need to donate blood. In Rome provisions are in short supply, and this situation will become more worrisome with the influx of so many pilgrims for the Jubilee." He urged those who could do so to donate blood, "thus performing an act of concrete solidarity."

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