VATICAN CITY, JAN 7, 2007 (VIS) - In the Sistine Chapel today, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord which concludes the liturgical time of Christmas, the Pope baptized 13 newborn babies from various countries.
"Each child born," said the Holy Father in his homily, "brings to us the smile of God and invites us to recognize that life is His gift, a gift that must be accepted with love and protected with care, always and at all times."
"Each child born is entrusted by God to its parents. How important, then, is the family founded upon marriage! The cradle of life and of love."
After highlighting the fact that "Baptism is adoption and assumption into the family of God, in communion with the Holy Trinity," the Pope affirmed that newborns, "from being children of human parents, become also children of God in the living Son of God."
"In Baptism we are adopted by the heavenly Father," said Pope Benedict, "but in His family there is also a mother, the Mother Church."
"Christianity is not just a spiritual reality, an individual reality, a simple subjective decision that I take, but something real, something concrete, perhaps even something material. The family of God is built within the concrete reality of the Church."
The Holy Father called upon the parents and godparents of the children just baptized to teach them "to pray and to feel themselves to be active members of the real family of God, of the ecclesial community."
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of that Catechism, ... could prove an extremely useful and exact tool to help you to grow in your own knowledge of Catholic faith, and to transmit it fully and faithfully to your offspring. Above all, do not forget that it is your testimony, your example, that has the greatest influence on the human and spiritual growth of ... your children."
HML/BAPTISMS/... VIS 20070108 (340)
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