VATICAN CITY, 3 JAN 2010 (VIS) - "On this Sunday - the second after Christmas and the first of the new year - I am happy to renew my best wishes for all good in the Lord", said the Pope before praying the Angelus with faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.
"There is no lack of problems, in the Church and in the world, as well as in the everyday life of families. But, thanks to God, our hope does not take account of improbable prognostications, and not even of economic forecasts, important though they may be.
"Our hope is in God", the Pope added, "but not in the sense of a generic religiosity, or of a fatalism dressed up as faith. We trust in the God Who in Jesus Christ fully and definitively revealed His will to remain with men and women, to share their history and to guide us all to His Kingdom of love and life. It is this great hope that animates and sometimes corrects our human hopes".
"Humanity's real reason for hope is this: history has a meaning because it is 'inhabited' by the Wisdom of God. Nonetheless the divine plan is not accomplished automatically, because it is a project of love and love generates freedom and demands freedom. The Kingdom of God will certainly come - or rather, its is already present in history and thanks to the coming of Christ has already defeated the negative power of evil - but each man and woman is responsible for welcoming it into their own lives day by day. And hence the year 2010 will be more or less 'happy' in the measure to which each person ... is able to collaborate with the grace of God".
The Holy Father called upon the faithful to turn to the Virgin Mary "in order to learn this spiritual attitude from her. The Son of God became flesh through her, and not without her consent. Each time the Lord wishes to take a step forward, with us, towards the 'promised land', He first knocks at the doors of our heart and, so to speak, awaits our 'yes', in the little choices as in the great.
"May Mary", the Pope added in conclusion, "help us always to welcome God's will with humility and courage so that even the trials and sufferings of life my help to hasten the coming of His Kingdom of justice and peace".
ANG/HOPE/... VIS 20100104 (420)
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