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Introducing the Marian prayer this Sunday, December 28 in Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV meditated on the Gospel of the day which relates the story of the “flight into Egypt”. The Pope saw in the figure of Herod “a cruel and bloodthirsty man” but also “deeply alone and obsessed by the fear of being dethroned”. Unfortunately, he regretted, “the world still has its ‘Herods’, its myths of success at all costs, of unscrupulous power, of empty and superficial well-being”, which lead to “despair” and “conflicts”.
1Family prayer
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“Let us not let these mirages stifle the flame of love in Christian families,” implored Leo XIV. And to urge families to cultivate “the values of the Gospel”, starting with prayer. An invitation that he will reiterate in January on the occasion of the publication of the Pope’s monthly prayer intention: “Let us pray that prayer, based on the Word of God, nourishes our lives and is a source of hope within our communities, helping us to build a more fraternal and missionary Church.”
2Attendance of the sacraments
Pascal Deloche | Godong
Pope Leo XIV also urges Christian families to attend more of the sacraments, and in particular confession and communion. Leo unites with us by welcoming with joy what we bring and invites us to unite with Him by receiving and sharing with as much joy His gift of love. A gift of love that each Christian is then called to spread around him.
3domestic love
Inside Creative House I Shutterstock
On this day of the feast of the Holy Family, Leo XIV highlighted the essential virtues for maintaining the “flame of domestic love”, called to enlighten the whole world. For the Pope, this involves “healthy affections, sincere dialogue, fidelity, simplicity and the beauty of good words and gestures every day.” This is how families can be “a light of hope for the environments in which we live” and a “school of love”. He gave as a model Mary, Joseph and the Child Jesus, “the nest and cradle of the only possible response of salvation: that of God who, in total gratuity, gives himself to men without reserve and without pretension”.
Concluding his meditation, Leo
