Vatican City, Nov 29, 2009 / 09:31 am
Pope Benedict XVI welcomed the beginning of a new liturgical year during his traditional addresses before and after the Angelus from the window of the Apostolic Palace on St. Peter's square today. His words included a message concerning the relevance of Christ to all the world and prayers for the fight against AIDS.
Before reciting the Angelus, the Pope spoke to the thousands of pilgrims gathered in the square of how the liturgical year is seen from different perspectives and how Christ is relevant in all of them.
The Second Vatican Council, he said, established that the Church should "present the entire mystery of Christ in the annual cycle, from the Incarnation and Nativity to the Ascension, to the day of Pentecost and the expectation of the blessed hope in the return of the Lord."
The Holy Father presented a metaphor for the Council's insistence on the centrality of the liturgy of Christ, saying that He is like "the sun, around which, as planets do, revolves the Blessed Virgin Mary - the closest of all - and then the martyrs and other saints that 'in Heaven sing with God the perfect praise and intercede for us.' "