{"id":27978,"date":"2013-12-02T11:30:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T16:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=27978"},"modified":"2016-09-30T15:59:34","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T19:59:34","slug":"pope-francis-christmas-is-an-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2013\/12\/pope-francis-christmas-is-an-encounter\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis: “Christmas is an encounter”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From his daily homily<\/a><\/strong> today:<\/p>\n

In his homily at the Santa Marta guesthouse on this, the first Monday of Advent, Pope Francis recalled that as we proceed towards Christmas, we embark on a journey of faith and prayer in preparation for our encounter with the Lord. \u201cBecause Christmas,\u201d he said, isn\u2019t just a temporal celebration or the memory of a beautiful (event).\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cChristmas is something more,\u201d he said, \u201cChristmas is an encounter\u201d with the Lord. And as we make our way towards Him, we must go with open heart and faith, even though this is not always easy.<\/p>\n

Speaking of today\u2019s reading about the Roman centurion, who with great faith begs the Lord to heal his slave, the Pope said we are like this centurion on a pilgrimage of faith \u201cto encounter the Lord and most of all, to allow ourselves to be encountered by Him.\u201d<\/p>\n

We must allow ourselves to be encountered by Him, the Pope repeated, to allow Him to enter us. \u201cIt is He who makes all new\u2026.Christ renews the heart, the soul , life, hope\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lord does not always say to us what we want to hear, noted the Pope, but: He will tell me what is meant for me \u201cbecause the Lord does not look at us all together, en masse.\u201d \u201cHe looks each one of us in the face , in the eyes.\u201d His is not an abstract love; \u201cit is concrete,\u201d the Pope said. The Lord looks at me in a personal way. And \u201cletting ourselves be encountered by God means just this: letting ourselves be loved by God!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From his daily homily today: In his homily at the Santa Marta guesthouse on this, the first Monday of Advent, Pope Francis recalled that as we proceed towards Christmas, we embark on a journey of faith and prayer in preparation for our encounter with the Lord. \u201cBecause Christmas,\u201d he said, isn\u2019t just a temporal celebration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pope"],"yoast_head":"\nPope Francis: "Christmas is an encounter"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From his daily homily today: In his homily at the Santa Marta guesthouse on this, the first Monday of Advent, Pope Francis recalled that as we proceed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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