Christmas preparations should include time for silence, pope says

Published: 2003-12-22

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians should avoid suffocating Christmas in "noise and confusion," and instead make time for quiet reflection and spiritual preparation, Pope John Paul II said. The pope made the remarks before his Sunday noon blessing Dec. 21, delivered from his apartment window above St. Peter's Square. He appeared in relatively good form a few days before presiding over Christmas liturgies at the Vatican. The pope said that the final week before Christmas was when most people put finishing touches on the Christmas tree and creche, but more importantly it offered a time to "prepare the soul" in order to experience the event as a mystery of faith. He said Mary illustrates the right approach to Christmas in the way that she showed humility, silence, amazement and joy at the birth of Christ. "She urges us above all to have humility, so that God can find space in our hearts unclouded by pride and arrogance," he said.

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