"Our Salvation Rests on a Coming": B16 as Father Advent

And for your St Nicholas' Day, folks, a fitting photo-flashback from the archives....

Looking back, what a wild morning that was -- put simply, on all sides of the aisle, seemingly everybody went nuts.

That said, the topic of the camauro's brief return on 23 December 2005 made a cameo appearance in the freshly-released Light of the World.

Asked why the winter piece came out after nearly a half-century in abeyance, the Pope recalled that "I was just cold, and I happen to have a sensitive head. And I said, since the camauro is there, then let’s put it on."

Given the "stir" over what most of the press dubbed his "Santa hat," however, Benedict added that "I haven’t put it on again since. In order to forestall over-interpretation."

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To weightier matters, at yesterday's Angelus, B16 again channeled one of his favorites -- Romano Guardini -- citing the 20th century Italian-German theologian on the meaning of Advent:

In the time of Advent, we too are called to listen to God's voice, which resounds in the desert of the world through the sacred Scriptures, especially when they are preached with the power of the Holy Spirit. Faith, in fact, is fortified the more that it is illuminated by the divine Word, by "all that which," as the Apostle Paul reminds us, "was written previously … for our instruction, that by endurance and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope" (Romans 15:4). The Virgin Mary is the model of listening: "As we contemplate in the Mother of God a life totally shaped by the word, we realize that we too are called to enter into the mystery of faith, whereby Christ comes to dwell in our lives. Every Christian believer, St. Ambrose reminds us, in some way interiorly conceives and gives birth to the word of God."

Dear friends, "our salvation rests on a coming," Romano Guardini wrote. "The Savior came from the freedom of God … Thus the decision of faith consists … in welcoming him who draws near to us". "The Redeemer," he adds, "comes to each man: in his joys and anxieties, in his moments of clarity, his perplexities and temptations, in everything that constitutes the nature of his life".

For more B16 nuggets on these days, the USCCB has rolled out a free e-book of daily papal meditations for the Advent and Christmas seasons.

PHOTOS: Reuters(2)

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