When Gabriel departed from the Virgin Mary, she didn't start "thinking over what has happened and considering the problems and pitfalls, which were certainly not lacking: because, poor girl, she did not know what to do with this news, with the culture of that age ..."
What did she do instead? Pope Francis notes that she "first thinks of someone in need; instead of being absorbed in her own problems, she thinks about someone in need."
The Holy Father offered this as his advice for making the most of the Christmas season, before he led the faithful in a crowded St. Peter's Square in the midday Angelus on December 19.
"She arose and went. In the last stretch of the journey of Advent, let us be guided by these two verbs," the Pope advised. "To arise and to go in haste: these are the two movements that Mary made and that she invites us also to make as Christmas approaches."
Arise
Let us cast away our negative thoughts, Pope Francis urged, and cast out the fears that "block every impulse and that prevent us from moving forward."
And let's do as Mary did.
In haste
"In haste" doesn't mean with agitation and stress. "Instead, it means conducting our days with a joyful step, looking ahead with confidence, without dragging our feet, as slaves to complaints – these complaints ruin so many lives, because one starts complaining and complaining, and life drains away. Complaining leads you always to look for someone to blame."
