Holy Father Pope Francis took his cue from the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist and from the Gospel reading of the day to reflect on how parents, when generating a child “act as co-workers of God”. To the crowds of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the Sunday Angelus, the Pontiff said that in “every human person there is the imprint of God, the source of life” and he described the role of parents in generating a child as a truly sublime mission that makes each family a sanctuary of life”.
As reported by Vatican news, Holy Father Pope Francis remarked that ““It is necessary, he said, to learn to trust and remain silent before the mystery of God and to contemplate in humility and silence his work, which reveals itself in history and which often surpasses our imagination. Awe, surprise and gratitude were the sentiments surrounding the birth of John the Baptist, and he pointed out that the faithful immediately understood that something great – although humble and private – had taken place”, and they asked themselves: What, then, will this child be?”
His Holiness Pope Francis concluded his remarks by reminding that “Parents are collaborators of God when they generate life, and this sublime mission makes each family a sanctuary of life where the birth of every child reawakens the joy, the wonder, the gratitude”.
