[NYer]

AP - Thu Dec 8, 9:29 AM ET

Pope Benedict XVI holds a chalice during a Mass to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of Vatican Council II in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005. Among those who were eager participants at the 1962-1965 council but who later questioned whether its legacy was too loosely interpreted by liberal clergy was a young German theologian, Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict. (AP Photo / Pier Paolo Cito)

[Salvation]

**Dear brothers and sisters, as the crowning of this day, dedicated entirely to the Holy Virgin, following an ancient tradition, during the afternoon I shall go to Piazza di Spagna, to the foot of the statue of the Immaculate Conception. I ask you to join me spiritually on this pilgrimage, which endeavors to be an act of filial devotion to Mary, to commend to her the beloved city of Rome, the Church and the whole of humanity.**

Such a touching request.

[RobbyS]

2nd Reading for feats of the Immaculate conception. Ephesians 1:3 - 12 © Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ. Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless, and to live through love in his presence, determining that we should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ for his own kind purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved, And it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will; chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came

Christ would have come even if Adam and Eve had not been disobedient, to rule over the human race, a race unmarked by sin. This is Mary, the second Eve, who chose not to disobey and is the exemplar of the Elect.

[ELS]

Was this his Angelus address?

[cielo]

All I can say is thank God for giving him to us.

[trisham]

He looks tired.