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The Christmas atmosphere has also reached the Pontifical Palace of Castel Gandolfo, brightening it up with the climate of the season’s festivities. as indicated by a series of events that took place on Tuesday morning, 10 December, including the inauguration of a nativity scene and the lighting of a Christmas tree.
Christmas music, melodies and lights brightened the darkness of the night. The much-anticipated moment has arrived, when people can admire the nativity scene and see the Christmas tree lights in Saint Peter’s Square. Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga and Sr. Raffaella Petrini, respectively, President and Secretary General, of the Governorate of Vatican City State, inaugurated the nativity scene from Grado and lit the 29-metre red fir Christmas tree, from Ledro, during a ceremony on Saturday evening, 7 December before a crowd of people.
The mobile Post Office in Saint Peter’s Square has officially “retired”. It made its last journey, heading to the junkyard, on Thursday morning, 5 December.
On Thursday morning, 5 December, a mosaic depicting Christ Pantocrator, made by young people with disabilities and their teachers, was officially inaugurated in the Vatican Gardens. The impressive mosaic was the result of a collaboration with the mosaics laboratory of the Centro di Riabilitazione Ada “Ceschin Pilone” (rehabilitation centre) of the Institute of the Trinitarian Fathers of Venosa-Bernalda. Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, presided over the inauguration ceremony.
The beautiful tapestry, “The Stoning of Saint Stephen”, by Raffaello Sanzio, will be on display in the Sala dei Papi (Hall of Popes) of Castel Gandolfo’s Pontifical Palace, while the painting, “The Adoration of the Child”, by Domenico Bigordi, known as Ghirlandaio, will be on display in the Palace’s lower floor, along with four paintings of the Nativity by Masters of the 15th century.
The mystery of Mary is a mystery of “spoliation and annihilation, of hiddenness and littleness, of humility and service”, said Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, presiding over day 7 of the Immaculate Conception Novena, on Thursday evening, 5 December, in Rome’s Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles. A Eucharistic Concelebration was celebrated in the Basilica cared for by the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, prior to the recital of the Rosary and the litanies.
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