Sometimes, when you go out at night with your friends, you bring your smart phone and use it as a light. At huge concerts, thousands of you move these modern candles to the rhythm of the music; it is an impressive sight. At night, light makes us see things in a new way, and in the darkness a certain beauty shines forth. So it is with the light of hope which is Christ. From Jesus, from his resurrection, our lives take on light. With him, we see everything in a new light.

(~ from Pope Francis’ “A Light in the Night – Meditations on Hope.” (Jubilee 2025), ‘Lighting the Torch of Hope’)

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.

…Mary appears, in the Gospels as a silent woman, who often does not understand all that is happening around her, but who contemplates each word and each event in her heart.

(~ from Pope Francis’ “A Light in the Night – Meditations on Hope.” (Jubilee 2025), ‘Mother of Hope’)

He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

Mary experienced more than one night on her journey as a mother. Since her first appearance, in the narrative of the Gospels, her figure stands out as if she were a character in a drama. It was not easy to respond with a “yes” to the Angel’s invitation: yet she, a woman in the flower of her youth, responds with courage, despite knowing nothing of the fate that awaits her. In that instant, Mary appears to us as one of the many mothers of our world, courageous to the extreme when it comes to welcoming, in one’s own womb, the history of a new man to be born.

(~ from Pope Francis’ “A Light in the Night – Meditations on Hope.” (Jubilee 2025), ‘Mother of Hope’)

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.