The annual Bless the Baby Jesus Devotion will be held on Sunday, December 18, 2011, at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul (18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia) as a part of the 11:00 a.m. Mass. The Main Celebrant will be Auxiliary Bishop Timothy Senior. Bless the Baby Jesus is an excellent opportunity for families and individuals to grow in faith as the "domestic church," praying together in anticipation of the coming of the Savior.

All in attendance are invited to bring an image or figurine of the Baby Jesus to be blessed by Bishop Senior during the service. Individuals and families may use this opportunity to begin the Season of Advent by placing their Baby Jesus in the crèche or other prominent place in their homes, making Him the center of their preparation for Christmas.

As a joint effort of the Family Life Office and Catholic Social Services, Bless the Baby Jesus also provides an opportunity to assist the less fortunate. Collection bins will be available at the Cathedral for donations of diapers and infant formula for mothers and families served by Catholic Social Services. We welcome you and your family to make time to pray together as the Church of Philadelphia, and enjoy this beautiful Advent Mass and devotion!

We always have little time; especially for the Lord, we do not know how or, sometimes, we do not want to find it. Well, God has time for us! This is the first thing that the beginning of a liturgical year makes us rediscover with ever new amazement. Yes, God gives us his time, because he entered history with his Word and his works of salvation to open it to eternity, to make it become a covenantal history. In this prospective, already in itself time is a fundamental sign of God's love: a gift that man, as with everything else, is able to make the most of or, on the contrary, to waste; to take in its significance or to neglect with obtuse superficiality.

Pope Benedict XVI