From his Private Library, the Holy Father met with the faithful gathered in the Vatican's Paul VI Audience Hall via television.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I greet you all with affection, gathered in this Hall for our customary Wednesday meeting. I cordially thank you for coming.

1. In Psalm 116[114] that has just been proclaimed, the voice of the Psalmist expresses gratitude and love for the Lord after he has granted his anguished plea:  "I love the Lord for he has heard the cry of my appeal; for he turned his ear to me in the day when I called him" (vv. 1-2). This declaration of love is immediately followed by a vivid description of the mortal dread that has gripped the man in prayer (cf. vv. 3-6).

1. The "Week of Prayer for Christian Unity" began yesterday. These days of reflection and prayer are particularly timely for reminding Christians that the re-establishment of full unity among them, in accordance with the will of Jesus, involves every baptized person, all pastors and all the faithful (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 5).

1. The hymn that has just resounded ideally comes down from heaven. In fact, the Book of Revelation that presents it links the first part (cf. 11: 17-18) to the "twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God" (11: 16), and in the second strophe (cf. 12: 10-12) to "a loud voice in heaven" (12: 10).

1. Dear Brothers and Sisters, I am pleased to welcome you to this first General Audience of 2005. In this holy season we contemplate the great mystery of the birth of Jesus, in whom God definitively enters history and offers salvation to men and women of all times and places.

1. "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son" (Heb 1: 1-2).

1. At this time of the final preparation for the Christmas celebrations, the liturgy presents to us repeatedly the invocation "Come, Lord Jesus". It is like a refrain that wells up from the hearts of believers in every corner of the earth and ceaselessly echoes in the prayer of the Church.

1. The Liturgy of Vespers, which we are following through its series of Psalms, presents to us in two stages Psalm 72[71], a royal and messianic hymn. After meditating on the first part (cf. vv. 1-11; [ORE], 8 December 2004, p. 11), we now have before us the second poetic and spiritual movement of this hymn dedicated to the glorious figure of the Messiah-King (vv. 12-19). We must immediately point out, however, that the finale of the last two verses (cf. vv. 18-19) is actually a later liturgical addition to the Psalm.

1. The Liturgy of Vespers, on whose psalms and canticles we are systematically commenting, presents in two parts one of the Psalms dearest to Jewish and Christian tradition: Psalm 72[71], a royal hymn on which the Fathers of the Church meditated, reinterpreting it in a Messianic key.