The Christmas letter Pope Benedict XVI wrote to Baby Jesus as a child: This is so sweet! Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) is 94 years old, and he wrote a beautiful Christmas letter to Jesus as a child. He wrote the letter at age 7 in 1934.
Dear Baby Jesus
According to Italian website Korazym, the letter was found in 2012 during his childhood home’s restoration in Bavaria, which was transformed into a museum dedicated to the former pontiff. Here’s the text of Pope Benedict XVI’s Christmas letter to Jesus:
"Dear Baby Jesus, soon you will come down to earth. You will bring joy to children. You’ll bring joy to me too. I would like the Volks-Schott, a green chasuble for Mass, and a Sacred Heart of Jesus. I’ll always be good."
Joseph Ratzinger, Christmas 1934
Pope Benedict said his favorite season is Advent, or the pre-Christmas season. "Every year, our nativity scene grew by a few figures, and it was always a special one," he said. "The joy of fetching moss, juniper, and fir branches from the forest with my father."
Explanation of Gifts
Here’s each of the requested gifts explained:
(1) The young Ratzinger requested the Volks-Schott missal, which helped helped him fall in love with the liturgy.
(2) He also requested a green chasuble because he played a parish priest’s game with his brother. "As boys, my two brothers loved to act out the Sunday service," Pope Benedict's sister Maria Ratzinger said in 1991.
"We celebrated Mass and we had chasubles made by our mother's seamstress just for us," Pope Benedict's late brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger told Inside the Vatican. "One time, in turn, we were the minister or the altar boy."
(3) Lastly, the young Benedict requested the Sacred Heart of Jesus because of his family’s devotion to Him.
Pope Benedict’s private secretary, Georg Gänswein, told German news outlet Bild that he "was very happy when the letter appeared and smiled with content. For him, the scent of moss belongs to Christmas to this day."
Please say a prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI!
+JMJ+
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