Pope Francis has begun 2025 by warning Christians against “imagining or inventing a God in the abstract” during his Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God.
During his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica on 1 January, Francis said there is a temptation that “many people today find attractive" to hold this abstract view that is “associated with some vague religious feeling or fleeting emotion”, and which he warned can "mislead many Christians”.
He explained: “No. God was ‘born of a woman’; he has a face and a name, and calls us to have a relationship with him. Christ Jesus, our Saviour, born of woman, has flesh and blood. Coming from the bosom of the Father, he takes flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
