VATICAN CITY CNS – Christmas is a reminder that people can encounter God in ordinary, everyday places, Pope Leo XIV said.
Born as a baby in Bethlehem, God chose to “reveal himself in a human setting,” the Pope said in a speech Dec. 13 to musicians and organizers of the Vatican’s annual Christmas concert.
“He does not use impressive scenery, but a simple home; he does not show himself from afar, but draws near; he does not remain in an inaccessible place in heaven, but reaches us in the very heart of our little stories,” he said.
The Pope was speaking to organizers, singers and musicians taking part in the 2025 edition of the annual concert, which began in 1993.
Christmas, he said, “reminds us that God chooses a human setting to reveal himself.” And, as such, ” he reveals to us that everyday life – just as it is – can become the place where we encounter him.”
During this Christmas season, the Pope said, “may music be the place of the soul: a space where the heart finds its voice, bringing us closer to God and making our humanity ever more inspired by his love.”
Normally held in the Paul VI Audience Hall, the concert Dec. 13 was held in a large auditorium on the Via della Conciliazione, the wide boulevard leading to St. Peter’s Square.
Pope Leo attended a different concert in the Vatican audience hall Dec. 12.
That event, organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Pontifical Foundation “Gravissimum Educationis,” was conducted by the renowned Italian musician, Riccardo Muti, who also received the 2025 Ratzinger Prize from the Pope during the event. The Ratzinger Prize, a sort of “Nobel Prize in Theology,” honors two scholars each year, chosen by the Pope from among candidates recommended by a committee of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation, which supports theological research and promotes studies on the theology and teaching of the retired Pope.
“I extend my greeting to Maestro Riccardo Muti, to whom today the Ratzinger Prize is being awarded (as a) a sign of appreciation for a life entirely consecrated to music,” the Pope told the conductor at the conclusion of the concert in the audience hall.
“I am very grateful for this concert, on the occasion of the birth of the Lord,” he said.
“Music is a special path for understanding the highest dignity of the human being and for confirming one’s most authentic vocation,” he said, recalling St. Augustine’s teaching, which linked music to “the art of guiding the heart toward God.”
Bringing harmony to the world, the Pope said, is to “hold together differences that could clash, allowing them to generate a higher unity. Silence too contributes to this purpose: it is not an absence of something, it is preparation, because in it the possibility of the word is formed; when there is a pause, truth emerges.”