Pope Leo XIV asked children to pray in front of their Nativity scenes this Christmas and, especially, to pray "that all the world's children may live in peace."

Clutching their creche figurines of the baby Jesus, thousands of children gathered in St. Peter's Square Dec. 21 to have Pope Leo bless the little statues after the midday recitation of the Angelus prayer.

"Dear children, as you stand before your Nativity scenes, please pray to Jesus for the pope's intentions," he told them. "In particular, let us pray together that all the world's children may live in peace."

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In his main Angelus address, Pope Leo focused on the day's Gospel reading about St. Joseph and how an angel told him in a dream that Mary was pregnant and that he should not be afraid to take her as his wife.

The Gospel of St. Matthew portrays St. Joseph as a man of "piety and charity, mercy and abandonment" to God's will, the pope said.

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As Christmas draws near, he said, all Christians should cultivate the same values because they are "important attitudes that educate the heart to encounter Christ and our brothers and sisters."

"They can also help us to be, for one another, a welcoming manger, a hospitable home, a sign of God's presence," Pope Leo said. "In this time of grace, let us not waste the opportunity to practice them: forgiving, encouraging, giving a little hope to those with whom we live and those we meet; and renewing in prayer our filial abandonment to the Lord and his providence, entrusting everything to him with confidence."

The day before, Pope Leo had held the last of his special Jubilee general audiences in St. Peter's Square. The Holy Year ends Jan. 6.

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"The Jubilee is coming to an end," the pope told visitors and pilgrims. "However, the hope that this year has given us does not finish: we will continue to be pilgrims of hope!"

"To hope is to see this world become God's world, the world in which God, human beings and all creatures walk together again," Pope Leo said.