The season of Advent is a moment of grace to help believers stop being presumptuous and pretending to be self-sufficient, Pope Francis said.

Stopping to gaze at and perhaps pray before a Nativity scene is one of the best ways to remember the real meaning of Christmas, Pope Francis said.

Making churches accessible and services understandable is important, but having wheelchair ramps and sign-language interpreters is not enough for a parish to call itself “inclusive,” Pope Francis said.

Reflecting on the horror and the events of the intervening years after the Sandy Hook school shootings, Msgr. Robert Weiss said: “Gratitude sustains me. I pray a lot and try to keep myself in the Lord’s hands.”

Parishioners at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Minneapolis, about half of whom are deaf, had the chance to attend Mass celebrated by the first deaf man ordained a Roman Catholic priest in the U.S., Father Tom Coughlin.