LETTER FOR CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR
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Christmas in Europe is a festivity that belongs to all. It
is a family feast, especially for children. A time when one is
able to express friendship and sharing without leaving any body
alone.
"You will find a child" The distant God that
men and women have searched for thousands of years has come close.
He has become visible in this newborn baby in swaddling clothes
resting in a manger in Bethlehem. He took the visage of a child.
Christmas is a birth, the birth of the Infant-God. God comes
among us, in our humanity.
The shepherds of Bethlehem did not get any evidence. There is
no proof for Christmas. They had a sign: " You will find
a child" No other sign is given. If God comes to us with
the weakness and the simplicity of a child, without imposing
himself, will we be able to find his presence? Even through the
slender signs of ordinary daily life? It is the face of a child
that the shepherds came to see, and they went back full of joy,
singing God's praises.
Receive my best wishes for Christmas and the New Year with this
prayer taken from the First Testament that Saint Francis used.
"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee,
The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace."
(Numbers 6, 24)
