Bethlehem Tag

Belén 2023
HOLY LAND, Maria Fischer • “And our heart tonight is in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace continues to be rejected by the losing logic of war, with the roar of weapons that also today prevent him from finding an inn in the world (cf. Lk 2:7),” Pope Francis told us on Christmas Eve. Not only our heart, I thought. Also our name. Our names, sent during Advent (or already before) to the monks of Dormitio Abbey in Jerusalem, who, as they did years ago, wrote these names on aRead More
HOLY LAND, Maria Fischer • “I carry your name to Bethlehem in the Holy Night”: what the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Dormition in Jerusalem have been doing for many years on the Holy Night has a special touch this year. In this Christmas marked by hatred, violence, and unimaginable suffering, they will carry the names of people from many nations and languages to Bethlehem. — “We are witnessing in these days a violence against children, women and men that can hardly be expressed in words. In deed andRead More
Weihnachten 2021
Christmas  2021 • “To accept littleness means something else too. It means embracing Jesus in the little ones of today. Loving him, that is, in the least of our brothers and sisters. Serving him in the poor, those most like Jesus who was born in poverty. It is in them that he wants to be honoured. ” On the second Christmas marked by the pandemic, and in the midst of the shocking, the outrageous, the horrible that is happening in the world and to which we must never become accustomed,Read More
Pope Francis, Christmas 2020 • No, Christmas is not cancelled. Not in lockdown, not with contact restrictions, not for all who are alone, not even with Christmas Mass canceled. Because a child is born to us, a son is given to us. In a Christmas Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica marked by pandemic-related restrictions, Pope Francis recalled the essence of Christmas. God’s Son came, Francis said “came to make us, as God’s children, holy by grace.  Yes, God came into the world as a child to make us children ofRead More
FRANCIS IN ROME – CHRISTMAS IN THE HOLY YEAR OF MERCY • “Like the shepherds of Bethlehem, may we too, with eyes full of amazement and wonder, gaze upon the Child Jesus, the Son of God. And in his presence may our hearts burst forth in prayer: Show us, Lord, your mercy, and grant us your salvation,” Pope Francis wished the faithful who joined him for 2015 Midnight Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Francis called on the faithful to allow themselves to be embraced by the Christ Child and toRead More