Born of a Virgin and entrusted to the paternal care of a carpenter, God’s own Son will learn his father’s trade and fashion, from the things of this earth, works to serve others, but none so great as the wooden Cross on which he fashioned the world’s salvation. As one day, the beaten, bruised and bloody hands of Jesus will be fastened to the Cross in a gesture of love’s embrace, already now his tender and innocent hands reach out not just to Mary and to Joseph, but to each of us, to embrace us, sinners and saints, in the love of God this Christmas day.

Faced with the reality of violence against religion in the Middle East, one questions why the facts of the religious persecution and the slaughter of Christians receive such scant coverage in the media. What would the world look like without Christianity? One shudders to imagine.

he Christ child was a gift to Mary and Joseph and to the whole world. So is every other child! A child is not a right, but a gift to be received, cherished and loved by a mother and a father. To tar this truth with the deceptive branch of bigotry will ultimately destroy the roots of a healthy society.