It’s Christmas. The store windows are all decorated with golden ornaments, small Christmas trees, sales on precious gifts. At night, the streets shine with hanging lights or stars of Bethlehem; the trees lining the sidewalks, their boughs full of red, blue or white lights, create a surreal effect in the boulevards… There is an atmosphere of expectation. Everyone is touched by it… Christmas is not just a traditional feast: the birthday of a child born 2005 ago… Christmas is alive! Not only in churches with manger scenes, but among people in this climate of joy, friendship, and goodness that it brings with it each year. And yet, the world is still overwhelmed by huge problems: poverty to the point of famine, the earthquake victims in Pakistan, dozens of wars, terrorism, hate between cultures, but also among groups and between people… We need Love. We need Jesus to come back with power. Baby Jesus is always the immense gift of the Father to humanity, even though not everyone recognizes him. We have to offer our thanks to the Father also for them. We need to celebrate Christmas and renew our faith in the infant-God who came to save us, to create a new family of brothers and sisters united by love, extended all over the world. Let’s look around us… so that this love may reach everyone, but especially those who are in pain, who are most in need, all those who are alone, poor, small and ill…. May the communion with them of affection and goods make a family shine forth of true brothers and sisters who celebrate Christmas together and continue even beyond it. Who can resist the power of love? In preparing for Christmas, let us display gestures which bring about concrete action. They will be remedies to problems that may seem small, but applied on a vast scale, they can be light and solutions for the serious problems of the world. Merry Christmas to all of you! Chiara Lubich