{"id":305752,"date":"2017-12-19T01:10:19","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T00:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/a-place-for-jesus-at-christmas\/"},"modified":"2024-05-15T20:36:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T18:36:03","slug":"a-place-for-jesus-at-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/a-place-for-jesus-at-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"A Place For Jesus At Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

It no longer seems paradoxical to have to reinsert Jesus into Christmas. <\/strong>During this season, especially in affluent countries, consumerism and a certain sentimentalism blur or even exclude the centrality of Jesus. It wasn\u2019t very different two thousand years ago: On their way to Bethlehem, they couldn\u2019t find a place to stay. Mary and Joseph had to make do with a makeshift shelter where the Child could be born. All over the world the Gen4<\/a> are saying:\u201cThey\u2019ve evicted Jesus<\/strong>.\u201d \u201cAt least in our homes, let\u2019s celebrate as loud as we can the One who is born!\u201d <\/strong>Chiara Lubich i<\/a>nvited them to \u201clet Jesus be born in their midst, through love.\u201d This led to the idea in 1996 of making small statues of the Baby Jesus and giving them away to people rushing by on the streets, perhaps mindless of the fact that Christmas was primarily a celebration of Jesus. \u201cWe tell the people: \u2018Do you want to take Him home to your house?\u2019 Some say no, some move on without even stopping. But others stop and we give them these small statues, or the mangers we made. In the squares of big cities, in the commercial centres, in the homes for the elderly \u2013 our booths draw people\u2019s attention . . . or the parties we organize for children. It\u2019s like a wave of happiness that overcomes everybody and places, Jesus, the One we\u2019re really celebrating, at the centre of Christmas.\u201d Before trying to give Jesus to other people, <\/strong>the children try to know him better. A two-day meeting for Gen4 was held recently in the Focolare town,<\/a> in Tagaytay, Philippines<\/a>. At the end everyone wrote a letter to Jesus. Sam wrote: <\/strong>\u201cJesus is my hero. Whenever I\u2019m afraid, he protects me. When I\u2019m good to other people, I\u2019m like him.\u201d Kenneth: <\/strong>\u201cI pray to you that my family will not separate.\u201d Gioia <\/strong>writes about having learned how to love everyone, \u201ceven my enemies, to be the first to love, sharing the joys and sorrows of others.\u201d April: <\/strong>\u201cThank you for giving me parents and a good sister.\u201d In many parts of the world they are challenging the cold, the problems and indifference with a disarming smile, candour and warmth that is typical of their age. The Gen4 present an unedited view onto Christmas, returning the attention to its real meaning. In Central America <\/strong>Christmas the Gen4 from El Salvador<\/a> the Dominican Republic<\/a> celebrated with the Posadas <\/em>that recall the difficulty Mary and Joseph had in finding a place to stay. Eight-year-old Walter Francisco is an active member of the Gen4: <\/strong>\u201cOffering our Jesus to all the people who came by us, was really very nice!\u201d Adriana and Juan Pablo <\/strong>are nine and six year old brothers. \u201cFirst we went to a home for orphan children and share a meal with them. Then we went to give away our Baby Jesus, and the money that some people gave to us we gave to the poor.\u201d \u00abLi abbiamo portati anche ai bambini che puliscono i vetri delle macchine ai semafori\u00bb. The local Focolare community of Santa Tecla <\/strong>held a food and toy drive for the occasion. More than forty children <\/strong>worked on making 270 statues of the Ni\u00f1ito, <\/em>which they made with much love and care and offered to shoppers on the street, in several parishes and in a kindergarten: \u201cJesus can be born again today in everyone\u2019s hearts,\u201d they told us. The money donated, was sent to the children of Puerto Rico.<\/strong>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cChristmas is drawing near and the streets of the city are being decorated with lights. The world of wealth has lassoed Christmas and evicted Jesus!\u201d These words of Chiara Lubich prompted a project by the children of the Focolare Movement, which has been held every year since 1996.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305752\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}