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Christmas with the poor
Christmas, a day of celebration for everybody, can become the saddest day of the year for the people who are homeless, alone, without family relationships. Christmas due to its character of family celebration, is a day in which people who have nobody or who are far from their family feel deeper lack of warmth and love. That is why since 1982 the Community of Sant�Egidio, wherever it is, has celebrated Christmas with the people who have nobody. The Christmas lunch with the poor: homeless, old, migrants, gypsy people.
The picture of this celebration recalls the words Jesus: �Then said he also to him that bade him, When you make a dinner or a supper, call not your friends, nor your brothers, neither your kinsmen, nor your rich neighbours; lest they also bid you again, and a recompence be made to you. But when you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you shall be blessed; for they cannot recompense you.� (Lk.14: 12-14) This lunch is now at his twentieth edition in Rome, (with more than 6.000 poor people at the table and thousands of people serving) but it is becoming an important tradition also in many Italian cities and in different parts of the world. In Rome and in several other cities of the world where the Community of Sant�Egidio is present, the Christmas lunch with the poor took place. But also where there is not a Community many people wanted to celebrate a different Christmas with the poor.
Thousands of young people, adults, families made themselves available to serve and to live this different Christmas to rediscover the sense of a deep celebration. Christmas lunch with the poor took place in the churches, Basilicas, but also in institutions for old people, in prisons, in the most different places and gathered more than 60.000 people all over the world.
In Latin America: in Buenos Aires, crashed into a very hard economic and social crisis, in the church of Nuestra Se�ora de la Merced, a few blocks from Plaza de Mayo where violent clashes with the police took place, the Christmas lunch gathered at the same table poor people together with the empobrecidos, the middle class people who are now living below the threshold of poverty. In Europe the Christmas lunch with the poor was celebrated also in the cities which celebrate the Orthodox Christmas. On January the 7th in Kiev, Moscow, Bucharest, Tiblisi in Georgia, homeless people, street kids, old people could celebrate Christmas in a warm family.
Many places at any latitude. For instance in Mozambique the Christmas lunch with the poor gathers street kids, people suffering from AIDS, beggars. It takes place also in prisons, where prisoners suffer for hunger everyday. They receive special food of feast days, together with friendship and companionship of young people who become close to them. In Rwanda and in Burundi at the Christmas lunch Hutu and Tutsi sat at the same table together with many street kids, children of the genocide which tormented the whole society. But also in Asia: Indonesia, young Christians served together many poor people, mainly Muslims.
Those poor people sitting, in friendship and joy, at the same table together with many people who are not poor, are a picture of hope. This picture, together with many little signs which are spreading and spreading, help us to hope in a better future.
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january 6, Sunday: Liturgy of the Sunday
Epiphany of the Lord
The Orthodox Church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan and his manifestation (epiphany) to the world.
january 7, Monday: Memory of the Poor
january 8, Tuesday: Memory of the Mother of the Lord
january 9, Wednesday: Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
january 10, Thursday: Memory of the Church
january 11, Friday: Memory of Jesus crucified
january 12, Saturday: Sunday Vigil
january 13, Sunday: Liturgy of the Sunday
Feast of the Baptism of Jesus
january 14, Monday: Memory of the Poor
january 15, Tuesday: Memory of the Mother of the Lord
Feast of the black Christ of Esquipulas, in Guatemala, venerated in all of Central America
january 16, Wednesday: Memory of the Church
For Muslims today is the feast of the pilgrimage to Mecca (�Aid-l-Kabir.)
january 17, Thursday: Memory of the Saints and the Prophets
Memory of St. Anthony, abbot.
He followed the Lord into the deserts of Egypt and is a father for many monks.
The Coptic, Syrian and Byzantine Rite Christians remember his nativity today.
Day of reflection on the relationship between Judaism and Christianity.
january 18, Friday: Memory of Jesus crucified
Today starts the week of prayer for the unity of Christians.
Special memory of the Catholic Church.
january 19, Saturday: Sunday Vigil
Prayer for the unity of the Churches.
Special memory of the Orthodox Churches
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