Where is the feast to be held?
Anywhere. Primarily where there is pain and sorrow. A Christmas Lunch can be done in a church or in a house, also in a children’s home, in a nursing home, in a prison, in a hospital, even on the street. Because the goal is to bring joy in the darkest, in the coldest, in the most remote and deserted corners of the World.
IMAGES FROM THE CHRISTMAS LUNCHES 2018
This way the celebration can reach everyone in every place. We can party even in a sad place. The Community wants to celebrate Christmas on the street, in jail, in a care home, where lonely people live: children, elderly people, people affected by diseases, prisoners. There, for one day at least, the burden of disease and loneliness can be forgotten.
We could see that in many dinner on the street with homeless people, in the cold cities of the North, where among the Christmas lights and the rich store windows many poor are neglected, and in the less rich cities of the South also. Even there, food, a simple present, a humble Nativity, the Christmas Tree, music, and above all friendship, joy, and care to everybody are the usual ‘ingredients’ of a party which is always beautiful because it is full of love for the suffering.
The Christmas miracle
Christmas is somehow a miracle: it’s a miracle the smiling faces of so many people oppressed by the tiredness of life. It’s a miracle that many who don’t lack nothing (but have lost the genuine meaning of the feast) understand they can be very helpful.
It is a miracle the multiplication of the poor resources we had: we realised that what we lack can be achieved involving those who wants to do something for the others. Even those who wants to do a little thing. Even once a year. To give the miracle a chance it’s worth knocking every door to collect what can be useful for the feast. Therefore we ask friends, colleagues, shopkeepers, people met on the street. So the miracle happens again every year: we always find what is needed to set such a huge table all over the world.
It’s a miracle too the fact that believers of every religions can find a seat at that table and a place in the celebration. Serving and being served a movement of hearts has been born: they trust that the World can be saved through faith, peace, and goodwill among all human beings.
