Pope Benedict XVI hopes that the financial crisis will help people focus on the spiritual meaning of Christmas this year rather than the commercial gift-giving which has over taken the celebration in recent years.
Benedict is hoping that the crisis will help folks to rediscover what he calls “the warmth, simplicity, friendship and solidarity” which used to characterize the Christmas season years ago.
Response: The Christmas seasons during the 50’s and 60’s as I was growing up were a delightful time of the year when people went out of their way to be kind to each other–‘in the spirit of Christmas’.
Now it is almost a battle field out there as folks kill each other in toy stores and shoppers run over guards trying to get their hands on the best bargains.
Then we sang Christmas carols in school, now even Rudolph the Red -Nosed Reindeer is banished because the song dares to even mention ‘Christmas’.
My how things have changed–yes it is time to get back to the real meaning of Christmas– God So Loved the World that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus is the real reason for the season.