Merry Christmas, Day 11!

 Image: Nativity – Alcina Nolley,

shamelessly pinched from #globalnativity on twiX, submission from St. Lucia

100 Nativity sets on display at the Vatican.

I got curious about John Paul II's first Christmas Urbi et Orbi. What would he tell the whole world about Christmas his first chance? It's worth reading the whole brief thing, because he of course does not start here, but this is the main message.

I address therefore all the various communities: the peoples, the nations, the regimes, the political, economic, social and cultural system, and I say:

— Accept the great truth concerning man;

— Accept the full truth concerning man that was uttered on Christmas Night;

— Accept this dimension of man that was opened for all human beings on this Holy Night;

— Accept the mystery in which every human being lives since Christ was born;

— Respect this mystery;

— Allow this mystery to act in every human being.

— Allow him to develop in the outward conditions of his earthly existence.

Humanity's power resides in this mystery. The power that permeates everything that is human. Do not make it hard for that power to exercise its influence. Do not destroy its influence. Everything that is human grows from this power; without this power it perishes; without this power it falls to ruin.