CARE FOR LIFE AND ENVIRONMENT

Beloved friends,

Let me wish you all a Peaceful & Holy Christmas and all the blessings of New Year.

We had come to Christmas and Christmas speaks to us about a birth of a child and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God who was born to redeem us but He became a man and was born like a baby. Like other baby who is born in this planet, God gave human life to Him in the form of His birth.

Now, what is important is when we celebrate Christmas it is essential to focus our attention on life and very specially on human life. For this reason let us welcome life in all its forms as part of the celebration of Christmas. Very specially let us love  our children and focus  our attention on our children as much as possible, because our children are the richness of our heritage. They will make this world.

Christmas reminds us that we have to love our children, protect our children, protect their rights and make them feel happy and welcome them in our midst; therefore, anything that we do to disrupt life in its initial stages or later on should be stopped. We must respect human life to the best of our ability. This will also be Christmas because if Mary & Joseph practiced selfishness, then they could have easily rejected this call of God for Jesus to be born among them. As parents let us love our children and let us make this Christmas a Christmas of happiness very specially for our children.

At the same time I would also like to appeal that Christmas be made a celebration without damaging and harming nature especially the practice of bringing Christmas trees. Cutting so many trees every year is harmful and it will damage our beautiful country and ecological balance. It is very important for us to preserve nature and also not to use too much of polythene or polythene products which will beautify our houses and our premises and then we will throw them away and they will accumulate as garbage and make it a human problem thereafter. We should not contribute to the pollution of our beautiful planet. Pollution is not Christmas.

I make an appeal very specially to all of you to desist from doing that and make Christmas more a matter of reflection and prayer and a moment of happiness which is shared with all the others, in the humblest possible form which is not offensive to others but which is positive and helpful to bring relationships together and make a peaceful atmosphere in our own villages and towns and make Christmas a celebration that is deeply spiritual.

Once again I wish you all a very happy Christmas and a happy New Year.

God bless you all!

Yogyakarta, 31'st of December 2017. (Johanes Baptista OMI)

DIFFERENTLY BLESSED

Today upon a bus, I saw a lovely maid with golden hair;
I envied her - she seemed so gay - and wished I were as fair.
When suddenly she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle;
She had one foot and wore a crutch;
but as she passed, a smile.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I have two feet - the world is mine.

And then I stopped to buy some sweets.
The lad who sold them had such charm,
I talked with him - he said to me;
"It's nice to talk with folks like you."
"You see" he said, "I'm blind!"
Oh God forgive me when I whine.
I have two eyes - the world is mine.

Then, walking down the street, I saw a child with eyes of blue.
He stood & watched the others play;
It seemed he knew not what to do.  I stopped for a moment, then I said:
"Why don't you join the others dear?"
He looked ahead without a word,
and then I knew he could not hear.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine;  I have two ears: the world is mine.

With feet to take me where I'd go,
With eyes to see the sunset's glow,
With ears to hear what I would know.
Oh, God, forgive me when I whine.
I'm blessed, indeed. The world is mine.

Yogyakarta, 28'th of December 2017