Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Christmas is here – the peak of the Holiday Season, which has started on the Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 23) and will end with the New Year’s Day. (In VN, probaby the Holiday Season will continue till after Lunar New Year’s Day, Feb. 11, 2024).

The Holiday Season is also called Christmas Season and generally is understood as the Season of Love – people try to be nice and sweet to each other and give each other gifts, party, sing, dance, and generally have a merry time together.

This Christmas Season is not a very happy season, with the Israel war against Hamas ranks the “most devastating military campaign in recent history.” The Church of Nativity, the oldest church in Christendom – where Jesus was born – in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine, does not celebrate Christmas this year, in solidarity with the Palestinians: “We can’t celebrate in Bethlehem while people are killed there in Gaza, while their homes are destroyed, they become homeless, without food, without a safe place and in the middle of winter. We must include them in our prayers and pray for peace and security.”

I’ve been following this war and I am so stressed with what I see.

Baby Jesus in the rubble, in a Bethlehem church

But this is Christmas, Jesus’ Birthday, the Holiday of Love in the Season of Love. Let us pray for peace and love to all peoples in the Palestine region, especially the Palestinian civilians, women and children.

And pray for peace and love in our own heart.

With compassion.

Merry Christmas,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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