EAO, 25 December 2016 -- Merry Christmas! All around the 22 countries of our East Asia - Oceania Region we exchanged a lot of Christmas Greetings. It's necessary and it deepens our sense of family. However the most meaningful are those mission-minded Christmas events and celebrations:
The Salesian Cooperators in Vietnam (Ho Chi Min City) went to nearby pediatric hospital to express their closeness to many children who suffer physically and emotionally.
The Salesians in Myanmar (Anisakan) invited Budhist monks from five close monasteries to the Nazareth Don Bosco House to share with them our joy of Jesus Birth.
For many of our students in humble Don Bosco Training Center in Vientiane (Laos) it was the ever first Christmas celebration in their life, to understand the history, a breaking event of God becoming one of us.
The boarders of Pakistan Don Bosco School (Lahore) celebrate their Christmas with a prayer for the less fortunate youth around our school.
The youth of Solomon Islands (Tetere Don Bosco Rural Training Center) are open to their neighbors in their celebration.
Today and these Christmas tide we exchange a lot of Christmas greetings. The most meaningful that we treasure are those with a missionary opening (received from one young confrere born in Taiwan):
"Christmas is a mission day. The world receives the Missionary of God on this night. How to celebrate Christmas meaningfully in our consumerist societies is always chanlleging. However, the Light is shining when the world is in darkness. I pray, today or tonight especially, that many Christians will receive the divine light again, and become the light of the world and many sisters and brothers will meet the living Light of the World - humble Baby Jesus in Bethlehem."
Yes, the Rector Major reminds us in his Christmas message to pray concretely for all victims of war, with a special thought for Syria - Aleppo, Fr. Tom and many others. Pope Francis reminds us in his Midnight Mass to overcome the consumerist Christmas style and stay closer to the migrants, refugees and war victims as well. Let's live a true Mission Day - Christmas 2016!
