Why is it called 'Christmas'?

'Christmas' is the feast of the birth of Christ. It has slightly different designations in other languages.

• Latin : 'Dies Natalis Domini' which means the birthday of our Lord.
• German : 'Weinacht' which means Holy Night.
• Spanish : 'La Navidad' which means the birthday.
• French : 'Noel' which I am not certain probably comes from Latin'Natalis'.
• Polish : 'Boze Narodzenie' which means God's birth.

God comes to our world to give us peace. Christ is the prince of peace, our Father. Today we see a lot of hatred, bitterness and battles in the world. There is no peace around us. On the small planet, we own more than 1,300,000 atomic bombs. Some governments are even trying to increase the number of their nuclear weapons. Those means of destruction are against the Creator and His creatures. Also a lot of money has been invested to develop such lethal weapons.
On the other hand, there are thousands and thousands of people are suffering from hunger and many are killed of starvation. Most of them are children. Instead of spending so much money on war preparation, they should provide the needy with food, clothing, and shelter. It is far more worth than armament from the view of humanism.
Another problem we face every day is pollution. God made the planet with beautiful nature but we don?t respect the nature and are destructing it day by day. Today infants are to drink polluted water. What they first see is dark clouds due to air pollution. The whole world cannot ignore the issue of pollution today. Deterioration doesn?t stop until it creeps into human hearts. We don?t respect one another well as human beings. We see innocent people killed. Murder is increasing in the world.
This year a bomb exploded in a train in Mumbai in India. More than 200 people were killed. Their families are crying. India itself was immersed in sorrow. A lot of women became widows and their children are helpless with the loss of their bread-earners. Who is responsible for the crime?
Jesus was the voice, hands and arms of the Father in order to gather all of God?s children as one family of love. All human beings are united in one family of God. At Christmas of 2006, God is giving each one of us message of peace. Peace will dwell in our heart and it will spread to others at the every corner of the world.
We should no longer pollute our planet and we need to preserve the nature, which is the gift of God.
Let us be united to contribute to protect our world this Christmas.
Peace of the Lord our God be with us always.

Josephine Silveira DHM