As every year, the Movement of CL offers an artistic image and text as an aid to live the mystery of Christmas.

This year the image ism, Nativity (1598) by Federico Barocci (Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan).
Their are two texts that accompany the image. The first piece, by Pope Francis, is taken from the Encyclical Letter Lumen fidei, p. 53 and 57. The second piece, by Luigi Giussani, is based on the book Un evento reale nella vita dell’uomo (A real event in man's life) (1990-1991), Bur, Milan, 2013, p. 326-328.


Here are the two texts:

"Encountering Christ, letting yourself be caught up in and guided by His love, enlarges the horizons of existence, gives it a firm hope which will not disappoint. Faith is no refuge for the fainthearted, but something which enhances our lives. Faith is not a light which scatters all our darkness, but a lamp which guides our steps in the night and suffices for the journey. To those who suffer, God does not provide arguments which explain everything; rather, His response is that of an accompanying presence."
(Pope Francis)


"Christianity is the bond that Christ establishes with you, not that you establish with Christ. You may not have looked Him in the face until a minute ago, and He establishes a bond with you; you may not look Him in the face for another thirty years, and in thirty years He will establish a bond with you. The decision for existence is the yes you say to the bond that Christ has with you, as a person, as a wounded person, mortally wounded. Your “I” becomes a protagonist when you know what you are living for, when you recognize your destiny, the one awaiting which you stomped your feet on the threshold, in the cold and ice, on the one side, and sensed, on the other, the warmth emanating from the home."
(Luigi Giussani)