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 is "Adoration of the Shepherds"(detail), by Gerrit van Honthorst (1619-1620), before the work was badly damaged by the attack of May 27, 1993 (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence).
The text consists sections. The first, by Pope Francis, is taken from the Letter to those who do not believe, "the Republic", September 11, 2013.
The second section, by Luigi Giussani, is based on the book In cammino (On the path), (1992-1998), BUR, Milan, 2014, pp.193-195.

Here are the two reflections:

"For me, faith was born of an encounter with Jesus. It was a personal encounter that touched my heart and gave new direction and meaning to my life. It is not something external or imposed, but rather that which comes from within and is self-evident. Jesus, in fact, impacts us, shocks us, and renews us."
(Pope Francis)


"It is an Other who takes initiative in our life, thus it is an Other who saves our life, leads it to the knowledge of truth, leads it to affection for what is true, leads it to love for reality. If you accept this announcement as a working hypothesis, then you return to breathing freely, everything becomes simpler, you say bread is bread and wine is wine, life is life and death is death, a friend is a friend, you become happier, and everything becomes even more of a reason for wonder. The more you seek to live this, the more you understand the disproportion and walk humbly, because this Other who intervenes catches me in every moment, catches me again and again, re-launches me, and will complete the work He began: He enables us reach our destiny. "
(Luigi Giussani)