{"id":50788,"date":"2025-12-24T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/?p=50788"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:25:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:25:04","slug":"e-natal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/e-natal\/","title":{"rendered":"It&#039;s Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>During this Christmas season, I become aware of the excesses of consumerism.<\/em>. So, is there really an energy crisis with so many lights?!\u2026 It&#039;s easy to fall into moralizing at this time of year, criticizing the Christmas atmosphere without the Christ Child. We Christians, who believe in God who becomes a Child, can contribute more to the joy and hope that come with the birth of Jesus the Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>From our window we see the world and quickly realize that it is not perfect.<\/em>. We see so much misery, corruption, violence, injustice\u2026 so many things that revolt us. But we also see so much enchanting natural beauty, so many horizons of light and color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This Christmas season, the best we can do is enjoy our lives, be grateful for them, and allow the Christ Child to be born in our hearts as well. May there be a nativity scene in your life.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bola1.jpg?wsr\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-50798\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bola1.jpg 900w, https:\/\/cpps.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bola1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cpps.pt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Bola1-16x12.jpg 16w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When contemplating the Nativity scene, I believe in the simplicity of the Birth of Jesus Christ, which changed the History of Humanity. \u201cI have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.\u201d At Christmas we celebrate Life, above all, the Life of God within us. But we also receive the mission to give life. Whoever has it in abundance will certainly not keep it to themselves. That is why we think about the gifts to give, especially to the people to whom we want to give something, because they are important to us. Beyond mere affection or tradition, we give gifts because we carry these people in our hearts and offer a gift as a gesture of affection, write a few words wishing them \u201cHappy Holidays,\u201d or simply give a hug. Let us not forget that the best gift is to be present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is through this medium that we also make ourselves present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">                <mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-luminous-vivid-orange-color\">Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year full of God&#039;s blessings.<\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>                                                                                                            <em>Fr. Lu\u00eds Manuel C. Bairrada CPPS<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Por esta \u00e9poca natal\u00edcia dou conta dos exageros de consumismo. Afinal h\u00e1 crise energ\u00e9tica com tantas luzes?!&#8230; Com facilidade se pode cair, nesta altura, em moralismos, criticando o ambiente de Natal sem Deus Menino. N\u00f3s crist\u00e3os, que acreditamos em Deus que se faz Menino, podemos contribuir mais para a alegria e para a esperan\u00e7a que [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[49,70,92,93],"class_list":["post-50788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natal","tag-cpps","tag-missionarios-cpps","tag-missionarios-do-preciosissimo-sangue","tag-provincia-iberica-cpps"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50788"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50799,"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50788\/revisions\/50799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpps.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}