11th December: Franciscan Parish of Lattakia. We inaugurated the first Christmas fair in the rooms that the convent offers for the parish activities. For four days, parishioners and visitors were able to admire and buy handicrafts, embroidered fabrics, toys and gifts for children, Christmas ornaments, locally produced confectionery and wines…
The proceeds from the sales will go to help poor families and the needy in general, as well as to support parish activities. The initiative was started with the aim of introducing people into the atmosphere and feelings of the Christmas celebrations, with particular emphasis - this year - on the eight hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Franciscan Order.
The groups of children and youngsters linked to the Franciscan activities, such as the "Fioretti", who collaborate on the parish activities with generosity and dedication on other occasions as well, promoted the initiative and were actively involved in it.
Christmas means a desire for peace and good for every man, especially for the smallest, the poor and the children, who more concretely are identified in the poor Child who was born in Bethlehem.
And, especially in this year of the eight hundredth anniversary of our beloved Order, there could not fail to be a reference to Greccio and the first Nativity scene conceived by our holy founder to make the God of love, born poor amidst the poor, visible to the eyes of the body.
We hope we conveyed - at the end of the fair - to all those who visited it, the joy and the feelings that Christmas arouses in the hearts of the faithful and that our father Francis represented and lived so well. Our sincerest thanks go to all those who took an active part in all the work that this initiative created. We ask the Child Jesus, through the intercession of our beloved father St. Francis, to bless the parishioners, friends and benefactors, refreshing them in their tiredness, consoling them in their difficulties, strengthening them in their commitments and infusing into their hearts generosity and a welcome for anyone who knocks on their doors.
Fra Salem Garbo Younes O.F.M
The proceeds from the sales will go to help poor families and the needy in general, as well as to support parish activities. The initiative was started with the aim of introducing people into the atmosphere and feelings of the Christmas celebrations, with particular emphasis - this year - on the eight hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Franciscan Order.
The groups of children and youngsters linked to the Franciscan activities, such as the "Fioretti", who collaborate on the parish activities with generosity and dedication on other occasions as well, promoted the initiative and were actively involved in it.
Christmas means a desire for peace and good for every man, especially for the smallest, the poor and the children, who more concretely are identified in the poor Child who was born in Bethlehem.
And, especially in this year of the eight hundredth anniversary of our beloved Order, there could not fail to be a reference to Greccio and the first Nativity scene conceived by our holy founder to make the God of love, born poor amidst the poor, visible to the eyes of the body.
We hope we conveyed - at the end of the fair - to all those who visited it, the joy and the feelings that Christmas arouses in the hearts of the faithful and that our father Francis represented and lived so well. Our sincerest thanks go to all those who took an active part in all the work that this initiative created. We ask the Child Jesus, through the intercession of our beloved father St. Francis, to bless the parishioners, friends and benefactors, refreshing them in their tiredness, consoling them in their difficulties, strengthening them in their commitments and infusing into their hearts generosity and a welcome for anyone who knocks on their doors.
Fra Salem Garbo Younes O.F.M