Organized by the St. Elizabeth's Charity Center of the Esztergom-Budapest Archdiocese, on the afternoon of Saturday, December 18, 250 children living in difficult situations received personalized Christmas gifts at the Heart of Jesus Parish Church in Budapest-Városmajor.
Cardinal Péter Erdő, Primate, appeared at the festive event; Anita Herczegh, wife of President János Áder, goodwill ambassador of the Hungarian Charity Service of Malta; and Miklós Soltész, State Secretary responsible for church relations.
The parents, children and believers who attended were greeted by Alajos Forgács, the parish priest of the church, permanent deacon Gábor Csorba, director of the Szent Erzsébet Charity Center and Cardinal Péter Erdő.
Alajos Forgács reminded us: Christ's love urges us. We who love and follow Christ feel this urge in our hearts. This love brought us here. Saint Paul also says that Christ died for everyone, so that those who live should not live for themselves, but for him who died for them. The parish priest of the church paraphrased this sentence somewhat: let's not only live for the one who died for us, but for the one who was born for us. We received Christ, the Savior, as a gift, whom we must pass on to everyone, especially to the little ones, to those who need His love the most. In this way, we can follow his example.
Cardinal Péter Erdő stated in his greeting: at Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ. We gather around the Christmas tree, and those who are lucky will find a nativity scene at home, with Baby Jesus in it, with Saint Joseph, the Virgin Mary, the donkey, the ox, the angels, maybe even the shepherds who brought the first gift. to the Baby Jesus. We also want to kneel there, we also want to bring some kind of gift to Baby Jesus. After all, Jesus is here among us, not only in a single manger in Bethlehem, but through you in every child, and if we can give you a gift, we will give it as if we were giving it to the Baby Jesus - Father Cardinal addressed the children present. He added: that's why not everyone gets the same gift, but each package has a label, everyone has a separate, personalized gift, because Jesus knows what he likes the most and what he would be happy about. May God grant us to grow in love this Christmas and to think of those who need many other things as well.
Source: magyarkurir.hu
The cardinal recalled: he himself was able to convey a donation to Transcarpathia with the help of a kind donor. Many people are cold there because the price of gas has gone up because they can't get firewood, and he asked the father to whom he gave the donation to help. What a joy it will be if someone sees the cut firewood in front of their house! Let's thank God if we can return home to a warm home and be happy that Baby Jesus came and brought love into the world! Praised be Jesus Christ! Péter Erdő finished his welcoming speech.
Source: magyarkurir.hu
Afterwards, the students of the Pannonia Sacra Primary School performed a short nativity play, and then Péter Erdő and Anita Herczegh personally handed over the gift packages to the 250 children.
Source, image and full article: magyarkurir.hu
