Introduction: Dear ,

Festival ! Today is Children's Day in India and if there is one thought
that has been uppermost in my mind for most of the day, has been the
Children of India. My Jesuit colleague, Fr. Charlie just concluded a
three-day camp for about 150 children from various parts of Ahmedabad. At
the end of the programme, the children put up a spectacular candle-light
presentation based on the song "Heal the World". The backdrop to this
presentation was symbolic - painting of a huge candle which was lit and
embossed in it were the three words with deep meanings.."Light", "Love" and
"Life". There is no other message that the children of the world could be
giving us than that which these three words contain.

Festival ! And tonight I think of the millions of children in India and
very specially of Gujarat who have no access to the basics of Life : clean
drinking water, a bowl of rice (and this year is observed as "The
international Year of Rice"), primary health care and even elementary
education ! We have hundreds of them who roam our streets as rag-pickers
and as casual labourers. Thousands of them are affected every year by
natural hazards including the floods this year which ravaged large areas of
South Gujarat. We have been doing our best to respond to the relief and
rehabilitation of the people affected.

Festival ! It's what the season is all about. The "festival of
lights"..Diwali, the biggest festival of the country. This festival is
often epitomized in the prayer we often say from the Hindu scriptures "Lord
lead me from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, from death to
immortality.." but the fact is that there is still so much darkness, untruth
and death that envelopes our reality. Yesterday was also the "New Year's
Day in Gujarat, symbolic of a new beginning but then, for a real festival to
take place, there is so much more we need to do.

Festival ! Tomorrow is "Eid" for the Muslims at the end of the Holy month
of Ramzan. It has been a time of prayer and fasting and also of renewal.
Yet, the Muslims of Gujarat have been at the receiving end in the recent
past. The Gujarat Carnage of 2002 is a watershed in the annals of our
country. Truth and Justice have suffered and the victims of this "crime
against humanity" have literally seen the festival go out of their lives.
Some of us are working relentlessly in order to ensure that truth and
justice will ultimately prevail. Only then we know that "festival" will
become an integral part of the lives of Muslims of Gujarat once again.

Festival ! It's what this ESP Programme is all about. Celebrating our
uniqueness and our diversity. It is a simple programme in which those who
"have", care and share with those who "have less". It is about transcending
the narrow confines of our own selfish world. We celebrate "each one of
you", very specially those who have been generous enough, to make it
possible for our children to have a good and meaningful education. We thank
you for your generosity and sacrifice. We pray for you and your dear ones.
We ask you to continue to help deepen this bond.

Festival ! My heart and mind goes back to Taize and to Brother Roger the
Prior and Founder of the Taize Community. His very first journal was
entitled "Festival". It was dedicated to my dear friends Taisto and Anna
Maija ... Anna Maija, we all know, was instrumental in bringing the ESP
Family to this stage; and incidently, Brother Roger's subsequent journal
"Struggle and Contemplation" was dedicated to me and Felix..In his journal,
Brother Roger writes : "If festival within me faded out, would I still have
the energy to keep searching, ever anew, for communion with the rising
generations?". "Festival is a small field that each of us has to cultivate
within himself, a tiny playground for exercising freedom and spontaneity..".

Festival ! It is what the Christmas Season is all about. This letter is
being written more than a month earlier. But Christmas demands a deep and
meaningful preparation. The ability and the courage to be able to put our
disordered lives in order. To be able to say "no" to the sins of
globalization and yet, through its positive dimension, to reach out to those
around us in the spirit which is "Christmas". Christmas is ultimately about
putting Jesus back where he belongs : the sanctity, simplicity,
spontaneity, sincerity of the event in order to make us humans : more
childlike and therefore, more God-like. Yes, Christmas is a Festival which
we need to live every day of this New Year 2005.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS ! HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Your Brother,
Cedric Prakash

Christmas 2004

Geographical place: India

Groups, movements whom it is about: ESP India

Author: Prakash, Cedric SJ

Group, movement, tendency (wherefrom it comes from): ESP India