POPE BENEDICT AND SANTA

The Pope was at a Christmas-tree lighting recently when he identified his Christmas Wish list. Now, I don't know if Santa can get these gifts. If he does, then I hope he brings me what I am asking for. Hmmm! Maybe I should just ask the Big Guy in Heaven rather than the Fat Guy in the North Pole. Anyhoo, here according to Zenit News is the Popes 2011 Christmas Wish list:

"My first wish, therefore, is that our gaze, that of our minds and our hearts, not rest only on the horizon of this world, on its material things, but that in some way, like this tree that tends upward, it be directed toward God. God never forgets us but He also asks that we don't forget Him."

"My second wish is that we recall that we also need a light to illumine the path of our lives and to give us hope, especially in this time in which we feel so greatly the weight of difficulties, of problems, of suffering, and it seems that we are enshrouded in a veil of darkness. But what light can truly illuminate our hearts and give us a firm and sure hope? It is the Child whom we contemplate on Christmas, in a poor and humble manger, because He is the Lord who draws near to each of us and asks that we receive Him anew in our lives, asks us to want Him, to trust in Him, to feel His presence, that He is accompanying us, sustaining us, and helping us."

"This great tree is formed of many lights. My final wish is that each of us contribute something of that light to the spheres in which we live: our families, our jobs, our neighborhoods, towns, and cities."