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23 December. The Meeting of children. Read, reflect, share, pray.  In our fantasy story Just before Christmas eve they all began to arrive in Israel. Jerusalem and Bethlehem are very close to each other but there is a big wall intended to divide the Israeli people in Jerusalem from the Palestinians in Bethlehem which is in the West Bank where internal conflict has been happening. For this special occasion the government had even agreed to a pause in the conflict and to open the road to them all.  The mayors had put their differences aside and the two mayors had welcomed the Peace Children and those accompanying them from all over the world.  The 50 boys and girls of all ages, shapes and sizes, all races and colours, first looked one another over, but soon found the friends they had been writing to. It was as if a vast network, a big web, was coming together. They held hands, they danced and sang, they played and laughed and cried too at times. Of course there were a few fights, after all children will be children. 

Scripture: O Lord have mercy on me, be my helper. You have changed my mourning into dancing. I will thank you forever. Pope Francis:  Jesus is our faithful friend. He is with us on our journey.            

Fr David Neuhaus our Jesuit contact in Israel, reports that things are not good in Bethlehem. Let us pray especially for the children and families Jewish, Palestian and the small number of Christians who remain in the area.