Welcoming the Stranger at Christmas

May we welcome Christ into the home of our own hearts this Christmas and make room for those for whom there is no place in our world today.

Crib in the foyer of Mercy International Centre

Into this world, this demented inn
in which there is absolutely no room for him at all,
Christ comes uninvited.

But because he cannot be at home in it,
because he is out of place in it,
and yet he must be in it,
His place is with the others for whom
there is no room.

His place is with those who do not belong,
who are rejected by power, because
they are regarded as weak,
those who are discredited,
who are denied status of persons,
who are tortured, bombed and exterminated.

With those for whom there is no room,
Christ is present in this world.
 

Messages to: Mary Reynolds rsm - Executive Director MIA

Source: Thomas Merton, “The Time of the End Is the Time of No Room” in Raids on the Unspeakable, pages 51-52