From the Divine Office of December 21:
The Immaculate One carried in her womb the Lamb and went into the holy cave to give birth to Him and to wrap Him in swaddling clothes as a mortal. She placed Him as an Infant into the manger as it was gloriously foretold. Creation celebrates and joyously extols Him Who has done such exalted things on earth.
The sayings of the prophets are now being fulfilled because Christ will be born of the Virgin in the town of Bethlehem.
O precious Bethlehm, you are the glory, joy and praise of the human race. You are the divine city. Lift up the Creator of the universe!
The title of this link http://frontpagemag.com/2011/12/21/iraq%E2%80%99s-christians-near-extinction/
says it all, unfortunately. Because President Bush and his team had no follow-up plans in place for Iraq, as Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice asked for and which she talks about in her autobiography, Iraq went into a free-fall. The second-oldest Christian community outside of Palestine-Syria is now nearly wiped out. For what?
It is bad enough what happened in Basra and the Baghdad area, and then Mosul. Now there are attacks across the north in Zakho against Christian-owned stores, and who knows what the mosque sermons on Friday are going to bring about. The Sunni jihadists have slaughtered so many Christians, and driven others into poverty as they either flee to the north or emigrate. The article calls on the Obama administration to speak up for the Christians. Ha! This Congress AND the Obama administration are cutting back on the resources for the highly-praised State Dept Office of Religious Freedom
http://ncronline.org/news/global/religious-freedom-panel-continue-less-funding
Less funding for one of the most important offices on the entire planet at a time when international assaults on Christians form 70% of the religious-based attacks, and at a time when religion is in the forefront of global news. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Yet another reason to be disgusted with both this Congress and this administration.
God, forgive us.
Father Christopher Zugger 
Hi Fr. Chris,
You have been on my mind lately. I wanted to wish you a most blessed Christmas. I have been working on a continuing set of prayers through St. Therese and I have your picture with Grandma Ellen next to her Icon of OLOPH. Right above this is my Icon of St. Therese of the Holy Face and the Child Jesus which was blessed for me in Brooklyn, NY by Bishop Thomas V. Daily Supreme Chaplain Emeritus for the Knights of Columbus.
Everybody here in Youngstown, OH including my mother is doing well. She turned 87 this October. With God’s good graces I would like to make a visit back to Albuquerque this coming year. I see you have a KofC Council there now. I spoke to George about a year ago. I think he said he was the Grand Knight and also a Maronite. I shared details with him of our local National Shrine of Our Lady of Lebanon. I just finished producing the TV recording of the new KofC Our Lady of Guadalupe Prayer Program through the Paulist Bothers here at St. Paul Monastery. Brother Dominic Calabro, SSP heads the studio and programing for C.T.N.Y.
Please keep us in your prayers,
Beri Berardi, Advocate
San Salvador, Council One
New Haven, CT
By: Beri Berardi on December 23, 2011
at 10:57 am