Ask any postal clerk or card store salesman.  December is the month of “greetings”
Christmas greetings, Hanukkah greetings, Season’s greetings, New Year’s greetings.

                                             
                 St. Francis had a greeting, too, one delivered by God Himself.  In his Testament, the little Poor Man wrote:

The Lord Himself gave me this greeting that we were to say:
“May the Lord give you His PEACE!”

   PEACE!   Surely this is the best greeting we could exchange in the season of Incarnate Love,when we recall the Gift of the heavenly Father
to all of humanity -- the Gift of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. 
God’s Gift bears fruit, that of joy, PEACE, and mercy. (CATECHISM #1829)

                        God’s Gift reminds us that earthly peace is the image and fruit of the PEACE OF CHRIST, the messianic “Prince of Peace.  (#2305)
Not as the world give does our God give peace to us.  For, He Himself is our PEACE.

                        So when we mail our Christmas greeting cards, or wish one another Christmas blessings,
let us unite with St. Francis in asking the Lord of life to give all peoples His PEACE.

                        Let us join in the angels’ song of praise at the birth of Christ… GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST!  (#333)
And let us remember that the angelic choirs themselves sang of

PEACE on earth to those on whom God’s favor rests!(#958)

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