There is hunger for ordinary bread, and there is hunger for love, for kindness, for thoughtfulness, and this is the great poverty that makes people suffer so much.

Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.

We do not strive for spectacular actions. What counts is the gift of yourself, the degree of love you put into each of your deeds.

I am sure that all people know deep down inside that the little child in the mother's womb is a human being from the moment of conception, created in the image of God to love and be loved. Let us pray that nobody will be afraid to protect that little child, to help that little child to be born. Jesus said: 'If you receive a little child in my name, you receive me.'

When Christ said: I was hungry and you fed me, he didn't mean only the hunger for bread and for food; he also meant the hunger to be loved. Jesus himself experienced this loneliness. He came amongst his own and his own received him not, and it hurt him then and it has kept on hurting him. The same hunger, the same loneliness, the same having no one to be accepted by and to be loved and wanted by. Every human being in that case resembles Christ in his loneliness; and that is the hardest part, that's real hunger.

I think the world today is upside down, and is suffering so much, because there is so very little love in the homes and in family life.

It is Christmas every time you let God love others through you...yes, it is Christmas every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand.