Comunità di sant'Egidio

THE CHRISTMAS LUNCH

Una tavola per tutti

1st edition November 2022
Series ATTUALITÀ E STORIA
Size 14 x 21 cm

Number of pages 128
CDU 95A 206
ISBN/EAN 9788892240063

Community of Sant’Egidio
THE CHRISTMAS LUNCH
Edited by Vincenzo Paglia

Since 1982, at Christmas, the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere – entrusted by Pope John Paul II to the Community of Sant’Egidio – opens its doors to those who do not have a place to celebrate. The laden tables that occupy the entire nave welcome the faces of old people, children, women, and men marked by a life of deprivation and difficulties; faces of young refugees, Romani people, and immigrants from different countries; faces of Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and other religions. The first year the lunch welcomed a small group of men and women, the following year the people who attended became one hundred and fifty. The third year the Basilica was by now full of this singular people of poor who made an appointment. Over the years this table has expanded to reach many corners of the world, in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, and Latin America, gathering tens of thousands of poor together with those who care for them. In 2019, there were 250,000 people participating with 1647 lunches held in 770 cities in 70 countries. Here, this is the story of these lunches, of a welcome sign that initially appeared unusual to many, but which has an evangelical root and is inscribed in the ancient tradition of the Church.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia is president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute. He is the spiritual advisor of the Community of Sant’Egidio. Among his books for Edizioni San Paolo we can remember I Salmi. Le preghiere suggerite da Dio (2014); Il nuovo Rosario per le famiglie (20154); La famiglia. Vocazione e missione nella Chiesa e nel mondo (with Antonio Sciortino, 2015); Una casa ricca di misericordia. Il Vangelo di Luca in famiglia (2015).

SELLING POINTS
• Introduction by Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi
• The story of an initiative that has marked, and still marks, the recent history of the Church. • A recommended reading especially during Advent and Christmas.
• Introduction by Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference.