Unfortunately, the changes we choose in life usually involve changes to our own lives and offer little to change someone else's situation. If we decide to go on a diet, it hardly prompts us to think about someone who may be starving, or if we think about saving our money, do we consider those who have no income or those who cannot provide for themselves? 

My favourite Christmas carol is Away in a Manger, although I can hardly ever sing it all the way through to the end without feeling upset and sometimes unable to sing some of the words. At Midnight Mass we sing the carol kneeling and I am probably effected most by the lines, 'be near me Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay, close by me for ever, and love me I pray ... When we are are thoughtless, there is someone who loves us just for who we are, whether we are 'mad' or sad, ashamed, selfish, rude or unforgiving, whose only wish is that we should be like Him, and who can only see us as the people He wants us to be.