"God got hands-on with us, starting with the birth we're about to celebrate at Christmas, and we remember and pass on that loving touch through the touch of sacramental rites. God feeds and waters us, body and soul. God is in loving touch when we tend each other — in a mother nursing her child, in the grasp of a friend's hand, in holding someone who's crying, in stroking a loved one's hair, in a child's jumping up to be hugged, in compassionate touch — gift to the sick, in cradling the dying."