Panaji, Dec 28 (IANS): Christmas should help people lead lives with values like 'samvedana' (sensitivity) and 'karuna' (compassion), which form the ethos of the Indian civilization, Goa's Archbishop Filipe Neri Ferrao said in his annual civic reception address on Friday.

"May he lead our lives along the paths of 'samvedana' and 'karuna' and enable us to live according to these profound values enshrined into the ethos of our Indian civilization," Ferrao said.

The civic reception held at the Bishop's House in Panaji on Friday evening, was attended by top functionaries of the state including Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, top ministers, bureaucrats, among others.

Ferrao said that the Church in Goa, which serves as the religious and spiritual guide to more than a quarter of the state's population, had dedicated 2018 as a year for the "poor and underprivileged" and exhorted Catholics to celebrate Christmas by including the poor in the festive celebration.

"If there is one season why we need to intensify our 'samvedana' and 'karuna' to the poor around us, it is this holy season of Christmas, when we contemplate the divine child being born in total poverty and being laid in a manger, thus identifying himself with the poorest of the poor and the homeless, and beckoning us to do the same," Ferrao said.