Dear Beloved Parishioners,
Thanks to all who made our Christmas Celebrations such a wonderful experience of prayer and beauty. Everyone from our Covid Sanitizing crew (yes, we still sanitize the church daily) to our wonderful musicians and cantors, to our seaters and greeters, and perhaps like no other time, our ministers of Art and Environment. Maybe I just love the simplicity of the red and white of the poinsettias, but the church never seems as beautiful as it does at Christmas. A special word of thanks to Megan Onder for continuing to organize our reservations into an actionable seating chart, week in and week out. She had a special challenge at the 10am Mass on Christmas morning with a lot of parties of ‘one’s and two’s’ to seat.
And though not a parishioner, a word of thanks to Mark Kenniston from Beishir Lock and Security for restoring our live stream on Christmas eve – probably when he was in the midst of family preparations/celebrations. (User error on my part…) He restored service to us for which I am SOOOOO grateful. (as I suspect the 446 households who watched the streamed Christmas celebrations were.)
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So, because Christmas kind of takes precedence in our planning this week, the sign ups for this WEEKEND’s Mass are very light. So, we have extended the time to sign up for Masses till NOON tomorrow, Dec. 26th. Click on the link below.
And, as always, if you miss the sign up deadline, just come. We will find room for you. (It just might take us a bit longer in the seating of everyone in the beginning…)
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For your reflection this Christmas evening – a few words from an article in America Magazine about Pope Francis’s Christmas Eve homily.
Christ’s coming is like the birth of a child which is such a joyous and exciting occasion that it “makes us think nothing of weariness, discomfort and sleepless nights.”
“That is what Christmas is: the birth of Jesus is the ‘newness’ that enables us to be reborn each year and to find, in him, the strength needed to face every trial,” he said.
Reflecting on the day’s readings, the pope noted that those who proclaim the birth of the Savior often use the phrase “for us.” For Christians, he said, those words mean “that the Son of God, the one who is holy by nature, came to make us, as God’s children, holy by grace.”
“Yes, God came into the world as a child to make us children of God,” the pope said. “What a magnificent gift! This day, God amazes us and says to each of us: ‘You are amazing.’”
Despite this great gift, he continued, at times humanity’s injustice toward those less fortunate may give rise to doubts whether God was “right in giving us so much.” Nevertheless, the Lord does this knowing people’s limitations “because he is madly in love with us.”
“This is his secret for entering our hearts,” the pope said. “God knows that we become better only by accepting his unfailing love, an unchanging love that changes us. Only the love of Jesus can transform our life, heal our deepest hurts and set us free from the vicious circles of disappointment, anger and constant complaint.”
Recalling the night of Jesus’ birth in “the lowly manger of a darkened stable,” Pope Francis questioned why the “greatest of kings” was born “without decent accommodation, in poverty and rejection.”
God, he answered, “loves to work wonders through our poverty” and placed “the whole of our salvation in the manger of a stable.”
“The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God,” he said. “He came into the world as each child comes into the world, weak and vulnerable, so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love.”
Continuing his homily, the pope also reflected on Christ’s birthplace and noted that the meaning of the city’s name, “Bethlehem” — which means “house of bread” in Hebrew — serves as a reminder of humanity’s need for God “like the bread we eat.”
“How often instead, in our hunger for entertainment, success and worldly pleasures, do we nourish life with food that does not satisfy and leaves us empty within!” he exclaimed.
“It is true; in our endless desire for possessions, we run after any number of mangers filled with ephemeral things, and forget the manger of Bethlehem,” the pope said. “That manger, poor in everything yet rich in love, teaches that true nourishment in life comes from letting ourselves be loved by God and loving others in turn.”
Pope Francis said that in choosing to come into the world as a vulnerable child, God wanted to encourage men and women to “care for others” and comfort the “tears of the suffering.”
“God came among us in poverty and need, to tell us that in serving the poor, we will show our love for him,” the pope said.
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Finally, this Christmas night, here is a link to one of my favorite Christmas ‘mash’ hymns – Child of the Poor/What Child is this. (this was the basis for my Christmas homily a few years ago)
This is the original version.
And this is a lovely update
(ps- the song stops at the 3:51 mark, and then goes on to a quasi commercial…)
Merry Christmas,
Fr. Bill, Fr. Johnson, Deacon Mark and the Parish Staff