Joy to the World!

As we draw closer to the celebration of Christ's birth I have witnessed my children grow more excited each day - full of joy-filled anticipation for all that will happen and certainly for what they will receive under the tree on Christmas morning! My reflection, as I watched my children, led me to this question: Are we filled with this same child-like anticipation as we approach Christmas this year?

Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that, "In the birth of Jesus, God comes to us and asks us to receive Him, so that He can be born in our lives and transform them, and our world, by the power of His love." (General Audience, December 21, 2012) This is the Good News the angels proclaimed to the shepherds. This is the Good News that should permeate our entire beings as Baptized children of God. This is the Good News that so many around us desperately need to hear and see witnessed by those of us who call ourselves disciples of Christ!

This Christmas offers us another opportunity to receive anew Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, that we might be His instruments of light to our families, friends, neighbors, co-workers and the strangers in our midst.  The joy of the season reminds us of our true identity as followers of the Risen Christ, who defeated sin and death that we might have life and have it abundantly.

As we gather with our loved ones, especially at the Eucharistic table, let us ask the Lord of all life, to enkindle in the mangers of our hearts, a profound joy - that most beautiful fruit of the Holy Spirit.  And may that joy, seen so beautifully in the eyes of the little ones during these graced days, move us throughout the New Year as instruments of the New Evangelization.

Merry Christmas!

By Michael Lavigne

A Child is Born

Great news! We have a brand new granddaughter.  Maryn was born November 27 and weighed in at 7 lbs. 6.7oz.  I know that her parents are so proud they could bust.  I know, too, that they are filled with hopes and dreams for Maryn and her future. And this brings me to my point.

We are very soon going to celebrate the day of Jesus’ birth.  Although a birth of humble beginnings, I have no doubt that Mary and Joseph were filled with hopes and dreams for Jesus’ future, not unlike new parents of today. We bring our babies to the church for baptism and have done so for hundreds of years.  Mary and Joseph “brought the child Jesus into the Temple to do for him what the Law required. . . “(Luke 2:27). Both rituals are cause for celebration.  

Yet how much celebrating would we do if we heard the words that Simeon said to Mary: “This child is chosen by God for the destruction and the salvation of many in Israel.   He will be a sign from God which many people will speak against and so reveal their secret thoughts.  And sorrow, like a sharp sword will break your own heart.”    (Luke 2: 34, 35)

We celebrate Christmas with food and gifts.  We spend time with friends and loved ones and rightly so.  We celebrate the birth of the One who would later sacrifice his life.  Let us keep is mind that this Child became the hope for our future and the future of many generations. A Child is born. Jesus, the greatest gift of all, is with us! 

By Judy Michaud

A Hidden Gift

This season of Advent is really so epic.  All the readings lately (mostly from the prophet Isaiah) speak of this great thing that God is about to do.  It’s like all of creation lies in wait.  The nation has been waiting and longing and you can almost feel the anticipation.  Something huge is about to happen!  And we know that something huge indeed does happen.  But it is hidden – a tiny baby, born in a lowly stable, to two young and inexperienced parents.  Many people missed it.  They didn’t see.  They failed to recognize.  They expected something different.  And yet, this hidden, humble child is God.  He comes down to the earth he created and is the answer that all of creation was waiting for, longing for!

On my recent trip to the Holy Lands, I found myself reflecting on this great mystery of the Incarnation.  Of course, in preparing for the trip, I expected I would ponder such things in Bethlehem – the site of the manger and the shepherd’s fields, the place where God became man.  But I was surprised to find myself awestruck a bit earlier in the trip during our visit to Nazareth.  While celebrating Mass at the site of Mary’s home in Nazareth in the crypt of the huge Basilica of the Annunciation, I was struck by the profound reality that it is not in fact at Bethlehem where God touches down to earth.  It is in Nazareth.  We think of the circumstances of the birth of the Christ-child and we are struck by the humility, by the poverty, by the hidden way in which he chooses to come.  But the Incarnation actually happened in Nazareth – in an even more hidden, more humble way.  God touched down to earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary and no one else even knew!  God became man and there was no visible change.  No one could see the tiny baby growing in Mary’s womb.  No one – not even a shepherd or a magi – bowed down to give him the homage he was due.

God could have chosen to come to earth in power and might, displaying his majesty for all the world to see.  And yet he didn’t.  He chose to come as a baby, first veiled in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and then born in the little town of Bethlehem.  He comes in weakness, in vulnerability.  And this same God who came hidden in the womb of Mary comes to us each and every day in the hidden, humble gift of the Eucharist.  In the Eucharist we have truly present the Body, Blood, Soul, & Divinity of our God!  He humbles himself that we might physically hold him within us!  The humility and vulnerability of our God is astounding!  And yet, so often we go before him clothed with whatever it is we feel we must cover ourselves with – our pride, acts of piety, sense of self-sufficiency.  Our God comes to us in the most vulnerable of ways and yet we refuse to be vulnerable before him.  Let us in these final weeks of Advent allow ourselves to be stripped of the clothing we hold so dear and appear before our God in humility, in poverty, in complete vulnerability that He might love us as we are!

By Sarah Houde