Shepherds….

8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.  13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.  16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.  18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.  20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them. Luke 2:8-20  King James Version (KJV)

After 2000 years of Christmas sermons, in hundreds of languages, in different countries throughout the world, and by way of innumerable faith traditions, is there anything new or original left to be said about Christmas, and what it means, that hasn’t been said before?   Perhaps not.  However, like re-reading that favorite book for the 17th time, or watching that favorite movie or television show for the 358th time, even when you know exactly what comes next, what the very next word is going to be, often we find a new meaning or a new slant on something that is as tried and true as Christmas itself.

 And so it is with me this year.  The Gospel reading for today  recalls the story of the angels bringing the news of Christ’s birth to the shepherds.  Now, we all know that story.  We’ve heard it many times over, and those of us who cherish “A Charlie Brown Christmas” will always, in some ways, hear Linus quoting from Luke, no matter who is reading that passage of the Bible to us.   We know the story.  We SEE the story in every Nativity scene we pass by.  There is almost always a shepherd near the manger carrying a lamb on his shoulders and another lamb or sheep to be seen somewhere hanging around.    It’s always seemed to me that the sheep and the shepherds were just THERE, minor players in a Christmas play, the “extras” assigned to the kids who didn’t quite measure up to the roles of Mary or Joseph;  they enter stage left, ooh and aah over the baby, and exit stage right, singing “Go tell it on the mountain”, singularly unimportant and taking secondary roles to the more illustrious wise men (who in reality weren’t there at all) and most definitely playing supporting roles to the Holy Family, or just standing around as so much scenery, contributing to the mood and filling up the bare spots in the Nativity scene.  I overheard a conversation recently that made me really think about the shepherds.  While visiting some friends, their cat jumped into the midst of the family crèche and knocked over the obligatory shepherd.  It was chipped.  The younger daughter of the family was somewhat distressed, and to make the little girl feel better, the mother said to her, “Don’t worry about it, Honey.  It’s just the shepherd.  He’s not all that important.”    I didn’t think much about it at the time, but when reading the Scripture appointed for today, it struck me.  Not all that important?  But weren’t they?  Who WERE these shepherds?  Why were they there in the first place?  Why did THEY get the news of Christ’s birth in such a spectacular way?  Who were they that they should be eyewitnesses of God’s glory and receive history’s greatest birth announcement?

In Christ’s day, shepherds stood on the bottom rung of the Palestinian social ladder. They shared the same unenviable status as tax collectors and dung sweepers. Only Luke mentions them.  When the twelve tribes of Israel migrated to Egypt, they encountered a lifestyle foreign to them. The Egyptians were agriculturalists. As farmers, they despised shepherding because sheep and goats meant death to crops. Battles between farmers and shepherds are as old as they are fierce. The first murder in history erupted from a farmer’s resentment of a shepherd.  Smug religious leaders maintained a strict caste system at the expense of shepherds and other common folk. Shepherds were officially labeled “sinners”—a technical term for a class of despised people.

Into this social context of religious snobbery and class prejudice, God’s Son stepped forth. How surprising and significant that God the Father handpicked lowly, unpretentious shepherds to be the first to hear the joyous news: “It’s a boy, and He’s the Messiah!”  What an affront to the religious leaders who were so conspicuously absent from the divine mailing list.  Even from birth, Christ moved among the lowly.  It was the sinners, not the self-righteous, He came to save.  So is it  really all that surprising that the first announcement of Christ’s birth was to the lowly shepherds on Bethlehem’s hillsides?

Consider the events leading up to Christ’s birth.   Mary was barely 15.  Christ was born to an unwed mother, Mary, a servant girl; Mary the young woman who delivered while only betrothed to Joseph.  He was born in a stable, a cave!   A holy God being born to a couple no different than immigrants, far from home and in a strange city, in a place where animals were kept.  A couple who couldn’t even find a place to stay, turned out of every inn!  It’s all too bizarre.

Yet this is the God we experience.  This is our claim;  This is the meaning of his very name: Immanuel, meaning “God with us” — with us not just in nice times, but most especially in the times of our lives when we are in the caves, and stables of our lives, when we are turned out of the places we’d like to be, when we are at the lowest of low points, when we are out in the dark, and in the cold like the shepherds.

Our God, the God who comes to us in the person of Jesus Christ, is the God of the oppressed, the repressed, the depressed; the God of the sad, the grieving, the sorrowful; the God of the lonely, the lowly, the poor, the God of the Shepherds; the God of the despised, the destitute, the dejected. Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who stood with the enslaved Hebrews in Egypt, who led them out of Egypt to a promised land of freedom.  Our God is the God of widows and orphans and stranded travelers. Our God is the God who doesn’t stay neat and tidy and spotless, but comes and stands beside us in our times of deepest need, who comes among us as the child in the dirty manger and the God of the shepherds on the hillside.  The God we’re speaking of dares to join the unsuccessful, the failures, the dispossessed, and the downtrodden;  the God of the Shepherds.

Wherever there is suffering, our God is there. He stands with Zacchaeus, the despised tax collector, and with Bartimaeus, the blind beggar. He is with us when we face cancer, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments. He is with us when we face amputations, operations, loneliness, the loss of a loved one, or even death itself.  The God of the manger and the Shepherd is Immanuel, God with us. At our deepest times of loss and need, in the dirtiest and most embarrassing parts of our lives, God is with us, His rod and His staff, they comfort us.  It is God who glues us back together when we become, like that figure in my friends’ Nativity scene, chipped, flawed, and much less than perfect.

And it is up to us, to demonstrate the love of God, the God of the lowly, the downtrodden, to the world.  We, like the shepherds in the Christmas story, are to be the ones who are to proclaim the good news “which shall be to all people” to all the people of the world.   It is our responsibility as Christians to be the instruments through which God can work in this world.  As was  most famously stated more than four centuries ago by Saint Theresa of Avila:

Christ has no body but yours,
no hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

 My very favorite Christmas carol, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” includes the lines, “What, then, shall I bring him, empty as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb. If I were a wise man I would do my part.  What can I give Him?  I can give Him my heart.”

Won’t you, this Christmas, give Him your heart?  Won’t you, like the shepherds in the children’s plays of the Christmas story, be one to “go tell it on the mountain, over the fields and everywhere” that Jesus Christ is born?  Amen.

 

 

 

O Little Town of Bethlehem~ by Fr. Bryan Wolf

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

December 23,2012

The peace and joy of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with you all!

We can sense the excitement in the air!  Christmas is but a couple of days away!  The joyous birthday celebration of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

But what of that very first Christmas?  It really wasn’t even Christmas then.  Bethlehem.  A small town located in the hills of  Judea, a not ten miles from Jerusalem.  Rich in the history of the Jewish people.  Rachel is buried here, and it was here that Ruth and Boaz met and were married- ultimately becoming the great grandparents of David, second king of the Jews.

“Thus says the Lord, you Bethlehem… from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler of all Israel.” [Micah 5:2] “He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord, his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.  And he will be our peace…” [Micah 5:4-5]

When it was announced that a census was to be taken by Quirinius (Roman Governor of Syria), Joseph “… went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, to whom he was pledged to be married and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in the manger, because there was no guest room available for them.”  [Luke 2:4-7]

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them: ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you this day in the town of David, a Savior has been born- he is Christ, the Lord. This will be a sign unto you, you will find him wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.” [Luke 2:8-12]

We can imagine this chaotic scene.  The small town of Bethlehem crowded and brimming with people, many of them extended families as the census required them to travel to their ancestral villages.  Sharing homes and rooms. Bustling with activity and of course, noise.  Hardly conducive to the stress and strain of childbirth.  But with this information, we tend to overlook an important point.  Our savior was not abandoned, nor born in conditions to harsh.

We learn from scripture, that shepherds were nearby in the fields tending to their sheep at night.  Normally, winters in this part of the world are deary, cold and rainy.  This seems not to have been the case.  Had it been, shepherds normally would have moved their sheep inside barns.  We may believe that this winter’s night was somewhat mild.

Scripture all tells us that there was no “guest room” for Mary to deliver her child.  It is a likely assumption, as they traveled to Bethlehem to register in their ancestral home, that Joseph and Mary had family there.  Being pregnant, we could assume she would not have been turned away.  But with each house filled to the rafters with noisy relatives, where to birth a baby in peace?  In a manger, of course!

A manger, a small attachment to the main house were animals were quartered.  It is dry, warm and cozy.  Close enough for family, but removed enough for quiet.  There Mary and Joseph, could rest from their tiresome journey and insure the baby Jesus was comfortable too.

We needn’t paint a picture of harsh uninviting conditions.  Yes, babies were born in more comfortable conditions such as a house or bed, but this was a frenzied night.  We must remember too, God had provided a magnificent star and a chorus of angels to serenade his birth- could we truly believe God would allow Jesus in a mess?

I cannot think of a more beautiful and tranquil way in which to enter the world at the time. A dry warm manger, laying peaceful under the watchful eyes of mother- and a donkey and a cow or two. A cow has such beautiful eyes. Jesus must have smiled and perhaps even giggled.

Bethlehem- noisy, crowded, bustling.  The manger- dry, warm, safe.

“O holy Child of Bethlehem, acsend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in-  be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angel, the great glad tidings tell. O come to us, abide with us- our dear Lord Emmanuel!” [O Little of Bethlehem, fourth stanza by Fr. Phillip Brooks. (c) 1865.]

Blessed Margaret of Savoy, Widow, O.P.

Margaret of Savoy, daughter of Duke Amadeo II, is one of three royal princesses who wore the Dominican habit and were beatified. In the 15th century, she was the glory of a family that has given several beati to the Church.

Born into the royal house of Savoy, Margaret grew up in a household in which piety and wealth were ordinary. Her own parents died when she was small, and she was educated by an uncle, who arranged an early marriage for her to the Marquis of Montferrat, Theodore Paleologus.

As queen of her fairly large domain, Margaret was the model of Christian rulers. She felt that it was her duty to exceed in charity and humility in the proportion that she was wealthier than those around her, and she devoted all of her time to God and to her neighbors. Her husband was a widower with two children, to whom she gave the greatest care. The hundreds of dependents on the large estates came to her for charity and instruction.

Disaster stuck Savoy several times in the years when she was wife and mother. Famine and plague came, making great demands on her time and her courage. Unhesitatingly, she went out to nurse the plague-stricken with her own hands, and she sent out food and clothing from her husband’s stores until it was doubtful if anything would be left. After this crisis passed, war hovered over the kingdom, and she prayed earnestly that they would be delivered from the horrors of invasion.

In 1418, the marquis died. His young widow was one of the most eligible women in Europe. Margaret sorrowed for her husband, but she made it clear to her relatives that they need not plan another marriage for her, as she was going to enter a convent. In order to live a life of complete renunciation, she decided to found a convent of her own at Alba in Liguria that would follow the ancient rule of Saint Dominic. Accordingly, she took over a cloister which had fallen into ruin, having only a few poor inhabitants, and rebuilt it for Dominican use. She dedicated the house to St. Mary Magdalen.

There is one very delightful story told of her sojourn in the convent. When she had been there many years, she one day had a young visitor; he was the son of one of her step-children. Hunting nearby, he had killed a doe, and he brought her the motherless fawn to tend. It was a pretty little animal, and it soon grew to be a pet. One legend was that the fawn was able to go and find any sister she would name, and, for several years, the animal had free rein of the halls and cells of the sisters. Perhaps it was true, though, since the house confessor told her that the deer must go. She took it to the gate and told it to go. It fled into the forest, and returned only when Margaret was about to die.

Margaret attained a high degree of contemplative prayer. One time Our Lord appeared to her and asked her whether she would rather suffer calumny, sickness, or persecution. Margaret generously accepted all three. Her offer was taken, and for the remaining years of her life she suffered intensely from all three sorrows (Dorcy). It should be noted that Saint Vincent Ferrer influenced Margaret to join the Dominican tertiaries (Benedictines).

 

 

 

Happy Holidays and Merry Xmas!!!

It’s that time of year again.  The time for all and sundry to argue the finer points of holiday greetings:  Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays, and for the condemnation of using Xmas instead of Christmas.  At the risk of being seen as a non-Christian minister, or a politically correct one, and abandoning or at least not defending my faith and my Lord, I feel compelled for some odd reason, to offer a defense of the use of Happy Holidays and Xmas.  So here goes….

“Happy Holidays.”  Now really, what’s wrong with that?  It’s a pleasant wish that encompasses good wishes for an entire month and a half long season.  Granted, that “season” is usually meant to be the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, and is usually understood to include only Christmas and New Year’s Day.   However, in that time period, what other holidays are there?  “Happy Holidays” is a collective and inclusive wish for the period encompassing Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Winter solstice, Christmas Day (The Nativity of the Lord), Boxing Day and St. Stephen’s Day, St. John’s Day, the New Year and Epiphany, and it would take me forever to get through the list, if I could remember the list at all, just to give a pleasant hello to someone!  “Happy Holidays” is just easier!  Most of the aforementioned holidays ARE Christian holidays, though, so what’s wrong with “Happy Holidays?”

Leaving those “Happy Holidays” that are in the Christian calendar for a few minutes; let’s look at the ones that aren’t Christian holidays.  Granted, I don’t really consider the Winter solstice a holiday, so I could omit that one altogether and not feel too bad about it.  Kwanzaa is celebrated by our African American brothers and sisters and is not a substitute for Christmas, nor is it a religious holiday.  Wishing someone a happy Kwanzaa does nothing to deny Christianity, but it’s a holiday that I personally don’t celebrate, since I’m not African American.  I DO have many African American friends, however, and most certainly wish them all a happy and joyous Kwanzaa, as well as Christmas!

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival, celebrating a miracle that occurred way back in the 2nd century BCE.  Also known as the Festival of Lights, it is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt.  The story of Hanukkah is alluded to in the book of 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees, but Hanukkah is not specially mentioned; rather, a story similar in character, and obviously older in date, is the one alluded to in 2 Maccabees 1:18,  according to which the relighting of the altar fire by Nehemiah was due to a miracle which occurred on the 25th of Kislev, and which appears to be given as the reason for the selection of the same date for the rededication of the altar by Judah Maccabee.  Now, 1 and 2 Maccabees are not considered canonical books by most Protestants, but are included in the Apocrypha, which IS in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles.  So while Hanukkah is not a Christian holiday, per se, it can be considered Biblical.  And since it celebrates the lighting of the rededication of the Temple and is celebrated with lights, and Christ is “the Light of the World,” Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends!

The day after Christmas is Boxing Day, which is celebrated in the Commonwealth countries.  The tradition of Boxing Day has long included giving money and other gifts to those who are needy and in service positions, and the European tradition has been dated to the Middle Ages.  Shouldn’t we, as Christians, do this year round, and not just during the “holidays”?

New Years Day:  Now, there’s a pagan holiday for you!  The Romans dedicated this day to Janus, the god of gates, doors, and beginnings. The month of January was named after Janus, who had two faces, one looking forward and the other looking backward.  It is from this Roman custom that we get the making of New Year’s resolutions:  looking backward, we resolve to not do something or other, and looking forward, we resolve TO do something or other.  Among the 7th century pagans of Flanders and the Netherlands, it was the custom to exchange gifts at the New Year.  So, I guess I’m asking, should we as Christians NOT celebrate the new year and not wish everyone a “Happy New Year”?  If this is the case, then we should certainly avoid making New Year’s resolutions, too.

And then, there are the religious holidays that most Christians don’t really celebrate, and some don’t even know about.  The Feast of Saint Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr on 26 December, the Feast of St. John who was the “Beloved Disciple” on 27 December, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on  8 December, and the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on 12 December have already been mentioned.

Finally, there is Epiphany, which is perhaps one of the most important holidays of the liturgical or church year.  It is the last day of the Twelve Days of Christmas of which we sing in the (often-denigrated) Christmas carol, and which is overlooked by most non-liturgical churches.  Epiphany, which falls on January 6, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.  Western Christians commemorate principally (but not solely) the visitation of the Biblical Magi to the Baby Jesus, and thus Jesus’ physical manifestation to the Gentiles.  The early Christian Fathers fixed the date of the feast on January 6.  Ancient liturgies noted Illuminatio, Manifestatio, Declaratio (Illumination, Manifestation, Declaration) taken from  Matthew 3:13–17; Luke 3:22; and John 2:1–11; where the Baptism and the Marriage at Cana were dwelt upon. Western Christians have traditionally emphasized the “Revelation to the Gentiles” mentioned in Luke, where the term Gentile means all non-Jewish peoples. The Biblical Magi, who represented the non-Jewish peoples of the world, paid homage to the infant Jesus in stark contrast to Herod the Great (King of Judea), who sought to kill him.  In this event, Christian writers also inferred a revelation to the Children of Israel. Saint John Chrysostom identified the significance of the meeting between the Magi and Herod’s court: “The star had been hidden from them so that, on finding themselves without their guide, they would have no alternative but to consult the Jews. In this way, the birth of Jesus would be made known to all.”  The earliest reference to Epiphany as a Christian feast was in A.D. 361, by Ammianus Marcellinus.   St. Epiphanius says that January 6 is hemera genethlion toutestin epiphanion (Christ’s “Birthday; that is, His Epiphany”).  He also asserts that the Miracle at Cana occurred on the same calendar day, and it was on this day, too, that John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordan River.  So on 6 January, after all the Christmas trimmings have been put away, the gifts exchanged, New Years resolutions have been made (and some broken already), and the kids are back in school, we can still say, with all feeling, “Happy Holidays.”

Honestly, don’t you think “Happy Holidays” is so much easier?

Now, What about that pesky “Xmas” that annoys so many people?

To begin:  Look around in your churches, my friends, especially those of you from a liturgical background, and see how many X’s you can find.

“Xmas” is a common abbreviation of the word “Christmas“.  The “-mas” part is from the Latin-derived Old English word for “Mass“, while the “X” comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as “Christ“.  There is a common misconception that the word Xmas is a secular attempt to remove the religious tradition from Christmas by taking the “Christ” out of “Christmas”.  While “Xmas” is considered to be an informal abbreviation, and should never be used in formal writing, it is historically correct.

The word “Christ” and its compounds, including “Christmas”, have been abbreviated in English for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern “Xmas” was commonly used. “Christ” was often written as “XP” or “Xt”; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as AD 1021. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ and ρ used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for “Christ”), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ. The labarum, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as ☧, is a symbol often used to represent Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian Churches.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the OED Supplement have cited usages of “X-” or “Xp-” for “Christ-” as early as 1485. The terms “Xpian” and “Xtian” have also been used for “Christian”. The dictionary further cites usage of “Xtianity” for “Christianity” from 1634. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, most of the evidence for these words comes from “educated Englishmen who knew their Greek”.

In ancient Christian art, χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ’s name. In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, Χ is an abbreviation for Χριστος, as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek.

Thus, really and truly, the use of the “X” isn’t taking Christ out of Christmas at all.  And instead of protesting the use of “X” during the  Christmas season, wouldn’t we ALL be better people, the world be a better place, and Christ be better served,  if we kept that “X” in our words and deeds every day of the year?  Should we not celebrate Him always, 24/7/365?

So, having said all of the above, Happy Holidays (all of them) to all of you, and may you keep Christ, not only in Christmas, but also in your hearts and minds and lives, every day and always.  Amen.

Do It Afraid and Saying Yes ~ Rev. Br. Joshua Hatten, OPr

Luke 1:26-38

26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,  27to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.   28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”  29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.  30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.   32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.   33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”   34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”   35The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.   36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren.   37For nothing will be impossible with God.”  38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

As we read in Luke 1:38, Mary says “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”  WOW!  Now that has to be the most courageous act of faith I’ve ever read!  I pray for the strength to act like Our Savior’s Mother, the strength to relinquish the wants of MY WILL and honestly and earnestly pray for “THY WILL BE DONE” – less and less of me, more and more of Our Father’s Will.  To always do what is right and good and just and holy in His sight.  But is it that easy?

Here, the Blessed Virgin is truly our example of unwavering faith which she shows by pressing through any fears, worries or anxieties she may have had.  By giving her ‘YES’ to Our Father, by submitting to “let it be with me according to your word” – she shows us that no matter what we may be faced with or feeling,  it is possible to have total faith in God to get us through even the most inexplicable situations.  Just think of some of the trials awaiting Mary simply for submitting to God’s Will.  It could cost her life, being pregnant and unmarried was punishable by death from stoning!  She could have lost her fiancé, Joseph.  She had no idea how he would react to this news!  Can you imagine the looks from her own friends and family she might have received – not to mention the others in her town, from her synagogue, at the market?  I have to believe that at some point these concerns and countless others had to have crossed the Blessed Mother’s mind.  Still, she obeyed. She submitted.  Even if she was terrified, she chose to carry the Son of God, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  In Mary lies a profound secret of great faith that none of us should miss.  DO IT AFRAID.

It is very easy for someone outside of our situations, various as they are, to tell us, when we are faced with real fears, worries and anxieties, to ‘give it to God’ or to ‘cast our cares on the Lord – and leave them there’ or to ‘fear not.’  But for the one actively facing those frightful feelings it often does not seem so simple.  It is in these trials, that I meet Mary.  Though the scriptures don’t tell us WHAT the Virgin Mother was feeling when she submitted to God and showed amazing faith, we can well imagine that she must have panicked at some point, or several points!  But she said yes anyway.  She did it afraid.  Often times, we must do the same thing.  We must endure our trial, shaking in our boots, but pressing inward and onward.  Moving through our various situations scared, but faithfully, still pushing ahead.

May we be so bold in our faith in Our Lord, that our souls will also proclaim the greatness of Our God.  When we accept God's word and when we obey his commands, we will realize great joy and an overwhelming peace becomes available to us – even if what we are faced with seems like it is just too much for us to handle.  Our faith allows us to see that we are not alone, that we can get through all of the curve balls lugged at us, even if we’re terrified.  It is written that God will never leave us nor forsake us, that He is with us always.  Not occasionally, not ‘just through the easy and lovely and happy times.’  Always.  And when we flex our muscles of faith, we’re giving our own fiat, our own ‘YES!’, which allows God to expand in us and use us - and give us the joy, peace, hope and love we need for ourselves and that we need to be a light to the world – to everyone we encounter.

The hope of the world rested on Mary’s ‘YES’ – and she obeyed and Jesus was born.  In a similar way as Christians, the hope of our world rests today on us – will we be like her – will we give our ‘YES’ to God’s will in our lives, no matter how afraid we may be?  Will we give birth to God in our thoughts, words and deeds?  Will we obey the Lord and walk in His ways, no matter how frightening the circumstances are or could become?  Or shall we choose our will to be done because it is easier and requires no courageous faith?  The angel Gabriel tells us in verse 37 “For nothing is impossible with God.”  So when we do not answer with a resounding ‘YES’ to allow God’s birth in our lives, we limit what we can ever have or ever do or ever become.  We must meet the Lords knock on the doors of our hearts with a resounding invitation in – then the Holy Spirit can begin the produce the fruit of Christ-like living in our lives – to the point that  the love, joy, peace, patience and prosperity flow out of us an onto each person that crosses our paths.  But we must un-wrap these gifts of the Spirit so we may, first, use them in our lives and then pass them on and share them with our brothers and sisters.  They cannot flow from us if they are not in us.  And it all starts with our yes to God.

 

 

Blessed Sebastian Maggi, C.O.P.

16 December  Sebastian Maggi lived in a colorful and troubled age, the time of Savonarola; he was, in fact, a friend of the friar of Ferrara and always staunchly defended him.

Sebastian entered the Dominican Order as Brescia as soon as he was old enough. His early years were remarkable only for his devotion to the rule, for the purity of his life, and the zeal with which he enforced religious observance. He was superior of several houses of the order, and finally was made vicar of the reformed congregation of Lombardy, which made him the superior of Jerome Savonarola, the dynamic reformer around whom such a tragic storm was brewing.

Perhaps, if Sebastian Maggi had lived, he might have saved Savonarola from the political entanglements that sent him to his death. Sebastian was his confessor for a long time, and always testified in his favor when anyone attacked the reformer’s personal life. It is hard to say just where he stood politically in the long and complex series of events concerning the separation of Lombard province from the province of Italy. But all that has been written of him conveys the same impression: he was a kind and just superior, who kept the rule with rigid care, but was prudent in exacting it of others.

Several times Sebastian Maggi was sent on missions of reform, and he died on one of these. On his way to a convent for visitation, he became ill at Genoa and died there in 1496. His body is incorrupt at the present time (1963) (Benedictines, Dorcy).

Born: 1414 at Brescia, Italy

Died: 1496 at Genoa, Italy of natural causes; body was still incorrupt in 1963

Beatified: April 15,1760 by Pope Clement XIII (cultus confirmed)

A Word About Christmas Decorations ~ Rev. Br. Terry Elkington, OPr

For this Advent Season let us explore and understand the meaning of the Christmas Tree.  Although I have no reference as to when this story came about. I feel all of us from adults to children will understand it.

The History of the Christmas Tree According to tradition:

The Christmas Tree originated in Riga, Latvia. The Christmas legend says that a monk named Boniface used its triangular shape to to explain the trinity – that God was Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  From that point on, the Germans call the tree “God’s Tree.” By the 16th century they Western Germany in the 16th century, they were used in plays to represent the tree in the garden with Adam and Eve and were decorated with apples. They were called “Paradeisbaum” (Paradise Trees) and were soon brought into homes and still decorated with apples and other fruits to celebrate Christmas. Later, dates, pretzels, and nuts were also used to decorate the tree.  The evergreen was recognised as a symbol of eternal life. Soon candles were soon added the evergreen branches to represent the stars and that Jesus was the light of the world. Besides apples and other fruits, tradition says they also added Communion wafers wrapped in gold and silver foil that represented the fact that Jesus came into the world to save it, that like the communion bread, his body would be broken to save us from sin. Later the wafers were

replaced with cookies cut into the shapes of bells, angels, stars, and hearts.

Gold Christmas Bulb

The Gold Christmas bulb reminds us of Heaven which is filled with the glory of God. The Bible tells us that in Heaven, the streets of the city are pure, clear gold-like glass  (Rev.21:21). God wants you to be with Him in Heaven someday.

Red Christmas Bulb

Red Christmas Bulb The Red Christmas Bulb shows the way God made for you to have your sins forgiven-taken away. God loves you. He sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, from Heaven to take the punishment for your sin (John 3:16). Jesus came into the world to save us from punishment for sin. He is called our Savior! “…the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin” (I John 1:7).

White Christmas Bulb

The white Christmas bulb reminds us that you can be made clean from sin. When we sin, we can tell god about our sin, and ask forgiveness and when we do his blood washes away our sin and makes us white as snow! (I John 1:9).

The Green Christmas Tree

The green Christmas tree reminds us of the new life, everlasting life, we can receive from God.  The Bible tells us to “grow in grace in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18).

The Blue Christmas Bulb

The blue bulb is the same as water. Jesus, to show he was giving his life to God was baptized in water.Christmas Lights

Jesus was born as a light of the world. He came to bring us out of darkness and into the light. Do you want to walk in the light of Jesus this Christmas?

A Silver or Gold Star

You can add a star at the top of the Christmas tree as a reminder that the wisemen followed the star looking for Jesus. Will you seek Jesus this Christmas?

Now as you look upon a Christmas tree you will appreciate what you see .

A Priest and a Profession!

The Order of Preachers, Reformed is thrilled to announce that Rev. Brother Terry Elkington was ordained into the sacred order of the priesthood this past Saturday.  Immediately following his ordination, Fr. Terry made his Simple Profession as Dominican.  He is now The Reverend Brother, Father Terry Elkington, OPr.  Let us pray for God’s continued Grace in his life, and praise God for the things He is doing!  Thanks be to God!

Gifts

What you are is God’s gift to you.

What you become is your gift to God.

During this time of the year, many of our thoughts turn to gifts: giving and receiving, what we want to give, what we want to receive, what will please those we love, the shopping, the ordering, the wrapping, the general hustle and bustle of the Christmas season centering around gifts ad infinitum, donating to the people with the red kettles and bells so the less fortunate can have gifts…..

And then there’s the practice of ‘re-gifting,’  passing along that unwanted or unusable gift that we were given, to someone else, so that they will have SOMETHING, and so that they too, can possibly pass that pink and orange and green plaid scarf along, re-gifting it themselves to someone else who won’t use it either….and sometimes by some freak chance that unwanted item comes back to us several years later….and not much too worse for the wear….  And is re-gifting, as amusing (and cheap) as it may seem, necessarily a bad thing?

Why all this focus on gift-giving and gift-receiving at this time of year?  The union of Christmas and gift giving was a gradual one; actually, the full story of the bright packages beneath the tree, like most of our Christmas customs, begins in the days before the birth of Christ.  In ancient Rome, gifts were exchanged during the New Year’s celebrations. At first these gifts were simple, such as a few twigs from a sacred grove and small items of food. Many gifts were in the form of vegetables in honor of the fertility goddess Strenia. During the Northern European Yule, (yep, the yuletide season is a pagan thing) fertility was celebrated with gifts made of wheat products, such as bread and alcohol.

Like many of the old and pagan customs, exchanging gifts was difficult to get rid of even as Christianity spread and gained official status. Early church leaders tried to outlaw the custom, but the people cherished it too much to let it go.  St. John Chrysostom urged no compromise with heathen abominations, but he, too, failed in this tenacity of hanging on to the tradition of gift giving.  Since there was no general agreement about the exact date of the birth of Jesus, it must have seemed helpful to have it supersede the Saturnalia, so the rebirth of the sun became instead the birth of the Son of God, and the church leaders looked for a Christian justification for the practice of all this gift giving. This justification was found in the Magi’s act of bearing gifts to the infant Jesus, and in the concept that Christ was a gift from God to the world, bringing in turn the gift of redemption and everlasting life.

What you are is God’s gift to you.

What you become is your gift to God.

Wikipedia defines a gift as the transfer of something without the expectation of receiving something in return. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation of reciprocity, a gift is meant to be free. By extension the term “gift” can refer to anything that makes the other happier or less sad, especially as a favor, including forgiveness and kindness.

God’s gifts to us are free and clear.  He has given us the gift of His Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.      He has given us the gift of eternal life:  “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 (NIV);  The gift of salvation:  “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8 (NIV);  And the gifts that are unique to each of us:   “We each of us have our own individual gifts:  But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.” 1Corinthians 7:7 (NIV)

Besides the obvious gift of His Son, and the forgiveness that we receive through Him whom we receive by faith, what other gifts has God given specifically to you?  What talents have you received?  What blessings have been given to you?

We learn about the 7 Gifts of the Spirit in Isaiah 11:2-3:  “2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD— 3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;” (NIV)

And more importantly, what are you doing with those gifts?  What are you giving back to God?  What are you “becoming” as you use your gifts and talents?  Which of the gifts that you have been given are you “regifting?”  In other words, when we’ve received a gift from God, do we share that gift with others?  Do we “regift?”  We are told in 1 Peter 4:10, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” (NIV)  Jesus himself addresses this very thing in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30.  By using our gifts, they multiply and we bring others to know God, and by recognizing what we have been given and using them for God’s glory, we are giving back to God.

What is the most precious thing we can give to God?  The most precious gift we can give is what God wants the most. God wants us to make the fervent attempt to repent, get right with Him, and not lead a double life, trying to follow two contradictory paths, but living our lives according to His will.  God simply wants us to give ourselves to Him.  This is the best gift we can give!   Our gift to Him is how we respond to the gifts He has given us which are the gifts of life and of grace. We can best do this when we are headed in His direction, following His precepts with a grateful, willing heart and mindset, and by striving to be the best that we can be by becoming what it is that He wants us to be.

Barbara Streisand sings in “The Best Gift:”

The best gift
That I ever got
Didn’t really weigh a lot
It didn’t have a ribbon ’round
And it sometimes made a terrible sound
The best of all it seems to me
It wasn’t ‘neath the Christmas tree
And yet, I guess I’d have to say
That it made all the other presents twice as gay
The best gift that I’ve ever known
I’d always wanted most to own
Yet in my dreams of sugar and spice
I never thought it could be so nice
The best gift that I ever get
Was sometimes dry and sometimes wet
Was usually pink but oftentimes red
As it lay so innocently in it’s bed
The best gift of the year to me
The one I hold most dear to me
A gift that simply drove me wild
Was a tiny new born child…

As we celebrate the birth of THE tiny newborn Child, God’s greatest and best Gift to us, let us strive to make ourselves the best gift we can give to others, and to God.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

A Christmas Tree, from the outside~ by Fr. Bryan

The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all this Advent.

We were challenged by our Father General, to consider a sermon keeping the Christmas tree somewhat in mind when we consider the theme.  There were at first many possibilities, but none that seemed to jump to the front.

I thought of the traditional recollections, of how the Christmas tree came to be. The folklore story of Martin Luther walking back to his church on a winters’ night and pausing to gaze up at the stars twinkling beyond the branches of an evergreen.  How he set up such a tree within his church adorned with candles, which reminded him of that night.

Then I thought of the legend of St. Boniface and how, confronted by the pagans in Germany he was on a mission to convert, he cut down the beloved oak tree they worshipped and built a church to St. Peter with it’s wood.  After winter, an evergreen sprig sprouted from the stump of the oak he’d cut down- an evergreen that would endure winter after winter.

As I wrestled with the thought for an idea to choose, the Spirit spoke to me in the musings of Sister Dollie. She compares herself to a Christmas tree, “nothing special under all [her] glittery adornments, but yet you [we] welcome me [her] as a sister in Christ.”  Dearest child of God, you are indeed an inspiration and worthy of our love.

How we all are like Christmas trees.  We have somewhere to go, someone to see and we will spend hours preparing. We shower, pick out our nicest clothes or compare patterns and colors, then to the mirror to groom. Is my hair perfect? Does this shirt match my pants? Does it make me look fat? Is this bling to much?  Yes, we are adorned Christmas trees. Only when we have judged ourselves perfect, can we be good enough to go out- to be put in front of the window where everyone can see.

True, but they only see us then from the outside.  Like carolers strolling by on a winter night looking at the beautiful Christmas trees beyond the frosty windows.  They never see just the tree.  Those imperfections hidden beneath the strings of lights, ornaments and tinsel- the broken branches,  the twisted trunk and of course those bare spots.

Before God, we are naked Christmas trees.  God sees our broken branches, our twisted trunk and yes, our bare spots.  God adorns us with love and, unlike our own critical review of ourselves- God embraces us with all our imperfections, faults and “bare spots.” God knows that we are indeed special- for God is our Creator and we are his created.  We are the sheep of His flock and He is our shepherd, regardless of the brightness and quality of our wool.

It is as when we chose that naked tree, to become our Christmas tree. We chose it for it’s shape, its size, it’s fullness and most importantly- for it’s potential. Then we bring it home and adorn it with lights, tinsel and a star. It becomes a beautiful Christmas tree- and we place it in front of the window.

My almighty Creator. You see me as I am. Naked, I kneel before you in all my imperfection. I am like that evergreen tree- broken, twisted and bare.  Make me into a Christmas tree, almighty God- so that I might radiate your love and bring  joy to all those that I meet on this journey through life. Make me worthy of their friendship, and of your love and promise of eternal life.  I kneel before you, my Lord Jesus, as you lay in the manger. I adore and worship you. May the joy, peace, hope and promise of Christmas never end!  Amen.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given- and the government will be upon his shoulders; and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” [Isaiah 9:6]