Christmas Blessings

 

Merry Christmas!

 

May peace and all that is good

bless you this Christmas.

May the hope born at

Christmas be yours.

May you be filled with

strength and courage

to share the Good News:

Jesus Christ is born for us!

Emmanuel

 

Emmanuel… God with us! Let us trust in that!

Emmanuel… God with us! Let that promise sink deeply into us!

Emmanuel… God with us! Always! No matter what!

Emmanuel… God with Us! Even when we don’t get it!

 

Emmanuel…

God with us! Are we quiet enough to hear God’s voice?

Emmanuel…

God with us! Are our hearts open enough to let God’s dreams in?

Emmanuel…

God with us! Are we ready to let go of fear and worries?

Emmanuel…

God with us! Are we people of peace, people of hope, people of welcome?

 

Emmanuel… God with us!

Not just on a road to Bethlehem…

Not just in a stable…

Not just in the 33 years of the life of God’s Son…

No… God with us!

God with us now! God with us always!

 

Just as Jesus needed Mary and Joseph 2000 years ago.

Jesus needs us today.

Christ needs us!

He needs us to be ourselves,

the creation of God we each are!

Christ needs us!

He needs us to love deeply,

share generously and hope endlessly.

Christ needs us!

He needs us to be witnesses,

part of his light, to build his kingdom.

 

Christ needs us!

He needs us because we are all the

beloved children of God,

He needs us because we are each great,

He needs us so that his love may be more complete.

Christ needs us!

Jesus – Messiah – Christ - Saviour – Emmanuel… God with Us! Let us trust in that!

May our hearts this Christmas and always,

so we may hear God say ‘I am with you!’

Amen.

I would like to leave you with a Christmas challenge no matter how old or young you are, no matter what your family make up is. Take the time to stop at the Manger/Nativity Scene at your church this Christmas after Mass (and the one in your home), stop for a moment and say a prayer... this simple action will remind others why we celebrate.
Make an Emmanuel statement.



Merry Christmas Everyone!
May the hope and love of the Christ Child touch your hearts.
May the Christmas Season be a time of blessings for you
and may 2014 be filled with many graces for the journey.

Thank you for your support and prayers.
This will be the last blog until after the New Year... check back again in January.

Saying Yes to Emmanuel

The Third Week of Advent, the days grow shorter and darker, but yet we are filled with joy and hope, for we know the promise of Emmanuel.

This week at the Friary we are leading a 3 day Advent Mission. I'm part of the planning and presenting team. It really is a blessing to be a part of something that I hope to be able do as a Franciscan.

As we journey closer to Christmas my blog this week is my reflection for the Mission. Our theme is Saying Yes to Emmanuel. My topic within the theme is Mary's 'Yes'! May Mary remind us that we all have our part to do.

 

Yes...For Emmanuel to Come Among Us

She said ‘Yes!’ I have always been fascinated that Mary said ‘yes!’ A young girl, about thirteen or fourteen, has angel appear and she says ‘yes!’

I look at my own life when I was thirteen or fourteen, and I know that my ‘yes’ would not have come so quickly. Even though I feel I had a deep connection with God at that time or at least I knew my faith life was growing, I would have not so easily said yes, even to an angel.

My parents would testify to this. Many a time it would be ‘Michael can you do the dishes?’ Yup I will. ‘Michael can you please make sure your brothers get their homework done?’ Yup I will. ‘Michael can you please go out to the garden and pick the peas?’ Yup I will.

You see the difference between Mary’s yes and my yes, is that she followed through on it quite quickly, where as my yes was instant, but often meant another reminder or two or delayed reaction or a ‘yes, but…’ or a threat needed to be made before I followed through on my promise.

But not Mary, in her ‘yes’, she embraced God’s promise to her people and to generations to come. She embraced bearing a child, when she herself was still a child. She embraced having to endure ignorance from people she thought were her friends, to being very much alone at times, to challenges, to being scared, to times of pain, but she said ‘yes.’

May be she never thought of any of that and simply said ‘yes’ out of trust. Simply saying ‘yes’ out of ‘God is calling me, I must respond’. She was young and open and full of trust. She was open to God touching her heart. She was open to God’s plan even though she did not know all what that would mean. Yet she was willing to risk it all, to say ‘yes!’ A Yes that would include Christ being born, yes to accepting her mission, yes to raising and loving him, yes to hardship, yes to letting him go, yes to watching him die, yes to the glory of his resurrection.

She said ‘yes!’ She was open and she trusted. Maybe that is the secret of staying in tune with our God, to keep at heart the innocence, pure, hopeful and strong yes of a child.

In the major motion picture ‘The Nativity Story’ that was released a few years ago, there is a scene where Mary and Joseph are journeying to Bethlehem and they stop for the night on the side of the road. Mary asks Joseph about his dream. At first he hesitates to tell her, but then confirms the same message she had received, that the child within in her was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and that he was not to be afraid. Mary then asks him ‘Are you afraid?’ He pauses for a moment and then says ‘yes, he is’. He then asks her the same question and she agrees with him. And then they wonder, when they will know that their child is more than a child or if they will be able to teach him anything. It is a very intimate moment in the movie. It shows how very human we all are and that God was willing and still is willing to step into that.

In the first letter of John there is a line that reads ‘perfect love casts out fear.’ Perfect love casts out fear. God’s love is perfect and Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah embraced that love and let it subside the fear that sat within them as they said ‘yes’ to God.

Do we?

Do we let God’s perfect love come in dwell within in us?

One of the many names for Jesus is Emmanuel – God with us! Do we let perfect love come and dwell within us or do we find excuses, or say yes but with these conditions or do we at this busy time of year fill our yes up with demands of the season (eggnog, with party after party, with cookies to be icing and with perfect gifts to be found)?

I’m by no means saying to cut these special items out of our Advent preparations but do we leave enough room to say ‘yes’ to Emmanuel?

Yes!

I will trust!

Yes as part of my everyday!

Yes to the adventure of life!

Yes to today, to tomorrow and beyond.

Yes to my gifts shared and more to share!

Yes

in reaching out to others,

in helping the less fortunate,

in defending life,

in giving and not counting the cost,

in loving, even when it’s hard.

Yes to simply being,

in gratitude

in generosity

in looking beyond myself

Yes to the gift of life,

to forgiveness

in remembering that God is present,

God’s perfect love is present, even when life seems bleak.

Do we say yes?

Yes to God’s kingdom that has no end?

Yes to the promise that nothing is impossible with God?

Mary said yes to all of this.

Mary stood at the center of God’s plan? Where do we stand?

Are our hearts ready to accept Emmanuel again this Christmas?

 

 

Help us say ‘yes’, O God

to your perfect love,

that you may work wonders through our lives,

that the world may know your Son, Emmanuel,

through our words and actions,

that we may proclaim you with greatness and joy until the end of time.

Amen.

 

 

 

PS.

Holly grows around here quite freely and easily.

These 2 photos are of the tree at our entrance

 

The Simplicty of Christmas Lights

As this Advent Season unfolds and I journey in a new place I am obviously encountering new highlights in the journey this season.

 

Advent has always had a special place in my heart. Right from my childhood the waiting and the preparing has always spoken to my heart. From Advent calendars, to house work, to community events, to finally decorating; the waiting was active and the preparing was for than a day. As a child I was being formed into appreciating a whole season both Advent & Christmas. As I have grown up and moved out on my own I have worked at continuing these gifts that were instilled in me. It has taken work and effort, but anything good should do so. It has meant saying no to party invites, it has meant spending some quiet nights at home, it has been listening to words of scripture and music, and it has been keeping in touch with family and friends. So this year in my Postulancy year I was curious to see how this would unfold. Would I need it to be different? Would it be forced on me to be different? Would it feel like Advent?

Well now that we are into week 2 of the season, I can say the Advent journey has had similar experiences of my past, but it has also called me to be more attentive to areas in my life. One of my favorite things about Advent is the scriptures that is proclaimed each Sunday. There is such rich images in these holy words. They call me to enter in to the journey more, to seek how they are intertwined in my life and how they call me to give witness to Emmanuel. A challenge I have placed upon myself this season is to spend at least 3 sessions of 10 minutes a week reading the scripture for the upcoming Sunday. This is not necessarily new to me, but it feels more intense this year. I am reading the scripture differently, I am seeking more understanding, I am embracing it as more of a guide for the journey, and I am letting the words paint images that help lead me to Christ. 3x10 minutes is not a lot of time, but it is minutes I look forward to each week. Another gift of the season that I have loved since I have been a boy is a daily Advent reflection book. This year I am being fed by words of wisdom that are deepening my encounter of Emmanuel, causing me to ponder my journey and what I am offering.

 

 

I have also sought out experiences of the season that the community offers. I have been to an Anglican Advent Prayer Evening, a Nativity Scene Exhibit (625+ crèches - let's just say I was close to being in heaven) and have been to a Light Parade. I will also be taken in an Advent Carol Evening at the Catholic Cathedral and I’m sure other events will pop up in the weeks ahead. Being in this new place is obviously challenging me to remember that  I can’t see and do everything, and that I need time to be quiet and pray and listen to God speaking to me.

 

 

It was while watching the Light Parade that I was struck with a profound thought. I was trying to figure out why on earth I had tears welling up as I watched a parade and at the same time why on earth I was so excited to see these lights. The profound thought that struck me was ‘Maybe I have been Franciscan my whole life, maybe I was raised in a Franciscan home!?’ Well maybe that is not a profound thought maybe it is more of a silly thought.

 

It was that thought which had me thinking about past Advents; what kept surfacing was the simplicity of the season and the events I have chosen to be part of in the season. I thought back to my childhood and how it was simple things (traditions, carols, nights at home, etc.) in the season that brought me joy, I think to my young adult life and how it was the need to keep traditions of the season prominent and I think to now and how the simplicity of reading God’s word and going to a parade has made me appreciate the simplicity that St. Francis has invited me to experience more deeply. So my thoughts about being Franciscan my whole life and being raised in a Franciscan home are maybe not so far-fetched. These simple gifts of waiting and preparing and how they were introduced to me long ago have lead me to walking this Franciscan path.

Thank God for Christmas Lights to shine some light on my path! Let them shine bright this season!!

 

 

 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Okay, technically in a liturgical sense I know that the title of this blog belongs to Christmas and Easter, but for me Advent truly is the most wonderful time of the year. For someone like myself who is a planner and organizer this season is such a great journey so it the most wonderful time. I love the simplicity we are called to, I love the preparing for the Christmas Season, the prayers, the special readings, the scriptures, the candle lighting and the traditions. Oh the traditions…

I am so thankful that my parents instilled in me a great sense of tradition, and I think some of my first memories are connected with traditions of Advent. Some of our traditions were born out of a faith upbringing, some were born out of memories, some were born out of the reality that my parents own a grocery store and December is a busy month. Traditions take the simple in life and make them special and for me that opens my heart up to the gifts of the Season.

So as this Advent season begins I enjoy rich traditions even here in the Friary, some of my brothers have joined me in sharing in these traditions- these parts of me I bring with and offer to the community. Let me share a few of my favorite traditions with you, as you consider your own.

 

Obviously because it is a New Church Year and Season the first tradition comes in décor. Our chapel was transformed from the greens of Ordinary Time to the purples of Advent and a beautiful Advent wreath. Oh the beautiful smell of the evergreen! This transformation is also part of my own created tradition that my own space gets a bit of makeover with a few Christmas decorations appearing.

Then comes a true treat for me, after Mass on the First Sunday of Advent I head to the kitchen to enjoy my first Christmas (mandarin) orange of the season, along with a delicious glass of Eggnog! Two delectable Advent treats I look forward to each year. As I peel the orange and sip the eggnog I enter into the season, I’m transported to my childhood and I look ahead to the journey of Advent. (If I was at home I would be drinking the eggnog from a special Christmas mug or cup). I also enjoy a Red Delicious Apple on each Sunday of Advent (something my Mom started with us not to long ago).

And then the Advent Hymns and Christmas carols begin to play to help me journey and pray through the season.

I am very fond of a good Advent reflection book to help my faith journey and so each morning and night I spend time journeying deeper in faith and preparing for the great feast of Christmas through these readings!

The key for me is that these traditional treats launch me into the season and continue through until the last day of the Christmas Season in January.

 

So Advent truly is a season of senses and I’m so thankful for the senses of smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing they truly do bless the journey.

 

SPECIAL ADVENT NEWS:

This Advent is extra special for my family

as we were blessed with the gift of New Life,

we welcomed a new little one into our fold,

an Advent gift indeed!

I am now the proud Uncle to

3 nephews and 7 nieces,

as Adele entered our world on December 1.

Welcome little one, peace and joy be yours!

 

 

I leave you with these beautiful prayers from the First Sunday of Advent Evening Prayer. May your journey be blessed and may your traditions draw you closer to the joys and promise of Christmas.

 

To Jesus Christ, our Redeemer,

the way, the truth, and the life,

let us make our humble prayer:
Come and stay with us, Lord.

Son of the Most High,

your coming was announced to the Virgin Mary by Gabriel,
– come and rule over your people for ever.
Come and stay with us, Lord.

Holy One of God,

in your presence John the Baptist leapt in Elizabeth’s womb,
– bring the joy of salvation to all the earth.
Come and stay with us, Lord.

Jesus the Savior,

the angel revealed your name to Joseph the just man,
– come and save your people from their sins.
Come and stay with us, Lord.

Light of the world,

for whom Simeon and all the just waited,
– come and comfort us.
Come and stay with us, Lord.

O Rising Sun that never sets,

Zechariah foretold that you would visit us from above,
– come and shine on those who dwell in darkness

and the shadow of death.
Come and stay with us, Lord.