He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty.
Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher.
He never had a family or owned a home. He never set foot inside a big city.
He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born.
He never wrote a book, or held an office.
He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness.
Continue reading “Jesus and Christmas” →The Christmas season this year is again in our lives a moment to enjoy family and loved ones and stop for a moment to reflect.
This Christmas season as we sit around the dinner table, or on the floor in front of a fire and the Christmas tree with presents spread around at its base we all have a great deal to be grateful for.
The pandemic has changed our lives. It has reshaped the future. It is still impacting the present and causing disruptions.
But Christmas did not end last year.
It has continued.
At this point, Christmas seems eternal.
This Christmas will be a better one than last Christmas.
On the other hand, we only get so many Christmas holidays to celebrate in a lifetime.
That is why each Christmas is so precious.
Christmas is not to be wasted or ignored.
We need memories of great times to hold onto to give us a reason to live and to always be moving forward in our lives. This Christmas season seems to be more hopeful.
By Robert McTeigue
Can a hymn cancel Christmas? Can the lyrics of a song, if true, make Christmas not true — that is to say, un-real? Oh, yes!
Now, it is a given that honorable people may disagree about which piece of music is more suitable to reverence the birth of Christ. And while there are any number of “secular” Christmas songs that ignore Christ altogether, they are just distractions. What I have in mind is a song that, if taken seriously, makes impossible what Christians celebrate at Christmas. I might even call that song a “hymn” because I once heard it sung in a parish at Christmas Eve Mass. I am writing about it now for that reason, and also because I’ve heard so many Catholics speak so effusively about it, especially when it is sung at Christmas masses. I’m speaking of a song made popular by former American Idol star Clay Aiken: “Mary Did You Know?”
While the song has the merits of prompting its hearers to reflect on Mary beholding her Divine Son, lines from the very first stanza actually bring Christmas to a screeching halt. Here are the problematic lyrics:
“Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new? This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.”
Continue reading “A bit of a talk at Christmas from a friend” →Thanksgiving came and went like a track star running a 220 meter race.
Whoosh!
It seemed far away one moment.
The next moment it came closer rapidly.
When it got here and passed – well – it came and went so fast there didn’t seem that there was much time to enjoy it.
Now Christmas is rushing toward us.
It is rushing toward us like a freight train at full speed going downhill.
This is a Christmas for the ages in a year that will go down in modern history as one of the most difficult this nation, and many nations of the world, have experienced.
However, as the Christmas Holiday is upon us, the darkness is clearing away, and a bright new light is beginning to shine. The arrival of vaccines that can save hundreds of thousands of lives isn’t exactly like the birth of Jesus, but giving life to those who might lose them otherwise, is about a miracle.
Continue reading “Merry Christmas” →