1-2-07
Greetings!
A recent story from the AP "Storage units become 'Santa closets' to hide gifts" by Rose French, describes to a tee the way so many of us have twisted the real meaning of Christmas.
As the story states: "Missy Phillips knew she had a big problem on her hands when her boyfriend's 18-year-old son ransacked their house looking for the stash of unwrapped Christmas presents. To keep the nosy teenager from finding the stereo, video games and hunting bow she and her boyfriend bought him, Phillips had to go out of the house – and into a self-storage unit – to hide the gifts until Christmas Eve."
So to keep an 18 year old from "ransacking" the house looking for the gifts, the solution is to rent a storage unit?! Wow. The story goes on to relate how more people are going this route and portrays this option as a perfectly normal solution.
Gosh, if my 18 year old can't control himself, storage units are likely to be the least of my or his worries. Likewise, a household that breeds such an environment lacking in self-control, respect, and full of indulgence, is unlikely to be one of peace and happiness.
What a far cry from the humble family, giving birth in a stable 2000 years ago, in order to bring light to a pagan world of darkness. He still comes today, to a world badly in need of a Light, a Savior.
Pope Benedict continues to ask the pertinent questions of today. Just before he was elected pope, he questioned relativism. His Wednesday audiences have focused on the connection between Christ and the Church (as an answer to those who would claim "I believe in Christ, but not the Church, or organized religion.) He then questioned those who would use violence in the name of religion, focusing specifically on Islam. And now in his Christmas reflection, he questions those who wonder whether mankind still needs a Savior, amidst all our progress and prosperity.
Mankind Still Needs a Savior, Insists Pontiff
Christmas Day Message Notes "a Heart-rending Cry for Help"
VATICAN CITY, DEC. 25, 2006 (
ZENIT.org).- A humanity that has made breakthroughs in communication technologies and biology needs a Savior as much as ever, says Benedict XVI in his Christmas Day message.
"How can we not hear, from the very depths of this humanity, at once joyful and anguished, a heart-rending cry for help?" asked the Pope during an address today before he gave the traditional Christmas blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city of Rome and the world).
"In this postmodern age, perhaps he [man] needs a Savior all the more, since the society in which he lives has become more complex and the threats to his personal and moral integrity have become more insidious," the Holy Father said from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica to the crowds that filled the square below.
"But does a 'Savior' still have any value and meaning for the men and women of the third millennium?" he asked. "Is a 'Savior' still needed by a humanity which has reached the moon and Mars and is prepared to conquer the universe; for a humanity which knows no limits in its pursuit of nature's secrets and which has succeeded even in deciphering the marvellous codes of the human genome?
"Is a Saviour needed by a humanity which has invented interactive communication, which navigates in the virtual ocean of the internet and, thanks to the most advanced modern communications technologies, has now made the Earth, our great common home, a global village? This humanity of the 21st century appears as a sure and self-sufficient master of its own destiny, the avid proponent of uncontested triumphs."
Enslaved
"So it would seem, yet this is not the case," the Benedict XVI continued. "People continue to die of hunger and thirst, disease and poverty, in this age of plenty and of unbridled consumerism.
"Some people remain enslaved, exploited and stripped of their dignity; others are victims of racial and religious hatred, hampered by intolerance and discrimination, and by political interference and physical or moral coercion with regard to the free profession of their faith."
The Pope added: "Others see their own bodies and those of their dear ones, particularly their children, maimed by weaponry, by terrorism and by all sorts of violence, at a time when everyone invokes and acclaims progress, solidarity and peace for all."
"And what of those who, bereft of hope, are forced to leave their homes and countries in order to find humane living conditions elsewhere?" the Holy Father asked. "How can we help those who are misled by facile prophets of happiness, those who struggle with relationships and are incapable of accepting responsibility for their present and future, those who are trapped in the tunnel of loneliness and who often end up enslaved to alcohol or drugs?
"What are we to think of those who choose death in the belief that they are celebrating life?"
Benedict XVI observed: "Today our Savior is born to the world, for he knows that even today we need him.
"Despite humanity's many advances, man has always been the same: a freedom poised between good and evil, between life and death. It is there, in the very depths of his being, in what the Bible calls his 'heart,' that man always needs to be 'saved.'"
More insidious
"And, in this postmodern age, perhaps he needs a Savior all the more, since the society in which he lives has become more complex and the threats to his personal and moral integrity have become more insidious," the Pope contended. "Who can defend him, if not the One who loves him to the point of sacrificing on the cross his only-begotten Son as the Savior of the world?
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What's that old quote…."we have seen the enemy…and it is us"? How utterly sad….
Nun Imposes Religious Christmas Gifts Ban at Catholic Hospital
By Hilary White
TAMPA, December 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – When a group of teachers and sisters from Villa Madonna Catholic school tried to brighten up patients' hospital stay with Christian-themed gifts, the nun in charge of St. Joseph's Children's Hospital missions decreed that such gifts were inappropriate. A nun from a different order, Sr. Kim Keraitis, who helped organize the gift giving responded she found the political correctness of the decree appalling.
The St. Petersburg Times reports that the decision was made that religiously neutral ornaments that read "Joy to the World" and "Peace on Earth" were in; lapel pins depicting Christ's birth, ornaments with "Merry Christmas," and Jesus-themed T-shirts were out.
Sister Pat Shirley, a member of the Franciscan order that founded the Tampa hospital in 1934, told local media, "Yes, we were founded by Catholic sisters, but we serve everybody in our community."
"We have to create an environment in which all feel comfortable, whether it be Christmas or Hanukkah or Gasparilla or any circumstance," Sr. Pat said St. Joseph's vice president of missions. "Gasparilla" is an annual summer tourist festival sponsored by the city of
Tampa based on local pirate myths.
The website of the hospital's foundation, however, said clearly that St. Joseph's remains a Catholic hospital.
"It's not Tampa General," Sister Keraitis of the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco and principal of Villa Madonna school said. "It's not Wal-Mart. It's a Catholic hospital, so if you want to distribute items that say 'Merry Christmas,' even if there are people there that are of other faiths, it's kind of understood that it's a Catholic hospital."
Among the gifts organized by Sr. Keraitis were red T-shirts the read, "Jesus is the heart of Christmas ... Villa Madonna wishes you a Merry Christmas."
The Franciscan Sisters' politically correct attitude was not shared by parents of patients, however. Kimmie Martinez, a Villa Madonna teacher said that when the group was told they would not be allowed to distribute the gifts without parental consent, they toured the halls singing Christmas songs and parent's accepted the gifts "eagerly".
The volunteers asked if patients believed in Jesus and if they did, they got the gifts, Sister Keraitis said.
"I don't want to cause a big stir, but my concern was the fact that it's a Catholic institution," Sister Keraitis said. "Within the Catholic institution, we shouldn't have to apologize for saying 'Merry Christmas' to people."
St. Joseph's Children's hospital is part of a group of St. Joseph's Health Care facilities originally established in 1934 by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany who came to Tampa to aid the victims of an outbreak of yellow fever.
The Franciscan Sisters of Allegany have missions in Brazil, Jamaica and Bolivia but are experiencing the same drought of candidates as most of the orders of Catholic sisters who 'reformed' in the 1960's. They currently have two candidates for admission in the
US.
And finally, a beautiful reflection on Mary & Eve befitting this Holy Season:
When Eve came to Bethlehem
Little is written of Eve, other than two references to her in the book of Genesis and two in the New Testament.
Few think of her at Christmas, when Mary takes center stage next to Jesus.
Recently,I came across a beautiful story about Eve in the January '07 issue of First Things journal.
It was written by two French authors, Jerome Tharaud and Jean Tharaud, and is included in the book "Contes de Noel" (Seuil, 1997).
As Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, perhaps this story will deepen your appreciation of what the incarnation reveals, all the way back to the beginning:
"It was Bethlehem, the end of a long night. The star had just disappeared, and the last pilgrim had left the stable. The Virgin arranged the straw: at last the Child could sleep. But who can sleep the night of Christmas?
"Gently the door opens, so gently that it seems more like the wind was pushing it than a hand. A woman appears on the threshold, covered with rags. She was so old and wrinkled that you would have thought her mouth was one more deep wrinkle in a face the color of dirt.
"A fearful chill came over Mary when she saw her, as if a malicious fairy had come into the room. Fortunately Jesus was asleep. The ass and ox placidly continued munching their hay, as if there was nothing unusual, as if they had known her forever.
"The Virgin didn't take her eyes off her. The woman walked slowly, each step seeming to take centuries. She continued, the old woman, and approached the manger. Thank God, Jesus was still sleeping. How can one sleep on Christmas night?
"Suddenly he opened his eyelids. His mother was completely astonished to see that the eyes of the old woman and his eyes were exactly the same, they both shone with the same hope. The old woman sank down on the straw. One hand disappeared into her rags, looking for something, taking ages to find it.
"Mary watched her closely, still concerned. The animals watched her, too, but always without surprise, as if they knew beforehand what was going to happen.
"Finally, after a long time, slowly, tiredly, the old woman pulls out of her clothes a little object hidden in her hand, and she gives it to the child. All the treasures of the Wise Men and the offerings of the Shepherds, what could this be?
"From where she was, Mary could not tell. She saw only the shoulders bowed down, the woman's back, bent over from age, now bent over even more before the crib, and the Child within it. The ox and ass watched, and were not amazed.
"The woman stayed bowed before the Child a long time. Finally she arose, as if relieved from a great weight which had dragged her to the ground. Her shoulders were no longer bowed down, her head almost touched the low roof, her face seemed miraculously renewed, as if she was finding once more the vigor of her youth.
"She turned from the crib, smiled at Mary, and went out through the door into the dawning day. Finally Mary could see the mysterious present.
"An apple, a little apple, having within it all the sin of the world, given to the baby Jesus by Eve, for it was her, the old woman, who had come to worship the Child born of her blood, who would save her from her sins. The apple of the original sin, and the sin of so many who would follow her.
"And the little red apple shone in the hands of the Child, as if it were the globe of the kingdom and of the new world which had just been born with the King."
God bless you! Phil Lawson For the latest info on St. Peter's, check out the parish website: www.saintpetercatholic.com (You can also find old editions of the Areopagus here)
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