December 14, 2003
Home for Christmas
Can
You See What I See?
At many masses (especially at Christmas) we crowd so many people into
our church and many cannot see anything because the large pillars are
in the way. We recently received a technology grant that has allowed
us to put flat-screen monitors on six of the pillars so the people who
sit or stand behind the pillars can see what’s happening. (If you’ve
been to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, you will have noticed they used
the same solution --only their monitors are not the flat kind.)
Soon the cameras that feed the monitors can be used to also feature
our masses and services live on the internet! We need to start a new
“video ministry” and if you’re interested in helping
with the cameras during mass, please let Father Ralph know.
At College?
At St. Brigid’s we like to stay in touch through
e-mail “letters from home.”
Once a person has an e-mail address at school (or if he/she uses a personal
address), please let us know what it is so we can include them when
we write.
Here's a handy college link so you
can send this info online.
e-mail Father Ralph:
Past Columns:
Dec7: Moving Mountains
Nov30: Advent Hope
Nov23: Giving Thanks
Nov 2: A New Look
Oct
26: Blessed Mother Teresa
Oct
19: The Future of Our Youth
Oct
12: In Hot Water
Oct
5: Fruits of the Millennium
Sept
28: Jesus Comes To St. Brigid's
Sept
21: The children will lead us
Sept
14: Triumph of the Cross
Sept
7: Nine-eleven: Two Years Later
August
31: Where the Summer went
August
24: Lessons from the Blackout
August
17: Here and There
August 10: Surrender
August 3: Reaping
Rewards
July 27:
What's your mission?
July 20:
From a Deserted Place
July 13: Nothing
for the Journey
July 6: God
at Home
June 29: Going
in Stages
June 22: Sommer
in the Summer
June 15: Our
Newest Priest Ordained
June 8: The
Feast of Pentecost
June 1: Beyond
First Communion
May 24: Felicidades
Manuel
May 18: Twenty
Years Later
May 11: Bows
for Peace
May 4: Upcoming
Ordinations
April 27: One
Heart One Mind
April 20: Amazingly
Graced Days
April 13: Ashes
to Palms
April
6: God Embedded
March
30: Pastoral Visits
March
23: Turning Tables
March
16: Transfiguring Imagination
March
9: Beasts and Angels
March
2: Lent and Imagination
Feb
23: Sorrow Far and Wide
Feb 16: Saints
Feb 9: Columbia
Lessons
Feb2: Giving
At A Difficult Time
Jan 26:
Penny Power & Catholic Schools
Jan19:
Yet Another Year
Jan 12:
Stealing Jesus
Jan5: The Wise Still Come
From Afar
Columns from 2002
“I’ll be home for Christmas...”
the song says. Home and Christmas go together in all our dreams. So it’s
particularly poignant that the first Christmas found Mary and Joseph away
from home and stuck in some animal stable. Yet God came anyway. In fact
the sense the scriptures give us is that it is here that God “pitches
his tent” among humanity -- or to put it another way, “God makes
his home among us.”
“Come home for Christmas.” That’s
a saying that’s often used in churches to reach out to a forgotten
flock. But as “warm” as the sentiment sounds, it never really
moved me because I think that most people who come only occasionally to
church never felt they left the church. And some others wouldn’t
necessarily say that their church was their home in the first place. It’s
just not how they were brought up. Instead church was a place to visit
-- like an honored old aunt -- but not really “home”, except
to those who seemed like they “lived up at church.” But let’s
not forget that whether it seems like home or not, God lives here. Really.
Jesus lives in the Word of God shared here. Jesus lives in the Eucharist
which is given to us in communion. Jesus lives “where two or three
are gathered” in his name.
I suspect the choice that people face on
Christmas is this: if I really believe that God came to earth in Jesus,
and through my baptism Jesus calls me to be a disciple, a follower, how
am I doing that now -- at this time and age in my life? This is more than
the question of whether I am a good person or not. It’s a question
of whether I’m walking daily life with Jesus and coming to him each
week as the source of deep life and the power to love. Or am I just coasting
through life on some old grace?
My invitation to those who are “stopping
by” on Christmas is this: come back this Sunday to celebrate the
Feast of the Holy Family. Then come back the following weeks for Epiphany
and the Baptism of the Lord. That’s the full cycle of Christmas feasts.
See if your being here will help you connect in a new way to the God who
came to earth to make a home in you. (Yes, you!)
Merry Christmas!
You are Person
