THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

It’s a Wonderful Life:  George Bailey stands on the bridge over the river talking with Clarence, his guardian angel.  George had wanted to end it all because he was a failure—no money in the bank, no college diploma on the wall, no photos of world travels in an album.  And Clarence gives him a quick tour of his life—all the good he has done, the people he has touched, the friends he has made.  Clarence sums it up in the words of Mark Twain, “No man is a failure who has friends.”

This week we have another one of those “Let’s get ready for Jesus” Advent gospels.  As Clare and I watched It’s a Wonderful Life, I couldn’t help but fast forward from the beginning to the end of Jesus’ life and think about the conversation he might have had with his guardian angel.  About to be arrested on trumped up charges, on the verge of a trial before a venal judge, abandoned by friends, soon to be beat up and crucified, what else could he have thought, but failure and let’s end now!

I asked the Middlers what Jesus’ guardian angel might have said to him about life without Jesus—no miracles, no cures, no feeding the hungry, no standing with the poor, no forgiving the sinner, no railing against unjust authority and no one to tell us with a passion that we must love one another as he has loved us. 

Just as there was a George Bailey, there is a Jesus.  And just as George’s friends wouldn’t let him fail, so must we be friends of Jesus and not let him fail.  After all, he has given us a wonderful life.

Christmas Pageant News

Our Annual Christmas Pageant will be celebrated at 3:30 PM--immediately before the 4 PM Christmas Eve Mass--on December 24^th.

·         FIRST AND SECOND GRADERS are our Pageant Kids.          No sign up; just show up for rehearsals.

·         Boys are Shepherds; costume is an Arab-like headpiece (white cloth and dark headband), SUPPLIED BY PARENTS

·         Girls are Angels; costume is a garland halo, which the church will provide on Christmas Eve; each girl carries a battery operated candle, SUPPLIED BY PARENTS.  Nothing more, except that each girl will wear her special Christmas dress.

·         Mary and Joseph:  we will draw the names of two SECOND GRADERS. Calls will be made to see if the kids are willing and able (sometimes, they can’t or just don’t want to).   Will keep calling until we get Mary and Joseph.  Costumes:  the church has the costumes for Mary and Joseph.

·         Costumes do NOT come to rehearsals; come with your costume on CHRISTMAS EVE only.

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22^nd

10-11:30 AM

 

Christmas Children’s Choir

For the Christmas Pageant Mass, we form a children’s choir of kids in Grades 3 to 8.

Children’s Christmas Choir

Rehearsal Schedule

Tuesday, 12/18:      4-5 PM

Thursday, 12/20:  4-5 PM

Saturday, 12/22:     10-11:30 AM

Love,

Deacon Charlie

 

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

A dramatic reading of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by the Middlers.  And then the question:  why “Bah Humbug!” for Scrooge, and what turned him around?

Christmas and all its warm greetings and all its good works were a big game to Scrooge—a pretense and simply not real.  And so, Christmas was easily dismissed.  It wasn’t until Scrooge woke up from the haunts of his three ghostly visitors, convinced that the warmth of the season and its good works were as real as his bedposts, that he could shout with joy, “I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!”

Our dramatic reading concluded, and I placed the Blessed Sacrament on the altar.  I asked whether we were convinced that the Sacrament was really Jesus.  If not, then all this preparing for Christmas and waiting for the Child is a big game—a pretense and simply not real.  Easily dismissed!  But if we are convinced, then how awesome to be in the presence of Jesus and to have that opportunity whenever we choose to take it.  And how awesome to proclaim to the world that for real—for really real—Jesus has come into our lives.

Yes, indeed, “God bless us everyone!”

Christmas Pageant News

Our Annual Christmas Pageant will be celebrated at 3:30 PM--immediately before the 4 PM Christmas Eve Mass--on December 24^th .

·         FIRST AND SECOND GRADERS are our Pageant Kids.          No sign up; just show up for rehearsals.

·         Boys are Shepherds; costume is an Arab-like headpiece (white cloth and dark headband), SUPPLIED BY PARENTS

·         Girls are Angels; costume is a garland halo, which the church will provide on Christmas Eve; each girl carries a battery operated candle, SUPPLIED BY PARENTS.  Nothing more, except that each girl will wear her special Christmas dress.

·         Mary and Joseph:  we will draw the names of two SECOND GRADERS. Calls will be made to see if the kids are willing and able (sometimes, they can’t or just don’t want to).   Will keep calling until we get Mary and Joseph.  Costumes:  the church has the costumes for Mary and Joseph.

·         Costumes do NOT come to rehearsals; come with your costume on CHRISTMAS EVE only.

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22^nd

10-11:30 AM

Christmas Children’s Choir

For the Christmas Pageant Mass, we form a children’s choir of kids in Grades 3 to 8.

Children’s Christmas Choir

Rehearsal Schedule

Tuesday, 12/18:      4-5 PM

Thursday, 12/20:  4-5 PM

Saturday, 12/22:     10-11:30 AM

Calendar Reminder

This week, December 11, 12 and 13, will be the last week of classes for KidsRelig.  Next week, we will be busy preparing for Christmas (see Christmas Pageant News above).

Love,

Deacon Charlie

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Played a game of Jeopardy with the Middlers.  Categories were: Disasters, Wars and Tribulations.  Answers: Earthquakes and casualties (1970-80), Hurricanes (2012), Wars between England and France (12^th Century), Wars of Ancient Greece and Rome, Battles of the Civil War, Massacres Worldwide (1900-50).  So what’s Jesus talking about when he warns us in the gospel of terrible things to come.  Terrible things have never stopped coming.

Wait for the future?  Hardly!  The future is today.  Our job is not to look for Jesus once the terrible things start; it is to invite Him to come right now and redeem us from the terrible things that have never stopped.

Christmas Pageant News

Our Annual Christmas Pageant will be celebrated at 3:30 PM--immediately before the 4 PM Christmas Eve Mass--on December 24^th .

·         FIRST AND SECOND GRADERS are our Pageant Kids.          No sign up; just show up for rehearsals.

·         Boys are Shepherds; costume is an Arab-like headpiece (white cloth and dark headband), SUPPLIED BY PARENTS

·         Girls are Angels; costume is a garland halo, which the church will provide on Christmas Eve; each girl carries a battery operated candle, SUPPLIED BY PARENTS.  Nothing more, except that each girl will wear her special Christmas dress.

·         Mary and Joseph:  we will draw the names of two SECOND GRADERS. Calls will be made to see if the kids are willing and able (sometimes, they can’t or just don’t want to).   Will keep calling until we get Mary and Joseph.  Costumes:  the church has the costumes for Mary and Joseph.

·         Costumes do NOT come to rehearsals; come with your costume on CHRISTMAS EVE only.

Christmas Pageant Rehearsal

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22^nd

10-11:30 AM

Christmas Children’s Choir

For the Christmas Pageant Mass, we form a children’s choir of kids in Grades 3 to 8.

Children’s Christmas Choir

Rehearsal Schedule

Tuesday, 12/18:      4-5 PM

Thursday, 12/20:  4-5 PM

Saturday, 12/22:     10-11:30 AM

Calendar Reminder

No KidsRelig for Grafflin on Wednesday, December 5^th, due to early dismissal.

Love,

Deacon Charlie

FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING

We celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.  Next, comes Advent, and then, of course, Christmas.  As these days arrange themselves, I couldn’t help but think of the furniture arranged with them.  A throne for a king and a manger for a stable where animals feed.  And Jesus, although a king, never makes it to a throne, but only to a manger.  No wonder Pilate is so confused in today’s gospel. 

Jesus tries to explain his kingship to Pilate, and, as he does, the manger echoes in his words, “For this I was born and for this I came into the world.”

When there was no place for God in the world, God took the lowest place and only climbed higher to save a place for all who had lost their place.  And another piece of furniture arranges itself in the Kingdom of God.  

Christmas Pageant News

Next week, watch for news here in the Parish Bulletin, on the Parish Website http://sjsmrcc.com/ and in the KidsRelig Blog http://kidsreligsjm.blogspot.com/ about our Annual Christmas Pageant at the 4 PM Christmas Eve Mass and the rehearsals for the Pageant Kids and the Choir.

Love,

Deacon Charlie