Christmas Pageant and Christmas Choirs News

The Christmas Pageant at St. John and St. Mary—it all began in 1987 with about a dozen kids and a few parents, a couple of guitars, carols by the choir, two little lambs and some shepherds’ crooks made in parish workshops. On Christmas Eve, we all watched and listened as our kids became the first to proclaim the Good News of Christmas. Over the years, there have been more kids and more beautiful music, but one thing has remained the same—at the first Mass of Christmas (Christmas Eve at 4 PM), we watch and listen as our kids become the first to proclaim the Good News of Christmas.

There could be no better reason for the Christmas Pageant. And yet, there is another reason, which is equally as good. On the days before Christmas, where can we find our kids? In church! What better place to prepare for Christmas!!!

Preparing for the Christmas Pageant

· 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.

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

Christmas Pageant Rehearsals for First & Second Graders

(All Rehearsals in Upper Church)

· Wednesday, December 22, 4:00 to 4:45 PM

· Thursday, December 23, 4:00 to 4:45 PM

Music for the Christmas Pageant--Choirs & Youth Ensemble

The Christmas Pageant at St. John and St. Mary would not be the celebration that it is without the beautiful voices and music of our kids. This has always been true and is especially true this year.

Ken Corneille, our Music Director, has formed two children’s choirs: the Regular Children’s Choir (Grades 1-5), which has been rehearsing and performing all year, and a Special Children’s Christmas Choir (Grades 3-8) which is open to all students in those grades who would like to sing for the Christmas Pageant Mass at 4 PM on Christmas Eve. Ken has also formed a Youth Ensemble of Instrumentalists (Grades 5-8).

Rehearsal Schedule for Choirs & Youth Ensemble

(All Rehearsals in Upper Church)

• Special Children’s Christmas Choir (Grades 3-8): Monday, 12/20, 4:00 - 4:45 PM
• Youth Ensemble of Instrumentalists (Grades 5-8): Tuesday, 12/21, 3:45 -4:30 PM
• Regular Children’s Choir (Grades 1-5): Tuesday, 12/21, 5:00 PM

Choirs & Youth Ensemble Join Pageant Kids for Christmas Pageant Rehearsals

BOTH CHOIRS & THE YOUTH ENSEMBLE WILL REHEARSE WITH THE PAGEANT KIDS AT THE CHRISTMAS PAGEANT REHEARSALS:

· Wednesday, 12/22, 4:00 – 4:45 PM

· Thursday, 12/23, 4:00 – 4:45 PM

Christmas Eve

· Upper church OPENS at 3:00 PM. Church and Parish Office Closed until then.

· Choirs & Youth Ensemble should arrive at 3:00 PM sharp.

· Pageant Kids should arrive no later than 3:15 PM.

· Pageant Girls: report to Community Room A.

· Pageant Boys: report to Skelly Hall.

· Music begins at approximately 3:25 PM

· Pageant begins at approximately 3:45 PM (***After Pageant, parents come to sanctuary to bring kids back to their families for Mass)

· Mass begins at 4:00 PM

Third Sunday of Advent

The Third Sunday of Advent! And it's all about Advent Readiness.

The Middlers heard Jesus in today's gospel ask the crowd, who had come to eavesdrop on questions from John the Baptist: "Who did you go out to the desert to see?" The possible answers were either John the Baptist or Jesus himself. But when we listened carefully to Jesus, we heard something else. And that's when the mirror came out, and the Middlers understood exactly what Jesus was trying to say. We go out to the desert to look in the mirror and see ourselves.

Ask your Middler about a good friend of mine, Mary Alice, and a friend of hers, Desda. Let him/her tell you how Mary Alice learned from a homeless woman sitting on a heating grate to look in the mirror and see herself. And when she did, her life was changed, and the lives of so many were made better for it. Let him/her tell you how Desda became Mary Alice's Angel.

I asked the Middlers to email and tell me about their own look in the mirror and if there is anything they're doing for Christmas to see a changed person. So far, I've only heard from one Middler. There's still time, and I would love to hear from others and share what they have to say with the rest of the parish.

The Elementaries gathered as usual for Grace Before Snacks. This week, we prayed a Christmas Grace:

Dear God,

on this special night

we remember how Mary and Joseph

came to Bethlehem looking for shelter,

but found no place to stay.

In our celebration of Jesus' birth,

teach us to welcome him into our homes

by being kind to each other.

Show us how to care for him

by caring for all who need our help.

And bless our Christmas meal

and all of us who share it. Amen.

Christmas Pageant

Our Annual Christmas Pageant is celebrated immediately before the 4PM Christmas Eve Mass on December 24th

• First and Second Graders are the Pageant Kids
• Rehearsals: Wednesday (12/22) & Thursday (12/23), 4:00 to 4:45 PM
• NO SIGN UP, JUST SHOW UP!!!

Christmas CHOIRS

• Ken Corneille has formed 3 choirs: Regular Children's Choir (Grades 1-5), which has been been rehearsing and performing all year; Regular Youth Choir (Grades 6-8), which has been rehearsing for the last month, and the Special Christmas Choir (Grades 3-8), which is open to all students in those grades and has not met yet

Rehearsal Schedules

• Regular Children's Choir: Tuesdays (12/14 & 21) 5PM
• Regular Youth Choir: Tuesdays (12/14 & 21) 3:45 to 4:30 PM
• Special Christmas Choir: Mondays (12/13 & 20) 4:00 to 4:45 PM, plus Wednesday (12/22) and Thursday (12/23) 4:00 to 4:45 PM

NO KIDSRELIG UNTIL AFTER THE NEW YEAR.

Love,

Deacon Charlie

Second Sunday of Advent

The Second Sunday of Advent! We are all waiting. And for the Middlers, it was a big bag of Legos that helped us understand Gospel Waiting.

Unlike what we called “waiting by killing time” at the bus stop, the train station or the doctor’s office; unlike “waiting by anticipating” your next birthday, summer vacation or Santa at Christmas; unlike “waiting with anxiety” for the game to end, for the test to begin or the marks to be posted; Gospel Waiting isn’t even waiting at all. It’s bringing the future into the now.

We looked at our bag of legos and understood that what would be was right in front of us if we just made it happen now. And we dug in and made it happen. In fact, we made a whole lot of things happen. “Prepare the way of the Lord” is not to kill time waiting or either becoming too silly or serious about it all. It is to make the Lord’s coming tomorrow happen in our lives today. We have to make it happen. In fact, we have to make a whole lot of things happen.

The Elementaries heard all about Thanksgiving with our new grandson Asher (4 weeks old), and how everyone who came to dinner, from the grumpiest old man to the cutest little kid, wanted to do one thing—hold Asher. And it was a Christmas light bulb moment. When those shepherds and magi arrived at the stable, we all bet that nobody knelt down like we usually see them depicted. We bet that everybody asked Mary, “Can we hold him?” And we told ourselves that that’s what Christmas is all about—God came as a baby because he simply wants to be held. And Raymond North taught us the last and best lesson of all—God can still be held by each and every one of us in the Eucharist.

Christmas Pageant News

Our Annual Christmas Pageant will be celebrated immediately before the 4 PM Christmas Eve Mass on December 24^th. Every year, our 1^st and 2^nd Graders become our Pageant Kids. Rehearsals for the Pageant will be on Wednesday, December 22^nd and Thursday, December 23^rd, from 4 to 4:45 PM.

Calendar Reminder

NO KidsRelig this Wednesday, December 8^th. And Tuesday, December 7^th and Thursday, December 9^th are our last classes before Christmas.

Love,

Deacon Charlie

The First Sunday of Advent

The First Sunday of Advent! “Therefore,” says the Gospel, “stay awake!” In other words, keep your eyes open.

The Middlers this week discovered a scientific fact, which seems counter-intuitive. It is humanly impossible to walk a straight line while blindfolded. In fact, if allowed to walk long enough, a blindfolded person will begin to walk in circles. In order to walk a straight line, a person must not only have his/her eyes open, but must also be looking at something straight ahead.

While the Middlers lined up on either side of the middle aisle in church, three volunteers were blindfolded and told that they were pointing directly at the back doors of the church. All they had to do was walk straight. None could do it, as they bumped into one line of friends on one side and then on the other. One volunteer even began to walk in circles as she approached the back of the church.

The warning in the gospel to stay awake doesn’t mean to caffeinate ourselves with worry about the Last Days. It means to keep our eyes on Jesus and walk towards him always. Only then will we walk straight.

+++

Much to do to prepare for Christmas! Pray that we prepare well.

Christmas Pageant News

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

Calendar Reminder

The Annual KidsRelig Calendar is always available on the Religious Education Page of the Parish Website (http://sjsmrcc.com/). The Annual Calendar contains the schedule of all our session days and when classes are NOT in session. In December, please note that there is NO KIDSRELIG for GRAFFLIN on Wednesday, December 8, which means that the LAST CLASS BEFORE CHRISTMAS for Grafflin is Wednesday, December 1. The LAST CLASSES BEFORE CHRISTMAS for the Tuesday (Bell and Westorchard) and Thursday (Seven Bridges and Roaring Brook) Sessions will be Tuesday, December 7 and Thursday, December 9.

Love,

Deacon Charlie

Thanksgiving 2010

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

from

KidsRelig

A Thanksgiving Grace

With thankfulness, O Lord above,

We bless you for your gift of love,

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food and all our friends,

For everything your goodness sends.

Open our hearts and hands to bless

The poor and all who have much less.

Please, keep us close to you each day,

And bless this meal, O Lord, we pray.

Amen.

Good News for Christ the King--The Last Sunday of the Church Year

Jesus is enthroned as king--on a cross. He never stops turning our world upside-down and making us look, not at what we can see, but at what we can't.

The Middlers went to the circus to see the clowns. And the clowns stepped into the center ring--goofy looking, silly looking and even a little ugly looking. And we laughed! Then, there were those clowns who are always getting hurt--bonged on the head, slapped in the face, tripped to the floor. And we laughed! Finally, the sad sacks--always making mistakes, always getting it wrong, always screwing up. And we laughed.

Three crosses--one good guy in the middle and two bad guys. Bad guy #1 looks at Jesus--ugly, hurt and all screwed up. And he laughs! Because he's convinced that the ugly, the hurt and the screwed up belong only to Jesus. It all keeps him apart from Jesus and lets him put Jesus down. The laugh of bad guy #1 says: I'm better than you.

And bad guy #2 looks at Jesus and says: You're ugly, you're hurt, you're all screwed up--and so am I; we're in this mess together. And Jesus says: Since you could look at me--ugly, hurt and screwed up--and see yourself and us together, then together we shall be forever--in Paradise.

And the Middlers said: Got it!!! Jesus is the clown and the clowns are us.

It was off to the beaches with the Elementaries to meet Dr. Seuss and the Sneetches. There were star-belly Sneetches, who thought they were better than plain-bellies. A smart guy, named Sylvester McMonkey McBean, figured out that whatever kept Sneetches apart could make him rich. He put stars on and took stars off and laughed at the Sneetches, who'd rather empty their wallets than empty the hearts. McBean thought Sneetches would never learn, but he was wrong. They finally got it: "That day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches.

And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches."

And the Elementaries got it too. Are we better enough to laugh at another or good enough to be one with each other?

Three crosses and a king, who becomes a clown, so that we can all be clowns together (or maybe Sneetches)!

Love,

Deacon Charlie

Good News for the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Middlers were dealt cards from an oversized deck of playing cards. As they turned over the Ace of Spades, the King of Hearts or one of the many other cards in our hand, they found the words of this week’s gospel. Scary words about wars, famine, disease, earthquakes and persecution! Stuff we don’t want to think about and would like to avoid, but we can’t. They’re the cards we’re dealt, and they’re for real. We discovered this, as we pulled out the headlines from around the world—terrorism is Afghanistan, famine in Uganda, earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Indonesia and cholera in Port-au-Prince.

Why all the scary stuff, and why from Jesus? Because Jesus does not avoid the truth. The scary stuff is there, and it is evil. Even Jesus could not make it disappear; he had to struggle against it. He can’t make it disappear for us either, but he invites us to join in that struggle.

That brought us to the last playing card—Jesus rising from the dead and the gospel words: Be faithful, and evil will never destroy you. Remember, resurrection is the triumph of the cross.

The Elementaries also learned about bad things—getting sick, getting a flat tire on your bike, getting in a fight with your brother or sister. All bad! But in everything bad, there was good to be found—mom taking good care, dad helping to fix that flat, the chance to say “sorry.” Today’s gospel tells us that there is plenty of bad, but also every chance to find good. It all depends on how hard we work at it.

Love,

Deacon Charlie