My heart ran forth on little feet of music
to keep the new commandment.
(O feast and frolic of awakening spring!)
It would beguile the world to be a garden
with seeds of one refrain: my little children,
love one another; so my heart would sing.
(from “My Heart Ran Forth” by Jessica Powers)

The poet Jessica Powers entered the Carmelites at the age of 36 where she was given the name, Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit. Her words above remind us of the powerful insights poetry gives to us. As we continue to celebrate Christmas we are given the blessing of the joyful celebration of our Lord’s birth and wonders surrounding this great mystery.
In the opening stanza of her poem “My Heart Ran Forth” we can hear the joy of God’s presence in her life. It is an invitation to us all to take time looking deeply into the eyes of the baby Jesus so that our hearts too may run forth. We all know this is a great challenge for many of us because we can get bogged down in the heaviness of worldly things and loose our focus on the greater things of God. I am not talking about false happiness or forced joy but in the intimate and joyous love we share with each other.
She ends her poem with these words,
…It is said:
Love is a simple plant like a Creeping Charlie;
once it takes root it’s talent is to spread.
(from “My Heart Ran Forth” by Jessica Powers)
This beautiful image of the Creeping Charlie (Ground Ivy) where “it’s talent is too spread” blesses us with an understanding of how God works when we allow ourselves to be the soil in which God plants his very self at Christmastime. It is the vision of a world where love and peace, not the easy sentimental and momentary, but the difficult and enduring virtues are planted deeply and take root in our souls.
What does this look like?
Fr. Peter Schineller SJ tells the story of his time as president of Loyola jesuit College in Abuja, Nigeria where on a tragic day sixty students from the college were killed in a plane crash. He hurried to the home town to console the families who had just lost so many young and promising children, he writes, “because of the deep Christian faith and love of these parents, the meeting took a surprising turn. Parents who were lost one, two or, in one case, three children reached out to me with compassion and kindness. Even as I tried to console them for the loss of their precious children, many tried to console me, saying that as president of the college, I had lost 60 children! Such kindness and compassion, such an ability to reach out beyond their own grief, I will never forget.” (p 213 “The Way of Kindness: Readings for a Graceful Life” from the essay “Try a Little Kindness”
This story embodies the becoming a garden for the seeds of love. Because as a Christian it is the manger and cross united as one where the choirs of angels sing Glory to God in the Highest at the same moments they cry out Hosanna in the Highest. It is often too easy for us to look at the manger and forget why Jesus the Son of God came into the world. It is why we take time to ponder and pray, as Mary did, and to listen and watch, as Joseph did, and to come and see, as the shepherds did on that glorious night.
May God bless you during this Christmas season.
Merry Christmas
Fr. Mark

Link for the full text to the poem “My Heart Ran Forth” by Jessica Powers

https://books.google.com/books?id=wzIU7DGqlb4C&pg=PA45&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

It is that time of year where Christmas movies are ubiquitous on the television. There are channels that have dedicated that past several months to showing these movies and other channels that run a high rotation. The funny thing is, most of the Christmas movies have very little to do with Christmas. They may take place around the “date” of Christmas but certainly, for the most part, there is very little “Christ” in the Christmas movies. Don’t misunderstand me, I am a fan of a good Christmas movie but I am also more and more aware of how subtly these movies avoid the faith aspect or distort it into a minor and passing thought in the overall plot.
We can begin with one of the great classics, “It’s a Wonderful Life” where Clarence the Angel is seen as a bumbling helper of God but any other expressions of faith are left to the imagination. Or one of my family’s favorites, “A White Christmas” where even in the wonderful musical not a single Christmas Carol is heard. “A Miracle on 34th Street” shows us a Santa Claus but with not one strand of faith or history linking him to St. Nicholas. The myriad of other Christmas movies may, if at all, touch lightly on faith and religion but more often than not the focus is on a love story or adventure where Church, prayer, and acts of faith are absent and ignored. (And we won’t even go into whether or not “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie?)
The point of this whole thing is not to be overly critical of “Christmas” movies but to be aware and true to who we are as Christians where Christmas’ focus isn’t on all the wonderful things that happen around Christmas but rather we are focused and joyful because of the Incarnation of the Son of God. I am not a film critic but here are my simple thoughts on focusing on why we celebrate Christmas
It’s a Wonderful Life…suicide and changing the past aren’t the answers as we are called to trust in the providence of God’s love. “He who attempts to escape obeying withdraws himself from grace. Likewise he who seeks private benefits for himself loses those which are common to all. He who does not submit himself freely and willingly to his superior, shows that his flesh is not yet perfectly obedient but that it often rebels and murmurs against him.” (The Imitation of Christ: Book Three #13 by Thomas à Kempis) Obedience in love is not the accepting of tragedy and suffering but rather searching for the presence of God’s love, mercy and grace in the unity with others. When we are tempted to think the world is better off without us or others we fail to see how God’s plan is fulfilled in loving trust of others (including God) in the most trying circumstances. Think of how easy it would have been for Mary and Joseph to give up…for the Wisemen of the East to stop searching…for the shepherds to just continue with their work.
White Christmas…love and helping are wonderful but only in the context of sacrificial love. “God has made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father. Indeed, God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the apostles, he guide the nascent Church along its path.” (Deus Caritas Est: #17) Pope Benedict XVI our fundamental understanding of love in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. God leads us along the paths of sacrificial love because he has shown us the perfect example in Jesus Christ and love that is foreshadowed by Mary’s yes and Joseph’s obedient care for the Holy Family. Christmas is a time where we can easily reflect, not just today but throughout the year, on how we are called to serve, love and bless our family, friends and communities each day? Christmas is a love-story of grace.
A Miracle on 34th Street…believing and trusting in goodness are important when they are grounded on the eternal. The Prologue to the Gospel of St. John, (1:1-18), is the other Christmas story. In his commentary of the Gospel Francis J. Moloney shares this insight, the Prologue “expresses the major christological beliefs of Christianity: the Word preexisted creation with God; creation was through the Word; divine filiation is possible for believers; Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God, the Word become flesh; he shares in divinity of God, yet he has taken on the human condition.” (p 41 from “The Gospel of John”) We believe in a divine goodness, a love that goes beyond the moment and the myth and enters with an eternal union of goodness, holiness and peace. Christmas is a time when we seek to encounter this goodness once more at the creche knowing and trusting in a sacred beyond all telling. It isn’t just about allowing children to believe in Santa Claus it is about us, becoming childlike in faith, hope and love where the eternal breaks into our hearts so that we may live ever more fully, gracefully and lovingly as sons and daughters of the living God.
Have a happy and holy Christmas.
God bless
Fr. Mark

A while back as I was walking into church on an afternoon to say my prayers I was greeted by a couple coming out of the church. I stopped and said hello. They then handed me an envelope and asked me to accept this gift of thanksgiving for the parish. I thanked them and asked two simple questions, “What were they thankful for? How could I pray for them?” They both looked at each other and then the husband said that today they were finally debt free. I congratulated them but he continue to share about how early in their marriage they had made many wrong and foolish choices with borrowing and spending and how this had caused great stress on the family to the point of almost destroying their relationship. When I asked what had changed they simply said, “They chose each other over money, objects and lifestyle.” At that point they were both crying in joy and we said a quick prayer and I shared a blessing of thanksgiving over them as a couple.
The gift I received that day was not the gift of the envelope (it contained one hundred dollars) but the gift of witnessing to a love that is greater than the desires, lusts and greed of the world. In choosing to seek a relationship of love over and above the worldly desires is a great example of Christian virtue. I have been thinking and praying about this young couple for several weeks remembering their short but powerful story because it is important to us to understand how the grace and blessing of God is necessary in all parts of our lives…including our money. Too many times we have been told to keep our faith lives separated from the things of the world when it is only our faith in a loving and gracious God which allows us to live at peace in the world.
The trouble with money can often consume us in a very difficult and destructive way.
Bert Ghezzi in his book “Getting Free: How to Overcome Persistent Personal Problems” where he talks about surrendering our problems to the Holy Spirit. He writes, “We sometimes have difficulty surrendering a problem to the power and authority of the Holy Spirit because we don’t understand how to do it very well. We don’t have much experience in yielding areas of our life to Him.” (p 69) He reminds us of three important steps: first we cannot do it by ourselves. Second we need to trust God and allow Jesus into the problem. And third we must have resolve to carry our cross and work through the difficulties.
What does this look like for us on a practical level, especially when it comes to money and how it effects our life each and every day of our lives? Just as Jesus sends out his disciples two by two, we are called to share the burdens of our brothers and sisters, to seek and support one another in the ministry of life. If we look at the couple above they could have not done their journey of coming to financial peace if they did not chose to act together as a team choosing to love and honor each other too seek the better and the goodness for the other in the best of hope and love.
Trust in Jesus, in a loving God, in the Holy Spirit seems impossible but when we confront the cross together we see the face of Jesus in the other then our trust in God becomes a tangible act. We choose to sacrifice out of love and know we are giving our of blessing and letting go of our selfish needs. We touch the face of God in choosing trust in the blessing God sends to us in the other in my life.
Resolve is hard. Just look at the many failures in dieting, exercise and other resolutions that fall away so quickly as we make them…but when we walk with another, allow God’s grace to fill us, then our resolve becomes courageous love that is able to conquer all things. The couple above allowed their resolve to be strengthened by the other knowing the other was with them in choosing to give rather than to take in their relationship.
Let us all offer a time of prayer and gratitude to the blessings that surround us and seek to be servants of God’s love and healing the hurts and growing in hope in serving God and one another.
God bless
Fr. Mark

The Feast of St. Nicholas (December 6) is for me a great day of blessing. St. Nicholas of Myra was a Bishop in modern day Turkey during the 4th Century and a great example of faithfulness, trust and generosity in God as he served the people entrusted to him. You can read and learn a lot more about St. Nicholas but the real reason I have his name in my heart is that he is my Confirmation saint and for this he holds a special place in the saints I ask to pray for and with me daily.
Saints are important. They are important not just because they are saints or because we should look up to them as examples of faith, those are both valid reasons, but saints are important because they are companions on the journey to heaven with us as we walk with them and Jesus. I chose St. Nicholas as my patron for one very simple reason: the virtue of generosity. I remember in my Confirmation class when choosing our saint name to not just look to a saint you knew or liked but for a virtue in a saints life that you wished to grow…and I chose generosity and thus St. Nicholas.
It may seem fairly natural to think during this Advent Season as we are preparing for Christmas to narrow generosity into the simple act of giving something too someone. We hear a lot of people talking about the stress of finding the right gift and the time spent either at the mall or online looking and searching for the best deal. This, as you might guess, is selling generosity way short in the eyes of God, a life of faith and the gift of holiness we are called to become as God’s children.
“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” (2 Cor. 9:11).
St. Paul reminds us of what St. Nicholas lived; recognizing how we are “enriched in every way” in our relationships with God and each other. The hectic race and the stress of the commercial aspects of Advent leading to Christmas often narrow the gift and blind us to the way we are enriched and how we are able to enrich others in ‘every way.’
One piece of advice I received many years ago was in reflecting on the day I was asked to pray through three simple steps. 1. How was I blessed by others today? 2. How did I bless others today? 3. What did I do that needs to be forgiven? As I recall these steps and give thanks to God in gratitude this time inspires the generosity of spirit in every way within my life.
What these three simple steps help me do is to remove the material and begin to focus on the relational gifts of generosity that I seek to give and receive daily in my journey of faith. St. Nicholas’ greatest legacy isn’t the gifts he shared with the children rather it is his unwavering faith in the goodness of God and thereby the goodness of God’s holy people. Generosity springs forth from the soul naturally when we focus first on blessings and most especially on how I bless others with who I am as a child of God. We can then begin to live with a grateful heart flowing over with joyful love.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Christmas gift but the greatest gifts I receive are those words of affirmation, those small notes of thanksgiving and most of all, the sharing of my gifts with others without counting the costs.
Keep up the Advent preparation by using formed.org and their Advent series…it has been a great blessing for me.
God bless,
Fr. Mark

St. Nicholas resources…