Hallelujah! Christ is born! 

 

Christmas is finally here, and we now gather in churches all over the world to celebrate that the Word was made flesh and God chose to become one of us in Jesus Christ. Over the last two years we have been in a pandemic, something none of us expected during our lifetime and we have been living in some form of shelter-in-place with the covid restrictions. This year we are ready to live this Christmas season at full speed. 

 

As a result, most of us are exhausted as we got caught up in the “commercialization of Christmas” and found ourselves sucked along with the “commerce” of Christmas. We felt the need to celebrate this Christmas more than ever because we “missed it” for the last two years! We did not intend to get caught up, but somehow  we got swept away again  in the many activities of the season. 

 

As Ron Rolheiser puts it, “Like the biblical innkeepers who had no room for Mary and Joseph at the first Christmas, we generally arrive at Christmas with ‘no room at the inn’, no space in our lives for a spiritual rebirth.” We want Christmas to renew us spiritually, but our lives are too full of activity and tiredness for us to have any real energy to make Christmas a special time of spiritual renewal for ourselves. The spirit of Christmas is still in us, but it is lying like a neglected baby in the straw waiting to be picked up. We intend to pick up the baby, but simply never get around to it. We do not make room for Christ in our hearts. 

 

Maybe we could make Christmas different this year. 

 

Can we commit to making some room for Christ in our hearts by committing to prayer each day and some time for spiritual refreshment? If we can, it will pay huge dividends in our lives. Maybe we could carve a small block of time each day for silence and solitude, a time to listen to Christ in our hearts, a time for prayer. This time is for complete silence and solitude. There is no need for words. Just sit in silence for the Lord and ask him to fill your heart with the joy of the season. 

 

We know that this is hard for many of us as we are busy people. Most of us were never taught how to pray by sitting in silence and listening to God. Most of us were simply taught to “say our prayers.” We don’t know what God’s “voice” sounds like. So, we need to learn a new habit of listening and being with God in silence.

 

  • Over the last month I presented an Advent Retreat called Atomic Habits of Prayer with practical ways to develop some small “atomic” habits of prayer. You can find out more here and watch the series on our YouTube channel @StSimonPresentations here I explained the four laws of behavior change making it: obvious, 
  • attractive, 
  • easy and 
  • satisfying. 

Combining these behaviors  with the four stages of prayer (talking at God, talking to God, listening to God, being with God), I challenged us to move to a deeper level of prayer and develop a more intimate friendship with God. I promise you that it is worth the effort and time.

 

To help with this habit of prayer, this Christmas we are giving everyone a book called Holy Moments by Matthew Kelly.  Holy Moments is a gift for each family to help you learn and improve your prayer life each day. We hope that you will read this great little book and talk with your family members about the value of prayer in your life, creating a space dedicated to prayer for each family member. 

 

It is my firm conviction that talking and listening to God will change us forever for the better. We become better people, gentler, kinder, and more forgiving. We become like the one we want to spend time with—Jesus Christ.  

 

Also I encourage you to make every effort to bring your whole family back to Sunday Mass. For many that is already a routine but for many others it is a lost routine and now they watch at home online. I’m happy you are watching at home and maybe that is necessary for some but for others it has become a habit that needs to be modified. We would really love to see you in person. We need each other in these times and to be a community for each other. 

 

Finally, I have one last request for each of you. The pandemic has taken a huge toll on people’s mental health and wellness and I hope you are doing okay. We never really know what is going on in people’s lives … and how people are doing around the holidays until we ask. So, my request is that you please reach out to one or two people in your life who have suffered a loss this last year and check in with them. The loss may be the death of a family member or close friend, it may be the loss of a job or a meaningful relationship or a friendship that evaporated in the pandemic. We never know how our friends, family and colleagues are handling the holidays until we ask, so please check in and show you care for them and share a little love.

 

On behalf of the whole staff at the school and parish, I wish you Merry Christmas! May God shower you and your family with his love this Christmas season!

 

God bless,

 

Fr. Brendan