From the Pastor’s Desk: Let Us Prepare Our Hearts

In the final days before Christmas, let us prepare our hearts and lives well to receive the glory of the Christ Child through a humbled heart and merciful acts. Please make the time to get to the Sacrament of Confession, to receive the Lord’s great gift of mercy, and never fail to be kind, generous, and forgiving to others.

On December 18, 2005, the Fourth Sunday of Advent that year, Pope Benedict XVI commented insightfully on the scene of the Annunciation, from the Gospel of Luke, in light of the essence of Christmas. “With the angel’s greeting to Mary —‘kaire’ in the Greek, which means ‘be joyful’—the New Testament begins,” he said. “We could say that the first word of the New Testament is ‘be joyful,’ ‘be happy,’ in other words, ‘joy.’ This is the true meaning of Christmas: God is near us, so near that He became a child.” Further, the Holy Father then highlighted how “we realize that today’s world, where God is absent, is dominated by fear, by uncertainty.”

Nonetheless, “the words ‘be joyful because God is with you and with us,’ truly open a new time.” “Joy is the true gift of Christmas, not the expensive gifts that call for time and money. We can communicate this joy simply: with a smile, a kind gesture, a little help, forgiveness. And the joy we give will certainly come back to us. … Let us pray that this presence of the liberating joy of God shines forth in our lives.”

Fr. Wilke