The liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas are once again upon us. It is a challenge for us as Church to observe these seasons in a very busy time of buying gifts and preparing for family gatherings. Yet we need to take the time to reflect on what is at the heart of our celebration—Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God-With-Us.
God becomes one like us so that we might become like him if we only follow in the footsteps of his Son. At the center of what we celebrate at Christmas is God giving us the gift of himself in his Son, Jesus. Mary’s role in the mystery of the Incarnation cannot be minimized. She shared her humanity, and through the working of the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Son of God, became flesh.
 Just as we prepare for all the cultural aspects of the great feast of the Lord’s Nativity, we need to prepare ourselves spiritually for that greatest of gifts. This is why the Advent season is so important.
Advent invites and challenges us to consider how God continued to break into the lives of his people through the patriarchs and the prophets who prepared a way for God’s greatest intervention—the coming of his only-begotten Son.
Online Gift Shop
We are offering three distinctive gifts this month. The first is a popular album of Christmas Prelude Music. It is a CD with about an hour of the Shrine Choir’s Christmas music. These are not typical Christmas carols, rather, they are sacred musical pieces suited to the Advent and Christmas seasons, usually sung without instrumental accompaniment. We also have a new gift to offer you, a lovely golden Our Lady of Grace Locket. And we have an exquisite Sterling Silver Filigree Miraculous Medal. Just click on the link to visit our online Gift Shop to order other fine religious articles.
2008 Pilgrimage to Greece
I am happy to invite you to join us on this upcoming April’s exciting pilgrimage in the footsteps of Saint Paul. We will visit places significant to the life and writings of Saint Paul.
I’ve arranged an optional visit to Ephesus in Turkey where tradition has it the Blessed Mother spent her final days. Included as well is a four-night cruise of the stunningly beautiful Greek Islands.
If you’re interested in the Association’s pilgrimage in the footsteps of Saint Paul in April 2008, please send for the brochure by clicking on this link, dropping me a note, calling my secretary, or emailing me at ammfather@amm.org.
 
by Father G. Gregory Gay, C.M.,Superior General
Although Father Gay’s 2006 Christmas letter is a year old, his message is still fresh and meaningful.
Hello, my brothers and sisters. I’d like to share with you a brief message about Christmas.
A people walked in darkness and God came to them as light. He did so, becoming one of them, not only becoming a weak and defenseless child, but beyond that, experiencing their marginalization, their being cast out, because there was no place in the inn for them.
God chose to be born into this situation. Those to whom he first revealed himself were not the dignified and honored persons of his society, but the poor, those with no name, those considered among the lowliest of the low. He revealed himself just to people like that, the shepherds.
Some 2,000 years have passed and yet we continue to be surrounded by such darkness, guided by the light who is Christ. As Saint Leo the Great, the Pope in 440, reminded all Christians in Rome: “Christmas is not so much something of the past, even if our most recent past, but something for today and something for us now.”
- Do we allow the Christ Child to be our guide when we are lost?
- Is the Christ our strength when we are weak?
- Do we look for God’s protection when we feel abandoned?
- Is God, the Christ, our source of peace, when we feel battered and torn by conflict in our lives?
Christmas invites us to deepen our trust in the Lord, who is our light. Our Vincentian tradition invites us to take a place with the God who lives among the marginalized. We are called to follow Jesus, the Christ, evangelizing and serving the poor.
| I want to wish each one of you, my brothers and sisters of the Vincentian Family, a Merry Christmas, and a New Year filled with peace, joy, justice and love, one for another and for the poor. |
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