{"id":8665,"date":"2021-12-26T08:41:23","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T13:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/?p=8665"},"modified":"2021-12-26T08:41:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T13:41:43","slug":"from-fr-tom-62","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/2021\/12\/26\/from-fr-tom-62\/","title":{"rendered":"From Fr. Tom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Merry Christmas, Wesolych Swiat, Feliz Navidad…! <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
This Christmas of 2021, right now, God is speaking to the heart of <\/span>each one of us! Whether we have been regular and faithful in taking <\/span>part in weekly mass receiving the Eucharist, in praying daily, and in <\/span>being His witness every day, or whether we have not been to Mass <\/span>since last Christmas or Easter, prayed infrequently, and witnessed <\/span>sporadically, God is saying to each of us:<\/span><\/div>\n
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I love you! I love you so <\/span>much. Despite everything. How fond I am of you! I sent you my best <\/span>gift: my only Son to be your Redeemer, Savior, Companion, and <\/span>Lord! Will you not let Jesus live within you by grace? Will you not <\/span>respond to my love made visible in Christ by your daily prayer, by <\/span>your regular weekly participation in the Holy Eucharist and other <\/span>sacraments, by your effort every day to witness to the Splendor of <\/span>Truth and the Gospel of Life? Will you not let this Christmas be <\/span>different for you: different because you will make room for My Son <\/span>to enter and allow Him to remain within you, so that OUR love can <\/span>be reflected through you to others? Will you not let Christ bring <\/span>peace, unity, understanding, comfort, and love through you?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
What would be your response to Jesus\u2019 invitation?<\/span><\/div>\n
There are no words to describe what Christmas is all about! The <\/span>best response we can make to God\u2019s love, to His fondness for us, is to <\/span>let Jesus be born this Christmas within us, in our hearts, and in our <\/span>lives so that He may be present through us to everyone we meet. <\/span><\/div>\n
The Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, expressed this so beautifully <\/span>when he wrote: <\/span><\/div>\n
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We who have seen the Light of Christ are obliged, <\/span>by the greatness of the grace that has been given us, to make known <\/span>the presence of the Savior to the ends of the earth. This we will do <\/span>not only by preaching the glad tidings of his coming, but, above all, <\/span>by revealing Him in our lives. Christ is born today, so that He may <\/span>appear to the whole world through us.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Yes, the Christmas readings, songs, the atmosphere of this time, <\/span>everything proclaims how fond of us our God is! Jesus wants to make <\/span>his home within us and to remain among us! Celebration of Christmas <\/span>sends us forth to be witness to the Good News that God\u2019s love has <\/span>been made present, visible, and permanent, in Jesus His only Son <\/span>whose Birth we are reliving this day. <\/span><\/div>\n
Open your heart for Jesus, let Him be born in you and through <\/span>you. <\/span><\/div>\n
Blessed Christmas to you all!!! <\/span><\/div>\n
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Fr. Tom, Deacon Lawrence, Deacon Rudy, and the whole parish staff.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Merry Christmas, Wesolych Swiat, Feliz Navidad…! This Christmas of 2021, right now, God is speaking to the heart of each one of us! Whether we have been regular and faithful in taking part in weekly mass receiving the Eucharist, in praying daily, and in being His witness every day, or whether we have not been to Mass since last Christmas or Easter,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fr-tom","ctfw-no-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8667,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8665\/revisions\/8667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stgenevieve-stmaurice.org\/parish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}