Letter from the Pastor
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December 15, 2024
Ten days to Christmas! As the Church commands us today to “Rejoice” today is Gaudete Sunday. The deep color purple is lightened to a rose color, the rose Advent candle is lit, and the rose vestments are worn. There is cause for our joy. The day of Christmas is fast approaching and we can now prepare for the 12 Days of Christmastide, which begins on Christmas Day and lasts until Jan. 5th. The world has the Christmas season all wrong. They celebrate Christmas before it happens, whereas Christians celebrate it afterwards.
A beautiful and prayerful way to prepare for Christmas takes place today at 3:00PM in our Annual Lessons and Carols. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was constructed for Christmas Eve 1918. The Service was born out of the grief and horror of the First World War, which had ended only 6 weeks prior.
The author of Nine Lessons and Carols was The Rev. Eric Milner -White, a graduate of King’s College in England who was appointed chaplain at the college in 1912, four years after his ordination as a priest.
When WWI broke out in 1914, he volunteered as a military chaplain, and witnessed the horrors of trench warfare on the Western front. Decorated for courage under fire in combat, he was released after what he called “a battle of special horror” in early 1918 and returned to King’s College, where he was appointed Dean.
After the end of the war on November 11th, Rev. Milner-White wanted to create a special Christmas service “as a gift to the city of Cambridge” that would serve two purposes. First, he wanted to grieve the loss of the young men from the college of whom 23% of students died from the city. Second, he wanted to attract those who had lost their faith because of the horrors of the war through the development of the “loving purposes of God” as viewed “through the windows and the words of the Bible.”
His wasn’t the first service, however, drawing upon a lessons and carols tradition that stretched at least back to 1880 at the Truro Cathedral in Cornwall, England. The Service begins with Genesis with the Fall of Adam and Eve and then traces the Salvation History to the stories of Jesus’ birth. After the short reading, carols or choral music will be sung.
I know everyone is running around shopping last minute etc. But I emphasize the beauty of this prayer service. Afterwards, come down to Toner Hall for some refreshments, wine and cheese, soft drinks, and this year if you want to bring some of your Christmas cookies to share. I hope to see you this afternoon at 3:00PM.
Tomorrow is the Advent Reconciliation Monday. Every Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of New York, the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Center will offer the Sacrament of Penance from the hours of 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM and again 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM.
The sacrament of Penance is a most beautiful sacrament. It is not only a sacrament of forgiveness, I think today more importantly, it is a sacrament of healing. We are healed in this sacrament from the wounds that are caused by our sins. People carry around within them sins of their past that were never healed and like a disease it just eats away at them. They just never let it go. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven if one asks God. God never gets tired of forgiving us.
In this season of joy, we should pray that God open our hearts to the joy of forgiveness. The more we recognize the importance of joy and seek it, the more we will find it.
