Letter from the Pastor
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December 22, 2021Welcome, welcome, welcome to all of you this Christmas Weekend, especially our visitors and guests of our parishioners. I warmly welcome home our college students, and those who have been away from the Church; we have been waiting and praying for your safe return. There is no place like home!
Christmas is always a beautiful feast, because of God’s love for His people. Over time, it became a very sentimental holiday; due to TV shows, movies and holiday music. We expect to have certain warm and fuzzy feelings on Christmas Day. Sadly, many people are disappointed when those feelings don’t come their way. Christmas is not a sentimental day; rather Christmas is first and foremost a religious Holyday reserved first to God and His Son whose birth we celebrate.
Christmas is a holy day of love, the love that God has for all of humanity. God did not need to create; He is sufficient unto Himself, as He is a community of love and persons in love. God created all things, visible and invisible, not for Himself, but for us. And at the height of His creation, the most beautiful of His creation is humanity, for we are created in His Divine image and likeness.
When God saw His beautiful creation falling into complete ruin because of sin and people living in fear and darkness, He sent His Son. Not as a “spirit” or a “cosmic idea or force” but as a real flesh and blood fellow human being. After all, love cannot accept not seeing the person it loves. We had to see God, so God took on flesh and was born of Mary. Our Lord gave us the Eucharist so as we 2,021 years later can still “see” Him. Love has come as Light into the darkness.
For the past year and a half, our world has been living in fear of a virus, our loved ones have died because of it, people have taken their lives in despair, or they have turned to drugs or alcohol to cope. People are angry and looking for any reason to strike out. In the midst of this darkness, once again, Light is celebrated this weekend.
We who have been blessed with the Catholic faith cannot be silent. We must sing out: Joy to the World, Merry Christmas. Christ is born to us, let us be glad and rejoice.
On behalf of Fr. Clarke, and the entire staff of St. Margaret’s:
a very Merry and Blessed Christmas.This year, since Christmas is a Saturday, the very next day is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. This feast honors their lives together, beginning in Bethlehem and then moving to Nazareth, Egypt and back to Nazareth. The feast recognizes the humility of our Lord, our Lady’s motherly love and her virtue and St. Joseph’s protection and his steadfastness, along with the obedience of all three to God’s plan for them in salvation history.
Family life can never be perfect, but certainly all families can be holy. We look to the Holy Family for their example of prayer, service and love, the three keys to a holy family life. Enjoy your family!
Catholic Calendar
Once again this year, through the generosity of Joe Sorce and the staff of Sorce Funeral Home,
we have beautiful Catholic calendars for 2022. Every home should have a Catholic calendar to mark the feast days and seasons of the year.
