Christmas Decorations and Nativity Sets

My Dear Parishioners,

Many of us have cherished Christmas decorations in our homes. Some of these decorations remind us of certain events in our lives such as the first Christmas after getting married or the first Christmas in a new home or the first Christmas after the birth of one of our children. Some of these decorations are family heirlooms and remind us of Christmases long past. Some of these cherished decorations remind us of those who gave us the decorations. Adorning our homes with our cherished decorations really is like opening an old photo album and taking a trip down memory lane, don’t you agree?

Central to our cherished Christmas decorations are our Nativity Sets. Similar to our other decorations, they may remind us of Christmases past or special events in our lives.

Unlike other decorations, our Nativity Sets are specifically religious decorations. Religious art has two purposes: to edify and to teach.

Our Nativity Sets are the Gospel story told in art. As religious art, they remind us that Jesus really was born of the Holy Virgin over 2,000 years ago. As religious art, they teach us something and are teaching tools. This is especially important if we have uncatechized and unchurched children in our lives.

When we are sharing family stories with these uncatechized children and telling them the history and significance of our different Christmas decorations, we can use this as an opportunity to also teach them about the Nativity. We can teach them about the different “characters” and their roles in the Nativity, such as our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, the shepherds, the angels, the animals, the star, the Wise Men. We can teach them why Jesus came into this world and teach them about Jesus’s love for us. We can even read the Nativity accounts from the Holy Gospels to them. We can open their hearts and minds to Jesus just by teaching them about that very first Christmas through our Nativity Sets.

This week we will be providing bags of blessed straw to add to your Nativity Sets at home. This straw will be a reminder that when Jesus was laid on that bed of straw, He sanctified that manger and that straw. We thank Jack and Audrey Ford and their family for taking on the messy job of packing the bags of straw for us.

We also thank everyone who coordinated our Giving Tree and food drive and everyone who also supported these important outreaches.

Lastly, we thank everyone who contributed in any way to our Christmas Bazaar. We all agree that it was a great success!

This coming Thursday, December 19, we will have our Advent Confessions. The sessions are 4:00-5:00 and 7:00-7:30.

Additional priests will be available to hear Confessions and help prepare us for the celebration of the Nativity

Pondering the Nativity, we remember these ancient words of St. Ambrose that the Nativity was the beginning of the Church: Consider the beginnings of the nascent Church. Christ is born and the shepherds have begun their vigil. They round up the flocks of the nations, nations that formerly lived like cattle. They gather them into the Lord’s enclosure, lest these flocks suffer the assaults of spiritual wild beasts lurking concealed in the night’s darkness. And the shepherds keep good watch, having received their formation from the Good Shepherd.

The flock, then, is the people; the night is the world; the shepherds, bishops. Perhaps, too, he could be a shepherd to whom it is said in the Apocalypse “Be watchful and strengthen…” For the Lord has not only disposed that bishops watch over the flock, but has also given His Angels charge over it. Thus, according to St. Ambrose, we can view our Nativity Sets as the first Catholic Church—think of that as you put up your Nativity Set.

We also contemplate these ancient words of St. John Chrysostom that Jesus took on our human nature so that we can share in His Glory: What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infants bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.

For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit, that He may save me. Come, then, let us observe the Feast. Truly wondrous is the whole chronicle of the Nativity. For this day the ancient slavery is ended, the devil confounded, the demons take to flight, the power of death is broken, paradise is unlocked, the curse is taken away, sin is removed from us, error driven out, truth has been brought back, the speech of kindliness diffused, and spreads on every side, a heavenly way of life has been ¡in planted on the earth, angels communicate with men without fear, and men now hold speech with angels.

Let us continue to pray for each other and for our fallen and troubled world as we approach the Feast of the Nativity.

St. Joseph, Patron of the Church and our Patron, pray for us!

Fr. Michael J Pawelko, Pastor