Fr. Bob’s Corner

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2006
Feast of the Holy Family - Are our families holy?
This Christmas season millions of families in North America picked up stakes and headed out to visit their families, relatives, and close friends. Most arrived at their destination, and most will return home safely. Almost a miracle when you consider all the young children that have traveled with parents and grandparents. Now, I’m not saying there were no hurdles, hassles, or scary experiences, and many will probably arrive home sick with flu, frazzled nerves, and big VISA debts. But they will get home safely — sufficiently satisfied, that they will do the same again next Christmas.Why do we do this? The bottom line is love. We love our families, and want to be with them at special times. Christmas is one of those times when we recognize and appreciate the great ‘gift’ a family is to us.How does everybody get home safely? Simple: Parents look after their children, and everybody does their best to participate in the journey by caring for and looking after each other. To my mind this sounds like a pretty holy thing!Now, if we could only learn to look after one another in our communites, and on the national and international level a little better. We are always on a journey together, and we definitely need to take better care of one another because so many get lost, hurt, and killed on the journey. As brothers and sisters, is there not a better way for us to look after one another? Let us try harder to love one another this New Year

FOXNews.com - Vatican Denounces Saddam’s Execution as ‘Tragic’ - International News News of the World Middle East News Europe News

Catholic World News (CWN)

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT


This Sunday we complete our advent journey – the season of hope. We have remembered God faithfulness to promises, God’s love, mercy and inspiration in our daily live and throughout the centuries, and we have reminded our selves that this life is only part of the story — there is so much more than the here and now, and we are looking forward to (hoping on the day) when the Lord Jesus will come again in Glory.

And what do we really have at all, if we have not hope?As God’s children - human beings, we can see all the human-ness of drudgery, expectations, duty, routine, weariness, brokenness, healing, triumph and persistence. We go through these things every day, and we keep coming back for more - even when it’s painful, when we are fairly sure we will be disappointed, again. There are times maybe when we feel like giving up, when we just don’t want to try any more, but most people, most of the time, keep on going. And we can blame all that on hope.

Hope is what keeps us going when our marriage is falling apart, when ours kids are seriously ill or injured, when we’re fighting cancer or some other disease, when our aging parents need our help, when old age gradually become what we are, when we just can’t seem to work through and stay on top of our school work, our families needs, our depression or anxiety, when we’re not sure how we will keep on going, or pay the rent or mortgage this month. God gave us hope so we can live. Without it, would life even be bearable?

Hope is one of God’s very special gifts to us. But God was not satisfied with just giving us hope. God gave us something extraordinary to hope for, and to inspire and help us live our lives. And that special gift is God’s Divine Son: Jesus - a human being just like us. As we prepare to celebrate the Christmas Season, let us quietly offer a prayer of thanks to God for all that we have, especially the gift of hope, and ask the Lord to help us come to know Jesus, his teachings, and his ways better. Let our Prayer be this night/ day: Come Lord Jesus, Come into my heart, fill me with hope, grant me your peace, and show me your ways. Until we too can say: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Pearl S. Buck won the Nobel Prize in literature, the first American woman to do so. By the time of her death in 1973, Pearl would publish over seventy books: novels, collections of stories, biography and autobiography, poetry, drama, children’s literature, and translations from the Chinese. Here is a short inspirational story:

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Fr. Andrew Greely the novelist-sociologist reflects on Christmas and ‘North American Secularism’. He has more hope and optimism than many! Below is a link to full article, and a short excerpt.

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Development and Peace | Development and Peace successfully continues its reconstruction work: “2 years after the tsunami: Development and Peace successfully continues its reconstruction work”