We go to sleep on Christmas night to the reality that though “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5), that darkness still exists when we wake up on December 26th.
Awakening to this reality requires courage, spiritual audacity, and a stable full of radical hope, to believe Love is the greatest power in the world. It requires the compassion to risk relinquishing and reaching out beyond our own private, cherished security. It means the incarnation is not merely a doctrine or a once-a-year holiday but a view of the world from a divine perspective. It means incarnation and the salvation it embodies is a vocation, a task, and a responsibility.
This is the fork in the road where faith as belief and faith as a way of being and acting in the world for the sake of love part ways.
The light of Christ we receive is the light we are to enact as our daily practice in season and out of season. To take the name of Christ, to consider oneself a Christ-one, is to give our assent, as did Mary, to be bearers and birthers of the light in a world that is still broken, violent, dark, and difficult for many to live in. The reign of God, the Divine dream Jesus embodies and which we are called to help make manifest “on earth as it is in heaven” is characterized by justice, righteousness, mercy, and peace.
The work of Christmas, the incarnation of love, is comprised of any and every thought, word, or deed that clears a path and makes a home for these modes of action and qualities of right relationships.
Let us get to work. God needs our help.
Let us as St Rose, seek the counsel of Jesus, and let Jesus’ counsel guide our actions, words
and attitudes to others and for others.
As your Pastor, with our Clergy, religious and staff I pray that the
Blessings of Jesus and the Holy Family touch your family this Christmas! \
Fr. Dave Grover
I share my THANKS to….
• Buildings and grounds: to Champion Company who brightened our main church main aisle.
• Pete Powell for solving the roof leaks in St Francis’s church
• Our School staff for helping our student s to present a wonder-full Christmas Pageant.
• Our Maintenance and church Environment workers for the Christmas Beauty of our Worship space.
• Our outreach, social action, St Vincent de Paul and you for all of your donations and gifts to give our neighbors the ability to provide Christmas joy and dinner for their families!
Our Shared financial Responsibilities:
St. Rose families- please be involved in supporting our parish at Christmas, by GIVING to the CHRISTMAS COLLECTION.
Please make a committed, and even sacrificial gift, so as to help our parish services and ministries to thrive.
Also consider your END OF YEAR CHARITIABLE DONATIONS.
This is a good way to also support St. Rose Parish AND EARN a TAX DEDUCTIBLE CREDIT for 2023.
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