Good Christian People,
This is a Christmas card given at the end of the Christmas Season; this is a thank you for a myriad things and people I am grateful for; this is a newsletter all rolled into one. Where will I start?
First it is good to explain about the gift giving part of Christmas. It is interesting to know that some parts of the Church give children presents on the feast of the Epiphany. This is the feast when we remember not the birth of Jesus in the world but rather his birth (that is his first showing up) in the minds of people in history. The magi are depicted in the picture on the front of this card/newsletter. They show us a world at once glorious and broken realizing the birth in Bethlehem is indeed the very birth of God made visible. The hidden life of Jesus is recalled; a time when His identity as God was not publicly known. He lived a truly human life; simple, ordinary. He comes again to be known in the epiphany at the Jordan River. His divine person-hood is finally revealed to many. He begins His public ministry. It is like a moment of “Pah!” It is like a moment of joyful dawning of truth on the mind with thrills the heart and the body. I have seen His birth in the good that you have done. There are so many instances of this. I remember the celebration of the Feast of Mary the Mother of God.
This was also the celebration of the new calendar year, a special time of prayer for world peace, a time to remember the eight days after Christ’s birth when He was presented in the temple and He was given the name that the Angel has told Mary to give the Christ child at the annunciation; the name Jesus. It is a time of Epiphany for Simian and Anna the holy people in the Temple awaiting the long promised Messiah. It is also a time when the Pope and Bishop Sean have asked us to remember that world peace is connected to good family life and so as the family needs prayers we must make this year a time of prayer especially for families. It was good to see at this Feast of Mary the goodness of Colby Mazzola. In the middle of the night as the calendar progressed from 07 to 08 he was present at St. Mary’s in Waltham with the Cardinal and many others for a time of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the Praying of the Rosary, and Mass. It was a great blessing from God to be there with him.
I have seen goodness in Ghislain who was our communities special Christmas “presence.” We were visited by our Seminarian Shawn Carey and his parents for our celebration of Christmas and this is a blessing for it reminds us of the great gift God is preparing for us in this families great generosity that, by God’s good will, will produce a new priest for us in a short time to come. We have all seen the goodness in Brother Hugh. His quiet willingness to serve and support makes him a great preacher. He preaches with his actions and this makes me so full of awe for God’s power. I am so grateful for his help and praise God for such a sign of His love in the world. We were able to visit some people including the Burnes family. What an artist Mrs. Burnes is!
There are so many people in the Deaf Community who are a praise of God’s glory. We have our Catechumen, James Jones, who by God’s grace is preparing as an adult with seriousness and many hours of study for the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Communion. The wonderful Bucci family is helping him and for this I again, praise God. He will be received into the process of formation formally and more deeply by the Cardinal at the Cathedral at the beginning of Lent.
There are the people who help us to know that the Sunday Eucharist is the source and summit of our lives. I can’t believe how wonderful the people who read are, how reverent and helpful the servers are, how excellent and talented the interpreters are, how serious and gentle the Extraordinary Eucharistic Ministers are. I thank Winnie for helping us to be more organized. I thank the community for the great visual sign of the banners that help give us atmosphere and mood enhancement to our liturgy as the Church wants us to do since music is not part of the experience of Mass in the Deaf Community.
We are all blessed by the parents, grandparents, interpreters, and helpers who are supporting our confirmation students. We have a good group who are making me proud with their attendance and their learning. We will do what we must to make sure they are all educated according to their ability. There are some who have special challenges with transportation and as the classes continue to progress I will continue to ask questions of the students to discover if they know what they should know. As the summer confirmation gets closer I will set up extra time for education as needed to help make up for what might be lacking in the knowledge of the content of the faith in these students. We are studying the Creed, the Sacraments, and will study the moral life, and prayer in weeks to come.
We had a nice time for the children with St. Nicholas. He was good to me the Christmas. I now have two helicopters. They are little matchbox type helicopters and although they are not exactly what I had in mind they are very nice to have and I am touched by your love and affection. There were so many wonderful cards and gifts of food and sweets and cloths and financial generosity I am humbled. You are so merciful to me and I am forever in your debt. My gratitude could never match your goodness and patience with me your unworthy servant.
I would like to set up a ski retreat as you have enjoyed this in the past. If anyone would like to help with this please let me know. We have this and many events coming up that will depend on your active involvement. I need help with setting up a program, which the archdiocese of Boston requires for the protection of children. This is a work in progress and if you would like to get involved please do. I need help with a kind of shadow play that would be great to do for Lent when we remember Christ’s passion. Anyone who had theater experience, please talk with me about that.
In the long term I would like to set up a team that will help families who are deaf and in need. There are a few and I need your help to meet their needs.
What about the Wednesday Mass at the New England Home for the Deaf and the Senior Deaf Wellness Program. These two works are a delight. There is so much faith and love present in these groups. What a witness! Kathy Carey and many people from the Deaf Community work quietly to make these events good. But the thing that is most impressive is the enthusiasm of the people these two works so beautiful. I think back to the sisters who gave their lives to serve those people who are deaf many years ago. They tried their best to be special second mothers to many in the community and I think that they did a good job of sharing the faith with that generation. The love of God and His Church, and the love for neighbor that comes only from this is so beautiful to see. What a joy it is to serve these beautiful people. They are a treasure for us all. Some day maybe we can start a Catholic Grammar School for the Deaf with sisters who wish to make that education available to the poor who are deaf by the giving of their full live as a gospel witness. This is a dream that might very well come about some day. Who knows?
We have good news from Catholic TV. I am collecting money for them so that they can have their second most popular show about the rosary, captioned. If you would like to contribute let me know.
There are a million things that should be said but I could never say them all. What I will end with has to do with families. We all need to have a special place in our prayers for them. We all need to think of ways we can help support them. If we are old we need to reach out to the young and share our stories. If we are parents we need to ask the old for advice. Ask the old about how you can better help your children. Ask the old about how you can help your teenagers as they begin to become independent. Ask the old how we can pray. I encourage you elders to make it you goal to think about how you can become a special sign of grandmother and grandfather love to the deaf youth who are in your midst. What you have in terms of faith and love is a treasure. You share it by your good example and your prayers I know. Keep this up. And if you can, take delight in conversations with the young families about serious things. There are many good moments of “Pah!” that will come of such exchanges I am sure. Christ will be born in our minds and hearts again and we will truly live the life of happy Epiphany we all so deeply desire.
In Christ
