The Authentic Life: November 2007

Monday, November 26, 2007

This Christmas, Reach Out

This Christmas, why not get the family to direct their holiday energies into providing relief to the needy? We know that Advent is the season of preparation and cleansing, during which the Church asks us to slow down and look within ourselves. There is no better way of getting children creatively engaged in preparing for Christmas in their hearts than to think of those who are less fortunate. Less fussing about presents, more focus on the Christchild’s presence among us.

The Outreach team at our church has "met victims of crime and abuse, people suffering with cancer or the lingering effects of strokes, people struggling with low wages, pregnant and/or abandoned women and children, and people who are simply forgotten members of our society, such as the alone, frail, elderly. And, yes, we have even helped homeless people, living in the woods,” according to the team.

Prince of Peace also helps 75 families interviewed by Guadalupe Area Social Services. Further, the Parish also adopts 100 families identified and interviewed by Sister Parish Resurrection Catholic Community, and 25 families from Women Helping Women, an abuse shelter which specializes in retraining women in non-traditional job skills to help them change their lives. All families participating in the Christmas program are either in crisis or qualify as the “working poor”.

How can you help?
The Outreach Team encourages you to adopt a family when you see the tables with the family forms this year. If you simply do not have time to shop, please give Outreach a financial donation and they will do the shopping, wrapping and packaging for you. If you prefer to donate toys or bikes, be aware that these will be kept in reserve for days when there is a shortage of gifts. Your cash donation can help pay for a family’s food, or clothes, or children’s gifts.

If you have never seen the Adopt-a-Family distribution day process, the Outreach Team invites you to see the miracle of Christmas for yourself. On December 15, approximately 150 Outreach volunteers show up to accept, move and organize gifts, deliver “goody bags” to recipients waiting in long lines of cars, and load people’s gifts into their vehicles. Those who have participated in the past can tell you their personal stories of children’s eyes lighting up at the sight of a bicycle, and mothers’ faces shine with gratitude. This is a breath-taking experience you will never forget!

This year, make your Advent and Christmas a time for the whole family to remember.

God of Mercy and Compassion

For many of us, the prayer life can turn into a desert, causing us to feel abandoned at times, unable to find that intimacy with Jesus that we crave. We are tempted to feel sorry for ourselves or saddened beyond words. This condition can be experienced by anybody, regardless of age. What is the Christian soul to do? Henri Nouwen, the well-known spiritual writer, understood this state of mind well. In the following passage, he offers a helpful perspective and some practical advice.

“Sometimes despair seems an attractive choice, solving everything in the negative. The voice of despair says, "I sin over and over again. After endless promises to myself and others to do better next time, I find myself back again in the old dark places. Forget about trying to change. I have tried for years. It didn't work and it will never work. It is better that I get out of people's way, be forgotten." This strangely attractive voice takes all uncertainties away and puts an end to the struggle. It speaks unambiguously for the darkness and offers a clear-cut negative identity.

But Jesus came to open my ears to another voice that says:

"I am your God, I have molded you with my own hands, and I love what I have made. I love you with a love that has no limits, because I love you as I am loved. Do not run away from me. Come back to me -- not once, not twice, but always again. You are my child. How can you ever doubt that I will embrace you again, hold you against my breast, kiss you and let my hands run through your hair? I am your God -- the God of mercy and compassion, the God of pardon and love, the God of tenderness and care. Please do not say that I have given up on you, that I cannot stand you anymore, that there is no way back. It is not true. I so much want you to be with me. I so much want you to be close to me. I know all your thoughts. I hear all your words. I see all of your actions. And I love you because you are beautiful, made in my own image! , an expression of my most intimate love.

"Do not judge yourself. Do not condemn yourself. Do not reject yourself. Let my love touch the deepest, most hidden corners of your heart and reveal to you your own beauty, a beauty that you have lost sight of, but which will become visible to you again in the light of my mercy. Come, come, let me wipe your tears, and let my mouth come close to your ear and say to you, 'I love you, I love you, I love you.'"

This is the voice that Jesus wants us to hear. It is the voice that calls us always to return to the One who has created us in love and wants to re-create us in mercy.” ~ Henri Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak