Christmas Reflection

                        Christmas crib at St. Teresa’s Motherhouse, Germantown New York

My friends, as you plug in your computer, iPhone, iPad or smartphone  to recharge the power this Christmas, be aware of the need to connect to your greater power, Jesus.  Our inner power becomes depleted and our spiritual functionality becomes less apparent unless we fine tune our awareness to that inner voice that speaks of peace, harmony and above all love.  As Christians we are called to be fully charged, fully human and above all fully alive.

“The power of this Child, Son of God and Son of Mary, is not the power of this world, based on might and wealth; it is the power of love.  It is the power, which created the heavens and the earth, which gives life to all creation: to minerals, plants and animals; it is the force, which attracts man and woman, and makes them one flesh, one single existence; it is the power, which gives new birth, pardons faults, reconciles enemies, and transforms evil into good.  It is the power of God.  This power of love led Jesus Christ to strip himself of his glory and become man; it led him to give his life on the cross and to rise from the dead.  It is the power of service, which inaugurates in our world the Kingdom of God, a kingdom of justice and peace”. (Pope Francis)

Wishing you and your loved ones the peace and love of this Christmas season when Jesus humbled himself to share in our humanity.

Sr. Mary O'Donovan, O.Carm. 

Vocation Director

Meditation on the Christmas Stable

by Sister Philomena Anne of Divine Mercy, O.Carm.

Our Holy Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was about to give birth to the Savior of all mankind.  Saint Joseph tried to find a place for them to stay but there was no room for them at any of the inns.  They, however, found a stable, and after giving birth to the Child Jesus, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and placed in a trough used by the animals to feed.

We all look forward to Christmas as we put up the decorations.  We look forward to the celebration of Our Lord and Savior on Christmas Day.  But how many of us, once Christmas is over, forget?  Christmas is never about the gifts.  It is about our Lord who was born in that stable.  During Advent, we should thank our Holy Mother Mary for saying Yes to the invitation from God to be the Mother of the Redeemer and thus bringing our Lord into the world.  He turns our hearts into a clean stable.  We should keep this stable open all the time and listen to what God's Son has to tell us, not just through Scripture readings leading up to Christmas, but all year round.  We need to all keep that image of the Holy Stable and create it in our hearts.  Our hearts will then be the inn that always keeps itself open to the Lord with plenty of room where we can visit.  We can talk to Him in silence an contemplation for years to come.