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December 15, 2014
Marian Shrine E-Newsletter
Volume 3, Issue 20
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For most of us December is chaotic and filled with busy preparations for Christmas. We run breathlessly through crowded shopping malls trying to find the perfect present to please every member of our family. We bake or order dozens of Christmas cakes and goodies. We dust off the boxes of decorations stored away the entire year and festively deck our houses and string the lights on the trees not forgetting the angel on top. We struggle to write last-minute Christmas cards and greetings to family and cherished friends. Most of it today goes via email, WhatsApp or Viber and each year it only seems to get worse.
Parish priests make their 'To Do' lists of confessions and preparations for this great event in the parish, while youngsters try to find a slot for their caroling around the parish practicing feverishly for weeks before they venture out to sing.
As the shopping days decrease and our frantic pace increases, it is all too easy to lose sight of what these special preparations are meant for and to forget who it is we are getting ready to greet. Excitement fills the air and brightens our spirits as we hum snatches of Christmas carols or play them aloud on our car radios, but our worries and the still-lengthy "To Do" list weigh heavily on us as Christmas approaches.
If I were to make a list of my least favorite things to do, I'm pretty sure 'waiting' would rank in the top five. There aren't many things I enjoy less, than remaining in that agonizing place of staring at my hopes and longings in the face and wondering how, and when, and if God will ever allow them to come true. "Why doesn't anything just happen?" I often find myself grumbling and I am sure you do too, tired of waiting, tired of trying to hang onto hope, as the months and years slip away and so many questions remain unanswered. I look inwardly at all the healing, growth, and freedom I've experienced and some yet to experience and wish God operated on my timetable instead of His.
So many times I've begged God, as in the past couple of weeks, to reach down from heaven and move, speak, act, shine a light on my path. But so often when I go to him with my questions and restlessness, he doesn't reveal anything instantly. Yes, He brings Hope, He renews my Faith, and He gives me Strength to keep going. In that gentle, quiet voice, He also speaks the words I've heard over and over again ... my child, wait!
And so I do. As the years pass by, I'm finally beginning to realize it's in these seasons ofwaiting and being still before God, pouring out my heart before him, that he does some of his greatest work. It's in the desert, the wilderness, and the quietness that God can restore hope and vision and deepen my character. It's in waiting that I get to know God's heart more intimately and finally begin to realize He is my life.
I wonder if you, too, are in a season of waiting. Waiting on God to answer prayers for direction! I wonder if you are in a season of pain. Looking to Jesus to lay His loving hand on your broken heart and mend it in ways only the Merciful One can. I wonder if you are in a season we call the rat race; racing in circles trying to catch up to expectations placed before you. One of the important exhortations of the Bible is the call to "wait on the Lord." Even though God promises special blessing for waiting, waiting is one of the most difficult exhortations of Scripture. Why is it so hard? As part of fallen humanity, we are so prone to take matters into our own hands, to follow our own schemes. Yet, over and over again we are told in Scripture "wait on the Lord."
Even in our modern age of conveniences, waiting is still a big part of life. Ours is a society that has grown accustomed to immediate gratification. Due to modern technology and all our conveniences-smart phones, refrigerators, freezers, microwaves, fast foods, airplanes, etc. we have many things immediately at our fingertips. The fact is, most of us are waiting for something most of the time. Waiting places the emphasis on the other person who is coming. To wait is to express powerlessness, my insufficiency; and that should be my attitude towards God. I cannot force God to come. To wait means to lose my grip, I am no longer in control, God is! He will come when He thinks it is time to come.
Much is expressed just by waiting. It means that the other person is important to me. When I am willing to wait, I become different. So often we lose our patience in waiting and we show our frustration in that waiting. We often feel our lives are purposefully planned and meant to produce results. Even our moments of relaxation must achieve something; exercising must produce weight loss and playing football must make me a winner.
Standing in stark contrast to our desire for instant results is Advent, that season of preparation and waiting before the dawn of Christmas. It slams on the breaks of our speeding life, demanding that we not rush into Christmas before we have spent some time reflecting on what Christmas really means. Demanding that we pay attention! That we wait, that we allow our hearts time to anticipate the coming of Jesus - who may perhaps be entering our hearts for the first time and into the world a second.
Our lives are inevitably shaped by the one for whom we wait. That is the value of waiting. When we love the season we are in
- God meets us where we are with opportunities for growth and maturity...if we are open to it.
- God shows us new things about Himself and His character when we slow down.
- God tugs our heart in His direction--in His own grand plans verses our own agenda.
The Advent season and the selection of Scripture readings during this season are
characterized by an attentive attitude, a posture of waiting. But a time of waiting is not just a period of mounting expectation, to be impatiently endured until the longed-for person or event arrives. It is an opportunity to set our sights on the promise, to hold fast to it, to consider its significance, to explore and fathom who and what it is that we are waiting for. This waiting is not a passive whiling away of the days and hours, but a time when our appetites are whet, when our eagerness is honed to fine-edged anticipation, when we stand on tiptoe to catch the first glimpse of his coming.
My dear friends I do hope that we will not rush into Christmas and bypass this meaningful season of Advent - the season of waiting. With a little patience, a little silence, a time of deep reflection, a moment of abandoning trust, you and I both, might experience something that can change us and make us love God and our fellow beings with deeper commitment and caring.
God Bless you,
In Mary Help of Christians,
I remain,
Fr. Jim McKenna SDB
Director
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Walking with the Church
THE ADVENT WREATH: The origins of the Advent wreath are found in the folk practices of the pre Christian Germanic peoples who, during the cold December darkness of Eastern Europe, gathered wreaths of evergreen and lighted fires as signs of hope in a coming spring and renewed light. Christians kept these popular traditions alive, and by the 16th century Catholics and Protestants throughout Germany used these symbols to celebrate their hope in the coming Christ, the everlasting Light. From Germany the use of the Advent wreath spread to other parts of the Christian world. Traditionally, the wreath is made of four candles in a circle of evergreens. The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent. Three candles are purple and symbolize prayer, penance, and good works undertaken at this time. The rose candle is lit on the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, when the priest wears rose vestments at Mass; Gaudete Sunday is the Sunday of rejoicing, because the faithful have arrived at the midpoint of Advent, when their preparation is now half over and they are close to Christmas. The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord's first coming into the world and the anticipation of His second coming to judge the living and the dead.
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 'Its more blessed to give'
A friend of mine named Paul received a car from his brother as a Christmas present. On Christmas Eve when Paul came out of his office, a street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it. "Is this your car, Mister?" he asked. Paul nodded, "My brother gave it to me for Christmas." The boy was astounded. "You mean your brother gave it to you and it didn't cost you nothing? Boy, I wish..." he hesitated. Of course Paul knew what he was going to wish for. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the boy said jarred Paul all the way down to his heels. "I wish," the boy went on, "that I could be a brother like that." Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively he added, "Would you like to take a ride in my car?" "Oh yes, I'd love that." "You will have to tell your mother first." Paul said. After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes aglow, said, "Mister, would you mind driving in front of my house?" Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big car. But Paul was wrong again. "Will you stop where those two steps are?" the boy asked. He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Paul heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little invalid brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car. "There she is, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for Christmas and it didn't cost him a dime. And some day I'm going to give you one just like it...then you can see for yourself all the pretty things in the Christmas windows that I've been trying to tell you about." Paul got out and lifted the lad to the front seat of his car. The shingled-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them began a memorable holiday ride. That Christmas Eve, Paul learned what Jesus meant when he had said, "It's more blessed to give..." |
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 Laughter the best medicine
Cheap Rhymes With Jeep
A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas.
A friend of his said, "I thought she wanted one of those pretty 4-Wheel drive vehicles."
"She did," he replied, "But wherein the world was I going to find a fake jeep!!"
Tennis Ball Lesson
A college professor had the mysterious habit of walking into the lecture hall each morning,
removing a tennis ball from his jacket pocket. He would set it on the corner of the podium. After giving the lecture for the day, he would once again pick up the tennis ball, place it into his jacket pocket, and leave the room. No one ever understood why he did this, until one day. . . .
A student fell asleep during the lecture. The professor never missed a word of his lecture while he walked over to the podium, picked up the tennis ball and threw it, hitting the sleeping student squarely on the top of the head.
The next day, the professor walked into the room, reached into his jacket, removed a baseball. . . No one ever fell asleep in his classthe rest of the semester!
Young Patient
A pediatrician in town always plays a game with some of his young patients to put them at ease and test their knowledge of body parts.
One day, while pointing to a little boy's ear, the doctor asked him, "Is this your nose?"
Immediately the little boy turned to his mother and said, "Mom, I think we'd better find a
new doctor! | |
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 THE DEVOTION OF THE THREE HAIL MARYS
The devotion of the THREE HAIL MARYS is a very simple yet most efficacious devotion. Everyday, recite Three Hail Marys, adding the invocation: "O Mary, My Mother, keep me from mortal sin." Many people recite the Three Hail Marys as part of their morning and night prayers. To practice this devotion in time of danger, stress, special need or temptation, is a sure means to obtain Our Lady's help. Thank you dearest Mother for granting my daughter a clean report and for giving her a speedy recovery from her infection. Dear Mother keep her always under your divine protection. A. Noronha, NJ I have faithfully been praying the 3 Hail Marys and my knees were healed even though the doctors could not heal me. My son had a nasal problem and because of our faith in Our Lady an operation was averted. F. Soares, NY I am most grateful to Our Lady and Don Bosco for helping me get out of unemployment. Cian, NY |
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A Little Note:
Dear devotees of Our Lady and Don Bosco,
If you have received a miracle through the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, we would like to hear from you. Email us at MaryShrine@aol.com.
Bookstore hours: Monday - Saturday - 10 am to 5 pm, Sundays: 12 - 4 pm
Weekday Masses: 12 noon. Confessions on weekdays begin at 11.30 am.
Sunday Masses: 11 am and 12.30 pm
Other activities:
Day Retreats, Weekend retreats, Don Bosco Summer Camp, Eucharistic Adoration, Friday night Lenten Dinners, 50/50 raffle, 350 club, Rosary Madonna Statue. Rent Lomagno Hall, Rent our Banquet Hall.
MEMORIES
Remember a Loved One: Engrave plaques on Wall of Memories, adopt a Tree, Engrave blocks on Walk of Honor, All Souls, All year Candle lighting, Holiday (Christmas and Easter), Flowers, Schedule a Mass, Bell Chimes.
MASS INTENTIONS
To offer a mass intention, please write to
Fr. Jim McKenna SDB
174 Filors Lane,
Stony Point, NY 10980
mckennasdb@yahoo.com.
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