A Christmas Prayer

When the song of the angels is stilled, 
When the star in the sky is gone, 
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
Whe work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among others,
To make music in the heart.

- Howard Thurman

A season of rebirth

I received an email today from Xavier University with a video message from the President (Fr. Graham, SJ) regarding last week's incident after the Crosstown Shootout. Our large victory over UC lead to an embarrassing brawl between the players and a long, arduous week for everyone in the Xavier community. I found myself almost ashamed at times of this institution that has in so many ways shaped me into the person I am, for the better. My association with Xavier is athletic, academic, social justice and faith-focused and I like to think that I continue to try to represent the ideals of the school as I continue down my life path. Unfortunately, because of today's media and somewhat unforgiving society, where we are quite slow to give people a second chance and look for the good in people and what can be learned from bad situations....I was met with nothing but negative reactions from people after last Saturday. All basketball bias aside, it's a frustrating feeling to try to defend someone, something, or some ideal when you know there are flaws that can't be denied. Yet, when you really believe in the good in it you want desperately for others to understand.
   After watching this video of Fr. Graham speaking, along with a 37 minute presser from Chris Mack (XU head coach), Mike Bobinski (XU AD) and Tu Holloway (our star player) I came to be reminded of some very important truths. Among these truths: the willingness to learn from mistakes, the diligence to seek goodness, the ability to humble oneself in adversity....but most importantly I recognized forgiveness and rebirth. It is only in difficult times, it is only through imperfections that we have such grand opportunities to learn the beauty of these two things. I think it's quite appropriate to have these things come into focus during Advent as well. Christ's birth was perfect....we are not. But his grace allows us to love others so much that we can be understanding of their imperfections and encourage them to continually allow their hearts to be reborn towards goodness...day in and day out....and allow them to do the same for us.
    This is love. This is Christmas.

Immaculate conception...yeah....about that...

So Thursday is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and I know I am supposed to go to mass that day and I know that it has something to do with Mary but I am ashamed to say that until I watched this video clip I had no idea it had anything to do with Ann and Joachim. It's interesting to see the reactions and thoughts of everyday people and what their perceptions are of this celebratory day in the church. Regardless of whether or not these folks are Catholic, watching this clip just brought me back to thinking about how little we actually understand certain things about the faith and church traditions...be they of our own or those of others.
   At this season of "winter holidays" we sometimes get rather touchy about what we allow to be "celebrated" in schools and proclaimed in communities. The spirit of the season not only has to compete with materialism and commercialism but also intolerance, judgement and political correctness. Kids can't have Christmas parties in school, people get offended by the Star of David, and Santa Claus can be seen by some as a pagan way of celebrating the season. My point here is that all of this gets in the way of a time of year when we all i9n some way or another feel drawn to be more charitable, more loving and more willing to enjoy those around us.
    These qualities hearken us back to out roots of sinlessness in baptism and Mary's being born without original sin. It is a feast day that helps keep us in line with where our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies should especially be at this time of year as we move through Advent and prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ and a rebirth of our own souls.
   I hope to keep this in mind and spread this understanding to my loved ones this holiday season :)