The beauty of Christmas is seen in the peaceful face of a little child. Where ever that child may be the small face radiates the warmth and light of the season. There was the picture on the news of a newborn baby in her mother’s arms. The tiny smile spoke volumes even though her home was destroyed by a car bomb in Baghdad. There is the joy of seeing my one year old grand nephew having more fun with the Christmas wrappings than with the gift it covered. There is the content look on a little baby’s face as he is placed in a manger, Mary and Joseph by his side.

We get so caught up in the busyness of this season that we lose the real meaning. Human history was radically altered with the birth of a child. Angels announced his presence, his home visited by kings, his love shone forth brighter than the star, which hovered, over the place where the child lay. Jesus, Emmanuel, God-with-us, entered human history and the journey began.

We continue on that journey today. The Word made flesh makes his dwelling within us. The message continues to be preached and lived in us today. We are the bearers of the message. By our words and our lives we give birth to new hope.

May the Christmas season be filled with love and peace for you and your family. May we continue to proclaim the Good News as we journey along the way.

We continue to ask each week that parishioners pray for the chronically ill of our parish. If you have a friend or loved one in need of our parish prayers please call the Rectory at 589-2800.

This week we ask you to pray for
William and Sandra Dill

CENTERPLATE UPDATE

Bored on New Years Day?
No College Bowl Games to Watch

Just Pro Football on TV
Tired of All the Parties?

Just Want Out Of The House

CELEBRATE
The Beginning of The New Year
Join Your Fellow St. Robert’s Friends
To Celebrate the Final 49er Game of The Year

10 More Volunteers Needed
To Staff Our Centerplate Booths
Leave St. Robert’s at 8:45 a.m.

Time magazine has named Bill and Melinda Gates and U-2 member Bono as “Persons of the Year.” This past year has been one of extraordinary charity in which people donated record amounts in response to extreme natural disasters from the tsunami to Hurricane Katrina. But Jim Kelly, Time’s managing editor, commented that “Natural disasters are terrible things, but there is a different kind of ongoing calamity in poverty and nobody is doing a better job in addressing it in different ways than Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono. For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic, and then daring the rest of us to follow.” Bono’s campaign to make rich countries address the debt of poorer ones has had an equally impressive impact on the world. Isaiah’s prophecy and Jesus’ vision of the reign of God is a bit closer to fulfillment: “he has sent me to bring good news to the poor.” Thank you for all of you who have been so generous to the poor and homebound in our midst.