Christmas Letter 2009

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$Asffi##rs ffi*# For years now the armies of inclusion have breathlessly televised crdche controversy or .f$ gf*ffir Advent 2009 Love one another as I have loved you. John 1 S:10 Dear Friends, "Happy Holidays" or "Me rry christmas": take your pick. battled the troops of tradition. No year passes w1l'rout a a school pageant showdown. Naturally, l've always been a the game. "Merry christmas" man myself. But this year I think it's time to step up "God loves us." captures Christmas for me. lt packs a wallop. And it's even four letters shorter than "Merry Christmas." God's love in the gift of christ says it all. It inspires us, surrounds us, sustains us. lt consoles our pain and crowns our joy. As John Paul ll preached wh atever i nconve n ie nce, change our lives. in central Park: we must go to this chitd, this Man, fhis son of God, at at whatever risk to ourselves because to know and love him will truty The Christmas story is our portal to the love of God made flesh in the life of Christ. As Luke teils us so beautifully, the shepherds were the first to have their lives changed by the loving presence of God gloriously proclaimed across the skies and focused on the child in the manger. ln Matthew, it is only ?.few dozen paragraphs from the departure of the Magi to the Sermon on the Mount - the timeless blueprint of God's grand design for us - Christ's valentine to all who would live in his love. xQr-{18 DPVI CO., INC

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Christmas Letter to parish

Transcript of Christmas Letter 2009

Page 1: Christmas Letter 2009

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For years now the armies of inclusion havebreathlessly televised crdche controversy or

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Advent 2009

Love one another as I have loved you. John 1 S:10

Dear Friends,

"Happy Holidays" or "Me rry christmas": take your pick.battled the troops of tradition. No year passes w1l'rout aa school pageant showdown.

Naturally, l've always been athe game.

"Merry christmas" man myself. But this year I think it's time to step up

"God loves us." captures Christmas for me. lt packs a wallop. And it's even four letters shorter than"Merry Christmas."

God's love in the gift of christ says it all. It inspires us, surrounds us, sustains us. lt consoles our painand crowns our joy.

As John Paul ll preachedwh atever i nconve n ie nce,change our lives.

in central Park: we must go to this chitd, this Man, fhis son of God, atat whatever risk to ourselves because to know and love him will truty

The Christmas story is our portal to the love of God made flesh in the life of Christ. As Luke teils us sobeautifully, the shepherds were the first to have their lives changed by the loving presence of Godgloriously proclaimed across the skies and focused on the child in the manger.

ln Matthew, it is only ?.few dozen paragraphs from the departure of the Magi to the Sermon on theMount - the timeless blueprint of God's grand design for us - Christ's valentine to all who would livein his love.

xQr-{18 DPVI CO., INC

Page 2: Christmas Letter 2009

Don't let the sugar-coated Christmas songs confuse you. God's love for you is not sentimental mush.It is the strongest power in the universe. Before Christmas 1943 pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrotefrom a Nazi prison to his parents. He had been safe in a New York professorship, but returned toGermany as "an agent of grace" to stand against demonic evil. Beaten but not broken, he savoredChristmas as never before. He wrote that Christmas would be observed in his prison with moremeaning than in places where all that survives of the Nativity is a hollow "Merry Christmas." Seenthrough prison bars, Christmas came into sharp focus. Christ's birth in a stable, his love of thedespised, his acceptance of suffering and loneliness, all made much more sense from prison. For theprisoner, he said, Christmas is the glad tidings of freedom and redemption. lt clearly says whateveryour condition in this blink of eternity, God loves you; he longs for you; he will gather you home inglory.

In its essence God's love makes us seek what is good. lt makes us reach out to each other. lt makesus help each other, particularly the most helpless and abandoned. Every expression of genuinehuman love is a reflection of the love that God showers on us. This Christmas let's embrace andcelebrate this powerful, powerful force. Let's live it, share it and proclaim it with the joy of rediscovery.

"God loves us."

Faithfully yours in Christ's love,

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