ADVENT: DAYS OF VIOLET
GETTING A HANDEL ON CHRISTMAS
MY CHRISTMAS ANGEL
THE CHRISTMAS STORY
A CRAZY CHRISTMAS REMEMBERED

ADVENT: DAYS OF VIOLET
Advent mixes its colours, mostly red and blue, to come out as it does, all clad in violet. Very appropriate too, since the scripture readings for the season are also a mixture. In them you will find, longing, sorrow, anger, perseverance, fear, hope, love, ambition, patience, suffering, enthusiasm. You name them and they are all there. In the end though, just as with its colours, Advent blends them all together to give us the one overall feeling, one of waiting, waiting in hope.
There is too another reason that makes violet just right for Advent: people often mistake it for purple. With colours we need to take time, pay attention, and see what's really there. The same applies if we are to understand our own lives. We can often confuse the feelings our lives give us, and misunderstand what they mean. What is good and hopeful can sometimes appear dull and disappointing. On the other hand, what at first seems bright and attractive can turn out to be of little value. Advent encourages us to pause, and look, and see what's really there. The colourful images in the readings encourage us to be aware of the Kingdom of God unfolding in our own lives and leave us waiting for God to fulfil his plans.
On with the violet then! When we get to Christmas, we may be surprised to find that the most appropriate colour for that season is very close to home. It may be that the most appropriate colour for celebrating the Nativity of the Lord is one we blend ourselves from the mixture of feelings in our own hearts. Advent helps us identify those feelings.

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GETTING A HANDEL ON CHRISTMAS
Anne Marie Kerr - Cockermouth
Yes, we all know the opening bars to that famous chorus in Handel’s oratorio, Messiah. But there is much more. Over the years, the oratorio has been cut and altered to suit different tastes. The Wordsworth Singers, a Cumbrian chamber choir, now propose to re-create both the intimacy and power of that first performance, complete and uncut, in the apt and magnificent setting of Carlisle Cathedral. Founded in 1997, The Wordsworth Singers draw their 30 or so members from all over Cumbria, Lancashire and Northumberland. They meet for just a few concentrated rehearsals before each concert, under the leadership of their young Musical Director, James Grossmith. Soloists and a young semi-professional orchestra from Glasgow will complete the line-up for this very special event, where performers and audience alike will have the ideal opportunity to prepare for the wonder and joy of Christmas, as well as look ahead to the drama and glory of the Resurrection.

Handel’s ‘Messiah’, Tuesday 20 December 2005, 7.30 pm, Carlisle Cathedral. Tickets available from Carlisle TIC 01228 625600. £15 (centre), £9 (sides and rear), £5 for students and under-18s.
For church group discounts ring 01228 536146. www.wordsworth-singers.org.uk

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MY CHRISTMAS ANGEL
Peter Grimshaw of Cafod
Christmas 1967 saw me in Kenya as a young teacher volunteering with the Mill Hill Fathers. My brother Anthony, a priest of the Salford Diocese was also there as a Fidei Donum priest. On Christmas Eve he was to say Mass at Nyagondo an out chapel 14 miles from his Mission at Aluor. I accompanied him. Mass was duly said for Christmas, 20 children from Catholic families were baptised and then we were led about 2 miles from the chapel to the bedside of the Catechists' mother who was dying.

Anthony anointed her and we prayed her gently off to heaven. Then 2 miles back to collect the car and drive a further 9 miles on to pick up Josefina Owor as she needed to be transported to a little Health Centre to give birth to her baby. This was so, because she was quite elderly for childbirth - almost 40 years old. When we arrived at the appointed spot Josefina was already there, and so was her newborn son, beside the track, in the shelter from the mid afternoon sun under a small tree. Mother and child seemed well, and Josefina assured us that she would be well enough to return to her village once, 'she got her breath back'.

The catechist John said he would accompany her home. Anthony decided to baptise the baby there and then, and the name Raphael was chosen after the Christmas Angel. O-oko was his other name, which in Luo means 'born outside'. Raphael O-oko died the following year in a measles epidemic and in 38 years since then never a Christmas has loomed without the memory of my 'Christmas Angel'.

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THE CHRISTMAS STORY
Fr. Patrick Fitzgerald - Lombard O. Carm
Christmas is a story, the story of the birth of a human child. That birth is the heart of the story and it is a birth which is normal in every way: we hear how Mary gave birth to a son, her first born (Lk 2,7 ). The Jesus whose birth we remember and celebrate on Christmas day is fully and completely a human child.

Yet the story which surrounds this birth tells us a great deal more, far more than the usual awe and wonder at the birth of a child. Unusual events surround this birth, there is the special sense of awe and wonder that God has visited his people to redeem them (Lk 1,68). We who hear the story year after year need to follow his mother Mary by pondering all these events (Lk 2,19). The birth of this human child clearly means a great deal more than the arrival of another baby into our troubled world. Two evangelists, Matthew and Luke, tell us of the birth of this child in two stories, which have only the essential facts in common: the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem to Joseph and Mary from Nazareth. In Matthew, Jesus will be the one who saves people from their sins (Mt 1,21) and is God with us (Mt 1,23) but at the same time with the coming of the Magi to visit the child this salvation is on offer to the whole world (as we hear in the very last words of the Gospel, Mt 28,28). For Luke, a new age is dawning with the birth of John the Baptist and then that of Jesus who are now cousins. Even though Luke’s Gospel is a Gospel for missionaries, the birth of Jesus is within the people of Israel, the shepherds and then the comment by Simeon, this child is destined for the rise and the fall of many in Israel (Lk 2,34). The birth of Jesus, fully human but yet quite clearly with a special relationship with God, is the starting point for the Gospel story of both evangelists. As in the overture to an opera, these two prologues begin the story by opening up themes, which the evangelist will then develop throughout his Gospel.

Quite different is the Gospel of John with its magnificent prologue: In the Beginning was the Word (Jn 1,1-14). Here we have poetry, leading us into a deep reflection on the importance of this birth, the Word who became flesh and, literally, “pitched his tent amongst us” (Jn 1,14). This too acts as an overture to the Gospel and many of its themes unfold in depth through the Gospel until brought to their conclusion in chapter 20, where John tells us of the resurrection of Jesus.

As a consequence we can read the note we find in the Lectionary about the readings provided for the Christmas Masses:

In Masses celebrated on Christmas Day, the readings given are used, with the option of choosing more appropriate readings from any one of the three Masses, according to the pastoral needs of each celebration

With that in mind, I believe that most congregations need to hear the Christmas story, especially if children are present. I would read the prologue of John’s Gospel provided for the Day Mass if there is a good reason to do. I prefer though to read the full story from the Gospel of Luke (Lk 2,1-20) at all Christmas Masses. P.F-LA

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A CRAZY CHRISTMAS REMEMBERED
Karin Cook La Crosse, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
In early December of 1995, Christmas was a few weeks away and I knew it might be my mother's last holiday. She had advancing Alzheimer's and unable to recognise much, but I knew how much she loved the Christmas memories of her childhood, so I would put the tree up early. I decorated the 15' artificial tree with gold twinkle lights, gold ribbon and musical ornaments. This was my best effort in years and I was confident she would be fascinated. I had cats so I wired the tree to the window frames just to be safe.

Little did I know, my four month-old kitten, Elmo, was waiting in another room to see his first Christmas tree. Elmo's middle name is "Heathen" - which will give you an idea as to his personality. My friend Wendi held him back so Gramma could go into the livingroom first to see this magnificent tree. I could see her reaction was focusing on those years of happy memories - recognising her childhood ornaments and delighting in the twinkling lights. Mom touched the tree and her treasures from eighty years of celebration. Her smile was worth every hour it took to put this all together.

All of a sudden, Elmo squirmed out of Wendi's arms and made a mad dash for the tree, smacking right into the middle of it. He hit with such force, it ripped the massive tree away from the window frames and it came crashing down all over the room. My mother looked at us with an expression of horror, then looked at a grinning Elmo covered in gold tinsel. She began to giggle, then to laugh out loud. Mom turned around and walked back into her apartment at the back of the house, laughing all the way and I had this monster kitten to deal with, plus the clean-up, of course. I have never known a kitten that can destroy a 15' Christmas tree in 17 seconds flat! But he did it. No matter the design, the outcome was as intended - to give my mother one more amazing memory before she died.

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