The Magnificat, today’s reading at Mass “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his lowly servant. From this day all generations shall call me blessed; the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” This is just part of the reading found in Luke 1:46-55. Mary gives God all the glory with specific clarity proclaiming the greatness of the Lord, she never elevates herself above her Son nor should we. There is a great misconception with Protestants in regards to Mary. Mary is the Mother of God and as servants of Christ we are to honor her just as Jesus did. God gave us Ten Commandments and the fourth is to Honor your father and mother. When we get the wrong idea about Catholics and Mary just ask yourself how you would defend your own mother if someone spoke against her? Jesus will always come to the defense of his Mother Mary. We thank Mary for saying yes to giving birth to her son Jesus and we are ever mindful of her contribution for this celebration of Christmas.

If your home is lit up with Christmas light, a Christmas tree and exchanging gifts you are celebrating the birth of Christ. You can call it a cultural tradition but it has Christian roots.  According to the Pew Research 81% of Christians in the United States celebrate Christmas but 87% 0f non-Christians also celebrate this holiday. What joy it must be in heaven to see such a diverse group of people come together to celebrate our Savior’s blessed event.

It seems that we have secularized most things of Christmas but even Santa Claus is real.

St. Nicholas,was born December 6, 280, a bishop from Patara, modern day Turkey.  There are many legends about St. Nicholas, my favorite is how he helped three poor sisters by putting gold in stocking for their dowry, this saved them from being sold into servitude. The Dutch continued St. Nicholas celebration but to them he was known as Sint Nikolaas but his nickname was Sinterklaas. He came to America in the 1700s and became part of the Christmas celebration. It was the  poem “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore that made him who he is today. So this once charitable bishop evolved to Santa Claus.

Christmas is about giving gifts and sharing love right? Not when it come to my neighbors peanut butter fudge. Adele makes the most delicious fudge in the world and I never, ever share it with anyone. It is unfortunate that no picture can be posted because it’s all eaten up. It took two days of taking small enjoyable bite of this delicacy and the feeling of this Christmas joy rush was blissful. Not one person in my family will ever experience this euphoria, thank you Adele.

May all of Americans celebrating Christmas think of you Lord and may you bless them with a prosperous New Year of peace that surpasses all understanding. From our humble abode to yours, Merry Christmas!

Our Parish, St. Norbert in Orange, CA announced that we could adopt a family for Christmas. As the Bible study group leader I took it upon myself to select a family of seven. We split up the family among us and did our shopping. After the ladies from Bible study dropped off the gifts for the family, Helen and I placed them in two large plastic bags. I delivered them to the person in charge. Wearing light colored sweats without pockets I tucked my phone around my waist. Carrying the two oversized bags, I felt my phone slowly slipping down my pant leg. There are many step to get to the front door of this house, before I rang the doorbell a beautifully put together lady opened the entryway while I was digging the bottom of my pants for the phone. No make-up, hadn’t shower yet because I was going to workout, my hair was gathered in a ponytail with huge lumps. “Come in” said the perfectly together human. Oh man! This was not what I wanted to do. It was 11:00 AM and her entire family was sitting in the living room, her husband, two handsome sons, maybe her mother and her sister along with a well groomed cat that’s coat resembled a tuxedo. I looked down at my sweatpants to catch a glimpse of a sizable  grease stain. Then I made the mistake of opening my mouth and explained how I was cleaning up after my party. I left the orderly holy family saying a prayer to myself.  “Please Lord do not let these people attend the same service as me.”

December has been a busy month and a week before the Tamale Party we had the service to the homeless. We wanted to purchase blankets to give to the homeless on Skid Row but the price for one was $5 and we needed at least 50 to make it worth while. What we did have were medallions from Rome. These minuscule medals were barely visible to the naked eye but that was all we had. As we handed out the lunches and prayed for people I’d asked if they wanted the world’s smallest Christmas present. They laughed but when they recognized the saint depicted on the metal they were deeply touched. An older crinkled faced lady cried and said that her confirmation name was Bernadette. To each person the medals represented something sacred. I would dig into the small plastic bag and pull out Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, or the Guardian angel. Our ministry took a lot longer because these gifts really ministered to the people on Skid Row. A young man by the name of David was so grateful that he could not stop kissing my hand. Our team was extra small this time around with only Robert and John helping, being short handed added more time to distribute the meals. We ran into a group of  high school age young men with two older men as chaperones. The strange thing about this group was that they were just wondering around almost like gawking, they were not really interacting with the homeless, not offering anything either. I asked one of the older men what they were doing? He explained that they are hockey team from San Jose and he wanted the boys to experience first hand what Skid Row was about. My advise to anyone doing this is that Skid Row is not a side show and if you do not have anything to offer you should not disrupt those living in deplorable conditions, it’s offensive.

Did you know that Paris, France and Skid Row have something in common? The same public toilets in Paris are used in Los Angeles. I used the ones in Paris and they are modern self cleaning beautiful public restrooms. I was amazed when they were first introduced to Skid Row a few years back. It cost fifty cents to use these facilities in the city of Angeles. We have noticed that some have been removed due to abuse of the homeless population, using drugs and other illicit behaviors.

With all the dog owners on Skid Row you really need to watch your step or you could be stepping into a pile of dog excrement. The homeless are careless with any type of waste and it usually ends up in the streets, that is way on almost every street there are volunteers cleaning up the debris.

My heart is sad when we leave the streets of L.A. because much more needs to be done to improve these conditions. We are just a tiny drop in in this endless sea of dissension but this time I felt the drop was a tear from heaven… praying we could do more.

The Tamale Party was a huge success with my best friend Helen winning for the 6th time. I was told by my daughter Sonja that my manner of presenting the trophy was abrupt. I forgot to take a picture of the climax of the party with Helen holding the trophy. To all the Tamale Party guest my apologies and to Helen congratulations but watch out next year you are going down!

May the God of us all bestow on you and your families a Blessed Christmas and may your New Year be filled with His Love!