Month: January 2023

Link to the “Letter to the Faithful Regarding Beacons of Light”

For some years I lived as a member of a monastery in Ireland, and we made our living by keeping a farm. The monastery had a dairy herd, for milk, but also had a cattle herd and a large flock of sheep. The hardest work was the dairy herd as they needed to be rounded up twice a day, every day, no matter what the weather, to be milked. The cattle were the easiest to maintain as they basically simply moved from field to field eating fresh grass year-round. The sheep were the most delicate to keep as they were susceptible to all kinds of dangers including other animals, birds of prey, diseases they could pick up from the wetlands and injury due to rough or rocky terrain.

Typically, our sheep gave birth in late December or early January. The days were short, and the nights were long, wet, and very, very, cold. It was not unusual for the water to freeze in the pipes in the barn. Members of the community would spend the nights moving along the pipes with blowtorches trying to unfreeze the water so that it would flow as water was essential for cleaning during lambing. It seemed to me that our sheep only preferred to give birth after midnight. Almost all the lambs in our flock were hand delivered, born with monks as midwives. We delivered lambs by night and sang God’s praises by day with a few hours’ sleep between dawn and breakfast.

I can’t help remembering how delicate these little lambs were and how cold and inhospitable the world was into which they were being born. Yet, as soon as they were born, they had a mother to clean them, nurse them and who covered them over with her body to keep them warm and safe. They also had fifteen monks for uncles. There are lots of similarities between the delivery of lambs and the birth of Our Lord.

God sent His Son into the world for the sake of salvation. What is true for Jesus is also true for us. God, the author of all life, has sent us into the world. Like Jesus we have a mission to carry out and that mission is to build the Kingdom of God on earth. No doubt, we have our work cut out for us but Fr. these days the task falls to us. 

However, as true as that is, let’s not make the story about us! It is important that we remember that God sent His Son into the world to save us. Today we recall that God sent His Lamb into the world and, fortunately for that Lamb, He had a mother to clean Him, nurse Him, cover Him over with Her body to keep Him warm and reassure Him that He was loved. Mary loved Him first and Mary loved Him always. It is good for us to remember that this Child, this Lamb of God, is a sign of God’s love for us. Christmas is about the birth of this Child, but it also marks the beginning of our new life. Jesus came to save us, and Christmas is the beginning of that salvation.

Wishing you all a very joyful Christmas and every blessing in the New Year.

Fr. Ben

One of the major images of the Christmas story is not a person, or an event, but a star. In our solar system the sun is the most important star. It is a raging ball of fire at a distance of 92,955,807 miles (149,597,870 kilometers) from earth. It is just the right distance away so that it provides light, warmth, and gravitational stability for all life to exist on earth. Without the warmth of this star life would not exist. It is an essential star. In the Gospel story of Christmas, it is not the sun that is the important star but, rather, it is what we have come to know as the “star of Bethlehem.”

If you were fortunate enough to be at last year’s Christmas concert at Our Lady of Victory, presented by the seventh and fourth grade students, you experienced a wonderful event. The children were outstanding and so confident. What a great bunch of kids. The featured image of the fourth grades Christmas pageant was the stars, and in particular, the star that led the wise man and shepherds to Bethlehem to worship the Christ Child. Without the star no one would have found their way to Bethlehem. The star pointed the way and guided the kings and shepherds to the Baby Jesus.

As the children presented their story, I couldn’t help looking around at the audience gathered there. An audience made up of parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, brothers, and sisters. Actually, it wasn’t an audience, it was a family, it was a family of families. But that wasn’t my thought, my thought was, all these people here are the stars in the lives of these children. I wonder if they know that, and I wonder if they know how important they are. 

Children need stars to follow and the most important stars in their lives are you. Children follow where you go, you show the way. You show them how to live, how to love, how to be a good loving husband or wife, a loving mother or father, a loving son or daughter, a good person, a kind person, a courageous and compassionate person. Who you are they will become, where you lead, they will follow, what you do, say, they will copy. Children need stars to follow, and they need those stars to lead to a life worth living, values worth having, a character well formed in love. Most of all, they need to follow you, their star, to the same Child, the same God, that the original star led kings and shepherds to find in Bethlehem. They need you to lead them to God – who is life – the only life worth having and the only life worth living. 

God sent you into their lives to be a star – now, show them the way!

At my parents’ home in Dublin, we have a front room that we rarely use. We only use it when the parish priest comes to visit or for special occasions like weddings, parties, and around Christmas time. Then we light a big fire in the fireplace, put a big Christmas tree up, and we place presents under that tree. On Christmas afternoon all the family come to visit, my brothers and sisters with their children. My brother David, an idiot among idiots, in fact king of the idiots, dresses as Santa and distributes the gifts. Except for having to listen to my brother it’s really a great time and the kids love it.

A few years ago, I was able to go home for Christmas, and the first thing I did was investigate the front room. I was amazed to see that one whole side of the room was filled, floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with gifts all decorated in colorful wrapping paper. I was amazed, shocked, and saddened. It was really too much. For children who have everything this was overboard. Sometimes we can be caught up in the superficial, the passing, and the illusions of this world.

 Fortunately, my nieces and nephews have great parents, they want for nothing, and they are surrounded by love and affection. They are also taught to care for each other and for others. They are generous, kind, as well as mischievous and fun loving. They are great kids. This is how they have been raised, this is who they are, because this is who their parents are, and these are their parents’ values. Now these values are true gifts. These values will be passed on to their children so they will also grow up in warm, kind, compassionate, generous, and joyful homes. That’s a gift from my parents to their children, and a gift from my brothers and sisters to their children, and it will be a gift from my nieces and nephews to their children. These are gifts worth having and they are given from fathers/mothers to their sons and daughters, from generation to generation.

During a recent school Mass, I asked the children “why do we give gifts to each other at Christmas?” Immediately one of the littlest ones said: “It reminds us that God gave us the gift of Jesus at Christmas.” What a wonderful answer from such a tiny little scholar. God gave us the gift of His own Son at Christmas. Now, with that insight reflecting what is in her heart, that little child has been given a great gift from her parents. I’m sure the same is true for all our children. Passing on the values of Jesus into the hearts of our children is a gift that is worth having and it is a gift that will bless generations to come. At Christmas be sure to pass on the most important gift of all – faith in a little Child born in a manger.