{"id":1786,"date":"2015-12-27T13:16:04","date_gmt":"2015-12-27T02:16:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/?p=1786"},"modified":"2015-12-27T17:36:04","modified_gmt":"2015-12-27T06:36:04","slug":"homily-points-for-christmas-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/homily-points-for-christmas-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily Points for Christmas 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><span style=\"color: #ff0000\">CHRISTMAS 2015 \u2013 YEAR C<\/span><\/h5>\n<h6>December 25, 2015<\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li>This morning\u2019s <em>Herald-Sun<\/em> had an editorial on Christmas Eve. \u201cIt\u2019s a time for religious observances and for focusing on what is important \u2013 family and friends.\u201d\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_1720\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1720\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHP_Export_128887726_Christmas-wrap-Balwyn-North-resident-Shirley-loves-decorating-her-house-ea.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1720\" src=\"http:\/\/stbridgetsgreythorn.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHP_Export_128887726_Christmas-wrap-Balwyn-North-resident-Shirley-loves-decorating-her-house-ea-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Mary with Jesus  Christmas  Click to enlarge pic\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHP_Export_128887726_Christmas-wrap-Balwyn-North-resident-Shirley-loves-decorating-her-house-ea-200x300.jpg 200w, http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-content\/uploads\/CHP_Export_128887726_Christmas-wrap-Balwyn-North-resident-Shirley-loves-decorating-her-house-ea-683x1024.jpg 683w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1720\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mary with Jesus<br \/>Christmas<br \/>Click to enlarge pic<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>\n<li>What is important is more than family and friends. It is Jesus, born for us, as Savior and redeemer.<\/li>\n<li>Christmas comes, at a time, an antidote to community stress and burnout. (Paris and San Bernadino but the ongoing carnage in Syria).<\/li>\n<li>Most priests try to find their best sermon so as not to loose the opportunity of fuller churches.<\/li>\n<li>This year I was given a kind of gift \u2013 a homily.<\/li>\n<li>I had just finished a day of retreat at Surrey Hills in Sydney, for the Sisters of Blessed Mother Theresa, the Missionaries of Charity.<\/li>\n<li>At the end the sisters thanked me and gave me a card to Blessed Mother Theresa plus a letter to their Co-workers. In it I found the Christmas Story which is my homily for today.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fabio<\/strong>, an 8 year old boy, is sitting in front of the Christmas Crib and looking at Jesus.<\/li>\n<li>Fabio falls asleep and dreams.<\/li>\n<li>In the dream the baby Jesus asks Fabio three things: \u201cFabio, will you give me three gifts?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>He already loves Jesus and Christmas and immediately thinks that he will be asked for his new mountain bike or computer games.<\/li>\n<li>But he is a generous kid and says back to the baby: \u201cAsk whatever you like and I will give it to you.!\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Fabio, will you give me the last school exam that you did?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>But that one I FAILED!\u201d says Fabio.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cFabio that is the one I want and promise me that, everything that fails in your life, you will always give it to me.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Fabio is relieved.<\/li>\n<li>The second gift that I want you to give me is you special glass for milk\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Fabio feels embarrassed. \u201cBut Jesus it is BROKEN.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI want it. And promise me that you will give me all that is broken in your life.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWill you do that?\u201d Fabio promises it willingly.<\/li>\n<li>The third gift that I ask from you is the answer you gave your mother when she asked you how the glass was broken?<\/li>\n<li>Fabio started to cry. \u201cThis I cannot give you Jesus. I told a lie saying that it dropped from my hand but, in reality, I was in a temper and smashed it on the floor.\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>The baby Jesus looked at him: \u201cI want you to give me this lie, and all the lies of your life. Will you do that?\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cYes, Jesus, I will always give you my lies.\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Fabio then wakes up and his heart is filled with great peace and joy.<\/li>\n<li>He knows that today a Saviour has been given to us, born into our hearts and into our world.<\/li>\n<li>He takes all our failure, brokenness and deceit: everything that we think is not good enough \u2013 ourselves \u2013 to give to God.<\/li>\n<li>No wonder we celebrate and come to church, for nobody can do this except the incarnate word of God. The child Jesus we praise and glorify.<\/li>\n<li>He is love come down from heaven and men and women lifted up to God.<\/li>\n<li>All that is failed, broken and dishonest in our lives manages to surface at the end of the year and is sometimes addressed in New Year resolutions.<\/li>\n<li>But we thank God for Christmas.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHRISTMAS 2015 \u2013 YEAR C December 25, 2015 This morning\u2019s Herald-Sun had an editorial on Christmas Eve. \u201cIt\u2019s a time for religious observances and for focusing on what is important [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-1786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homily-notes","tag-christmas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1786"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1811,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1786\/revisions\/1811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kmgit.com\/testbuzz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}