MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Blessed and Merry Christmas from me to all the blog readers!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to read the blogs and I pray that each entry brings a message of hope, faith, and inspiration to your lives. A beautiful solemnity to celebrate, the birth of Our Lord: the Savior of the world, Prince of Peace, the Light that dispels all darkness. The message that I gave to my parishioners in preparation for Christmas is from our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, and I want to leave his words with you today. "God's sign is the baby in need of help and in poverty. Exactly the same sign has been given to us.... God's sign is simplicity.... God's sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. He does not come with power and outward splendor. He comes as a baby - defenseless and in need of our help. He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts, and his will - we learn to live with him and to practice with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him... Christmas has become the Feast of gifts in imitation of God who has given himself to us. Let us allow our heart, our soul, and our mind to be touched by this fact" (Magnificat, 384-85)! May the joy of this Christmas Time fill your minds and hearts with comfort and peace!!!