Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Prayer

  • The Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

    The Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

    Today’s readings

    “Not as man sees does God see,
    because he sees the appearance
    but the LORD looks into the heart.”

    This instruction to Samuel is both a good thing and a bad thing for us, I think. It’s good because it’s nice to know that there is One who does not judge us on what we look like or how we dress or what we do for a living, but rather on what is in our heart. It’s bad, because there is One who looks into our hearts and sees everything.

    How easy it can be for us to judge people. We want to quickly put people into categories and then almost write them off. But today’s first reading reminds us that we need to be careful about making judgments because we have not been given the gift of the big picture. Only God can see into people’s hearts, only God knows who people really are and can judge with authenticity.

    Today is the anniversary of the tragic Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in our country. Since then, our society has tumbled down the slippery slope of devaluing life and we are seeing the rotten fruits of it all over. War, violence, hatred, lack of concern for the poor and needy, lack of respect for the elderly and terminally ill, all of these things are symptoms of the culture of death that surrounds us. Far from liberating women and giving them choice over the use of their bodies, the legalization of abortion has driven many women to have an abortion simply because they thought that was their only option or because it was more convenient for family or the father.

    But the Lord looks into our hearts and knows what’s really there. We cannot claim to be Pro Life if we are in fact only anti-abortion. Our claim to righteousness has to be based on more than never having had the disastrous occasion of having to choose to participate in an abortion, or it’s not really righteousness at all. If we pray to end abortion and then do not attend to our obligation to the poor, or if we choose to support the death penalty, or if we engage in racial bigotry, then we are not in fact Pro Life. Every life, every life, every life is sacred, no matter what we may think of it. Because God sees into the heart. And more important that that, God created that heart.

    And I say all this not because I don’t think that abortion is a disaster: it certainly is. I say this because it’s way too easy for us to oppose abortion and then call ourselves Pro Life and then go out and violate life in some other circumstance. We must be very careful of doing that, because God sees into our hearts too.

    This year we will have the opportunity and the obligation to vote for a president and other leaders who will govern our country in the years ahead. We will all have to be careful about selecting a candidate who is Pro Life, which for the Church means not just anti-abortion, but also a person who supports life at every stage from conception to natural death. I would go so far as to guarantee you that there is not one candidate out there who fits the bill entirely. All we can do is select the best person, and pray for a continuing change of heart, a continuing conversion in their lives.

    And maybe that conversion needs to start in our own life. Because other people will see in us whatever they’re going to notice. But God – God sees into our hearts.

  • Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    This Church year, this year of grace, began last November with the First Sunday of Advent. Since then, we’ve been through Advent and Christmas, Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. Today is our first “green” Sunday, actually the Second Sunday of Ordinary Time. (The First Sunday of Ordinary Time is actually the Baptism of the Lord). So, on this first Ordinary Time Sunday that we’re celebrating, we have a Gospel reading that sounds suspiciously like the Gospel reading for the Baptism of the Lord. Confusing, isn’t it? Whenever this kind of thing happens, though, we should ask ourselves what it is that the Church is trying to do, what is it that She is trying to teach us with these readings.

    And the first place to start, usually, is by looking at the whole Liturgy of the Word today. When we do that, I think, we find a group of readings that speak of beginnings, which, as it turns out, is not a bad way to start out our celebration of Ordinary Time. But before we launch into a look at the readings, let’s talk a bit about Ordinary Time. There’s a tendency, when we hear that phrase, to think of these Sundays as just “ordinary” or “blah” – nothing special. That’s what the term “ordinary” means to us English Speakers. But that’s not what the Church is going for. A better translation would perhaps be “ordered time” a time that is marked out, set aside, and always observed. That means we don’t have permission to skip them, and that we ought to keep them holy. At its core, “Ordinary Time” Sundays are Sundays made sacred because they are connected to the death and resurrection of the Lord. They are ultimately a celebration of the Lord’s Day through and through.

    So on this first of the “ordered time” Sundays, we have a look at some beginnings. The first of the beginnings is the commissioning of the servant in our first reading from Isaiah. The servant may actually be Israel, and if so, God seems to be speaking to the nation while they are in Exile. He is calling them back and foretelling that not only will they be God’s servant to bring back and restore and reunite Israel and Jacob, but they will also bring salvation to all the world. This might not have been real good news for them, perhaps, because presumably that would include the very nation that had been oppressing them while they were in Exile. But nonetheless, whenever we receive a gift, it is never just for us, so it wouldn’t do for God’s servant to just restore what’s familiar to them, they must go out to all the world and bring salvation.

    The Psalmist follows up on that notion, giving the servant’s response: “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.” Let’s take a look at what goes on in this Psalm. First, the Psalmist seems to be involved in some sort of difficulty for which he has been waiting on the Lord. The Lord, for his part, has taken notice, stooped toward him and heard his cry. The response of the Psalmist to his deliverance is one of witnessing. He announces the justice of the Lord and does not restrain his lips.

    The second reading from the beginning of First Corinthians is a little strange in some ways. All we get are the first three verses of Paul’s letter to them, and it seems to just be a simple greeting: From Paul to the Corinthians, grace and peace. But these few verses tell us a bit more than that. They speak to the vision that Paul has of his own vocation, and of his belief in Christ. First, he proclaims himself to be an apostle. This is important, because an apostle is more than just a follower or even a disciple. An apostle is one who is sent with the full authority of the one who sends him. Paul has never met Jesus, at least not in person, but he had an experience that clearly revealed Jesus to him, and sent him forth with a mission. Paul then tells us what he believes about Jesus. He never mentions Jesus without referring to him as the Christ, that is, the Anointed One, the Messiah. Jesus for him was no ordinary person. If that were true, Paul would still be out persecuting the Christians instead of leading them as an Apostle. Jesus is the one the Jews were always hoping for, the one to bring salvation. Jesus is the Christ who sanctifies his people.

    And finally we come back to John’s version of the Baptism of the Lord. In this version, from the Gospel of John, we don’t see the actual moment, but hear John the Baptist’s take on it. He stresses that he did not know who Jesus was; he mentions that twice in his account. The way he came to know that Jesus was the Christ was through revelation. He was told ahead of time what signs to look for, and when he sees the Spirit come down upon Jesus like a dove after he comes out of the water, then John knows that Jesus is the one he was told to look for. So finally he becomes the herald of the Lord, the mission he was called to from his mother’s womb. “Behold the Lamb of God,” he says, “who takes away the sins of the world.” Now he sees and testifies that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

    So we have three beginnings today. We have the beginning of Israel’s call to be a servant of the Lord, to bring his salvation to the ends of the earth. We have the beginning of Paul’s correspondence to the Church at Corinth, telling them that they are God’s holy people, having been sanctified by Jesus the Christ. And we have the beginning of the recognition of who Jesus is in the Gospels, one anointed by the Spirit at his baptism, one who takes away the sin of the world. It is appropriate that at the beginning of our celebration of ordered time, we would celebrate these three beginnings.

    What we need to get about time itself is that it is not pointless. It’s not some meaningless trip through the ages that gets us nowhere. Time is not a waste of time. For the Christian, time is sanctified by God who entered into time with salvation through Jesus Christ. And so today, God blesses our beginnings. What is it that we need to begin these days? Is there a call to something deeper as a disciple that we have been putting off? Is our relationship with God at a turning point, and do we need to get out of our comfort zone to explore that relationship? Are we being called to take our careers in a new direction, becoming people of greater integrity to witness to the Gospel in our workplaces? Are students being called to take their studies more seriously, learning the great wonders that God has placed before them? Are parents being called to bring their families to a holier place this year, remembering that all that they have and all that they experience is a gift? Whatever it is that we need to start right now, God is sanctifying that beginning by reminding us that all of time is holy and that all of time is a gift.

    We must make use of this present moment, this sacred space of time, because we can never get it back once it’s passed. It’s not too late to make resolutions, and it’s certainly not too late to start working on the ones we have already made. Today is a day of beginnings, beginnings not just for Israel and Corinth and Jesus, but also beginnings of our own histories, entering into the time with which God is blessing us. Our offering today is an offering of these beginnings, looking at them as gifts of God, and responding “Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.”

  • Saturday of the First Week of Ordinary Time

    Saturday of the First Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

    My question is, “why do you care?” I mean, if these scribes who were Pharisees had really been concerned about the keeping of the Law, strict observance of the Commandments and following their God, they should be deeply concerned about their own progress in these things and not care so much about what other people are doing. We all know why Jesus eats with the tax collectors and sinners. We can’t get caught up in all that nonsense; we’re just happy to be at the meal at all. Or we should be

    Religious people are so often tempted to this Pharisaic outlook. Jesus would say in another place: why do we get so upset about the splinter in our brother or sister’s eye that we miss the plank in our own? The ironic thing in today’s Gospel is the ending. The sick are the ones who need the doctor, not those who are well. But that is precisely the point: who among us is well enough not to need the One who is the Doctor of our Souls? Doctors will tell us that the patients who do the best, particularly with serious illness, are those who know their need for healing and cooperate. No one can make us well if we refuse to acknowledge our illnesses.

    The next time we’re all tempted to judge someone else, and to question their salvation, perhaps we should pay more attention to what’s going on in us. Are we worthy of being at the banquet? Of course not. But yet here we are, called and graced by our Lord. So why expend a lot of energy trying to edit the guest list? As we come to the table, let us remember that we are all alike in that we are sinners, but we are all one in that we are forgiven and restored and brought to the table and given places of honor. All of us tax collectors and sinners gather around the Table of the Lord and partake of the rich feast that makes us whole.

  • St. Anthony, Abbot

    St. Anthony, Abbot

    Today’s readings | Today’s saint

    We people of God have a certain responsibility. And having been given that responsibility, and the Spirit with which to carry it out, we had better be ready to fulfill our duties, because the consequences are just too great. St. Anthony the Abbot – this is not the St. Anthony who is the finder of lost objects – was a man who knew well the urgency of fulfilling his responsibilities to the Lord. He gave everything and pursued a solitary life of contemplation, and later developed a rule of life for monasteries. He lived a life of voluntary poverty and complete devotion to God.

    But then there’s poor Eli, the subject of today’s first reading, and really yesterdays. Because in the first reading yesterday, we heard all about the call of Samuel, and of Eli teaching young Samuel to respond to the voice of the Lord by saying “Here I am.” But in the verses that got left out, we have the reason for the disaster that happens in today’s first reading. God has found Eli and his sons guilty of abdicating their responsibility. The people of Israel have become depraved, have worshipped idols, and Eli and his sons have done nothing to turn their hearts. That was their only responsibility, and they failed to accomplish it. So what happens? Not only does Israel fall to the idolatrous Philistines, but the Ark of the Covenant, the great symbol of their commitment to God is taken from them. That’s almost okay though, because the Israelites had long since abandoned the covenant! And then, in the part of the reading we don’t have today, Eli on hearing the news falls over and breaks his neck. His daughter-in-law practically dies in childbirth and names her son Ichabod, a name which means “the glory is gone from Israel.”

    We people of God must take absolute care to fulfill our responsibilities because the cost is just too great. We must proclaim the message far and wide as did the overjoyed leper in today’s Gospel. We must be people of forgiveness and mercy. We must reach out to the poor, needy and oppressed. We must preach the Gospel through every word and action. Because the cost of not doing so is just too great.

  • Tuesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time

    Tuesday of the First Week of Ordinary Time

    Today’s readings

    “Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Quiet! Come out of him!’
    The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.”

    It is always interesting to me how clearly the unclean spirits see who Christ is. For them, Christ as the One who represents God the Father inspires fear and rebellion. But even these unclean spirits, hearing his voice, begrudgingly obey. Jesus teaches with authority, as the people standing by admit of him. This is a teaching that cannot be ignored. Each person may hear it and respond differently, but they do respond. Many hear his voice and follow. Others turn away.

    In these early days of Ordinary Time, we essentially have the continuation of the Epiphany event. We continue to see Christ manifest in our midst, and continue to decide what to make of him. Today we see him as one who teaches with authority and who has authority over even the unclean spirits within us. Today he speaks to our sinfulness, to our brokenness, to our addictions, to our fallenness, to our procrastinations, to whatever debilitates us and saddens us and says “Quiet! Come out!”

    This Epiphany of Christ as dispossessor of demons is an epiphany that does more than just heal us. It is an epiphany that calls us out of darkness, that insists we come out of our hiding and step into the light, so that the light of God’s love can give us rest from all those demons that possess us.

  • The Baptism of the Lord

    The Baptism of the Lord

    Today’s readings

    baptismofthelordToday is the last day of the Christmas Season. What a wonderful gift we have as Catholics to celebrate the birth of our Lord for an extended period of time! Last week was the Epiphany of the Lord, a time to celebrate Christ manifested in the flesh, the greatest gift of God to his creation. On the occasion of the Epiphany, we have three traditional readings. The first is the reading about the magi visiting the Christ Child. The second is the wedding feast at Cana, where Christ turned water into wine, the first of his miracles. And the third is the Gospel we have today, of Christ being baptized by John the Baptist in the River Jordan. So today is the octave day of the Epiphany.

    As we heard last week, Epiphany means “manifestation.” In each of these Gospels, Christ is manifest in our world in a different way. The magi celebrated that this baby was truly the manifestation of God in our world, because no other birth would have been occasioned by such great astrological signs. The wedding feast at Cana celebrates that Jesus is no ordinary man, that he had come to change the world by the shedding of his blood, just as he changed the water into wine. And today his baptism celebrates that Christ is manifest in the weakness of human flesh to identify himself with sinners through baptism.

    So if Jesus Christ identified himself with us sinners through baptism, then we who have been baptized must also identify ourselves with him. We must manifest him in the world through living the Gospel and following in his ways. Today we hear in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles that Jesus, having been anointed with the Holy Spirit, “went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil.” That’s the model he set for all who would be baptized as he was. So we baptized ones must do the same.

    It is easy to see how we can go about doing good. There are thousands of opportunities to do that in our lives. Children and young people can do good by obeying their parents, being kind to brothers, sisters and friends, attending to their school work, and praying for those who are needy. Adults can strive to lead godly lives, raising families in peace, working diligently at their jobs, and being of service to the community. Every day there is an opportunity to do good in ordinary and extraordinary ways. All we have to do is decide to live our baptismal call and do it.

    Healing those oppressed by the devil might seem harder to do. But there are lots of ways to cast out demons. Teaching something to another person is a way to cast out the demons of ignorance. Reaching out to an elderly neighbor is a way to cast out the demons of loneliness. Educating ourselves on the evils of racism is a way to cast out the demons of hatred. Buying fair trade coffee, or bringing food to Loaves and Fishes, or volunteering at Hesed House is a way to cast out the demons of poverty and hunger and homelessness. Visiting the sick, or picking up medication or groceries for a sick neighbor, is a way to cast out the demons of illness. We have opportunities to heal those oppressed by the devil all the time. All we have to do is decide to do it.

    On this Epiphany Day, on this Christmas day, Christ, born among us, enters the waters of baptism to sanctify them through his body. Our own baptism is a share in this great baptism and outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We who have been baptized then are literally INSPIRED – given the Holy Spirit – in order to continue to make Christ manifest in our world. All we have to do is decide to do it.

  • Saturday after Epiphany

    Saturday after Epiphany

    Today’s readings

    “He must increase; I must decrease.”
    By these words, St. John the Baptist indicates that the Epiphany, the manifestation of our Lord in the flesh, is complete. John’s disciples have got it wrong; they took offense at Jesus baptizing when he himself had been baptized by John. They assumed that because John had baptized Jesus, that Jesus must in some way be inferior to John. But John knows his mission as the Forerunner. He knows that his ministry was one of paving the way for Jesus and the Gospel. He knows that his own baptism was a mere precursor of the baptism that Jesus would bring, a baptism that imparts the fullness of the Holy Spirit to all believers.
    “He must increase; I must decrease.”
    St. John the Evangelist tells us in his letters that we are to be on guard against those who come in the name of Jesus but are not of him. We must be wary of pretenders and totally turn away from false idols. He has spent this past week in our first readings giving us the standards of discernment that help us to know the Truth. Anyone of the Truth will testify to the Incarnation of Jesus in the flesh. Anyone of the Truth will love deeply, and will love neighbors as well as God. Anyone of the Truth, he tells us today, will cast out sin, from himself and from others. Even though he may not be perfect, still he will battle sin and turn to Christ incarnate in the flesh for the indwelling of the Spirit, for the grace of his baptism.
    “He must increase; I must decrease.”
    Christ came in the flesh, as the Psalmist tells us today, because the Lord takes delight in his people. His people then, must take delight in him. We must remember that we are all in the service of the one who came to set us free. We must remember that our own thoughts, our own desires, all of these are not the be-all and end-all of existence, and quite often, we must die to them in order to let God be manifested among us. As we offer and prepare our gifts for the Eucharist today, may we also offer the decreasing of ourselves in order to pave the way for the increasing of Jesus Christ.

  • Thursday after Epiphany

    Thursday after Epiphany

    Today’s readings

    Today’s Scriptures continue to reveal Christ manifested in the flesh, and the way his manifestation looks today is like love. We have the great joy of reading from the first letter of John today, and John is always about love. Today John gives us a discerning test, so that we can see if a person is of God. The test is whether that person loves his or her brothers and sisters. Because one cannot claim to love God who is so very much beyond us, if we cannot love the brother or sister who is right in front of us.
    That can prove to be a very daunting test to be sure. Because we’re not very often irritated by the God who is beyond us, and much more often irritated by the brother or sister who is always right there in our face! Still, the commandment is clear: “Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
    Jesus Christ is the personification of God’s love for us. God came to be among us not in some kind of ethereal nature, but with a human face and a human heart, and a love that overcomes all the flaws of our flesh. It is that love that sets us free. In Jesus, all the prophecies of deliverance are fulfilled: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” Jesus says, “because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
    And if our own love for our brothers and sisters can transcend our petty day-to-day irritations, or even our deep-seated hurts and resentments, than maybe we can set people free, and even set ourselves free, and make Jesus incarnate in the world yet again.

  • Monday after Epiphany

    Monday after Epiphany

    Today’s readings

    Perhaps our devotion for this Epiphany week should be to pray the Mysteries of Light on the Rosary. Epiphany is a time of manifestation, of light coming into the dark place that our world can be at times. We long to see, and more than that we long to see Christ, the one who comes with peace and justice to make all things right.

    Today’s Mystery of Light, then would be “Jesus proclaims the kingdom of God with its call to repentance,” the third Mystery of Light. This preaching is accompanied by the great and mighty acts of healing, which have the crowds flocking to him in droves. They definitely see in Jesus a light that shines into the darkness of their lives, marked as they are by illness both physical and mental, but also perhaps overwhelmingly spiritual.

    John speaks to us today in the first reading about the discernment of spirits. How do we know what is of the spirit of God and what is of a spirit of deception? John tells us that the decisive test is whether or not that spirit acknowledges that Jesus is incarnate in the world, that he has come to live among us and continues to shed light on the darkness of our world and of our lives. Anything that prefers the darkness, then, is of a spirit of deception.

    Because there were all sorts of people who didn’t flock to Jesus. Many saw him as a charlatan and thought his healings were smoke and mirrors. They preferred the darkness. The same is true today. Many hear the word and turn away from it. Many hear of the kingdom with its call to repentance and choose to turn away. But we cannot be that way. We have the Light, and we are called to live in the Light. Living in that Light, as the Psalmist tells us, gives us the nations for our inheritance.

  • The Epiphany of the Lord

    The Epiphany of the Lord

    Today's readings

    We gather together today to celebrate the twelfth day of Christmas.  Today is the traditional day for the celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord, a time when we can see who Christ really is, when our eyes are enlightened, and our hearts are opened.  Because there is a gift to be had here today; more precisely, I think there are three gifts to be had here today.  The magi famously offered their three gifts: gold, frankincense anhttp://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-2/653261/3Kings.jpgd myrrh.  I don’t think we can expect to receive those gifts today, although we’ll use a bit of frankincense later in this celebration.  But the Scriptures today speak of three gifts that come with this Christ Child … the one who continues to lay sleeping in the manger on this holy day.

    The first fist gift he brings us is justice.  Justice is what people long for in every age.  When everyone has what belongs to them, when no one is poor or needy, when the marginalized are brought into the community, when the wrongly imprisoned are free, when everything is right and we are all in right relationship with one another and with God, that is justice.  People have striven for justice in every age and place.  While we are all called upon to do what we can to make justice happen in our world, we know that we do not ultimately have the power to bring the real justice that this world longs for all by ourselves.  That can only be done by God, and in God’s time.  Our psalmist today says, “Justice shall flower in his days…” The gift the Christ Child brings is the possibility of that great day of justice.  We know that because Christ has died and risen, we can count on the salvation that will be ours on that day when everything is made right.

    The second gift Jesus brings is peace.  Peace, too, can be an elusive thing for us, and peace, too, has been sought after for ages upon ages.  We often think of peace as the absence of conflict.  And that alone is daunting.  We have conflict in many places today.  We think of Iraq, Afghanistan, and many places in the middle east, to say nothing of Africa, Korea, and many other places.  I’m not even sure, honestly, how to count the number of wars being fought today.  And this says nothing about the lack of peace that is violence in our communities, discord in our families, and unrest in our hearts.  If we are to define peace as just the absence of conflict, it is clear that even that is beyond us. 

    But that’s not how God defines peace.  Peace is more than a feeling, it is a way of living, or more exactly, a way of being.  It stems from the right relationship that is justice.  In fact, we are told that if we are to desire peace, we must work for justice because peace can’t happen in an unjust world.  If the mere absence of conflict is a peace that we can’t seem to achieve, how much less will we ever be able to come to a peace that is a completeness of right relationships with God and every other person?  And yet, this child in the manger is the one who has come to bring “peace till the moon be no more.”

    The third gift Jesus brings is light: the revelation of the mystery.  And that’s what we celebrate today.  “Epiphany” means “manifestation,” it means coming to know what’s right in front of us.  Coming to see the revelation of Christ in the Scriptures, in the Church, in the Sacraments, and in every person and place.  It is a celebration of light, light that is the glory of God, appearing and overcoming the darkness of a world that does not know God.  Jesus came to a world that was darkened by the absence of justice and peace, into a world which in some ways didn’t want to be brightened by his life.  So basically, he was coming into a world not much different than the one we experience today.  Our time’s need for justice and peace is obvious, and the world’s refusal to come to the light is well-known.  But we have the light.  Jesus came to bring us that light.  Maybe it’s not the light of the star on that night, but it’s the light of Scripture, of his presence in the Eucharist, and his activity in the Church and in our hearts. 

    We who have received the wonderful gifts of his justice and peace and light, are called to bring those gifts to the world, because the gifts we receive are never just for us.  St. Paul tells the Ephesians – and us – today that we are called to be stewards of these gifts, given to us in grace. And so, just like the magi, we are the ones who need to bring our gifts and open our coffers.

    Epiphany is the feast of those called by God's grace to leave behind the familiar and accustomed and to go searching for Christ in, what seems to be, the most unlikely places.  Where will we find him and what gifts shall we bring when we discover Christ in our world?  In place of frankincense, we could advocate for poor families, especially for single parents and the newborn.  There are 25 million poor children in our otherwise-wealthy country, and untold numbers throughout the world. In place of gold, we could contribute to help those at shelters for homeless families, or international programs for children and the aged. In place of myrrh, we could visit the sick and dying.

    The gospel story tells of a light in the sky that guides the foreigners to Christ.  We don't have the star; but grace is continually given to help us find Christ. God's grace does what the star did for the Magi, it guides us to the out-of-the way places where Christ can be found.  The Magi came bearing the types of gifts one would bring to royalty in a palace.  But today Christ isn't found in a palace; he isn't rich, he is poor.  The Epiphany reminds us that each day Christ manifests himself to us in the world's lesser places and in surprising people.  Those are the places to go looking and bearing gifts—starting with the most important gift, ourselves.

    We will come forward in a few moments to pay homage to our king, just as did those Magi so long ago.  When we offer our gifts on this holy day, perhaps we can also offer the gift of ourselves, this gift that we ourselves have received from God himself.  As we begin this year, perhaps we can resolve to make our giving an act of gratitude for all that we have received.  Nourished by our Savior today, we can go forth in peace to bring gifts of justice, peace, and light to all the world.