On behalf of ALL of us here St. Clare School and Parish I wish you a peaceful, healthy, and Merry Christmas. This may not be what we envisioned our Christmas celebration to be, by that I mean all that “wraps” the main event – coming of Jesus into our lives. The tangible things of this world do matter; beauty can reveal the truth about God becoming flesh. Perhaps this is the best way of “walking” in the shoes of Mary and Joseph or the Three Magi – who could not have imagined the coming of the Messiah “in this way” or the birth of the New King “in this way” in all these surroundings? Mary said Fiat – Yes, Magi brought gifts and came to pay homage. We can learn from this ancient but ever new story: We come to God and welcome Him in the way we are, but also God comes to us and welcomes us the way He is.

Saturday, Dec. 12, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Patronesses of the Americas. Mary appeared to Juan Diego, an Indian convert to Christianity in December of 1531 as he was on the way to Mass. He was a quiet humble man, a poor peasant. When Our Lady appeared to him she told Juan to ask the Bishop to build a church in her honor. To persuade the reluctant Bishop Our Lady promised to give a sign. When Juan presented his message to the Bishop and the roses from the tilma fell to the ground they revealed the image of Mary on the tilma now enshrined in Mexico City. In this image Mary resembles a young Aztec woman. The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe is widely revered as a symbol of God’s love for all American natives. Join us for this special Mass at 8 am.

Today we light the second candle on our Advent wreath. Some refer to this as the Bethlehem candle which represents the birthplace of Christ (the first coming) and the hope of Christ coming again. During Mass, right after the prayer of Our Father we pray: Deliver us Lord…. as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.