Category: Advent & Christmas

A hot meal with a side of faith, hope and charity

12/12/2018

The lineup for a free hot meal organized by the Diocese of Calgary often begins an hour before the doors to St. Mary’s Parish Hall open at 3:30 p.m. Rain or shine, wind or snow, people come by the hundreds. Most arrive on foot, some aided by canes or walkers. Others come alone. The adults will all take a seat beside others gathered at the long communal tables, but some will never speak.

Those with children walk around to the hall’s back entrance. Pushing strollers, carrying toddlers, holding the hands of shy children and smiling at the antics of tweens and teens, they will be seated in the family section of the weekly supper known as Feed the Hungry (FTH). At one dinner held this past summer, a young mother travelled 90 minutes—taking three city buses—for the opportunity to take her three boys out for a meal. Illness keeps her from working. Her boys keep her from giving into despair.

Faith, hope and charity

A modern-day version of the Christmas story plays out near St. Mary’s Cathedral nearly every Sunday night of the year. Here, the menu includes a hot meal served alongside a good helping of faith, hope and charity.

A downtown Calgary institution since 1994, FTH welcomes as many as 500 people to its Sunday suppers. The event gives many of its guests temporary respite from emergency shelters. They are joined by parents with low income who welcome a break from meals made with items found in emergency food hampers; seniors parenting grandchildren; single people, couples and families couch-surfing through their wait for affordable housing; working parents for whom a couple of days off work to nurse a sick child means the month’s pay cheque no longer covers rent and food. Other guests may like to sleep “rough,” but welcome a tasty hot meal made and served by kind people.

Across the room from the family tables sit the less-than-sober. Every guest, regardless of age or situation, will receive table-side service of salad, a hot meal, beverages and desserts. Guests are welcome to ask for seconds and it’s not uncommon for the volunteer servers to step in when they see a young eater who’s not happy about the night’s fare. “Your little boy doesn’t like tonight’s entrée? Let me check with the chef. We’ll find him something.”

For a few hours once a week, there is always room at this inn.

It takes a village

Every FTH meal is sponsored by a parish, company or community group, says Program Manager Sartre Jean-Gilles. Sponsors donate $5,000 and agree to supply up to 100 volunteers. To keep everything running smoothly, another set of regular volunteers serve as Team Leads and oversee specific stations. The menu is managed by other rotating teams of volunteer cooks. Some cooking teams are organized around parish links. Others are staffed by groups of friends.

Bishop William McGrattan likes the way FTH garners widespread community support. While many of its benefactors are Catholic, others participate simply because they seek to serve the less fortunate. The Bishop is also a fan of how FTH enables children to serve alongside their parents.

As diners leave the hall, many pick up a “hospitality bag” of food provided by the Calgary Food Bank. In late November, guests were also invited to write a Christmas letter or sign a card to be sent, postage paid, anywhere in Canada. “Guests were so excited to be able to reach out to family and friends like that. Many hadn’t done anything like this for years,” says Jean-Gilles.

The Christmas spirit continued on Dec. 9, when Santa dropped by FTH to bring the children presents and their parents grocery store cards. That meal was sponsored by Calgary Rotary South, with Heninger Toyota and its employees donating the gifts and grocery cards.

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Volunteers in charge of seating that night’s families relayed critical information about the children to the Heninger team members doubling as North Pole elves. “When they let us know who’s coming on stage to see Santa, we get busy wrapping the gifts,” says Heninger’s Kevin Jones. “Because this all happens behind the scenes, it looks like magic for the kids.”

Thanks to Heninger Toyota and its employees, 125 children left the Santa supper with a gift and 45 families received a grocery gift card to help them buy Christmas supper.

On Dec. 16, an anonymous sponsor will treat dinner guests to live entertainment. Each of the diners will also receive a $10 gift card for a fast food restaurant. Those cards were donated by parishioners, FTH sponsors, vendors and volunteers.

Watching the first group of diners enter the hall, one of the Dec. 9 volunteers smiles. He’s been here before and he’s pleased to be back. “I’ve learned not to judge.” He doesn’t need to know why his guests are there. He’s just grateful they have a place to come.

Written by: Joy Gregory

Information about sponsoring an FTH event—or getting involved as a volunteer— is available through the Feed the Hungry office. While many sponsors are eager to book their dates for 2019, there is always room for more at the table.

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The Christmas Gospel

12/11/2018

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In the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus the names of the historical figures Caesar Augustus, Quirinius and Herod stand out. These men do not enter into the manger scene. They generally escape our imagination and interest, even if they played significant roles in the ruling Roman Empire. Yet the Evangelist, St. Luke, makes a special effort to link them to the birth of Jesus. The references to these men ground the events of the Gospels in world history. They emphasize the point that the birth of Jesus really happened, and it happened at a specific point in time, around the time of these rulers of the Roman Empire. So the birth of Jesus is more than just a heart-warming story. It is a world event.

The names of Augustus, Quininius and Herod also hold a different, far greater significance in light of the Nativity of Christ. Some years ago at the Synod on the Word of God a recent Holy Father indicated that the birth of Jesus is not simply another world event, but the event that gives meaning to all events. He states:

“The history of salvation is not a small event, on a poor planet, in the immensity of the universe. It is not a minimal thing, which happens by chance on a lost planet. It is the motive for everything, the motive for creation. Everything is created so that this story can exist, the encounter between God and his creature.”

When we celebrate Christmas and hear the account of the birth of Christ, may we be fully aware of how this is not just one more event in world history. It is the climax that gives meaning to our lives, our actions and our events, as it does for all peoples and all times.

By: Fr. John Kohler

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Advent: The middle coming

12/11/2018

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The liturgical year in the West begins with the Season of Advent on the Sunday closest to the feast of St. Andrew on November 30 and lasts about four weeks until the eve of Christmas. The word Advent means “coming” and as St. Bernard of Clairvaux explains:

We know that there are three comings of the Lord . . .

The first and second “comings” are visible. The third “coming” actually comes between the first and second, like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last, is invisible, and is where St. Bernard focuses our attention for the season of Advent.

Historic coming

In the first coming he was seen on earth, dwelling among men; he himself testifies that they saw him and hated him.

The pre-Christmas Advent season may have begun outside of the Christian West with a three week period of preparation for baptisms at Epiphany that included ascetic practices like fasting. By the late fifth century there is evidence in the West (Gaul) of a seven week or forty day pre-Christmas fast not necessarily tied to baptism sometimes known as St. Martin’s Lent as it was calculated from the feast of St. Martin (Nov 11). Here, Advent becomes a preparation for the historical coming of Christ. Also, before being fixed to March 25th in the sixth century, the feast of the Annunciation was observed in close proximity to Christmas along with other Marian commemorations that draw our attention to the birth of Jesus.

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Future coming

In the final coming all flesh will see the salvation of our God, and they will look on him whom they pierced.

Rome inherited a related six week version of Advent but prescribed readings to emphasise the anticipated Second Coming of Christ. In the late sixth century Pope Gregory I shortened Advent to four weeks, which is the version of Advent that was exported throughout the Christian West. What we have received from the tradition is a very rich expression of Advent that embraces a broad spectrum of these “comings”.

Middle coming

The intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it only the elect see the Lord within their own selves, and they are saved. . . Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation.

The birth of Jesus and the End Times are two dramatic events. Yet we live out our discipleship in the time and space between. As St. Bernard explains, the “middle coming” of Jesus is hidden; it takes place deep within each one of us as we progress along our spiritual journey. In stark contrast to the sensory overload we experience in commercial culture during this season, the liturgical character of Advent cultivates the stillness and quiet that enables us to experience Jesus as our rest and consolation in this middle coming. While we do well to remember our redemption by commemorating the birth of Jesus and to express our faith that Christ will come again, Advent invites us to prepare our spiritual lives and hearts to receive Jesus within ourselves.

By: Dr. Simone Brosig

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Christ, Bless This House

12/11/2018

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In the cold and dark days of our January and February, there are three feasts accompanied by sacramentals that especially help us to bring the light of Christ into our lives and to know that God is with us in a very personal way throughout the year.

Adoration of the King, by Vrancke van der Stockt (1424-1495)

Epiphany (Solemnity)
January 6
Epiphany means “manifestation”, that moment when we suddenly understand something that previously was hidden from us. On this feast we especially remember the three Magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, who followed the star to a manger in Bethlehem where the Messiah was made manifest for them in the person of a newborn child. In imitation of the journey of the Magi, carolling is appropriate around the time of this feast as a way of announcing the manifestation of the Christ Child in song. It is also traditional to bless doorways on this feast. The Magi showed great hospitality when they came to honour the Messiah. The blessing of the doorway reminds us to welcome strangers and travellers into our midst as though each were Jesus himself. In this blessing the doorway is marked with chalk using the first two digits of the year, the initials of each of the Magi (or the first letter of each word in the phrase Christus Mansionem Benedicat, Christ bless this house) followed by the last digits of the year, e.g. 20 + C + M + B + 19. The rooms of the home can be blessed with holy water.

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Candlemas (Feast)
February 2
The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple is known by many different names. One of the most descriptive is Candlemas, named after the tradition of blessing candles for use in the church and the home throughout the coming year. It is an ancient feast based on the passage described in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2:22-40) where Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple forty days after his birth according to the Law of Moses. When they arrived at the temple they encountered the prophet Simeon. The Holy Spirit had revealed to Simeon that he would not die before he had seen the Messiah. Upon meeting the child Jesus Simeon prayed the prayer that is known as the Nunc Dimittis, or Canticle of Simeon. This prayer is used daily at Night Prayer (Compline) in the Liturgy of the Hours and is a good prayer to commit to memory:

Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your word has been fulfilled:
my own eyes have seen the salvation
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.

In this prayer Simeon calls Jesus a “light” for all the nations. Candles are a powerful symbol of the light of Christ that reminds us that we have been given this Light. On this feast of light, there is a solemn blessing of candles for use in the church and the faithful can bring for blessing the candles they will use at home. The liturgy can include a procession with lighted candles around the church before the beginning of the Mass.

The Presentation in the Temple, by Meister des Marienlebens (1463-1490)

St. Blaise (Memorial)
February 3
The Memorial of St. Blaise is not observed liturgically in 2019 as the Sunday takes precedence. However, throats may be blessed at any time during the year.

The very next day the Church puts these candles to work with the blessing of throats on the Commemoration of St. Blaise. St. Blaise was a Bishop in Armenia in the fourth century. He was also a doctor, who was said to have saved a boy from choking on a fish bone. As such, St. Blaise is a patron of the sick, especially of those suffering from illnesses of the throat. On this day we pray for good health through a special blessing of throats using candles that were blessed the day before. In the blessing the minister touches the throat with the candles and says this prayer:

Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr,
may God deliver you from every disease of the throat
and from every other illness:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

R. Amen.

If the numbers are too great for the priest or deacon to offer the blessing to all in the assembly, lay people can assist but without making the sign of the cross during the prayer. It is especially lovely when the candles are made of genuine beeswax so that not only the senses of touch, sight, and hearing are engaged but also our sense of smell. The blessing of throats reminds us in a very bodily way that in our most human of struggles, God is with us.

Tableau du maître-autel "Saint-Blaise" (vers 1740)

Resources:

• Blessings and Prayers Through the Year: A Resource for School, Parish, and Home, Elizabeth McMahon Jeep
• Blessings and Prayers for Home and Family, Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops

By: Dr. Simone Brosig

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A hot meal with a side of faith, hope and charity

The Christmas Gospel

Advent: The middle coming

Christ, Bless This House

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