I encourage you to read Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s homily for the beginning of Boston’s bicentennial year and the First Sunday of Advent on his blog. Here are some great excerpts:
The first 200 years of the Church here in Boston have not been easy, but they have been good. They have been good because, despite our sufferings, despite our sins, despite our failings, despite our humiliations, the grace and love of God has always been with us. The faith and the prayers of countless people, living their baptismal commitment to Christ and to his body, the Church, has never been absent. Many hidden, anonymous, but there, like the elderly, the Simeon’s and the Anna’s of today, braving the cold and the darkness of the winter to be at daily Mass. The sick and the homebound, who pray the rosary with BCTV and offer their pain and loneliness as a sacrifice of atonement for our sins and as a vote of sacrifice for our young Catholics, their grandchildren. How many St. Monica’s pray for the return of a family member who has drifted away or stormed off to a self-imposed spiritual exile. Yes, it is not going to be easy. But it will be good. We are journeying together with Christ, Emmanuel, God with us.
[…]For the Irish, the most powerful Christmas symbol has been the candle, placed in the window. It was lit by the youngest member of the family and could be extinguished only by someone named Mary. I don’t have to tell you that there’s no shortage of Irish girls named Mary. The candle in the window in an Irish home had two meanings. It was a sign of welcome to the Holy Family, of Mary and Joseph looking for a place in the Inn. It was also an invitation during the times of persecution, to a priest to come and celebrate a clandestine Christmas Mass for the family. It was worth risking everything to be able to have the Eucharist.
[…]The stakes are high; it is a matter of life and death. The branches need the vine. We need to be nourished by Christ’s words and by his sacrament. And we need to be nourished by the presence of the brothers and sisters of the household of the faith, the body of Christ, the Church. My brothers and sisters, as we journey together in Christ, let us put a candle in the window. A candle that says, “Welcome, welcome, welcome.” A candle that says, “The Eucharist is to die for.”
Of course, you should read the rest or even listen to the homily along with a photo slideshow.
