An Old Message in Modern Times

NORTH JAVA — Madelyn King delivers her lines during Saturday morning’s dress rehearsal for Holy Family Parish’s nativity play.

As with multiple other churches throughout the area, it’s a Christmas tradition and Madelyn, 11, is among 15 young people participating. The message is a bit heavy at first, with Madelyn playing a daughter talking with her mother about modern holiday expectations and unrealistic goals

Then it segues into the familiar story of Mary and Joseph, and Jesus Christ’s arrival in a Bethlehem manger.

“We’ve been practicing for a couple weeks,” Madelyn said. “It’s fun.”

The church’s Nativity play was written by its religious education students, who range from 4 to 16 years old. It was set to be performed Sunday, as part of the run-up to the Christmas holiday.

Titled “A Christmas Reminder,” it offered a younger person’s perspective in some ways — frazzled parents and frantic smartphone calls, amid the holiday rush, while forgetting the holiday’s religious reality and simple truth.

The young people had been writing and rehearsing the play for several weeks, and it ended with “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World.”

“I think they’re unique kids,” said Molly Haungs, who helps teach religious education at the parish. “They wanted to tell the Nativity story, but they wanted to tell in a way other people would be able to relate to, and would be more meaningful. I think that sometimes traditions allow things to get lost, and you can put a different twist on it, and then it becomes something that’s more heartfelt ... That’s what I think they were looking for.”

Likewise most of the churches in the region as they celebrate Christmas.

Rev. Matt Kawiak, the church’s pastor, said he thanked the kids, their parents and teachers for their sacrifices and work throughout the process, including getting up early on a Saturday morning for the dress rehearsal.

And the play indeed has meaning for the wider congregation and community, he said.

“The adults who are going to witness this tomorrow, I know they’re coming, even though they’re busy with holiday shopping, Christmas cookies and parties,” Kawiak said. “I know they’re coming with a lot of hurt and pain from their daily lives, and the purpose of the Nativity scene is to bring hope to people’s lives. It isn’t about the parties and buying the gifts. It’s about needing Jesus in our lives.

That can include anybody from frazzled parents, to older people living alone, to people in broken relationships, or who lost loved ones over the past year.

Kawiak said the church is inviting anybody, of any faith or background, to attend the church’s Christmas Mass at 4:30 p.m. today. Holy Family Parish is part of the Polish National Catholic Church.

“The bottom line is the nativity is a sign there is a God who cares about us and loves us, despite all the brokenness and hurt in our lives,” Kawiak said.

Do You Need A Healing?

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It has been a hard week for many patients. I have had a mother cry in my office whose daughter died last year of a sudden heart attack. Another mom’s son died a year ago just before thanksgiving of a drug overdose. A wonderful Italian woman just returned from visiting  her best friend of 40 years who is dying in her own home. 

Then on Wednesday, I was called to help teachers, aids and staff in a very special school where a third grader died unexpectedly.  Finally, I had a woman share that she had to go back to the hospital a second time this past month. While her doctor was explaining that further treatment would require surgery to correct an electrical problem, someone popped their head through the curtain. The doctor asked if it was OK to let this person into the room. She was surprised because it turned out to be her brother-in-law who is being treated for cancer. He came smiling through the curtain, walked around her bed, pulled up a chair and took by her hand and squeezed it and looked at the doctor and said; “What are you doing for my girl.” Her reaction, why she never felt so loved and appreciated in her life. Imagine this that. This man is battling cancer and yet he found the time to come and visit her.

This coming Sunday, The third Sunday of Advent I will lead an Healing Service. This is what I will say. "This morning you have come to receive a powerful sacrament, the Anointing of the Sick. God is here ready to perform a miracle. Now close your eyes and imagine you are the patient in that hospital bed. Imagine, it is God the Father, the Great Physician, who is talking to you about what he wants to do to help you feel better and take away your pain. Then imagine, it's Jesus who pops his head through that curtain, walks around your bed, pulls up a chair and takes you by the hand and squeezes it and looks up at his Father and says, “now tell me dad, what are you going to do to make my boy, my girl better.” In your heart, what would you tell God that needs to be healed?

Is it a cancer, an addiction, a broken-heart, a past hurt, a pain in your neck, back or knee, or all over. Do you have a bad ticker, or a soul that feels sad and empty. 

Now before you walk up the aisle to have your forehead and hands anointed, take a moment to think what needs to be healed in your life. When you show me your hands, you might say: 'Jesus I want to be healed of my….' and fill in the words or phrase that best expresses what’s hurting you most at this stage of your life. 

And I will say the healing prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to come down upon you to give you His strength, His courage and His healing."

Lord, I pray for all my online Sonshine Friends who are hurting in any physical, emotional or spiritual way that You come beside them now and take their hand and heal them with Your love and peace.