Kevin Considine gives us a nice, brief explanation of why many venerate the Virgin Mary. The veneration and adoration of Mary is as old as the church itself. The earliest record of Mary’s veneration probably comes from the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in A.D. 431. There church fathers affirmed Mary as the Theotokos, or God-bearer. The title stuck, and today we refer to her as the “Mother of God.” This designation of Mary as the mother of God is really at the root of Roman Catholic veneration. Mary is the link between our broken humanity and the boundless divinity present in the triune God. Mary is redeemed, as she is human, but she is also considered to have a special and unique relationship with God, as she shares DNA with Christ. Mother Teresa once remarked, “She gave Jesus his body, and his body is what saved us.” In the many years since 431, Mary has come to occupy a powerful place in Roman Catholic spirituality. She has many faces and innumerable names, among them Our Lady of Guadalupe, She Who Ripens the Wheat, Queen of Angels, and the Light Cloud of Heavenly Rain. She is said to appear on occasion, mostly to children or others who are weak, disempowered, or on the margins of society. She is said, in some cases, to procure miracles. Some have even said that in the last days, Mary will lead the army of angels in the final battle against evil. But all of the titles and all of the miracles are considered to be a result of Mary’s close relationship with her son, Jesus. As mother of the King of Kings, she is the saint of saints. Furthermore, because the church is the body of Christ, and Mary is Christ’s mother, she is also the mother of the church. This means that in addition to having a special relationship with Jesus, Mary also has a special relationship with the church. She belongs to the church and the church belongs to her. So when we pray the rosary, or bow our heads during the creed, we are honoring our mother, and the mother of our Lord. Although she is not God, she has earned our respect and devotion.

Here are more suggestions for us to reclaim Christmas. What could Christmas be like? More time spent with people, sharing memories of the past year, making plans for the coming one. Doing things together, being more prayerful and more playful, telling stories, talking about God. Reaching beyond ourselves. One common theme emerge, a plan of action takes shape. One family might make their presents this year. Or give each other things they already own, trade things that are important parts of their lives. This will help them get to know each other better and experience each other as family, helping each other grow by giving to each other. Or maybe this year the family will make a little retreat to a quiet spot in the woods. They could take the time to relax and regain a sense of family, to get to know each other again, and then return in time to share their strength and peace on Christmas day. A group of friends might make a special effort this Christmas to reach out to those less fortunate than them. Perhaps a trip to a local nursing home. They’ll put together a Christmas show, using the wealth of talent and creativity they have been blessed with to bring joy into the lives of those without families. Another family might donate money they would normally spend on each other to a worthwhile charity, one that is helping feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless. Or they might prepare a huge Christmas banquet and open their doors to those in the community who would otherwise spend Christmas alone.

This is part of an article published 35 years ago in US Catholic Magazine. It is still so relevant, maybe even more so now. Why do we race around the week before Christmas buying expensive gifts as if it were a rite of preparation for the coming of the Lord? Jesus did not say we would recognize him in the breaking of the bank. And in fact it becomes very difficult to recognize him when we spend most of the season fighting crowds and fatigue. Mostly we get trapped. It’s not that we intend to be swept up by the needless overconsumption of the season. It’s that we haven’t stopped to think about the season ahead of time and make sense of it. We haven’t stopped to choose what kind of Christmas we would like to have. We’ve been trapped into thinking we have to act in a certain way during the season. Advertisers pull out the heavy artillery at Christmas, bombarding us with messages that say, “The only way to celebrate is to buy these shiny, expensive gifts.” But Christmas is for sharing. We’re remembering, reliving, celebrating the moment in history when our God shared himself by entering humanity and living with us, as us. Often that sense of sharing is lost in the helter-skelter rush to prepare for Christmas. We are pressed for time; it is all we can do to get through our foot-long gift lists. We don’t have time for people; we’re not able to pay much attention to their needs at a time when those needs might be most critical. Maybe that’s why so many people experience a profound sense of loneliness at Christmas. It’s a kind of cruel reversal of the point of Christmas in the first place. The least it could do is cheer us out of our winter doldrums. Instead it seems to intensify them. Is there a way off the mad Christmas merry-go-round? It’s difficult, maybe impossible, to make a change alone. The cycle of rushing and spending, spending and rushing, is imbedded in our culture. Going against the grain alone is a very unpopular thing to do. Friends might be hurt at not receiving the kind of gifts they are used to receiving; family members might resent your refusal to “pull your fair share” in the gigantic Christmas effort. You might come off as a stingy, lazy humbug. The only hope of regaining Christmas is to do so in community. It can start with the family, the core of the Christmas celebration, sitting down and talking about what has gone wrong with the season. Common themes begin to emerge: too many gifts, too much money spent, too much time and energy for all the wrong things, too much work and not enough Jesus.

At the opening of the Year for Consecrated Life, Pope Francis issued a challenge to consecrated men and women, inviting them to lives of courage, communion, and joy. Nearly 50 years after Vatican II's decree on the Adaption and Renewal of Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis, Pope Francis convoked the Year with the aim of expressing the “beauty and preciousness of this unique form” of Christian discipleship. The Year for Consecrated Life begins Nov. 30, the first Sunday of Advent, and concludes Feb. 2, 2016. Because the start of the 2015 Year for Consecrated Life coincided with Pope Francis' trip to Turkey, his message was read out in his absence on Nov. 30 by Cardinal João Braz de Aviz at the beginning of Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica. Through various initiatives in the coming months, Pope Francis told consecrated men and women in his message that their “shining witness of life will be as a lamp,” placed where it can “give light and warmth to all of God's people.” Pope Francis renewed his call made in a message to Superior Generals a year ago to “wake up the world,” illuminating it with their “prophetic and counter-current witness!” Consecrated men and woman can respond to this invitation, first, by “being joyful!” the Pope said. “Show everyone that to follow Christ and to put His Gospel into practice fills your hearts with happiness!” This happiness should be contagious, he continued, leading people to seek the reason for this joy so that they can share in it. The Holy Father also told consecrated men and women to be “courageous,” reminding them that “he who feels the Lord's love knows how to place full confidence in Him.” Finally, Pope Francis called consecrated persons to be “deeply rooted in personal communion with God.” “Show that universal fraternity is not a utopia, but Jesus' same dream for all humanity.” In his homily, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, recalled how like Pope Francis, consecrated persons wish to “entrust the journey and [destination] of the Year of Consecrated Life to Mary.” The Holy Father “wanted to dedicate the year 2015 to consecrated, men and women of the whole Church,” who have been called by the Lord “to a life [that is] closer to the God of Love, by means of evangelical councils of poverty, chastity, and obedience.” Coinciding with the first Sunday of Advent, this Year for the Consecrated life, the cardinal continued, commences “in the sign of Christian hope because the Lord is faithful and, with his mercy, transforms our unfaithfulness.”

A life-affirming online ad campaign seeks to present the positive experience of adoption as an alternative to abortion for women facing unexpected pregnancies. “We believe that women deserve to know about all of the options available to them, and we are grateful for the opportunity to connect more women with information and support as they consider adoption as one of those options,” said Marissa Cope, Director of Special Projects at Heroic Media. Heroic Media, a pro-life multimedia organization, teamed with the Gladney Center for Adoption in 2013 to promote the choice of adoption. This year, they worked together to launch a pro-life adoption advertisement titled “Last Year.” “The newest ad features a young woman sharing her positive experience of placing her child up for adoption, stating that she has made a plan to finish school and the adoptive family she chose will raise her baby ‘and love her forever,’” Heroic Media said in a Nov. 25 statement. The commercial highlights a young woman who was pregnant and chose adoption, saying that “I know I made the right decision, for me and my baby.” The campaign is promoted on YouTube, where women can click to contact counselors or the adoption agency directly through the Gladney Center for Adoption. Just this year, the partnership between Heroic Media and the Gladney Center has generated almost 125,000 connections to adoption information through internet campaigns. With some 1,000,000 abortions each year in the United States, and only 18,000 infant adoptions, Heroic Media stressed the importance of offering education and life-affirming resources to women facing difficult situations, so that they can consider options such as adoption. “This new message continues a successful partnership to share adoption information with women facing unexpected pregnancies,” stated Cope.

As we celebrate everything Mary today on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, it is important to remind ourselves why this day is important. The feast itself speaks to the dogma that Mary was redeemed from the moment of her conception. It is based on the fact that God had a special mission for Mary. God of course knew what would become of Mary and so it makes sense that he would preserve her for what was to come. It also reassures us that God has a plan for each of us. We should allow God to guide us toward Hise plan and Mary provides the perfect example of that adherence. So why was Mary chosen as Jesus's birth mother? After all, couldn't God have merely come to earth as a man without all of the usual pregnancy issues? Remember that Jesus was fully man and fully god. Mary's part in this birth then becomes very important. Jesus was born just as you and I were born. Our kinship is formed by this human birth, in the same way that Joachim and Anne formed Mary. So why honor Mary? Isn't it obvious? God chose her to carry Jesus. What a fantastic honor. What would you have done if approached by an angel telling you that God has chosen you to bear his son? Would you have submitted like Mary? Remember that Biblical scholars put her age at about 14. What kind of Christian were you are 14? Mary not only said yes to God but had to endure many obstacles. The first was telling her fiance that she was with child and it was not his. The second was facing her family and community as a pregnant betrothed woman. The hurdles go on and on. Think of what she thought when her son became a lightening rod for criticism by the Jewish leaders. This was her own faith and something she relied on to become the person she was. Think of how she felt when Jesus was beaten and nailed to a cross. How helpless she must have felt as Jesus cried out from the cross. Even then she knew that she must follow God's lead. She is the perfect example of the type of person we must become. She is the perfect example of what so many people in this time should aspire to be. Her belief in God's promises allowed her to be Jesus's mother. She was and is our example of what a follower of Jesus should be. Perhaps she was the first Christian and if for no other reason, you should celebrate this day for that reason. Because of the way God chose to bring his son into the world, we are forever grateful to Mary for saying yes. So take a moment today to think about our mother Mary and you will draw her son Jesus closer to your heart.

An innovative educational model that would serve Baton Rouge’s most impoverished students may become part of the Catholic school system as early as the 2016-17 school year. Community leaders as well as school officials of the Diocese of Baton Rouge have spent the past several months discussing the potential launch of a Crisco Rey Network high school, which employs a unique model where students work one day a week to help defray the cost of tuition. At least three meetings have already been held and a fourth was scheduled this past week. “We have had excellent feedback but we are still at the beginning stages,” said Cristo Rey Director of Growth Brian Melton, adding that a feasibility study must first be completed before moving forward. “It’s not a foregone conclusion (that a school will open in Baton Rouge) but we sure hope so,” he added. “A lot of things have to happen before then.” Bishop Robert W. Muench and Dr. Melanie Verges, superintendent of Catholic Schools, endorsed the feasibility study, which should cost about $100,000 and will be paid for with private funding, according to Melton. “What (Cristo Rey) offers students who have been denied a quality education because of their own academics or the families don’t have the resources is incredible,” Verges said. “The fact that they are focused on students who are two years behind their grade level with the goal of graduating them and getting them college ready is amazing.” Founded in 1996 by Father John Foley SJ in Chicago, Cristo Rey schools have expanded to 28 nationwide with a combined enrollment of 9,000 students, Melton said. Recently, Cristo Rey schools opened in Atlanta and San Jose, Calif., all with the same purpose of operating a college preparatory high school. Melton said 90 percent of Cristo Rey students attend college and 100 percent have been accepted into colleges. Cristo Rey schools differ from traditional school in many ways, the most significant being that every student must spend one day a week working at a white collar job that has been secured by the administration. The students are paid a salary consummate with the average pay scale for the area, but rather than paying the students directly the companies send the check directly to the school, and the funds are used to operate the school. “What students find is they love the work side,” Melton said, adding that Cristo Rey students have earned a 93 percent job satisfaction rate with employers. “They connect the dots between education and the work. They understand they are getting the education to be able to do the work.” “It’s amazing the success stories we have had,” he said. Cristo Rey graduates have gone on to college careers at Georgetown University, and others have attended Notre Dame and Boston College. Melton said the traditional school year for Cristo Rey students and teachers is 10.5 months, but incoming freshmen must spent three weeks before the first day of school to be trained in various computer skills such as Excel and Power Point as well as visit their workplace and meet their supervisors. Melton said each school follows four strict guidelines: they must be Catholic but open to all young people, be a college prep school, every student must work and the school is only open to low income students. He said the salary cap for a family of four is $38,000 annually although the average income for most of the families is $34,000 a year. “We are serving the low income community exclusively and trying to get those students into real life experiences and in a college prep curriculum to break the cycle of poverty,” said Melton, a Dallas native who has taken an indefinite leave from his 34-year career as an attorney to help the network expand. Before becoming a reality, however, local supporters face several daunting challenges, including an ambitious fund-raising program, securing jobs from area employers and determining the location of the school. Melton said if the feasibility study identifies a need as well as support, $2.5 million must be raised to cover the first two years of operation. Additionally, money would have to be secured to refurbish a building to Cristo Rey standards. Traditionally, they look for Catholic schools that have been closed or abandoned or shuttered public schools. Melton said the feasibility study, along with fund raising, the location of the school and many other details must be finalized by June 2015 if the school is to open the following year. He said he is optimistic a principal can be hired by Christmas or early next year. ”We are going to support it,” Verges said. “We will be serving students currently not being served. We are expanding our service, our educational ministry.”

In an address to the Swiss bishops on Monday, Pope Francis urged them maintain a lively faith, lest their country’s religious buildings become nothing more than dust-filled museums. The Holy Father also used the opportunity to encourage the bishops to live their episcopal fatherhood; to uphold the ministerial priesthood; to engage in frank ecumenism; and to maintain the Church's witness to the Gospel. “Your country has a long Christian tradition,” he said in a text delivered to the bishops of Switzerland Dec. 1 at the Vatican, adding, “you have a great and beautiful responsibility to maintain a living faith in your land.” “Without a living faith in the risen Christ, your beautiful churches and monasteries will gradually become museums; all the commendable works and institutions will lose their soul, leaving behind only empty spaces and abandoned people.” He continued, “the mission that has been entrusted to you is to nurture your flock, proceeding in accordance with current circumstances … the People of God cannot exist without their pastors, bishops and priests; the Lord has given the Church the gift of the apostolic succession in the service of the unity of faith and its full transmission.” Through this complete transmission, Pope Francis said, the Swiss, especially the youth, “can more easily find reasons to believe and to hope.” He then turned to priestly formation, saying the Church “needs priests who, in addition to a thorough familiarity with the Tradition and with the Magisterium, allow themselves to encounter Christ and, conformed to him, lead men in his ways.” Having been formed this manner, priests will spend more time in Christ's presence, feeding on the Eucharist, and reflecting on the salvific value of Confession, Pope Francis assured the bishops. In fraternal life, priests can be guarded against withdrawal and loneliness. Reflecting on the collaboration between laity and priests, the Pope told the Swiss bishops that “it is good to value and support (the laity's) commitment, while maintaining well the distinction between the common priesthood of the faithful and the ministerial priesthood.” “On this point I encourage you to continue the formation of the baptized in the truths of the faith and of their implications in liturgical, parish, family, and social life, by choosing with care those who form them. This will allow the laity to live in the truth of the Church, to take their place and to bear fruit by the grace received in baptism.” Pope Francis then turned to the importance of dialogue and ecumenism, saying this “favors a rich, serene, and fraternal life together.” “We must ensure, however, that the faithful of every Christian confession lives their faith without ambiguity or confusion, and without erasing differences, to the detriment of truth. So, for example, if we were to hide, for the sake of courtesy, our Eucharistic faith, we would not take seriously enough either our own greatest treasure, or our interlocutors'.” The Pope then encouraged his brother bishops to gives a common message to Swiss society at a time when “some persons, even within the Church, are tempted to withhold the reality of the social dimension of the Gospel.” “It is up to us to present the Gospel's full extent, to make it accessible without obscuring its beauty or weakening its appeal, especially to those men and women who struggle in their daily lives, or who search for meaning in their existence, or who have turned away from the Church. Disappointed or isolated, they are seduced by words that deliberately deny the transcendent dimension of the human person, of life and of human relations, particularly regarding suffering and death.” “The testimony of Christians and of parish communities can truly light the way and support their aspiration to happiness. In this way, the Church in Switzerland will clearly be more clearly itself, the Body of Christ and the People of God, and not only a beautiful organization, another NGO.” Pope Francis also discussed the Church's relation with the Swiss government, hoping for a continued peaceful coexistence but also urging that “by avoiding dependence on institutions which, by economic means, could impose a lifestyle inconsistent with the Christ who became poor, the Church would be able to better reflect the Gospel in her structures.” “The Redeemer invites us always to preach the Gospel to all,” he reminded the bishops. “We must announce the Good News, not bend to the whims of men.”