Madison pastor hosts virtual Christmas Story Time

MADISON  Kennedy Sobala, 6, of St. Vincent Martyr Parish here, gets in the holiday spirit as she sits down with her family with a cup of hot chocolate in their Cape May hotel room on Dec. 18, waiting for Christmas Story Time, a livestreamed presentation to begin on the TV front of them from their laptop.

As it starts, a tall, stately man resembling the late Mr. Rogers appears on screen, sitting in chair in front of a Nativity scene, wearing a red sweater, and sporting a calm and soothing demeanor for children. He serves up holiday treats that warm the Sobalas’ heart: reading two children’s picture books, “The Gifts of the Animals: a Christmas Tale,” and “A Christmas Tree for Jesus: Celebrating God Gift to Us.” In reality, this gentle man is Msgr. George Hundt, pastor of St. Vincent’s, hosting a 30-minute virtual Christmas Story Time for children of all ages and their families near and far on Dec. 18. He taped the event without a live audience in St. Vincent Church, where he also entertained viewers by singing Christmas songs, accompanied on his acoustic guitar.

“I liked it. I liked the story about the Christmas tree and the little mouse making ‘heart’ ornaments. [‘A Christmas Tree for Jesus’]. It showed that Jesus loves everybody,” Kennedy Sobala, a first-grader at St. Vincent Martyr School told The Beacon. She watched Christ­mas Story Time on vacation with her younger sister, Ilaria, 4, in St. Vincent’s pre-k; her parents, John and Whitny; and their grandparents. “I also liked when Father George sang songs,” Kennedy said.

Children and their parents cozied up with a cup of cocoa and cookies for Msgr. Hundt’s Christ­mas Story Time, which St. Vincent’s streamed on its web site  and on its Facebook page. During the presentation, he often stopped to hold the books up to the camera to show the kids the illustrations on the pages. Msgr. Hundt read the two books from a stack of stories as suggested by Maureen Dorney, a parishioner. The event has been archived on St. Vincent’s site and on Face Book, so that families can replay the broadcast at a more convenient time. The parish’s story time livestream event started with stories at Easter and Christmas last year and continued this year, Msgr. Hundt said.

“The story times keep people connected with St. Vincent’s,” Msgr. Hundt told The Beacon afterward. He noted that the parish has held Masses and other spiritual observances throughout the COVID-19 pandemic via livestream or live, as state regulations permitted. “I have served as pastor of St. Vincent’s for 13 years. While livestreaming, I can see with the eyes of my heart into the camera. I can see the kids spending time with their families in their homes, watching at home. I’m speaking right to them,” the priest said.

During Christmas Story Time, Msgr. Hundt first read “The Gifts of the Animals.” Written by Carole Gerber and illustrated by Yumi Shimokawara, the book tells the story about the “earth and sky” preparing for the birth of Jesus. The ox in the manger places straw in the baby’s bed. The sheep tear off wool to make warm blankets for him. The birds take their feathers to make a pillow for the Christ Child’s head. In the book, “Christ, the Prince of Peace, is born,” the Blessed Mother counts his fingers and toes and wraps him in swaddling clothes, and the shepherds and all of creation “sing glory to the new-born King,” according to the book.

“That manger, boys and girls, is like or hearts. Jesus wants to be born anew into our hearts. Let’s offer our hearts to Jesus as a manger to be born anew,” Father Hundt said. Then, he asked the children to close their eyes, while he took the Christ Child figurine from St. Vincent’s Nativity set — which had been placed outside it until Christmas Day — temporarily back into the crib in the manger. Then, he asked the children to open their eyes to witness, in a symbolic way, the birth of Jesus. “You can see that Jesus has accepted your hearts as a place for him to be born. He is here, reaching out to you and wanting to fill you with his love. Why — so we can keep it to ourselves? No! It’s so we can bring that love to everyone in the world,” the priest said.

After singing “Away in a Manger,” Msgr. Hundt read “A Christmas Tree for Jesus.” Written by Susan Jones and illustrated by Lee Holland, the book tells a story about a community of animals that chooses to decorate their Christmas tree with ornaments that celebrate something special about Jesus. One little mouse can’t figure out what to bring, until he thinks about it, goes home, and works all day to make a heart ornament for each animal with his or her face on it, according to the book.

“Boys and girls, if I could, I would make a heart of each of you with your picture on it and I would hang it on a Christmas tree bigger than the one in town and the one in New York City, because we would need a big tree. There would a be a picture of every boy, girl, man, and woman in the whole world, because God loves each of us and loves us all,” said Msgr. Hundt, who finished the livestream by singing “The Little Drum­mer Boy” and “Feliz Navidad.”

The story time livestreams with Msgr. Hundt are “perfect evangelization tools” for St. Vincent’s, because the pastor is “grandfatherly and adorable and the people love him,” and because “many kids aren’t coming back to church, because they are not vaccinated yet.” It also “brings the Gospel into the home,” said Jan Figenshu, St. Vincent’s pastoral associate.

The story times dovetail with other virtual events that the parish holds online, including continued livestreamed Masses and 30-minute virtual wrap-up of the week’s events in the faith community on Sunday nights by Msgr. Hundt, which attract hundreds of viewers, including many from out of state, she said.

Whitny Sobala told The Beacon, “The girls enjoyed it. Their attention span is challenging at their ages but Father George found ways to engage them, telling them about the reason for the season of Christmas.” The pastor, she said, speaks to the young people of the parish at the 9 a.m. Family Mass on Sundays and Mass for the parish school on Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. “He certainly knows his audience,” she said.