Merry Christmas!

Richard A. Sokerka

More than two thousand years ago, a baby was born in Bethlehem — and since that sacred day that baby’s life has impacted the world as no other life has.

This Christmas Day can be a special time for us if we celebrate the birthday of Christ by giving him the gift he wants most from us — finding him in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the homeless, the sick, the addicted and the imprisoned.

May these words from Servant of God Dorothy Day inspire us this Christmas: “It is no use saying that we are born 2,000 years too late to give room to Christ. Nor will those who live at the end of the world have been born too late. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts.

“But now it is with the voice of our contemporaries that he speaks, with the eyes of the store clerks, factory workers and children he gazes; with the hands of office workers, slum dwellers and suburban house­wives that he gives. It is with the feet of soldiers and tramps that he walks and with the heart of anyone in need the he longs for shelter. And giving food to anyone who asks for it, or needs it, is giving to Christ.”

There are only a precious few days left before we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child.

What gift will you give him?

Let the Christ Child come into your heart to show you the way to truly celebrate the joy his coming brings to all the world.

Merry Christmas!