FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

In her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, Dorothy Day tells of a difficult time in her life. She had just converted to Christianity, after a long period of atheism, and then given birth to her daughter.

During her season of atheism, she had fallen in love with a man who had fathered her child, and she and this man, atheists disillusioned with mainstream society, had made a pact never to marry, as statement against the conventions of society.

JOHN CONNELLY

Christmas
December 25, 2011

Imagine if Jesus were born anew in this world today. Imagine God being a baby in our midst. Imagine the Word Made Flesh here and now. Imagine the greatest light of human history shining in the darkness of our times.

Our world today has many similarities to the time when Jesus was born. Oppression. Fear. Spiritual darkness.

Stars give us a sense of direction, and brighten the night. In the Book of Genesis (22.17), they are also a sign of God's blessing. They herald God's promise to Abraham that his and Sarah's descendants will be countless.

In the Book of Numbers (24.17), a star is again a sign and promise of what is to come: "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near – a star shall come out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel."

MARK PICKUP

A tiny heart beat steadily within the baby boy's mother. The blood circulating through that tiny heart would save us and change millions of human hearts across the centuries; hearts of stone and violence would melt into hearts of flesh and peace and joy.

The infant's birth was like no other birth. It had been prophesied hundreds of years earlier. The prophet Isaiah prophesied the Messiah would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7.14) and of the Davidic line (11.1-2). Micah identified Bethlehem as the place where the Messiah would be born (5.1). People like Simeon and Anna waited expectantly for him.

BOB MCKEON

Climate change is very much in the news these days. A decision on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline has been delayed by President Obama in the U.S. The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline through Northern B.C. is experiencing strong opposition from aboriginal leaders and environment groups.

The European Union is proposing to penalize oil coming from Alberta oilsands because of environmental concerns. Canada's position at the UN Climate Change talks in Durban, South Africa, is being widely criticized, both internationally and within Canada.

Since I will be speaking about the centrality of Sacred Scripture in the life of the disciple, I wanted to start with a joke that includes Scripture references.

Back 900 years ago, as Archbishop Joe MacNeil would say, when I was a young, enthusiastic parish priest I was visiting my parishioners. I came to one house and I rang the doorbell. Though I could hear someone moving about inside, no one answered the door. I took out my card and I wrote on the back of it Revelation 3.20: "Behold, I am at the door knocking."

SR. LOUISE ZDUNICH, NDC

Christmas was so exciting when I was a child. But sadly, I have lost the meaning of Christmas. I have heard others voicing the same opinion. How can I find Christmas again?

As we read in the cover story of Dec. 5, Mary Griffiths remarks that we have "been doing the other responses for so long that it's just second nature." How true, and how sad when we don't even think about what we are saying at Mass.

It is crucial that Development and Peace rediscover its origin as an independent lay organization of the Canadian Catholic Church.

I read with interest and then dismay the content of the article. It spoke of only domestic violence where females were victims and there was no mention of the male victims and their children.