Current Liturgical Season: Christmas

Christmas celebrates the birth of our Lord and the incarnation of the Divine Word. Its principal Gospel Lesson is John 1:1-14, not the account of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem that we hear in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 2:1-14). During the brief liturgical season of Christmas, we take time to reflect on:

how Christmas extends well beyond the stories told on Christmas Eve to the mystery of how God came to us to share our life in the person of Jesus of Nazareth
how God is known in the flesh and blood of real human experience
how God is not a far away creative power
how we come to know God more deeply by our relationship with Jesus
how we are made in the image of God which is where we recognize our true calling and dignity.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot gather as a group until conditions are safe from the real possibility of community spread. As we enter this holiday season, we are given the opportunity to give thanks to God and our express hopes for the future by making time to grow more deeply in our faith.

Scroll down this page to the current Sunday to find resources and suggestions for each week. Since you know your family's needs better than anyone, you will be able to use these resources and suggestions in ways uniquely appropriate to your family.

Did you see St. Luke's Virtual Christmas Pageant. If you missed it or you would like to watch it again, click on the video at right.

The children of St. Luke's and their families worked with Mother Mary Kisner to create this virtual pageant in the time of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

Merry Christmas!!

The First Sunday after Christmas - December 27

The possibility that God might actually care about our smallest distractions and pain, and walk within us in the most extreme joy and sorrow that life has to offer, seems far more believable when we recall the reality of Jesus' humanity. The Word made flesh. Meat. Carne de Dios. For many Christians the most compelling aspect of the story of Jesus is was that he was fully human. That he walked on our earth, had dirt in his sandals, ate food, went hungry, bled, ran and walked, cried and suffered. Immanuel. God is with us. The fact confronts us that our God really knows how these things feel. Having parents, getting angry, feeling abandoned. All very human experiences.

Readings for this Sunday

The readings for The First Sunday after Christmas are:
(Click on the link for the text of each reading from this Sunday.)

Godly Play online!

Enrichment Story
This week our enrichment story deepens our appreciation of the mystery of Christmas.

Isaiah 61:10-62:3 (Theme: The prophet, speaking for Zion, the holy mountain on which the temple sits, first uses the imagery of a wedding feast to express joy for the vindication of Jerusalem - and then declares that the ways of God, though mysterious, are as certain as the processes of nature.)
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7 (Theme: What humanity is giver is not a better instruction but the work of a Savior, a redeemer who sets us free. Those who believe in the Son of God will themselves become God's children by adoption.)
John 1:1-18 (Theme: Jesus' nature and mission combine to proclaim him as the ultimate revelation of God - not as an aloof appearance of a transcendent and impersonal deity, but an in-the-flesh person who lived among us and calls us to know God, receive God, and live in the light of God. )

Resource Corner

The video below introduces the sometimes mysterious Gospel of John.

Family Activity
So much of Christmas seems to revolve around family and the importance of family in our religious life. We know that Mary and Joseph’s faithfulness to God enabled them to cooperate in God’s plan for our salvation by accepting the responsibility to raise God’s Son, Jesus. From his parents, Jesus learned how to be a faithful believer in his Jewish tradition. In Luke's gospel, Simeon’s prophecy about Mary’s sorrow alerts us to the importance of a family’s commitment to one another, a commitment that is expressed in both good times and bad.
Gather as a family and recall times when your family showed its commitment to one another in good times and in bad. Recall times when your immediate family was supported by members of your extended family. We see in the family of Jesus an example for our own family life.

Read together Luke 2:22-40. Joseph and Mary expressed their faithfulness to God through their observance of the Law of Moses. Simeon prophesied the grief that Mary would experience at the foot of Jesus’ cross.

One of the blessings of family life is our commitment to one another, sharing good times and supporting one another through difficult times. Conclude in prayer together thanking God for the grace expressed in your family’s commitment to another.

Write a prayer together, thanking God for your family life and asking God to strengthen your family’s commitment to one another. Pray this prayer together.

Activities for Children
Click on the file below to download "The Sunday Paper and "The Sunday Paper - Junior" for this week.

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sunday_paper_jr._-_1st_sunday_after_christmas.pdf
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Putting faith into practice
(Use examples from everyday life to teach a vital truth about the faith. They don't need to be structured into a lesson plan but are part of how we live out our faith.)

Incarnation. The central Christian doctrine that God became flesh, that God assumed a human nature and became a man in the form of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. Christ was truly God and truly man. Incarnation indicates when spiritual realities become tangible and real in the world (as in when we say that an individual "is an incarnation of peace").
Logos (the Word). In ancient Greece logos was used to identify wisdom or reason personified. As when God "speaks" the world into existence, we realize the power of words to create something. We can use words in the same way when our words have an impact on others.

Facebook discussion group
Also available for parents is a special Facebook Group where parents can support one another, ask questions, offer advice, share ideas and insights as we work together to strengthen the faith of our children. For permission to participate in this discussion forum, please contact Mother Mary at youth@stlukeslebanon.org

The Second sunday after Christmas - January 3

Today's gospel lesson tells us of the Holy Family's flight to Egypt. In this account they become refugees in Egypt as they run from King Herod's threats of death to the child Jesus. Have we ever run away when danger threatens - even into the security and safety of our own homes as in the current pandemic? Sometimes running away is the only solution to preserve life. But God will always being us back like he brought back the exiles from Babylon (first lesson), and the Holy Family from Egypt (gospel lesson) all because we are truly God's children (epistle Lesson).

Readings for this Sunday

The readings for The Second Sunday after Christmas are:
(Click on the link for the text of each reading from this Sunday.)

Jeremiah 31:7-14 (Theme: We build something beautiful in our minds or with our hands, and we hope our work endures. Something usually comes along to damage or destroy it. But God gives us the gift of resilience. Each time we experience a setback, we rebuild - we start again. It is what we do. It is also what God does.)
Ephesians 1:3-6,15-19a (Theme: Completing thank-you notes and putting ornaments in their attic boxes is not the signal for the Christ child to go into hibernation until next year. The liturgical calendar won’t let Christmas end, neither should we. Like the echoes of bells pealing, what we have learned of God must ring forth throughout all the earth—from the first to set their hope on Christ to the last, until all from the very greatest to the very least have heard and experienced the good news of God’s great plan.)
Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 (Theme: This story tells us the truth: the sometimes difficult truth of unjust rulers and violence and private grief and personal pain and all the rest. The always hopeful truth is that God does not stand back at a distance, but in Jesus has joined God's own self to our story and is working among us in all our circumstances.)

Resource Corner

An animated telling of the escape into Egypt by Joseph, Mary and the child Jesus.

Activities for Children

Click on the file below to download The "Sunday Paper" for this week.

sunday_paper_jr_-_2nd_sunday_after_christmas.pdf
File Size:	171 kb
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sunday_paper_-_2nd_sunday_after_christmas.pdf
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Family Activity
The Feast of the Epiphany is this Wednesday, January 6th.
The tradition of giving gifts at Christmas is thought by some to be rooted in the gift giving of the Magi. In many cultures, gifts are not exchanged at Christmas, but rather on the feast of the Epiphany. Whenever you exchange your gifts, take some time to reflect on this tradition of gift giving at Christmas.

Here is an activity to help explore the meaning of gift giving.

Place a wrapped box in the prayer space to represent the gifts of the Magi.
Say: Think of the best gift you ever received. What was it? What made it special? Was it the gift itself, the thought that went into it, or the person who gave it to you?
Say: Many people around the world give gifts on the feast of the Epiphany instead of giving gifts on Christmas. As we listen to today’s Gospel, it will become clear why that is.
Invite one or more volunteers to read today’s Gospel, Matthew 2:1-12.
Ask: What gifts were given to Jesus by the Magi? (gold, frankincense, and myrrh) Say: Let me tell you a bit about each of these. Gold is familiar to most of us. We associate gold with wealth and royalty. Frankincense was often used by priests for worship in the Temple. Myrrh is a perfume and was used to prepare a body after death. We often understand this gift to foretell Jesus’ suffering and death.
Ask: What made these gifts special? (Accept all reasonable answers.) Tell the children that these gifts showed that the Magi truly recognized the infant Jesus for who he would be for them and for us: Savior. Say: We too are called this season to offer our gifts to Jesus. What might we offer to show that we recognize who Jesus is? (Accept all reasonable answers.)
Conclude by praying together that we will always recognize Jesus as our Savior, as the Magi did. Sing together “We Three Kings.”

Godly Play Online!

The Greatest Parable

Part 2 is split into two sections (A & B) so that you can pause in the middle and reflect as indicated.

Part 2 A

Part 2 B

Adoption as Children of God. We are not gods. So how do we become God's children? By adoption. In the ancient world succession and family legacy were very important; therefore families needed ways of passing down their fortunes and their family name when there was no heir. Adoption was one of the few ways to guarantee this succession, so it became a norm to adopt young males into the homes of high ranking families. Once adopted, the individual permanently became part of the family in every way. This is the image used by St. Paul to explain how we become God's children. How do we view adoptio today?
Egypt. We often think of Egypt as the land of pyramids. In the ancient world, Egypt was an important center of culture. That's why Egypt plays so prominently in biblical stories. With Jesus, it was to show how his destiny was tied to the destiny of the Hebrew people, who went to Egypt, were made slaves, and then were brought back to the promised land by God. Strong ties of friendship form among those who share difficult experiences. Jesus shared the experience of God's people in every way.