January 30, 2024, Class Update: More on Christmas and the Four Marks

Greetings everyone!

After an extended break period, it was so good to be back in class as we neared the end of the first month of 2024.

There's an ancient custom of celebrating Christmas for 40 days from December 25 to February 2.

So, we started class by watching this trilingual video of "Joy to the World", which was originally written with a focus on the second coming of Christ.

Nativity scene at St. Gregory the Great Parish on the North Side of Chicago

We then took a look at Christmas from a more cosmic perspective, as described in Revelation 12, showing how God made a decisive advance in the battle between good and evil when Christ was born.

After reading the chapter, I shared a commentary from a Bible I got as a gift 20 years ago in 7th grade.

One person who strove valiantly in the struggle between good and evil was Pastor Martin Luther King, Jr., who responded to hate with love and nonviolence.

The home in eastern Atlanta where Pastor Martin Luther King, Jr., was born 95 years ago on January 15, 1929

Next, we focused on the four marks of the Church:  In the Nicene Creed, we proclaim that we are One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.  Everyone used cotton swabs to create a representation of the four marks, as seen in this photo.


I personally experienced these four marks when I attended World Youth Day 2019 in Panama, with the culmination at Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, attended by approximately 700,000 people.

One of my fellow pilgrims, Brett, photographed me at World Youth Day, right after we had a close-up with Pope Francis in the roadway behind me, and before the start of the Overnight Vigil.

February 2 is the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.  In the account of this event in Luke 2, Simeon appears in the Temple and praises God when he encounters the baby Jesus, which words that are now part of the Church's Night Prayer/Compline in the Liturgy of the Hours.  I sang a Latin-language Taize version of those words for our closing prayer.

I handed everyone a slip of paper on the way out of class with the words of Simeon.  Your activity for this week is to pray those words each night before bed, so please keep it somewhere close to bed. There is no required submission.

This window in Ascension Church above the door near the sacristy shows the Presentation of the Lord.

Looking ahead to our next class, there's a change in plan from what I had mentioned in our last class.  Now, the current plan is to study more about what it means to be in a relationship with God through the sacraments.  During the latter half of class, we'll join with the other classes to learn more about this year's Lenten project supporting Opportunity Knocks.

As usual, please feel free to contact me with questions, etc.

We remain connected as One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, grounded in our shared faith in Christ, Who came to us in the Incarnation:

All my relations.

God's blessings,
Paul

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