Robert will receive a copy of The Catholic Youth Bible®, a $26.95 value.

The Catholic Youth Bible®
General Editor: Virginia Halbur, MA

The Catholic Youth Bible® will be a true companion, helping you find the answers you seek and helping you make connections to Catholic beliefs and traditions.

Over 700 lively articles help you….

• Pray It! Use the Bible for personal prayer.
• Study It! Understand and make sense of what the Bible says.
• Live It! Apply the Bible to real-life situations you're facing now.

This New Edition Features:

• New 40 expanded "Catholic Connection" articles that provide a more complete presentation of those Catholic teachings that are scripturally based
• New 28 articles that address the seven principles of Catholic social teaching
• New 40 pages of 4-color inserts that help you pray, study, and live the Bible and Catholic teachings
• New Illustrations throughout to provide a visual context for the biblical stories
• New Over 275 articles updated to reflect contemporary issues and biblical scholarship

Plus:

• Introductions to the major sections of the Bible and all the books of the Bible
• Biblical connections to many different cultures, illustrating the universality of the Catholic Church
• Insights into how the Church has interpreted key Scripture passages throughout history
• A glossary of Scripture-related terms
• Five special indexes; Sunday readings for cycles A, B, and C; 10 color maps; a four-page color timeline; and three pages of full-color biblical art

The Catholic Youth Bible®
ISBN: 978-1-59982-141-2, paper, 1802 pages

My Christmas crib is on its third statue of Saint Joseph. The first Saint Joseph is lost in the mists of time. I do not remember what he looked like because during most of my childhood, he was missing. In junior high I discovered the bins of Christmas figurines in Woolworth’s, and remedied the situation by buying a new Saint Joseph figure for the crib. The final effect was a little less than I had hoped for—both Mary and Joseph were kneeling, but Mary, even kneeling, was head and shoulders taller than Joseph. That small figure of Joseph lasted until I inherited the crib and it came to live at my house. Then, a few Christmases ago, one of my dogs bit off Saint Joseph’s head and swallowed it. So once again, the figures of Mary and Jesus had to go it alone.

This past October, when Christmas decorations began to appear in the stores (don’t get me started!), I again found a figure of Saint Joseph. He is standing tall, carrying a lantern with one small candle in it. This neatly echoes the theme of the recent National Federation of Catholic Youth Ministers Conference, "Living in the Light." How appropriate for Advent, and for all of us who have something to do with bringing the Good News to young people! We are, each of us, only one candle. Yet, as you may have discovered if you have found yourself at the door of your own house, rummaging through a set of keys by the light of a small flashlight, even a little bit of light makes a very big difference.

So, in these last few days before Christmas, try not to get overwhelmed or discouraged by the darkness around you. (Of course we join with the entire country in thought and prayer with the families of Newtown, Connecticut. Suggested resources to help teachers and parents deal with this tragedy can be found by clicking here.) Be the best candle you can be and concentrate on the essentials: Christ, the Light, is coming. He came in our flesh at Bethlehem, he will come again for each of us (when our personal Advent is over and we are led into eternity), and he will come to us, this very Christmas, into our hearts—in the Eucharist and in the love of family and friends. And, of course, he will come to us abundantly in our service to those who are in need.

Finally, a note on the Christmas crib: At the NFCYM Conference, which I was thrilled to attend for the first time, one of the speakers asked a question: When did you first encounter Jesus? I could not remember. I had to peel back the layers: Confirmation? First Communion? Then it came to me: at the Christmas crib, under the tree and surrounded by cotton "snow." Somehow I knew, even as a child, that this was the Important Thing about Christmas, that this Baby Jesus was the center of it all. But we are always learning, and this year, from Father Barron’s Catholicism video, I learned that, in Luke’s infancy narrative, the placing of Jesus in the manger (a feeding trough) is a sign that Jesus is our nourishment, our sustenance, our Bread of Life, our Eucharist. Linking this to the accounts of the Last Supper and then Emmaus, when the grown-up and ultimately Risen Jesus breaks his own Bread (himself) for us—what a wonderful connection! What a Holy Christmas Communion!

Merry Christmas!

Blessings on your ministry!
Joanna Dailey

P.S. See "Make It Happen" (below) for an activity using figures from the Christmas crib.

A Note on the Year of Faith: At this time of year, our thoughts naturally turn to Bethlehem, to the Holy Land. Once again, conflict there is in the news. In the Creed, we profess our belief in the "communion of saints," and so are concerned about the Palestinian Christians who suffer in the land of Jesus’ birth. How can we approach this conflict with eyes of faith and hearts open to peace? One good place to start is the Web site of Catholic Relief Services (CRS). There you will find links to the USCCB document Voices for Peace in the Holy Land Parish Guide. You will also find suggestions from CRS for your own action, from prayer services at the local level to participating in Webcasts with CRS. The CRS Web page on this issue is http://crs.org/public-policy/holy-land.cfm.

Overview
This game can be used anytime during the Christmas season as an icebreaker, an introduction to a session on the Christmas story, or a prayer.

Suggested Time
20 to 30 minutes

Group Size
This strategy can be done with any size group, in teams of no more than five people.

Materials Needed
Christmas stockings, one for every five people

The following items, one of each for each stocking:

◊ a small cross
◊ a star
◊ a rosary
◊ a small box wrapped for Christmas
◊ a bell

The following figures from a nativity set, one of each for each stocking:
◊ baby Jesus
◊ Mary
◊ Joseph
◊ a shepherd
◊ an angel
◊ a king
◊ newsprint and markers
◊ masking tape

Preparation.
For this activity you will need one Christmas stocking for every five participants. Before the young people arrive, put in each stocking one of each of the stocking stuffer items and nativity figures listed in the Materials Needed section. Place the stockings in a line across one end of the meeting room.

1. Gather the participants into small groups of no more than five people. Line the teams up at one end of the room, opposite the Christmas stockings. Explain that the young people are going to work with their team to write a Christmas prayer using items that are in the stocking. Give one person on each team a sheet of newsprint and a marker. Then present the following instructions in your own words:

One member of each team runs up to the team’s stocking, removes an item, and takes it back to the team. Together the team members write on the newsprint a one-sentence prayer about that item. The prayer should relate to the Christmas story. For example, if the team gets a bell, its prayer might be one of thanks, such as, "O God, as bells ring out the news that Jesus is born, we thank you for the gift of your Son." Then another person on each team follows the same process, and so forth, until all the items in the stocking have been used. When a team finishes all its prayers, one of its members posts the newsprint.

When you are sure the young people understand the directions, give a signal to begin.

After all the teams have finished, declare the winner, that is, the group that finished its prayers first.

2. Gather the participants and read Luke 2:1–16 and Matt. 2:1–12 aloud to them. Ask the young people to compare those two versions of the Christmas story. Point out that the story as we have generally received it is actually a compilation of what is in the Scriptures and what has simply become oral tradition.

3. Close the session by inviting each group to read aloud the prayers it created in the relay.

- This prayer activity can be done without the relay. Give each team a filled stocking, a sheet of newsprint, and some markers. Tell the teams each to take one item from their stocking at a time and write a one-line prayer about it.

- Instead of giving separate teams each a stocking and asking them to work on their own prayer, use just one stocking and divide the participants into as many small groups as you have stocking items. Give the small groups each one item and ask them to write a one-line prayer about it. Combine all the one-line prayers into one complete prayer.

- After completing the procedure as it is presented, lead all the teams to combine their prayers into one Christmas prayer. They can group all the prayers about stars into one verse, about shepherds into another, and so forth. Publish the prayer in the parish bulletin or newsletter.

Scriptural Connections
The following scriptural citations identify the only accounts of the birth of Jesus found in the Gospels:

Matt. 2:1–12
Luke 2:1–16

Fulfillment of God's Promise
Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 23, 2012
Luke 1:39-45

Opening Prayer
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you;
blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Context Connection
Sunday's Gospel is about Mary's visit with her cousin Elizabeth. Earlier in the chapter, Luke tells us that Elizabeth and Mary are each pregnant due to the direct grace of God. Elizabeth is an older woman who never had children, and Mary is a young virgin having her first child. The image Luke creates for us has inspired many artists. After Mary says yes to the angel Gabriel's invitation to be the mother of God, the angel tells Mary that Elizabeth is also pregnant. The Gospel tells us that Mary "went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country" (1:39). Today we commemorate this event in the village of Ain Karem, about four miles west of Jerusalem. We sense that Mary is excited about visiting Elizabeth--she is anticipating their time together because both of them have experienced the gracious hand of God in their lives. The trip from Mary's home in the village of Nazareth to Ain Karem, the village where Elizabeth lived, took about four days. Today in Ain Karem you can visit the Church of the Visitation, where the Magnificat is written in several languages on the courtyard wall, and the Church of John the Baptist.

Imagine what the reunion between Mary and Elizabeth was like. Both women were filled with excitement and joy over what God had done in their lives. Their sense of wonder and awe was bigger than both of them. Can you picture them both speaking at once as they greeted each other because they had so much to tell each other? Think of times in your life when you and your best friend have not seen each other in a while and you each have had some really exciting thing happen. You couldn't wait to tell each other everything. At those times, it might have been hard to know who should tell their story first because you wanted to hear what your friend had to say but you also wanted your friend to know what had happened to you. Can you picture Mary and Elizabeth in their excitement to share the glory of God with each other? The meeting itself brought even more joy: "When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb" (1:41). Elizabeth was conscious that God was present among them: "Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit" (1:41). The Spirit of God came upon Elizabeth and compelled her, in true prophetic style, to proclaim, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (1:42). Elizabeth's humility is evident in her next words: "And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?" (1:43) Luke ends this passage with the message that if we believe in the Word of God, we will see it fulfilled in our life: "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord" (1:45).

Tradition Connection
Elizabeth greeted Mary with these words: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (1:42). You may findElizabeth's greeting familiar because they are part of the prayer the Hail Mary. Most of the words of the Hail Mary are taken from this first chapter of Luke.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you! (1:28)
Blessed are you among women
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus (Luke 1:42).
Holy Mary, Mother of God (Luke 1:43) ,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

We learned this prayer as children, and we have prayed it many times, perhaps without thinking about the words. I hope you will take time to carefully examine the words, knowing that the prayer was inspired by Mary's willingness to say yes to God's plan of salvation and by the joyful reunion of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth. God chose both women to play significant roles in salvation. Mary and Elizabeth stand in a long line of women whom God chose to "show forth his faithfulness to his promises: Hannah, mother of Samuel; Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther; and many other women"² (Catechism, parargraph 489). However, Mary is unique as the woman God chose to fulfill the promise of the salvation of the world. "After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established"¹ (Catechism, paragraph 489). Because of Mary's God-given role in the fulfillment of the promise of salvation, we honor her as being "full of grace." We honor her because she was willing to be faithful to God and to allow God to manifest his great work through her. Mary's response to Gabriel, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word" (1:38), can also be our response to God.

Wisdom Connection
We are told that Mary, charged with excitement, made her way to Elizabeth's house in haste. Perhaps she needed to be with a kindred spirit who could understand God's action in her life. Two women, each experiencing her first pregnancy, could share their questions, wonders, and anxieties. At the two women's reunion, the grace of God at work in each of their lives comes together and causes great rejoicing (the coming together of two disciples of Jesus should always be this way). The women blessed each other with their presence. Because Mary bore the Christ within her womb, she filled Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit, the outpouring of God's love. As Christians, we are called to bear Christ and to take him to the world today, sharing with others this same Holy Spirit that Mary gave Elizabeth. Our challenge is to believe that God can use us as faithful servants to fulfill his promise of salvation.

Acknowledgements
The scriptural quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition. Copyright © 1993 and 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.

The Lord's Prayer and the quotations labeled Catechism are from the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for use in the United States of America. Copyright © 1994 by the United States Catholic Conference, Inc.--Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Used with permission.

Endnotes cited in quotations from the Catechism of the Catholic Church
1. Lumen gentium 55.
2. Cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Samuel 1.

Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
December 30, 2012
Luke 2:41-52

Opening Prayer
Jesus, as we reflect on the passage from Luke, we come to understand a little about your family life in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph. They clearly loved you very much because when they discovered you were not among the pilgrims in the caravan, they immediately returned to Jerusalem to find you. You obeyed them and returned home with them, and together you all continued to grow in your relationship. Help us to be caring, nurturing members of our own families. Amen.

Context Connection
Sunday's Gospel is the story of twelve-year-old Jesus, who was on the annual Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem with his family. Jews still celebrate the feast of Passover in memory of God's saving actions that freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Because Jesus was part of a pious Jewish family, he had experienced the pilgrimage to Jerusalem and would experience it again. On the journey to Jerusalem, Jesus's family would have joined people from other villages and towns in the area, and all the people together would have created a caravan. The caravan, by custom, would have consisted of two groups: the men and the older boys in one group, and the women and the smaller children, both boys and girls, in the other group. At age twelve, Jesus could have traveled in either group. If he did not see him, Joseph might have assumed Jesus was with the children; Mary, if she did not see Jesus, might have assumed he was with the group of men. Not until the end of the first day of travel did Joseph and Mary discover that Jesus was not in the caravan. Jesus had remained behind in Jerusalem and was in the Temple talking with the teachers.

Those teachers were probably scribes, individuals who had dedicated their life to studying the Scriptures, and rabbis, the Hebrew word for teachers who had been educated in the Scriptures and in Jewish customs. Luke tells us that Jesus was successful in dialoguing with these teachers. Jesus's success indicates that he had a well-developed intellect and an ability to effectively engage people on the topic of the Scriptures. He was able to hold his own, in spite of his youth, in a group of educated men. In essence, Luke tells us that Jesus was teaching the teachers: "All who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers" (2:47). Luke allows us to see that Jesus had made the transition from childhood to adulthood.

When Mary and Joseph found Jesus after three days of searching, Mary asked Jesus, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety" (2:48). Why would Mary use the phrase "in great anxiety"? Could she have been remembering Simeon's words at Jesus's presentation in the Temple twelve years earlier? Luke records that story in 2:22-35. The last thing Simeon had said to Mary was, "and a sword will pierce your own soul too" (1:35). Or perhaps Mary had expected Jesus to act as a responsible adult now that he was older; perhaps she had expected him to tell them or others in the caravan that he intended to remain in the Temple. Jesus would have known the routine for the pilgrimage and the scheduled time of return to Nazareth because he had made the pilgrimage before.

Jesus's response to Mary--"Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" (2:49)--illustrates his understanding from an early age that he had a special calling to be God the Father's presence in the world. Mary and Joseph did not understand his response, but Jesus returned with them to Nazareth where "he increased in wisdom and years and in divine and human favor" (2:52). Luke tells us that Mary "treasured all these things in her heart" (2:51). In other words, Mary reflected on this event as well as all the other events that had occurred since she had agreed to be the mother of Jesus during her encounter with the angel Gabriel. The Greek word used in the original text to describe Mary's reaction to Jesus's words conveys a sense of reflection and thought, an attempt to make sense of all that has happened. Mary was trying to assemble the puzzle pieces to get an understanding of the big picture.

Tradition Connection
In Catholic Church documents today, the family is sometimes referred to as the domestic church.

Saint Stephen was the first (proto in Greek) martyr, the first to give his life for Christ. Thus the first day after the celebration of the birth of Christ is given to the memorial of Saint Stephen.

As Saint Stephen is the patron of deacons (because he was chosen as one of the first deacons of the Church), this might be a nice day to wish your favorite deacon a happy feast. You can read about the martyrdom of Saint Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 7, verses 54 through 60, and in chapter 8, verses 1 and 2.

A good article with notes on the Christmas carol "Good King Wenceslaus" (which mentions the "feast of Stephen") can be found at www.ststephenschurch.org/lifestephen.htm.