What difference does it make today that the first Christmas happened over 2000 years ago? On the first Christmas, God took on human form. In the mystery of the Incarnation, the divine and human nature are combined in the person of Jesus Christ, who is fully God and fully human. What does this mean for us today? Nothing less than that we might have a pattern for bringing God's divine love into an intimately close union with our own human natures. 

       God is the one who loved us first, by bringing us into existence and placing into our hearts a desire to know Him. As we learn more about him through the sacred scriptures, through other people, or simply through the direct action of God himself, his love becomes a real and powerful force in our soul. It doesn't stay put in the back of our minds. It spills out into how we see ourselves and the world around us.

        As God's love grows within us, we increasingly take the risk of opening our eyes and seeing the uniqueness and goodness of others. We stop being so wrapped up in our own thoughts and begin to really look at those around us. We start to notice that there are those who have no gloves or only a thin coat on this cold December day. If we are in the right place, we see those who stand in the lobbies of buildings trying to go unnoticed so that they can warm up before someone sends them away. We see those who battle against addictions and mental illness without really knowing how to win. We see those who simply need someone to say hello to them and recognize that they are human. 

        When we open our eyes to these persons through the eyes of love, we can't simply turn and walk away. The same love that gave us the courage to open our eyes calls out within us: "Hey! Do something about it! You are warm and well fed. You don't have to deal with the difficulties that they do. Help them!"  

        And God, who never leaves us hanging, helps us respond in whatever way we can. Throughout time he has inspired people of wisdom and courage who bring together others who also want to help. Fr. Phil Marquard, OFM, the founder of Franciscan Outreach, was one such person. In 1963 he started the one of the first halfway houses for ex-offenders in Chicago. Then he opened other places when he saw the need and the resources. He and others who followed in his footsteps organized volunteers, asked for financial help, and left other jobs to devote their full efforts to relieving the suffering of homeless men and women. This inspired work continues today at our shelter, soup kitchen, and case management offices.   

        In our day, technology makes helping others even easier. By making an on-line donation or mailing a check, you can make possible whole array of services. Its a fact of life that financial support is what's needed for everything else to happen. We can't open our doors without the electricity to turn on the lights, the supervisors who can handle the emergencies, or the trained case managers who know how to make the right connections for those with specific needs. The budget for next year is $1,009,504. That's more than last year because we are providing better service, but we have only one-tenth of that in the bank so far. Providing financial support is a way of responding with real help for those who are cold, hungry, tired and in need of professional help. Its a way of responding with love when we opens our eyes to the suffering of others.  

        And yet the wonderful thing about responding with love to the suffering of others is that when we do, we make more room for the living Love of God in our hearts. Just as the innkeeper made room for Mary and Joseph and the Christ child in his stable, we open ourselves up to the mystery of the living Christ when we allow God's love to become a powerful and active force in our lives. St. Francis of Assisi understood how God's love increases. We accept the love of God, love others, find even more love of God, and even find God himself. St. Francis wrote a wonderful prayer:

Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God, grant us in our misery the grace to do for you alone what we know you want us to do, and always to desire to please you. Thus, inwardly cleansed, internally enlightened, and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, may we be able to  follow in the footsteps of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and by your grace alone, may we make our way to you, Most High, who live and rule in perfect Trinity and simple Unity, and are glorified God, all powerful, forever and ever. Amen. 

        God takes the first step by loving us. His love enables us to respond to him by turning towards him and opening our eyes to our neighbors. If we consent to God's love and let that love turn into action, we help others feel his love and open our hearts to him even more. Love following upon love until all is overflowing. The Divine joined with the human. This is the meaning of Christmas. Right here. Right now.  

For the week of December 16 -  Service Project on the morning of Superbowl Sunday

Do you know a youth group that's looking for a service project? How about helping Franciscan Outreach Association on the morning of Superbowl Sunday?

The Concept: On Superbowl Sunday (February 1, 2004), youth will stand at their churches' exits, holding stock pots into which parishioners can drop donations for Franciscan Outreach Association.

What's involved?

1.  Obtaining permission from your church leadership.

2.  Publicizing the effort ahead of time, with signs, bulletin inserts, etc.

3.  Organizing the youth who will stand at church exits with soup pots, asking everyone in your congregation to give a dollar as they leave  church on the morning of the big game.

4.  Sending the donations to us at Franciscan Outreach Association.  Make sure that you tell us that it is a Souperbowl of Caring donation, so that we can report it.

For more ideas, resources, materials, and information,

see www.souperbowl.org

and contact Diana at diana@franoutreach.org

For the week of December 9, 2003 - Visitors' Perspectives

From time to time, the Marquard Center welcomes some overnight visitors.  Sometimes family and friends come to visit full-time volunteers and experience the life to which they have committed for a year.  When the space and situation permit, groups from colleges and universities or other settings can stay and work with us for a few days.  This week, we offer some perspectives from the "guest book" of the visitors' quarters of the Marquard Center.