Christmas Letter – Fr. Michael Casagram – December 2023
+Dear LCG Members and Friends: 22 Dec. 2023
Peace and every blessing this Christmas season! In a letter I sent to a number of my family and friends, I wrote of what stands out for me this year is the way each one of our lives has been blessed. Our faith opens up a whole new world that often stands in contrast with what we are faced with all around us. Christmas is not only about a past reality but about a reality that becomes ever more real as we enter into this mystery.
There is the historical event of God’s divine Word taking on our human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. But what took place over two thousand years ago has all kinds of ramifications for our lives today. Christ seeks to share his very own divine life with us as we open ourselves to the subtle working of divine grace.
As I have shared before the words of Meister Eckhart: “we are all meant to be mothers of God for God is always needing to be born.” Jesus seeks to be present in every aspect of our personal lives and in all our interactions with one another. We all know that being part of a family or of a community means continual give and take on so many levels all day long. Our looks, our actions, all our thoughts and desires either strengthen the bonds between us or distance from one another.
In this case we have endless opportunities to make acts of love, acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. I have become all the more aware of this since being asked a few weeks ago to be our infirmarian in the service of the sick, the elderly and dying of my community. More than ever, I’m seeing how Jesus is present in the weakest and most fragile of those around me. It is truly a gift of grace to be attentive to their needs and to be able to serve. I’m reminded of that parable where Jesus says the kingdom of God is like leaven a woman works into a batch of dough until the whole is ready for the oven.
One of great contributions the LCG members give to our world today, is that of allowing the leaven of Christ’s love at work in you to touch every aspect of human life. Never has there been such a growing need for this leaven of divine love in the face of so much violence and war. So let us be ever more to God’s gracious gift and may the coming year be filing with many blessings for each and all of you. Know that you will be in my prayer in a special way this season. May your New Year abound in divine grace, Fr Michael
PS: The attached reading gives gives us a more contemplative response to this season
RAISE YOUR HEADS,
BECAUSE YOUR REDEMPTION IS DRAWING NEAR
From the writings of St Rafael Arnaiz6
◊◊◊
There are many ways to wait for the God who is to be born among human beings.
There are many ways that the world celebrates the event of God’s coming…
Christmastime in La Trapa… Joy in the liturgy, hope in the songs we sing in church,
hymns that speak of love and gentleness of heart. Thinking, in the silence of the temple,
about Mary’s humility, Joseph’s chastity… God’s love. The harmonious blend of angels’
melodies and shepherds’ ballads… Christmas in La Trapa… Frankincense and myrrh
offered up by souls who quietly live their lives in the divine service… the gold of
sacrifices. No loud cheers or external expressions or music or drums…The parties, the
joy, the music, the drumbeat… he carries all that in his heart, which loves Jesus so
much, in a joyful silence… an inner song… a quiet, silent love.
During this time, he meditates upon the great mysteries of his faith… and
very, very deep within his soul, he delights in the consolations that the Child
Jesus offers him through sacred Scripture… In peace and quiet, he meditates
upon the psalms, the hymns, and the whole liturgical arsenal that the church
provides for this season. He contemplates with amazement how the young
woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, and
how the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain.
You don’t need to make noise to love God. You won’t mind solitude,
silence, austerity, penance, or any amount of suffering if you know that the
wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing…
Everything balances out in this world… In the perfect harmony of creation,
every person and thing follows the path that God has laid out before them.
What a joy it is to know we are rooted in His will… Wherever we might go,
wherever we are, so long as we don’t separate our heart from Jesus’ heart, what
do we have to fear?… The world is very small, and God is so great that it cannot
contain Him… But no matter, God has made Himself small in order to save
humanity… To God, the whole world is a vast temple… and the Son has come
down into it, and it is in this world that He does the will of His Father…
Now that Christmas is approaching, and perhaps my struggles on this
front are harder, God is calling me to account. Without letting anyone else
overhear, He is saying to me very softly, “What does it matter?”
… And then I
come to see the poverty of this world, the brevity of this life… we must make
good use of it… We must not waste time…thinking about our past joys that will
never come back again. And then the soul comes to understand and
contemplate the only truth… and that is Christ. Christ, who transforms the
world into a great big stable! Christ, with Joseph and Mary… Christ, made
human for love of humanity… Christ, born among the animals and hay, with no
shelter or clothing, in great solitude… And faced with the thought of an
incarnate God, faced with the grandeur of His boundlessness, the soul
stretches…and the voice of Christ sweetly draws me in, speaks to me of love, and
makes me forget all my cares.
Today, at prayer, a little monk was thinking about this. Looking around
him, he could not help but close his eyes as he realized that nothing in this world
will remain… Leaving behind his feelings and sorrows, he lifted his eyes to
heaven and heard his soul cry out clearly… “Brother!…Brother!…Love
Christ…As for everything else…what does it matter?”
… “The Lord is now near;
come, let us adore him.
Saint Rafael Arnaiz. The Collected Words. MW 61. Trans. Catherine Addington. Collegeville, MN: Cistercian
Publications, 2022. 502-506.13