Pastor's Weekly Message: I was privileged to join the St. Barnabas Choir for their annual Christmas party last week. During the course of the evening everyone gathered around the piano and sang Christmas carols with joy, enthusiasm, and faith. It was wonderful! Christmas is, by nature, a time to break into song. During the first Christmas a heavenly chorus proclaimed: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom God's favor rests.”

But is it right for us to sing songs of joy when our world is filled with such sadness and grief? How can we give ourselves over to the music of Christmas, when there is so much hatred and intolerance among God’s holy people, when so many are at war, and so many children are hungry? There is a reason why we can and must continue to sing about God’s glory, and the reason is hope.

Not long ago Cardinal Danneels of Brussels gave a talk at John Carroll University. He quoted Charles Peguy who called hope the “little sister, standing between two big sisters.” Danneels said “While faith is indispensable and love is the greatest, perhaps for our time, hope is the most necessary.  Hope is at the heart of existence. If it is gone, the person dies.”  Read More