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Christmas Love Letters
At Christmas we want to give ourselves in a special way to our families, friends, co-workers and even strangers. We know we can't buy this love. How can we really show our love for them? By writing letters!
At the beginning of Advent one year, our family agreed to the idea of writing a letter to each member of the family, thanking them for a specific gift they possessed. The letters could be any length, even a paragraph, as long as we affirmed a gift or a strength in each person. We would have all of Advent to think of what we wanted to say to each person.
Our fourteen year old son put his letters in the designated crystal bowl first two days before Christmas. The mood in the house on Christmas Eve became meditative as each person stole away to a quiet place to think and write. Our six year old dictated his letters to me and I knew he understood the intent of these letters when he wrote to one of his brothers, Thank you for chasing after my brother when he mean to me. In the excitement of exchanging presents on Christmas morning, the letters were almost forgotten, buried under a sea of wrapping paper. After the last gift was opened, someone remembered the letters! Christmas music played while my daughter passed them out. Grandpa didn't quite know what was happening as he had arrived on Christmas Eve. We had each written him a letter and his face reflected this unique happening.
The silence was heightened by soft strains of Silent Night playing in the background, and interrupted only by quiet thank yous to one another. There were some tears and this morning they were perfectly acceptable.
I whispered our six-year-old's letters to him. His head was resting on the back of the couch and his eyes were closed. When had he taken in so much love? When had any of us taken in so much love from one another? That day we were all a little bit more generous, more loving, more open. We were considerate, we laughed more and louder, and responsibilities seemed lighter.
It was the most meaningful Christmas we ever had. At dinner that night, grandpa tearfully tried to verbalize his feelings. There is so much love here. Be grateful for the love and caring that you share in your family. It was a graced day. We know through faith that Jesus is present in us, and on that day His presence was manifest in the Spirit of Love in each person. If we seek the Risen Lord, we will find Him standing beside our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, friends and co-workers in their need. Go out there and let them eat you up, Mother Teresa often told her Missionaries of Charity, admonishing them to let their love be food for hungry souls. Jesus fills us with His presence in the Eucharist so that we can nourish hearts with His love. He will become real for us at precisely the moment we reach out to others in need of love.
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