2018 Christmas Traditions

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ChristmasTraditions MAGAZINE

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Wishing you a blessed Christmas and a New Year of Peace and Happiness

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Christmas Traditions 2018

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Catholic MAGAZINE 111 Blvd. of the Allies • Suite 200 Pittsburgh, PA 15222-1613 1-800-392-4670 www.pittsburghcatholic.org

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Publisher | Bishop David A. Zubik

4 | Hippopotamas for Christmas?: No, but don’t be a grouch. You can still have fun.

6 | The poor among us: “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren you do to me.”

10 | No need to be rude: Talking politics during the holidays does not have to become a family feud.

12 | Postal art: Serving a life sentence, an inmate finds a creative, spiritual outlet.

20 | Fond memories: The holidays at uncle’s house were always more than a simple get-together.

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On the cover...

“Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that he gave his only Son. The only requirement is to believe in him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life.”

— Dutch resistance heroine and concentration camp survivor Corrie ten Boom Cover painting by Bob Berran. To purchase prints, go to: http://bobberran.com/Religious.html Cover design by E. Denise Shean.

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General Manager | Ann Rodgers Editor | William Cone Operations Manager | Carmella Weismantle Christmas Traditions Magazine Project Editor Phil Taylor Associate Editors Phil Taylor (Special Projects) Matthew Peaslee (News) Staff Writer | John W. Franko Graphic Designer E. Denise Shean Advertising Director Carmella Weismantle Account Executives Michael A. Check | Paul Crowe Michael Wire Circulation Mgr./Parish News Coord.

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See page 16 for the Kennywood Holiday Lights winners from the 2018 Disability Awareness Magazine.

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 3

Ho, Ho, Ho, indeed

By ROBERT P. LOCKWOOD I was driving to nowhere. My favorite kind of ride. I had the radio on to an FM station as background noise. They had started playing Christmas music 24/7 post-Thanksgiving.

A threesome had just finished “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” and “All I Want for Christmas is You!” Ho. Ho. Ho, indeed.

It’s that time of year when believers get all hopped up about putting Christ back in Christmas. The unending Christmas commercial tastelessness seems to have begun just after Labor Day. Keep things holy and faithful, believers say. Silent Night and all that goes with it.

These Christians-of-the-Furrowed-Brows see the American secular celebration of Christmas as a betrayal of the spiritual heart of the season.

Electric icicles hanging limply on rusted gutters from Halloween through Flag Day set them on edge. They will fight every chocolate-candy elf and every goofy-eyed inflatable snowman as infringing on the spirituality of the season.

The flip-side are the secularists. These are the people who can become red-faced arguing to ban a holly wreath on a public light post.

They invent euphemisms like “Ice and Snow Celebration” to avoid mentioning the “C” word, as if anyone in their right mind would actually celebrate ice and snow rather than Christmas.

They will fight to the death to keep a crèche out of the park and a carol out of a public school, I’m a believer. I disagree with both sides.

I have no complaints with yard decorations of inflatable characters from a decades-old cartoon, or “Jingle Bells” playing when I’m picking up my prescription at the pharmacy.

I have no complaints whatsoever with the Christmas lights that you can read a book by at 2 a.m. in a lot of Fort Wayne neighborhoods.

More than any other season on the calendar, Christmas is an extravagant melting pot of all that is us: rank commercialism, bad taste, an addiction to the biggest of the big, as well as generosity, kindness, faith and the abiding wish that we never grow up while behaving as if that wish had already come true.

I certainly feel for those not a part of this.

They are kind souls of a different religious heritage who are forced to live through this madness. They usually smile benignly and appreciate the paid days off from work.

I have less sympathy for the secular effetes.

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I have no complaints whatsoever with the Christmas lights that you can read a book by at 2 a.m. in a lot of Fort Wayne neighborhoods.

I remember the governor of Rhode Island a few years back stubbornly insisted on calling a Christmas tree a “holiday tree” in the name of diversity. It reminded me of the owner of the pet shop in the Monty Python sketch describing the dead parrot he sold as not really dead at all, but a Norwegian parrot “pining for the fjords.”

A dead parrot is a dead parrot. A Christmas tree is a Christmas tree. Calling it something

else doesn’t make it something else.

For the secularists, call Christmas anything you want to call it but don’t impose it on everybody else. By Dec. 26 it is all over until next year. Live with it.

For my fellow Hoosier believers, let’s not worry about extraneous stuff stealing from the focus on the Nativity. Garish lighting displays and Christmas novelty songs perform their own subtle reminders of what the season — and life — are all about.

Just after “All I want for Christmas is You” a new set began with Annie Lennox singing “The First Noel”: This star drew nigh to the northwest/O’er Bethlehem it took its rest/And there it did both pause and stay/Right o’er the place where Jesus lay. Followed by Porky Pig having a “Blue Christmas.”

All creation is alive for a Christmas celebration. Even a hippopotamus.

Lockwood is former general manager of the Pittsburgh Catholic. He lives and writes from Indiana.

Oklahoma native Gayla Peevey is the famous voice behind the 1953 hit song, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas.” Peevey was born in 1943 in Oklahoma City and began singing at church during preschool.

In fourth grade, Peevey appeared regularly on local TV stations. At the age of 10, she caught the eye of Columbia Records. Peevey and her mom traveled from Oklahoma to New York to meet with Mitch Miller, a well-known record company executive and producer. Together, they created the catchy, classic song.

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Christmas Traditions 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 5

1853 newspaper: ‘Do Not Give To Street Beggars’ Even the most destitute deserve a look of love

By SISTER CONSTANCE VEIT As they celebrated their first Christmas in America 150 years ago, our Little Sisters in Baltimore noted that the donations received included “twelve turkeys, four ducks, sixteen chickens and so many other good things that we didn’t know what to do with it all!” They concluded, “In this country Christmas is like the feast of the poor!”

I decided to take a look at Christmas giving in 19th century America to see if this was true.

In 1843, Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol,” telling the story of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and his Christmas Eve conversion.

As the story opens, Scrooge is approached by two men asking for a cash donation to help the poor. He refuses, answering that there are prisons and workhouses for the destitute and he pays taxes to support them.

Scrooge’s attitude was quite prevalent in America as well as England. Our young nation was being built up through hard work and selfreliance. Commerce and industry were taking off, and with them a new spirit of competition, along with the uncompromising pursuit of profit. There was also a growing social divide between the rich and the poor.

Like Scrooge, many Americans believed that the “unworthy” poor — those who were judged to have caused their own misery — belonged in prison or the workhouse, where the conditions were anything but humane. The one group of destitute individuals that elicited universal sympathy was impoverished children.

People concerned about poverty were encouraged to donate to churches or charitable institutions rather than giving directly to the poor.

A January 1844 article in the New York Tribune advised that if all the money wasted on unnecessary Christmas trifles was “rightly appropriated … Pauperism and its attendant miseries could be eliminated.” An 1853 editorial in the same newspaper ran with the headline,

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“DO NOT GIVE TO STREET BEGGARS.” Giving directly to the poor was believed to encourage beggary.

The New York Times expressed similar sentiments. An 1854 editorial asserted that money contributed to worthy organizations “will find where the misery is.” The paper encouraged its readers to give to “those excellent institutions, in whose hands, if you place a dollar, you do what, individually, you could not make five dollars do.”

Charitable giving was on its way to becoming a well-oiled yet impersonal machine. Large Christmas dinners for the poor at New York’s Madison Square Garden served up to 20,000 people at a time as the wealthy looked on as spectators. Is this how charity should be administered?

Worthy institutions of all types will always play an important role in relieving the distress of the poor, but contrary to what the New York Tribune asserted, poverty will never be completely eliminated. Christ himself foretold, “The poor you will always have with you;” and “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me.”

In the 1860s and ‘70s, the Little Sisters were a fledgling community in a foreign land, so

the people who supported us were definitely taking a risk. I am especially grateful for those who gave the gift of their presence, and those who knew how to go beyond what might be considered life’s necessities in order to make the elderly feel loved.

Our archives are full of stories of such thoughtful charity. The Galt House Hotel, a Louisville institution, donated leftovers on a daily basis. On Christmas Day in 1869 the hotel management requested that the Sisters send their begging wagon over to the hotel at noon.

The Little Sisters assumed they would receive leftovers as they usually did, but the hotel employees filled the wagon with freshly made treats of all kinds, which made the residents quite happy.

Thanks to the generosity of such wonderful people I can see how the sisters could say that in this country, Christmas is the feast of the poor.

As we reflect on how best to respond to the cry of the poor in our own time, I’d like to suggest that even the most destitute individual deserves a look of love and the gift of humanity.

In his encyclical on charity Pope Benedict XVI wrote that although charitable organizations might be “a political necessity,” if we look upon others from the perspective of Jesus Christ we can perceive in them an interior desire for a sign of love and concern. “Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave.”

Let’s try to be generous in giving this look of love this Christmas!

Sister Constance is director of communications for the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Christ himself foretold, “The poor you will always have with you,” and “Whatsoever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me.”

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 7

Mary of Nazareth, the ultimate risk-taker

By STEPHANIE LANDSEM In our time and culture, unwed mothers are a common and (mostly) accepted reality of life.

Unsurprisingly, that was not the case in firstcentury Israel.

Jewish women in ancient Israel were passed from one male authority (their fathers) to another (their husbands) at a very young age.

Most were betrothed by the time they were 13 and married by 14.

With such early marriages, premarital sex was most likely not common, but it did happen as we can see by the laws set in place in the Old Testament and the punishments meted out for breaking them: If a man marries a girl who is claimed to be a virgin, and then finds that she is not, “they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father’s house and there her townsmen shall stone her to death” (Deut. 22:20) If a man has relations within the walls of a city with a maiden who is betrothed, “you shall bring them both out to the gate of the city and there stone them to death” (Deut. 22:23). But if they were in the open fields, “the man alone shall die,” because if it was in the open fields, “though the betrothed maiden may have cried out for help, there was no one to come to her aid” (Deut. 22:25-27).

If the maiden in question is not betrothed, the punishment is different. “The man who had relations with her shall pay the girl’s father 50 silver shekels and take her as his wife, because he has deflowered her. Moreover, he may not divorce her as long as he lives” (Deut. 22:29).

As you can see, the status of betrothal was almost identical to the status of a married woman. A betrothed woman who lay with a man that was not her intended husband, was punished as if she had committed adultery.

Mary of Nazareth, unwed and pregnant, knew the punishment she faced — stoning.

She had nothing but the story of an angel to tell her parents and Joseph, the man she had promised to marry. Joseph would have been well within his rights — even within his

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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE VATICAN MUSEUM The Annuciation, 1627, by Peter Paul Rubens. The announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God, marking his Incarnation.

duty — to expose her sin and witness her execution.

It was only with the intervention of an angel and Joseph’s own faith-filled acceptance of the angel’s message, that saved both Mary’s life and the life of her unborn baby, the Incarnation of God. Mary knew exactly what she would face in her home and community after she said her

About the author Landsem writes novels that bring the unknown women of the Bible to life. The Living Water series — “The Well, The Thief,” and “The Tomb, a Novel of Martha” — are biblically authentic stories of women transformed by encounters with Jesus. In “Walk In Her Sandals, Experiencing Christ’s Passion Through the Eyes of Women,”

faith-filled “Let it be done to me according to your word” to the visiting angel. And still, she said yes. She trusted that God would take care of her, and he did, through her holy husband, Joseph.

What do you think would have happened if the angel had come to a girl in these modern times? What would a modern Joseph have done?

Stephanie brings to life the days of Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost for individual prayer or book clubs. “Gaze Upon Jesus, Experiencing Christ’s Childhood Through the Eyes of Women,” is a collaborative Catholic Scripture study of the joyful mysteries surrounding Advent and the Christmas season. You can find out more about Stephanie and her books at StephanieLandsem.com.

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 9

Holidays and politics: Rebuilding civility

By GABRIELLE ETZEL With the chill in the air, the holidays are just around the corner. Whether you’re hosting or being hosted, the old rule of not discussing religion, money, or politics serves as a reminder of the issues which can divide even those who love each other the most. But in an era where everything, from ice cream to music, is politicized, avoiding political topics in conversation with those of differing views becomes almost impossible. Is this overly divisive and ever-present political tension healthy for society?

If the idea of wading into a political subject with friends or family with whom you disagree gives you a sinking feeling of dread during the most wonderful time of the year, you’re not alone. According to a Pew Research Study, 59 percent of Americans find discussing politics with those who share different views of the Trump administration stressful or anxietyinducing. Among individuals leaning to the left, only 28 percent find that discussing politics with those leaning to the right can be interesting and informative.

This divisive picture is darkened by the fact that nearly one in four Americans feel that their relationships with friends, family or co-workers have been strained by voting for opposing candidates. Unsurprisingly, these feelings of relational division only increase with greater partisanship or deeper ideological commitment, as nearly half of all strongly-identifying liberal Democrats feel their relationships with Trump voters have been weakened by the last presidential election.

With the polarization of the 2018 midterm elections, who knows how much worse these measurements will look just in time for your holiday dinners?

Keep in mind, though, that these percentages are more than just ivory-tower analysis and have a greater effect than making your holiday gathering more uncomfortable than usual. These numbers, which capture the inescapable feelings that come along with living in America today, illustrate that political divisions are eroding the important social institutions which hold society together. Family, friends and community organizations form the basis of a peaceful civil society. If these intimate relationships are torn apart by politics, is there anything that isn’t in the line of fire in the battle of red versus blue?

In the wake of increasing political violence over the past few years — ranging from

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This does not mean setting out to win an argument.

This does not mean trying to change someone’s mind. Rather, engaging in a respectful dialogue and learning from the perspectives of others just as much as sharing your own is a way to strengthen a relationship and to foster a mutual understanding. Laying the foundation necessary to rebuild civility in American political discourse can only happen one brick at a time. bipartisan acts of domestic terrorism to radical riots in cities and towns across America — the time for trying to heal these political divisions is long overdue. The best time to start on this journey towards reconciliation is at the holiday table with those you love.

Although the state of America might not be the merriest thing to discuss this holiday, shutting down the lines of communication deepens the polarization which is driving a wedge between a once united people. While political conversations can be unpleasant — ranging from mildly awkward to absolutely agonizing — the best place to start a

meaningful dialogue is within your own circle.

If you want to make a change within society, the best place to start is within yourself.

This does not mean setting out to win an argument. This does not mean trying to change someone’s mind. Rather, engaging in a respectful dialogue and learning from the perspectives of others just as much as sharing your own is a way to strengthen a relationship and to foster a mutual understanding. Laying the foundation necessary to rebuild civility in American political discourse can only happen one brick at a time.

A conversation at a holiday celebration won’t solve the significant policy issues which divide us. Even the magical spirit of this time of year can’t mend the brokenness of our country overnight. Despite this, applying the holiday season’s themes of love, charity and kindness to our individual political engagement, especially when addressing individuals of differing views, is a step in the right direction.

Etzel is a political science and economics major at Grove City College. After graduation, she intends to continue her study in public policy at the graduate level with the hopes of developing a career in influencing culture and policymaking.

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 11 10/17/18 2:04 PM

Special delivery: Vatican Christmas stamps feature inmate’s art

By JUNNO AROCHO ESTEVES Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — As the Christmas season draws near, the Vatican postal service prepared a unique set of commemorative stamps designed by a talented, yet unlikely, artist: a prisoner serving a life sentence.

The Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office announced Oct. 30 that its 2018 Christmas stamps will feature images of the Annunciation and of Mary holding baby Jesus painted by Marcello D’Agata, an inmate at Milan’s Opera prison.

A brochure for the stamps from the Vatican post office said that choosing artwork painted by a prison inmate was a response to Pope Francis’ call for compassion toward the imprisoned and for efforts to help them see that prison is not just the end of a life of crime but the beginning of a new life.

In a video message to inmates at the Ezeiza federal penitentiary in Argentina Aug. 24, 2017, the pope said that punishment can be fruitful only when inmates are helped to look toward the future rather than only back at a past lived out in shame.

“Let us not forget that for punishment to be fruitful it must have a horizon of hope,” he said. “Otherwise, it remains closed in on itself and is just an instrument of torture; it isn’t fruitful.”

The pope’s video message was addressed

CNS PHOTO/COURTESY OF DANILO BOGONI

Prison inmate Marcello D’Agata paints an image of the Annunciation for use as one of the Vatican’s 2018 Christmas stamps, at the Opera prison in Milan in this undated photo.

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to inmates taking part in the prison’s university studies program, which he said was one of many programs that provide “a space for work, culture, progress” and are “a sign of humanity.”

The Vatican post office took part in a similar program for burgeoning artists at the Milan prison where D’Agata honed his painting skills.

Mauro Olivieri, head of the Vatican Philatelic and Numismatic Office, said that entrusting the design of the new Christmas stamps to an inmate serving a life sentence was “a sign of hope, trust and faith in one’s neighbor and in his ability to understand the evil that was committed and to rehabilitate.”

Prisoners “are precisely the least of the least who, according to Jesus’ teaching, deserve our attention the most,” Olivieri told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an article Nov. 6.

D’Agata’s painting of the Annunciation feature Mary looking skyward as the Archangel Gabriel, holding a small bouquet of white lilies, gazes at her. Directly above Mary is a white dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, with light beams emanating from its outstretched wings.

The second stamp depicts Mary after the Nativity, her hands holding the infant Christ and nestling the sleeping child in a maternal embrace. A single red candle near them is lit while the star of Bethlehem radiates light from above.

The bright smattering of colors that brings D’Agata’s artistic creations to life stands in stark contrast to the dark, colorless existence of a life of crime, he said.

As a child, D’Agata said, the appearance of a plain sheet of white paper was enough to stir his creativity and inspire him to draw and color images that appeared in his imagination.

“Of course, they were just scribbles, but I liked doing it very much because on those sheets, I gave shape and color to my emotions and, most of all, to my dreams,” D’Agata said in an interview published Nov. 6 in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

Now serving a life sentence for mafia-

CNS/COURTESY OF VATICAN PHILATELIC AND NUMISMATIC OFFICE

An image of Mary holding the child Jesus is featured on one of the Vatican’s 2018 Christmas stamps. The images on the stamps were painted by a prisoner serving a life sentence.

related crimes, D’Agata said he realized that “wrong choices do not pay but are paid.”

“When I arrived (in prison), I had stopped scribbling, giving color to my dreams and to the future,” he said. “For almost a quarter of a century, I was restricted to environments that prevent colors from livening up my life. That isn’t a metaphor.”

However, things changed when prison officials allowed a small group of inmates to take an art course that began after a 2013 agreement between the Italian Ministry of Justice and the Italian postal service, along with several Italian philatelic organizations.

According to Corriere della Sera, the group — comprised of 12 inmates — gathers every Monday to sketch and paint in an art studio that prison administrators created in the facility’s maximum-security wing.

Once the course began, D’Agata said, “the source of inspiration and abilities that were once dormant came back to life.”

After beginning with sketches and drawings, the Italian prisoner transitioned to painting, which he described as a new passion that spurred him into a “continuous crescendo in search of improvement, especially on a personal level.”

Painting is more than just a hobby, D’Agata said. It gave him a way to escape the confines of his prison and go to a place where his imagination was the only thing that ran wild.

“The love for art,” he said, “awakened a part of me that I did not know was there because it was hidden by that darkness that stole my life.”

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Christmas Traditions 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 13

The very first Christmas creche

By NICK RODI Crèche is today’s fashionable term for what most of us grew up calling a Christmas crib set. Crèche may sound highbrow, but it’s actually French for the trough where fodder for animals is set out. Like manger, it emphasizes the lowly aspect of Jesus’ birth.

There is no more familiar scene to Christians than the crèche — with its mother and child and the father bending over protectively. They are in the humble stable, watched by animals and kneeling shepherds. Above the tableau is a hovering angel. In the background are the twinkling lights of the little town of Bethlehem.

Where did this long-standing custom or tradition come from?

The Christ Child in the manger and other pictures of the story of Bethlehem have been used in church services from the first centuries. But the crib in its present form and its use outside the church originated with St. Francis of Assisi.

It was in 1293 that the first crèche was celebrated in the woods of Greccio near Assisi, on Christmas Eve. Francis had long been nurturing a heartfelt desire to celebrate Christmas in a wonderful new manner. He wanted people to remember that Jesus was born in a humble stable. His plan was to have midnight Mass celebrated in the presence of a realistic representation of the humble grotto of Bethlehem, complete with live animals.

“For I wish to do something that will recall to memory the little Child who was born in Bethlehem and set before our bodily eyes in

PHOTO BY MATTHEW PEASLEE

The famed Pittsburgh Creche at the US Steel Plaza.

some way the inconveniences of his infant needs.” According to St. Bonaventure, he even obtained the approval of Pope Honorius, so that he would not be accused of willfully introducing novelty into the sacred ceremonies.

There lived in town a nobleman by the name of Giovannai Velita, a very holy man who was devoted to the brothers. It is said that St. Francis loved him with a special affection because he despised the nobility of the flesh and strove after the nobility of the soul.

Francis called upon Giovanni about two weeks before Christmas and said to him, “If you desire that we should celebrate this year’s Christmas together at Greccio, go with haste and diligently prepare what I tell you. For I wish to do something that will recall to memory the little Child who was born in Bethlehem.” When the good and faithful man heard these things, he ran with haste and prepared the place all the things the saint had told him.

The brothers were called from their various

places. They joined with the crowds of local residents, field workers and shepherds; all were drawn towards the manger where Francis knelt. They brought candles and torches to brighten the night. Greccio became the new Bethlehem. Solemn Mass was sung.

St. Francis, dressed in deacon’s vestments (it is said that out of humility he never attempted to become a priest), sang the Gospel in a voice described by his biographer, Thomas Celano, as sweet, clear, strong and sonorous. He then spoke to those gathered about the first Christmas and the miraculous impact that placing their faith in Christ, the baby born in a simple manger in Bethlehem, could make in their lives. He urged them to reject hatred and embrace love, with God’s help.

St. Francis’ idea of bringing Bethlehem into one’s own town spread quickly all over the Christian world, and soon there were Christmas cribs in churches and homes. The Moravian Germans spread this custom to the United States. They called it Putz.

If you’ve set up a Nativity scene in your home, maybe the “supporting characters” you’ve arranged in the stable are waiting for you to lay the Star of the show — the baby Jesus — in the manger on Christmas Eve. Whether it’s under your tree, small enough to fit in the palm of your hand or full of lights in your yard, a movable model of the Incarnation not only completes the Christmas décor, but offers a tangible means for reflecting on the source of our joy this season.

Rodi is a contributor to the Sisters of St. Francis of the Providence of God’s publication the Whitehall Franciscan. This article orginally appeared in the Winter 2016 issue.

Catholic agency hopes to reach 70,000 needy children with ‘Box of Joy’ BOCA RATON, Fla. (CNS) — When an individual, a family, a group or a church wants to pack a small box of Christmas joy for a needy child, “we tell them ‘welcome to the world of joy,’ because everyone who gives joy receives joy in return,” said the president of Cross Catholic Outreach in Boca Raton.

Jim Cavnar spoke about the agency’s “Box of Joy” program, now in its fifth year, in a Q-and-A provided to news media.

Those who get involved in the program choose a recipient by age (from 2-14) and by gender, and then pack small items for that child in a shoeboxsize box. Items can include small toys like dolls

14 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

and race cars, essentials like soap, pencils, toothpaste and toothbrushes, as well as a few treats like hard candy and coloring books.

Participants include $9 in each box to cover $7 shipping and $2 to support the ministries of those working with the children, who are in Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic and, as of this year, El Salvador.

Cross Catholic Outreach provides suggestions for items to buy at the website http://www. crosscatholic.org/boxofjoy. The site also has information about the nearest drop-off center for participants. If people get involved as a group, someone is designated as project leader and

that person provides drop-off/collection details to group members. Cross Catholic Outreach then delivers the boxes to the children.

The site also offers a Create-A-Box-Online option for those who want to participate but don’t have time to go shopping. By clicking on that option, they can ask that a box be packed and shipped to a child on their behalf.

The pilot “Box of Joy” program in 2014 began with just a handful of parishes and schools in two U.S. dioceses that provided Christmas boxes to children in Guatemala, Cavnar said. This year, close to 520 parishes

See Box of Joy, Page 16

Christmas Traditions 2018

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Christmas Traditions 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 15

BOX OF JOY Continued from Page 14

in dioceses across the country are participating.

“We piloted in eight states in 2015 and went nationwide in 2016,” he said. “Last year, 46,360 children in Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic were blessed with ‘Boxes of Joy.’ This year we hope to reach 70,000 kids and also serve children in El Salvador. ... The growth and involvement amaze us.”

Asked whether sending toys to children in dire poverty is really the best way to help them, Cavnar said it is, because “that box is part of a broader response of love.”

“Cross Catholic Outreach, through our network of local partners, responds to emergency needs and addresses root causes of extreme poverty,” he explained.

“But for a child who has never received a gift, what better way to combat hopelessness

“Last year, 46,360 children in Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic were blessed with ‘Boxes of Joy.’ This year we hope to reach 70,000 kids and also serve children in El Salvador. ...

The growth and involvement amaze us.”

— Jim Cavnar than with a message of hope and love?”

The “Box of Joy” program doesn’t replace other aid, he said. “It enhances it.”

“By sending a box of small gifts, it is a good reminder of the strangers who gave our baby Jesus gifts at his birth, who wanted to love him the best they could and gave what they had for his enjoyment,” he added.

CNS PHOTO/COURTESY OF CROSS CATHOLIC OUTREACH

A Haitian boy is seen during a “Box of Joy” distribution in 2016 at St. Jean Baptiste, Christ the King Parish School in Haiti.

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Congratulations to Mary Lou Daniel, Brigid Grandey, Barbara V. Mesher, Rebecca Peterson, Josh Pinaroc and Nathan Timbario who each won 4 Tickets to Kennywood Holiday Lights Contest (Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine: Disability Awareness 2018).

16 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

Christmas Traditions 2018

“The best thing I did in ministry was to teach children the Gospel through plays,” says Sister Clare Vandecoevering, 88.

“Oh, they were just delighted!” A member of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon, she spent over 50 years in the classroom.

Retirement Fund for Religious Please give to those who have given a lifetime.

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Christmas Traditions 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 17

In defense of early Christmas decorations

By TONY ROSSI Department stores have started putting up Christmas decorations and the Hallmark Channel is running Christmas movies 24/7 through the end of the year. While the general response to scenes like this is a smile, there are some people who resent the early Yuletide imagery and even get a little angry. “It’s too early!” they say. “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet. And what about Advent?”

Not me, though. I say, “Bring on the Christmas decorations” early because they represent something more telling than people realize.

There’s no doubt that Christmas has become commercialized and department stores, coffee shops, and TV shows hope the red and green twinkly lights inspire you to add some fresh green cash to their registers and bottom lines. But if we look deeper, we’ll find there’s more to the appeal of festive decorations than spending money.

Take a look around. There’s anger, divisiveness, and violence. Couple that with the struggles that people are enduring in their personal lives — be they medical, financial, mental, spiritual, etc. — and that points to a lot of troubled souls.

As the theme song to “Cheers” says, “Taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot.”

Well, Christmas offers that break, and the “early adopters” represent that hunger for joy and peace and community. We want to feel good about life and the world, and Christmas decorations do that for us because, in my opinion, they appeal to the God-shaped hole in all of us.

If you look at the Old Testament, there are numerous verses about the power of God’s light: “The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness” (Psalm 18:28). “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2). And Hanukkah, of course, is known as the Jewish festival of lights.

In the New Testament, a bright star presaged Jesus’ birth (Matthew 2:2).

When the angels told the shepherds of the Messiah’s coming, “the glory of the Lord shone around them” (Luke 2:9). And Jesus eventually declares himself “the light of the world” (John 8:12). In both Jewish and Christian tradition, light symbolizes God, while darkness signifies a separation from him – or at least an inability to perceive him.

So when we’re drawn to Christmas lights,

18 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

CNS PHOTO/HAYOUNG JEON, EPA

Visitors walk through the Christmas market near St. Mary’s Church in Berlin.

So when we’re drawn to Christmas lights, we’re actually being drawn to the light of God, the one who promises us peace beyond all understanding, joy that will comfort our troubled hearts, and wisdom that will guide our paths.

we’re actually being drawn to the light of God, the one who promises us peace beyond all understanding, joy that will comfort our troubled hearts, and wisdom that will guide our paths. And anything that reminds us of that light — holly, ivy, ornaments, Christmas movies and music — awakens those feelings within us as well to varying degrees.

So how should Christians bothered by early Christmas decorations respond?

Acknowledge the hunger for joy and peace that Christmas represents, and share how Jesus can help you find those things.

Consider the struggles that person might be facing in life and how Christmas offers them a break from their anxiety. By no means should you give short-shrift to Thanksgiving.

Gratitude is a hallmark of a meaningful life.

And point out that as great as Christmas is on a secular level, getting closer to God during Advent can make it an even better, richer experience that could teach you how to keep a little of that Christmas spirit in your heart all year long.

Even in November feel free to break out the hot cocoa and enjoy the holiday sights and sounds around you. To quote Johnny Mathis, “We need a little Christmas right this very minute.”

Rossi is communication director for the NYC-based Christophers.

For free copies of the Christopher News Note EMBRACING THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS, write: The Christophers, 5 Hanover Square, New York, NY 10004; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org

Christmas Traditions 2018

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 19

Warm memories of uncle’s house at Christmas

By ELIZABETH TAMBURRI I remember it like it was yesterday ­­— though I can’t guarantee it’s true. Memory is like that, but I can say it is as real in my heart as anything has ever been.

My brothers, sister, me and my mother were waiting in the gold light of those big plastic candles on my uncle’s porch. It was Christmas Eve sometime in the 1950s. I was staring at the green cellophane wreath on the door, holding my mother’s hand.

My mother was beautiful. That dark wavy hair, blue eye beauty that made you rethink everything you had been taught about “pretty.” She was graceful too — moved like water, and just as quiet. My father on the other hand, well, he was dynamic. Italian handsome with a cool that was never out of style.

He was a jazz musician who lived and breathed music. Somehow, he and my mother found each other when they were in high school. He went to Westinghouse and was already playing piano in clubs.

She attended Sacred Heart and was a May Queen.

They eloped after graduation. Two years later, as my father was shipping out from San Francisco for the Pacific, my mother was in Pittsburgh with Dr. Cook giving birth to my brother, David. There’s plenty of story after that, but this one is about Christmas.

In addition to the candles and wreath my uncle’s house was decorated top to bottom with Christmas lights, glittery garlands, mechanical mice with Santa hats, trains, and a huge tree dripping with tinsel.

Musicians who played in bars, nightclubs, restaurants, and symphonies were in every room. Friends of my grandparents, who spoke very little English gave us hugs and pinches and those I could understand would say, “I remember you when you were this small.”

Tables had been pushed against the dining room walls and were filled with cups of whiskey and bourbon zabaglione, and big bottles of dark red wine. The tables with Nonna’s Italian lace were filled with smelts, baccala, lasagna, meatballs,

20 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

In a 1950s photo, Dave and Betty Tamburri enjoy a night out in December at the legendary Pittsburgh’s Crawford Grill.

Tables had been pushed against the dining room walls and were filled with cups of whiskey and bourbon zabaglione, and big bottles of dark red wine. The tables with Nonna’s Italian lace were filled with smelts, baccala, lasagna, meatballs, rigatoni, spaghetti, stuffed mussels, polenta, sweet sausage, pizzelles and cookies. rigatoni, spaghetti, stuffed mussels, polenta, sweet sausage, pizzelles and cookies.

When the room was finally full and clogged with the smells of stogies and perfume, a quiet murmur would build into a hum. A blast of cold air would sweep across the room, and everyone would part like the Red Sea while my father and the musicians he played with that night stood at the door.

There would be a living puzzle of hands and hugs and jokes as he made his way into the room and toward my mother.

The two of them would kiss and lead the crowd of musicians and heartiest partiers downstairs to the rooms forbidden to children.

We were left to join our cousins in the living room and laid across overstuffed chairs and a scratchy couch eating cookies, waiting and watching elders sip coffee and gossip. The sounds of laughter and jazz floating from the basement.

When we finally made it home, my brother, Larry, and I were sent to bed, so Santa wouldn’t “stand us up.” I’d throw on cold flannel pajamas and jump into an equally cold bed. It never failed, as soon as I closed my eyes, my sister, Pam, would be shaking me and saying, “Wake up, Lizzy. It’s Christmas.”

While Pam woke our parents — a job neither Larry nor I had the courage for, we ran into the living room as fast as we could.

David trailed behind in his pre-teen cool way, though even I could see how excited he was.

My father was next, smiling and dressed in his red plaid robe and slippers. For once there was no job for him to go to and he was all ours. He made his way through the boxes and plugged in the lights then joined my mother on the couch with small glasses of Bristol Cream. Even our dog, Roy, came from his favorite spot in the closet to lay near my sister.

Bubble lights were on each branch of the tree … their colored tubes pointed in every direction, glass bulbs and stars, and just the right touch of tinsel.

Before long, my brother Larry would yell, “Holy Cow,” and the room would come alive!

It was almost too much; the bubbling lights, the sound of ribbon snapping, paper being torn from boxes and tissue flying in the air.

I would look and see the lights sparkling on my mother’s face and hear the deep tone of my father’s voice and the room was filled with magic.

Tamburri is the director of community advancement for the Benedictine Sisters of Pittsburgh.

Christmas Traditions 2018

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Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 21

‘Begging’ sister has served in Malaysia and Hong Kong Sister Margaret Mary, the “begging” Little Sister of the Poor in Pittsburgh, has experienced a variety of positions during her years of religious life. While she has fully embraced her current role in serving the elderly poor in Pittsburgh by collecting in-kind donations of food or supplies and appearing at parishes throughout the diocese with her collection basket, she was initially drawn to a vocation as a Little Sister, in part, due to the opportunity to serve in mission countries throughout the world.

Shortly after professing her first vows of charity, poverty, obedience and hospitality, she was assigned to a Little Sisters home in Malaysia. Over the next 12 years she would serve in various homes in the Far East, including Hong Kong, either working in the kitchen or as a nurse.

While the language difference was initially quite challenging, she quickly learned how to communicate with the elderly residents she was helping to care for. In fact, it was the residents who actually taught sister how

to cook authentic Chinese food by pointing and gesturing to the various ingredients and equipment needed.

Once a year Sister Margaret Mary prepares a Chinese New Year meal for the entire home here in Pittsburgh and shares stories with the residents of her time spent in Asia.

She teaches them some simple words in Mandarin and fondly recalls stories from her time spent serving in Asia.

“The Little Sisters are an international congregation. Each home I was stationed at operated like a family. Everyone worked together making sure the residents were well taken care of and most importantly loved. Even though I was far away from my homeland, I felt completely at home in Malaysia and Hong Kong. I enjoy sharing my experiences with our residents in here in Pittsburgh, as most have never had the opportunity to see other parts of the world,” said Sister Margaret Mary.

Today, Sister Margaret Mary shares

Sister Margaret Mary cooking Chinese food for the Little Sisters residents with volunteer Bill Vogtsberger.

the Little Sisters mission of hospitality to the elderly poor, which was founded

by St. Jeanne Jugan in France in 1839, with the Pittsburgh region and invites you to find out more at www. littlesistersofthepoorpittsburgh.org or by visiting the home at 1028 Benton Avenue in Pittsburgh’s Brighton Heights neighborhood.

Christmas CD available The Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden recorded “In a Manger Lowly” in 1961 as the signature song on a Christmas album. Students learned the song in music class and it became a standard selection at many Christmas Masses. Composed by two sisters, the lyrics of the beloved 102-year-old carol invite all to share in the glorious experience of Christ’s birth. This ornament displays artwork from the original album, which is now offered as a CD, and both are available in the sisters’ online store where they sell a variety of artisan products to support their mission and ministries. Go to www.stjoseph-baden.org.

22 Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine

Christmas Traditions 2018

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Christmas Traditions 2018

Pittsburgh Catholic Magazine 23

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Christmas Traditions 2018