Merry Christmas

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May the joys and blessings of the season be with you today and all year. Despite the commercialization and secularizing of the holiday, the true reason we celebrate this joyful time is eternal.

Birthplace of Jesus, Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem
Photo by Colleen, Family Pilgrimage, August 2010

But while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: "Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,  because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.”  --Matthew 1:20-23