The Great Gift of God-With-Us

December 22, 2020
sunset in a snowy park.
Photo by Kathy Bozzuti-Jones

Greetings, Beloved of God!

Christmas joy and blessings from the Faith Formation & Education team! We thank God that, even in this tender time of pandemic grief and loss, we can rejoice in the coming of the Light, the coming of Love, the great gift of God-with-us, Emmanuel!

As the year 2020 draws to a close, a poem by Mark Nepo, called “Adrift,” comes to mind. In it, the poet marvels at the human capacity to hold in tension or “make a duet of” both wonder and grief, at once. “In the very center, under it all,” he writes, thinking about all the ways we are graced in the midst of life’s challenges:

what we have that no one can take
away and all that we’ve lost face each other.
It is there that I’m adrift, feeling punctured
by a holiness that exists inside everything.
I am so sad and everything is beautiful.

Our team is grateful for this community of faith, dedicated to growing in the Spirit of holiness. We are grateful for our young families, seeking community and support in a time of home-schooling and lockdown, when we cannot gather in person, but continue to show up for one another, online. We are grateful for our community of young adults and elders, modeling a love of learning, consistency in staying connected, and dedication to spiritual practice. In short, we are immensely grateful to serve the Trinity Church community in offering faith formation and education, to companion the Church in its desire to know God and to know ourselves as part of God’s bright future.

A Prayer at Christmas
We thank you, Loving God, for your Christmas gift of the birth and life of Jesus. Thank you, especially, for the light of presence he offers to us as we navigate a challenging season of loss and grief, commingled with all the blessings of your abundant love and care. Thank you for coming into our lives again to offer the gift of peace and for inviting us into your vision of “peace on earth.” Thank you for the ways you inspire us to do the work of peacemakers and justice-seekers. Stir in us the spirit of compassion, so that we may put our lives behind your healing work of peace and justice in our homes, in our church, in our communities, and in the world. Amen.

Christmas Blessings and Peace in the New Year,

Kathy Bozzuti-Jones

 


Christmas Season Resources