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Hospital
Harold Beamon Adams Health S-Rehab
Joseph Stewart The Med
Raymond Mott Meth-C
Convalescent/Nursing Homes
Mrs. Arlene Hardaway (Parkway Health & Rehab) Mrs. Willie Evelyn Malone, (St. Peter Villa), Mr. Floyd Shavers (Metro Community Care Home) Mrs. Allura Tate, Mrs. Ophelia Jennings (Graceland Manor Nursing Home), Mr. Calvin Ezell (Harper View Nursing Home)
Ill at Home
Mrs. Audrey Allen, Mr. Herbert Allen, Joseph Alsandor, Mr. Gerald Bond, Mrs. Toya Booker, Mr. Clifford Crawford, Mrs. Lula Crawford, Mr. Robert Crowley, Mr. William Harris, Mrs. Jacqueline Hayes, Mr. Darrell Hollimon, Mrs. Helen Hoof, Mr. Robert Hooper, Mrs. Mary M. Jones, Mrs. Jenny Marshall, Mrs. Grace Milburn, Mrs. Mary Monroe, Mrs. Maurice McDonald, Mrs. Florine McMillan, Mrs. Maria Pinkston, Mrs. Susie Purdy, Mr. Stanley Robinson, Mrs. Katherine Terry, Mrs. Gwen Walton, Mr. Johnnie Weaver, Mr. Eric Wells, Ms. Alana Wright
We Pray For Those That Have Gone Before Us
January 22—January 28: Hortense Blackwell: 1946, Ruby Hillman:1952, Sallie Drew:1957, Eddie Johnson:1969, Walter Samuels:1974, Clyde Thompson: 1985, Warnsby Stegall,Sr.:1987, Sr. M. Killian Pollard, BVM, Sam Murphy:1990, Howard Jackson:1998, Samuel Barnes, Jr.:1999, Richard Mathis, Jr.:2004, Lillian Denton:2006, Ivory Flagg:2007, Daniel Webster Pointer:2008, Helene J. Stansbury: 2009
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Under the Acacia Tree - December 20, 2009
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The
Under the Acacia Tree Blog is written by Father John J. Geaney, CSP. This blog appears as an article in the December 20, 2009, St. Augustine Catholic Church bulletin. St. Augustine Catholic Church is located at 1169 Kerr Avenue, Memphis, TN 38106. You can post your comments online. Click comments, below, and speak up!
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Sunday, 20 December 2009
Under the Acacia Tree
It’s just around the corner and is probably the most prized time of the year. We’re all busy with getting our cards mailed, creating or purchasing our gifts, making sure all the usual "goodies" are being baked or delivered and generally exhausting ourselves as we prepare for Christmas. And while what we do at Christmas time is somewhat exhausting, it contributes to the sense of well being that Christmas often brings to us.
There is, of course, a deeper reality. That reality calls on us to think about God’s gift to us and the reason for that gift. Jesus is God’s love wrapped in flesh, blood and bone. Without God’s love there would be no Jesus. But God loved us so much he would not see us live in the sin which Adam and Eve created for us. So, through the new Eve, Mary of Nazareth, he sent the new Adam – Jesus of Nazareth that we might be free from our sins. What a gift we have in Jesus! The reality of Christmas is a simple reality of love, and maybe because love is so difficult for us to achieve at times in our lives we forget how much God loves us. But every time we forget, all we need to do is look around and recognize that Jesus came to us in love. And he came to us at night. Why do we celebrate Mass at Midnight on Christmas? Because on Christmas the long night of darkness gives way to a new era; darkness is transformed into glory. Heavenly choirs bring good news to the whole world especially to those who are poor and forgotten by the rest of society. In a sense, night is transformed into day as the Prince of Peace appears.
And who gets the message first? The shepherds – the anawim – so often romanticized. But a shepherd’s life is grueling, spent out of doors regardless of weather. For them there was little good news in their lives. Their futures were at best circumspect. But the Lord chose them to be the first hearers of the Good News of God’s love.
We continue to hear that Good News today, and so are grateful. And perhaps that is the right note to strike for Christmas – giving thanks to God for the gift which changed the world and made us all aware of the unloved, the lonely and the forgotten.
Have a Merry and prayerful Christmas.
(Rev.) John Geaney, CSP
Pastor
Dec. 20, 2009
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Don't forget your pledge to the Diocese!
"One Faith, One Family "
 St. Augustine Catholic Church
1169 Kerr Ave. Memphis, Tennessee 38106 (Ph) 901.774.2297
Web Updates: webmaster@staugustinememphis.org
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“Intelligence and liberty are the human environments most favorable to the deepening of personal conviction of religious truth, and obedience to the interior movements of an enlightened conscience”.
Father Isaac Hecker, founder of the Paulist Fathers
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