The readings from the Second Sunday in Advent urged Christians to do something concrete to prepare for the coming of the Lord at Christmas.
In the First Reading from Isaiah, we hear the prophet say: “Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news!”
And in the Gospel from Mark, John the Baptist tells us to “make straight his path.”
One way you can prepare for Christmas is by making sure that everyone else’s Christmas is as joyful as yours by making a contribution to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund.
Every year, we conduct the Bright Christmas Campaign to ensure that no child goes without a gift this Christmas. We take your donations and send them to needy parishes and agencies across the diocese to buy gifts for the needy at Christmas.
We have such loyal and generous readers who wouldn’t miss a Christmas without donating to our fund. I received the annual donation from Eileen Hynes, a transplanted Brooklynite who has been living in Chicago for more than 40 years. Because of health issues in the family, her expenses have increased considerably this year.
Yet, she writes, “I couldn’t neglect your special Bright Christmas drive in the old home borough.”
Eileen says they still make fun of her Brooklyn accent in the Midwest but the heckling stops when she begins to regale them with stories of the 1957 Brooklyn Dodgers and their world championship.
“I mention seeing – in the flesh – Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider, etc., and they stop making fun,” she explains.
Ninety-year-old Mary Spano Dunckelman sent her donation from Weston, Wisc. Growing up in Ridgewood in the 1930s and 1940s, she recalls, “We were poor but happy and the people were wonderful – looking after all the children in the neighborhood.”
Just as her parents were involved in the children’s lives back then, she wants to continue the tradition by helping make kids’ lives happier today in our neighborhoods.
“I am now residing in Wisconsin as I married a sailor during WWII but my heart is with Brooklyn – and the former Brooklyn Dodgers,” she says.
We’ve counted slilghtly more than $87,000 in contributions so far this year. That’s about $1,000 ahead of last year’s pace. Every donation helps, whether it’s $2, or $200.
Our donors are wonderful people, like so many Tablet readers, whose hearts are in the right place and they want to share their happiness with others. What better time than Christmas to do something wonderful for someone else.
It’s easy to participate.
Simply send your check to The Tablet’s Bright Christmas, 1712 Tenth Ave., Brooklyn, NY, 11215.