When a family of eight walked through the doors of St. John’s Bread and Life last winter, staff members quickly embraced the “all hands on deck” spirit to help them. The family entered the New York shelter system from a different state with nothing except the vehicle they traveled in.
The Tablet’s annual Bright Christmas Campaign has officially launched early this year due to the ongoing pandemic.
There is no doubt that this has been a difficult year for all of us due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the spirit of Christmas is alive and well! This joyous time of year gives us all a wonderful opportunity to count our blessings, and celebrate our faith, which we place in Jesus Christ.
Thank you! It is the most beautiful phrase in English — or in any language for that matter. Thank you so much to all our readers who have supported The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Campaign throughout the years and especially this past Christmas season.
It is a privilege to write a column each week for this newspaper, but it is a challenge, too. The first rule is not to repeat yourself. It is a tough rule — we, humans, really don’t have much to say. It is hard to be original 50 times a year. On the other hand, sometimes I am happy to repeat myself.
The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund has made the Christmas season a little more cheerful for Lauren Barriteau, 16, a parishioner of St. Clare Catholic Church, Rosedale, and a member of the parish’s youth ministry group.
The difference that The Tablet’s Bright Christmas Fund makes is evident at Providence House, a shelter in Bedford-Stuyvesant for homeless women and children and for women on parole from prison.
There are plenty of reasons to contribute to our Bright Christmas Campaign — more on that later — and now you have a new way to make your donation, thanks to our digital department.
This past Thursday, we celebrated one of the most beautiful holidays on the calendar. It is a day dedicated to giving thanks for the blessings and graces we have received in the preceding year. Gratitude is indeed the highest form of courtesy.
We are still two weeks away from the beginning of Advent, but the psalm we will hear this Sunday at Mass is like an announcement of Christmas: “Sing praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn sing joyfully before the King, the Lord. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.” The most beautiful time of the year is approaching.
