Saint Mary Parish December 2015 Evanston, Illinois Celebrating 150 Years of Faith and Service Christmas Children’s Choir Rehearsals on Sun- days, November 15, 22, 29 and December 6, 13, and 20, from noon - 1:00, parish center Children, grades 1 – 8, are invited to join this low-pressure, fun choir. The choir sings at the 5:00 P.M. Christmas Eve Mass. Young Adults (20s & 30s) Advent Spirituality Night and Social Tuesday, December 1, 7:00 P.M. parish center chapel All young adults are invited to an Advent Spirituality Night and Social. We will have refreshments together with time to socialize and then gather for a beautiful Advent Taizé prayer. An Evening on Our Lady of Guadalupe Thursday, December 10, 7:00 P.M. See page 2 for details. Family Potluck Lunch Sunday, December 13, 11:30 A.M. In the Children’s Center Families are invited to gather for a potluck lunch on the second Sunday of every month. Our December food theme is holiday traditions. Please bring foods that are special to your family’s Advent/ Christmas celebrations. Teen Mass Sunday, December 13, 12:30 P.M. In the Children’s Center Join us the second Sunday of each month to celebrate the Mass with our teens . They take leadership roles and form the bulk of the assembly, but the Mass is open to peo- ple of all ages. Advent Lessons & Carols, followed by Christmas Open House Sunday, December 13, 4:00 P.M. Party at 5:00 This traditional Advent service consists of scripture readings interspersed with songs and prayers. This is Saint Mary’s 16th Annu- al Lessons & Carols. This year we will be featuring both our Traditional and Contem- porary Choirs. The party follows in the gathering space. Young Adult (20s & 30s) Christmas Party Wednesday, December 16, 7:00 P.M. parish center dining room Join us for music, fun, food and sharing. (White elephant gift exchange, $5 or less) Family friendly! Dramatization of the Nativity Story Rehearsal in church, Sunday, December 20, Noon The children of our parish are invited to participate in the dramatization of the Na- tivity Story at the 5:00 P.M. Mass on Christ- mas Eve. Children aged 3-5 can be animals, and those over 6 can be cast as shepherds or angels, and teens can be one of the narra- tors. A family with a new baby has always delighted the parish family with a live Christ Child. Advent Reconciliation Monday, December 21, 7:00 P.M., in church Christmas Mass schedule on Page 2 Prepare the Way of the Lord Bill Murphy On Magi PAGE 3 Mardi Gras February 6 Planning Started PAGE 2
Transcript
Saint Mary Parish December 2015 Evanston, Illinois
Celebrating 150 Years of Faith and Service
Christmas Children’s Choir Rehearsals on Sun-days, November 15, 22, 29 and December 6, 13, and 20, from noon -
1:00, parish center Children, grades 1 – 8, are invited to join this low-pressure, fun choir. The choir sings at the 5:00 P.M. Christmas Eve Mass.
Young Adults (20s & 30s) Advent Spirituality Night and Social Tuesday, December 1, 7:00 P.M. parish center chapel All young adults are invited to an Advent Spirituality Night and Social. We will have refreshments together with time to socialize and then gather for a beautiful Advent Taizé prayer.
An Evening on Our Lady of Guadalupe Thursday, December 10, 7:00 P.M. See page 2 for details.
Family Potluck Lunch Sunday, December 13, 11:30 A.M. In the Children’s Center Families are invited to gather for a potluck lunch on the second Sunday of every month. Our December food theme is holiday traditions. Please bring foods that are special to your family’s Advent/Christmas celebrations.
Teen Mass Sunday, December 13, 12:30 P.M. In the Children’s Center Join us the second Sunday of each month to celebrate the Mass with our teens . They
take leadership roles and form the bulk of the assembly, but the Mass is open to peo-ple of all ages.
Advent Lessons & Carols, followed by Christmas Open House Sunday, December 13, 4:00 P.M. Party at 5:00 This traditional Advent service consists of scripture readings interspersed with songs and prayers. This is Saint Mary’s 16th Annu-al Lessons & Carols. This year we will be featuring both our Traditional and Contem-porary Choirs. The party follows in the gathering space.
Young Adult (20s & 30s) Christmas Party Wednesday, December 16, 7:00 P.M. parish center dining room Join us for music, fun, food and sharing. (White elephant gift exchange, $5 or less) Family friendly!
Dramatization of the Nativity Story Rehearsal in church, Sunday, December 20, Noon The children of our parish are invited to participate in the dramatization of the Na-tivity Story at the 5:00 P.M. Mass on Christ-mas Eve. Children aged 3-5 can be animals, and those over 6 can be cast as shepherds or angels, and teens can be one of the narra-tors. A family with a new baby has always delighted the parish family with a live Christ Child.
Advent Reconciliation Monday, December 21, 7:00 P.M., in church Christmas Mass schedule on Page 2
Prepare the Way of the Lord
Bill Murphy On Magi
PAGE 3
Mardi Gras
February 6
Planning Started
PAGE 2
Photo By Ann McCarthy
OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
As part of the Adult Faith Formation pro-grams, Luz Eugenia Alvarez, M. Div., will present the symbol-ism and theology of the image and mes-sage of Our Lady of Guadalupe. A short prayer service for the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe will follow. Mark your calendar for Thursday, Decem-ber 10, from 7-9 P.M., in the parish center.
Saint Mary Parish
Mardi Gras Saturday, February 6, 2016
6:00-11:00 p.m. The Woman’s Club of Evanston
1702 Chicago Avenue
You can make this a great event! Become a sponsor Donate items for silent auction Save the date, plan to attend
December 26 - January 1 African-Americans will be celebrating Kwanzaa. The word itself comes from the Swahili meaning “first fruits.” Indeed, the first of the symbolic Kwanzaa candles represents the crops of the African harvest. To learn more about the holiday and its symbols, see officialkwanzaawebsite.org. The founder of Kwanzaa, Dr. Maulana Karange welcomes everyone to the site by saying: “As an African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated by millions throughout the world African community, Kwanzaa brings a cultural message which speaks to the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense. …The holiday, then will of necessity, be engaged as an ancient and living cultural
tradition which reflects the best of African thought and practice in its reaffirmation of the dignity of the human person in commu-nity and culture, the well-being of family and community, the integrity of the envi-ronment and our kinship with it, and the rich resource and meaning of a people's culture.”
CHRISTMAS MASSES Thursday, December 24, Christmas Eve Masses
5:00 P.M. (Includes the Children’s Choir & Children’s Dramatization of the Nativity Story)
9:00 P.M. Bishop Kane Presiding. (Hymns and Carols at 8:45 P.M., with the Traditional Choir)
The Feast of Mary, Mother of God December 31/January 1 5:00 P.M., 9:30 A.M., 11:00 A.M.
Tickets on Sale: Jan 16-Feb 3 $50/per person (21+ only) Open Bar (wine & beer) New Orleans-style Buffet Great Music & Dancing Silent Auction 50/50 raffle
Newsletter Staff
Editor: Diane Currano
Design Editor: Jan Wilson
Copy Editors
Annell Sampson-Jones, Harriet Sowinski
Contributors: Karie Ferrell. Dianne Fox, Chris Gregory, Sister Katie Mitchell, Bill Murphy, Diane On-ofrey
Vol. 25, No. 3, December
The Voice of St. Mary's is published monthly, except bimonthly in May/June and July/August, by St. Mary Parish, 1012 Lake St, Evanston, IL 60201.
Email: office@ stmaryevanston.org
Photo by Sister Katie Mitchell
Photo by Karie Ferrell
GIRL SCOUTS
Who Were the Magi?
M atthew tells us that the infant Jesus was vis-ited and honored by magi from the East.¹
Who were these mysterious magi? The word magos referred to an aristocratic and priestly caste or class from Medea in the Parthian Persian empire.² They were experts in astronomy, astrology, divination, dream interpretation, and Persian religious lore, ritual, and magic. They also served as diplomats for the Parthian empire, working to extend its in-fluence and build alliances. Around 66 AD, a dep-utation of magi visited the Roman emperor Nero to honor him and initiate him in esoteric rites of the Persian sun god Mithras.³
Matthew does not specifically tell us the intention and purpose of the magi in visiting the child Jesus in Bethlehem. We do know, however, that about this time, there were sacred oracles in circulation predicting the coming of a great king in the East, whose arrival would be heralded naturally by signs in the heavens. As astronomers and astrologers, the magi would have been searching for such astral phenomenon, weather conjunctions of stars, eclip-ses, comets, or meteor showers.4 And the child Jesus was a descendant of the archetypal Jewish king, David, and born in Bethlehem, the home town of David’s family.
In early Christian art, there are various depictions of the magi in their Persian caps, capes, and trou-sers. They are typically shown as three figures, cor-responding to their three gifts of gold, frankin-cense, and myrrh. During the Middle Ages, the cult of the magi and their supposed relics expanded, and they were eventually named Caspar, Balthasar, and Melchior in the Western church.
Recently, a very interesting discovery of magi lore was made by the scholar Brent Landau. 5 While
reading the eighth century Syriac manuscript of a work called the Chronicle of Zuqnin (edited and published in 1850 and 1927), he found a work which apparently dates to 250 AD or earlier. Called The Revelation of the Magi, it is an account of how the magi (twelve in number) identified the site of the nativity of the Christ child using prophecies in secret ancient books and special revelations granted to
them. The story contains legends not only about the magi and the na-tivity of Christ but also about Adam and his son Seth. Landau demon-strates that this story of the magi was known to other early Christian authors from the fifth century through the Middle Ages.
The magi were busy folk. The Par-thians were active in Palestine in the pre-Herodian period. Josephus rec-ords their occupation of a Jewish town where they distributied gifts to the inhabitants. It is interesting to note that the magi as magicians in-fluenced the European vocabulary for magic: French magician, German magier, Spanish magico.
—BILL MURPHY
Our scripture scholar Bill Murphy has moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, but he has agreed to write occasional articles for the newsletter.
¹ Matthew 2: 1-12.
² By the 1st centuries BC and AD, the Parthi-an tribes ruled and extended the Persian empire from Syria to northern India.
³ The worship of the Persian sun god Mith-ras became popular in the Roman empire during the first centuries AD, especially, apparently, in the army. 4 The ancient Jews often identified the OT oracle of the star arising from Jacob in Num-bers 24:17 as a prediction of the coming of a messianic king. 5 Brent Landau, The Revelation of the Magi: The Lost Tale of the Wise Men’s Journey to Bethlehem (New York: Harper, 2010).
Ethiopian contemporary painting of the magi.
Saint Mary Parish 1012 Lake Street Evanston, Illinois 60201
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EVANSTON IL 60201
Class of 2014
Pope John XXIII School
Saint Mary Parish 1012 Lake Street Evanston, Illinois 60201
Class of 2014
Pope John XXIII School
To transform THIS into THIS
we need THIS!
The Art & Environment Committee uses a small army to decorate the church for Christmas. All the decorations need to be carried up from the base-ment, a big job in itself. Of course, hanging the angels is a top priority, but so are the Christmas trees. Once they are brought up, their branches need to be fluffed, and their lights tested. Then, there are the crèche, the window garlands, and cleaning the sanctuary candles.
The A&E team will prepare the church for Christmas on December 20, begin-ning at 2:30. If you would like to help, please send an email to [email protected], so we can expect you. Both adults and teens are welcome. After all, someone needs to carry those camels up the stairs! No spe-cial skills are necessary. The A & E team has planned it all out and will be there to supervise.
