December 21, 2007

Christmas Supplement

Christmas Eve in the country

Top, after the Mass is over, St. Vincent de Paul parishioner Dustin Roell talks with his daughter, Jillian, about the Nativity scene at his parish’s church.	Below,	St. Vincent de Paul parishioner Carol Shaw kneels in prayer during the Christmas Eve Mass.

Top, after the Mass is over, St. Vincent de Paul parishioner Dustin Roell talks with his daughter, Jillian, about the Nativity scene at his parish’s church. Below, St. Vincent de Paul parishioner Carol Shaw kneels in prayer during the Christmas Eve Mass.

By Sean Gallagher

SHELBY COUNTY—A small brick church stands like a faithful witness amid the fallow wintertime fields. Lights from nearby homes and farmhouses dot the landscape that is slowly being covered by a dark, nighttime sky.

Cars filled with worshipers wind their way through the country roads to St. Vincent de Paul Church in rural Shelby County.

It’s Christmas Eve 2006.

Everyone has finished their Christmas shopping. Throughout the season of Advent, they may have set aside a moment here or there to contemplate and prepare for Christ’s future coming in glory.

Now, as they open the doors to the church and go from the darkness of an early winter night into the glow of warm lights inside, they kneel in prayer beside their family, friends and fellow parishioners.

In the hour to come, young children will show their love for Jesus. Adults, perhaps filled with the youthful joy that is a hallmark of Christmas, will listen to the proclamation of God’s Word and take part in the Eucharist, the sacrifice of

love that is the reason that Christ came into the world.

It is time to welcome the Christ child, the Word-made-flesh, once again. †

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