Merry Christmas! The celebration of the Baptism of the Lord concludes the Christmas Season. On Monday, we return to “counting time by numbers,” also known as “ordinary time.”

I pray that the Christmas spirit continues for you, even in Ordinary Time. I am not ready to move on from Christmas. Two weeks does not seem like enough time to reflect upon and to contemplate what God did by becoming human like us. God so loved the world that God became flesh! What a gift to us!

As some of you will remember, my Cribben family makes a gift to a charity each year as an alternative to buying each other gifts. In mid-December my family gathered for a pre-Christmas reunion at which the charity to which we donated was announced and described.

This year, the 19th year we have made a charitable gift, my nephew Shawn chose the recipient. He is a Physical Therapist and graduate of UW-Madison’s Doctor of Physical Therapy Program. He chose UW- Madison’s Student Physical Therapy Pro Bono clinic and their community outreach programs. He stated: “My criteria for selection were: 1) All the money has to go straight to the cause – no administration fee. 2) It had to be something that I had participated in or made a lasting impact on my current life/attitude/morals.” This pro bono clinic helps people who want to continue therapy, but whose insurance will no longer pay. Shawn had helped at the clinic while studying in Madison. I was moved by the thoughtfulness of his choice. Every year I learn something about the many needs in the world and the many wonderful ways by which people are responding to those needs. The Christmas spirit of God’s love lives on in these generous and caring activities.

Jesus was so attentive to those who were most in need. He saw the blind, the lame, the deaf, the lepers, the sinners, and those who needed healing in many different ways. As he saw them, he looked at them with love and healed so many of them. And by seeing them he brought others’ attention to them as well. Others learned from him that the sick, the lame, the poor, and the imprisoned, etc. had value. All of God’s creatures deserve to be loved. When Jesus demonstrated that he loved them, he opened the way for others to continue to love them after he moved on. I am pleased that our Cribben tradition has helped me/us to see who God loves – EVERYONE!

May the Christmas spirit live strong and long in you! Merry Christmas!

Peace, Fr. Andy