We know only too well that Christmas is not always the easiest time of year for people.  There is depression, lonliness, hurt, pain mixed in with the Christmas songs, gift exchanges, parties.

I am all too aware that with our core members, this is not always the easiest time of the year.  There are loads of get togethers, caroling services, parties, gift exchanges.  There is also a lot of pain in this community.  Each year the homes all deal with the difficult moments of this season.  There are core members with little connection at home.  There can be rejection, dealing with loved ones who have died and are not there this year.  This time of year can make for extreme sadness, anger, violence.  It is difficult on both the core members and the care givers who live with and love them.

It is reminder of the fragility of the world we live in and how community calls us to be sensitive to those most in need of our love at this time of year. It is in the extra step of patience, of love, of trying to just sit with those who live with emotional pain.  The gift of ourselves as we dare to enter into another's pain and story is at the heart of the Christmas story we are  moving towards.  The Christmas story is the great story of God hearing the pain and desiring to be closer and bringing forth a child crying in unison, in solidarity with our cries.

Let this Advent season be a time of being aware of the pain around us and risking to dare enter into it and being good news to another.  Until next time.

Jeff