From Fotodzień for the weeks between December 12 and December 26, 2008, at Interia:
Sara May singing Lulajże Jezuniu
A Chaldean Hymn – Christ is born
A Ukrainian Hymn – Добрий вечiÑ€, тобi (Dobry Vechir Tobi)
My family and I offer up a prayer this year for your intention. As we gather about the Vigil table, and partake in 
the opłatek, we share with you wishes for peace, health, prosperity, and that our Lord may grant you every blessing and good thing.
We recall all who suffer, because of war, injustice, unemployment, under employment, and poverty. We remember all those who are far from family and friends, from home and those they love, migrant workers, the homeless, and the exploited.
May this Christmas day mark the beginning of our efforts to care for, support, and defend all in need.
We beg the Father for all these things, in the name of His Son and our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am.
“If you take away from the midst of you the yoke,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
And the LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your desire with good things,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters fail not.” — Isaiah 58:6-11.
From the Stratford Bard: A Christmas Craft Fair will be held at St. Joseph’s of Stratford National Catholic Church, 1300 Stratford Road, Stratford, Connecticut from 10am to 3pm on Saturday, Dec. 6th.
Area crafters and home show vendors will be displaying and selling their crafts. There will also be a bake sale, continental breakfast, and meatball grinders and hot dogs for lunch. There is free admission and free parking. Every adult that attends the fair will receive a free entry into the door prize for a grocery gift card.
St. Joseph’s is located at 1300 Stratford Road in the Lordship section of Stratford, Connecticut at the south end of Main Street beside Sikorsky Memorial Airport. For more information please call the parish office at (203) 377-9901 or Patti at (203) 378-0073.
Came across this here while I was browsing around. It bears an echo of the Polish Christmas hymn Dzisiaj w Betlejem.
Two images that struck me were the image of Mary and Joseph wandering through today’s busy streets and the image of Mary cradling the Eucharistic bread – very nice.
Here is the English translation.
“Beautiful night, peaceful night,
A star is shining above a cave,
In the cave mother is sleeping
An angel is cherishing Jesus.
Angels are singing,
Shepherds are playing,
Angels are singing,
Sages are revealing themselves:
What the people have been waiting for,
What prophets have been prophesying,
And now the world responds,
The world responds and declares;
Our Saviour, Christ is born
for the salvation of all of us.
Alleluia, Alleluia.
Lord have mercy!”
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
So begins the Gospel of John.
This preface to John’s Gospel, along with great Christological hymn found in the Second Chapter of Philippians, tell us much of what we need to know about Jesus.
It is an important lesson.
The importance of this lesson is exemplified in the fact that this Gospel is read every time the Traditional Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered, just after the dismissal. It is read aloud to remind us of the deep and awesome mystery we have touched. It reminds us that Jesus was not a moment in time, but the true nature of eternity. God among us.
Jesus is God. Jesus was from the beginning, co-eternal with the Father. He came and dwelt among us.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
Jesus is the breath of God that moved across the waters. The breath of God that brought everything into being. There is nothing in existence that is apart from Him.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
Jesus gave us life, and not just life, but life that is perfect. Life that is at one with, and completely united to, God.
This life is the life of light – the life that is within each and every human being. The life we are called to, and the life we will experience in heaven. This is the fullness of life with God.
He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
At a moment in history God became incarnate in the world in the person of His Son, Jesus. He was in the world.
Jesus, Who brought all things into being; Jesus, Who created a life of perfection, was in the world. He came down and dwelt among us.
The why is obvious. Because we have made and make choices that destroy the perfect life that was created for us. That brokenness needs repair. That brokenness needs healing. Without the healing Jesus brought, each of us would miss the sign, each of us would miss knowing God. Each of us would miss eternal life in heaven. We would be utterly alone.
We would be alone in bondage, not to men, but to the idea that there was no hope.
Jesus’ coming into the world changed that. We are not in bondage. We are free. Free to know God and live in unity with God.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.
All but a few rejected Him, nailing Him to the cross. A cross He was born to accept. A cross He chose to take up.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.
We stand here this Christmas day because we accept Him. The only Son of the Father. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.
God who came to dwell among us.
He is ours and we are His, not based on our own study or desires, but because God called each of us by name.
He called, so we came to Him in the waters of baptism saying —I believe.— We came to Him and asked the Church to call the Holy Spirit down upon us in Confirmation. We said: —I believe.— By our belief we are born of God into the new life Jesus provided.
And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only Son,
full of grace and truth.
He came in flesh and blood to give us grace in abundance, grace that comes from following the only truth that exists. He lived among us to teach us.
Each and every time we hear His word and stand in front of this altar we see His glory and receive His grace. Grace that draws us closer to God and brings us to perfect unity with God.
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
He did not come to give us laws and regulations, but instead a new covenant in His blood. A gift freely given.
We must decide whether we will pay the entry price.
The cost is small, for in light of the magnificence of God, resplendent this day in His Son in the manger, we have the full assurance that God loves us beyond measure, and measures only our willingness to live in accord with all the things His Son has shown us.
No one has ever seen God.
The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.
Because of Jesus we know God, God face-to-face.
It is joyous news for the whole world. God is revealed to us, merciful, full of love and compassion, abundant in grace, offering us the light which darkness cannot overcome.
Take up the light you see this Christmas day. Believe and be born anew into the only life that matters.
Amen.
Yet He came to us anyway
To Provide for us

What it means for us
The iconographic portrayal of Christ’s birth is not without radical social implications. Christ’s birth occurred where it did, we are told, by Matthew, “because there was no room in the inn.” He who welcomes all is himself unwelcome. From the first moment, he is something like a refugee, as indeed he soon will be in the very strict sense of the word, in Egypt with Mary and Joseph, at a safe distance from the murderous Herod. Later in life he will say to his followers, revealing the criteria of salvation, “I was homeless and you took me in.” We are saved not by our achievements but by our participation in the mercy of God -God’s hospitality. If we turn our backs on others we will end up with nothing more than ideas and slogans and be lost in the icon’s starless cave.

My Wish for you
I pray that Christ’s coming will renew you, break down every obstacle, bring light to every aspect of your life, and reconnect all that is separate. He is our hope, therefore we rejoice with one voice.
Christ has come! Alleluia!
In my ethic tradition, we shared our gifts after the Wigilia (Vigil) supper and before attending the Pasterka (Shepherd’s) Holy Mass at midnight.
If would like to offer you, my readers, several gifts this Christmas.
I will provide eight (8) annual subscriptions to God’s Field, the official newspaper of the Polish National Catholic Church and ten (10) copies of the Polish National Catholic Church’s wall calendar for 2008.
The first eighteen people that make a request will get one or the other.
Please send me an E-mail using my contact form and provide your name, mailing address, and the gift you would prefer.
Of course I wish all of you every blessing on this Vigil of the Nativity of our Lord. The Christ is our true gift. Amen.