Words of the Saints to Ponder While Journeying Toward Bethlehem

St. Oscar Romero y Galdamez (Aug. 15, 1917 – March 24, 1980)

Born: Ciudad Barrios, El Salvador

Priest, Bishop, Archbishop of San Salvador, Martyr, Vocal Critic of the Violent Activities of Government Armed Forces, Right-Wing Groups, and Leftist Guerrillas, Nominated for the 1979 Nobel Prize for Peace.

Feast Day: March 24^th

Patron Saint of: Christian communicators, El Salvador, The Americas, Archdiocese of San Salvador,

Persecuted Christians, Caritas International (co-patron), several cities in the Philippines.

“We must not seek the child in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspaper in doorways.”

“No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, whose who have no need even of God—for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.” 

Prayer:

Dear Lord Jesus, So often I see the beautiful creche scenes, the cute child-like figures portraying your birth. But I want to grow in seeing the truth. I want to look for you in the face of the foreigner, the poor, the homeless, the migrant worker. Truly, I see you when I realize to recognize your face in those around me, to see you in the face of my family. Beloved Christmas Miracle, save me, I wait and long for your coming.

Music:

What Child Is This?

Why lies He in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear: for sinners here,
The silent Word is pleading.
This, this is Christ the King
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing.
Haste, haste to bring Him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.