Christmas at Saint Mary's 2010

President Mooney with juniors Jacquitta Martin, right,
and Hannah Hupp.
Each of us has family traditions that evoke memories of the joys of Christmases past. Saint Mary’s has many wonderful Christmas traditions, both old and new. As a student here I fondly remember the junior class caroling through the halls with wreaths on their heads and candles in their hands. Today’s students, faculty, and staff participate in the Twelve Days of Christmas, sponsored by our Office of Civic and Social Engagement. This wonderful new tradition sponsors fundraising projects, collections, and acts of kindness through which Saint Mary’s reaches into the community to share our many blessings.

For my family and me, Lessons and Carols at the Church of Loretto, is now our sign that Christmas is here. This beautiful candlelit evening of prayer, reflection, and song calms my soul and fills me with the true peace of the season. I hope that each of you finds time to quiet your mind and focus on the wondrous gift of the Incarnation, the gift of God with us. Sister Madeleva, our poet president, wrote many beautiful poems. The following is an excerpt from one of her poems about Christmas, "Parables":

Because we are all innkeepers, tonight
Let every door be open, every window bright,
That, when a young girl and her waiting Child shall come,
We be their home.

Because we are all shepherds on the hills,
Keeping whatever be our flocks, when the night fills
With songs to say a Child is born in Bethlehem,
We follow them.

Merry Christmas,
 
Carol Ann Mooney