Dear Parishioners,

In his poem, "The Silent Seers," J. Barrie Shepherd reflects on the stable of Bethlehem and who, among those present there, really knew what's going on.

Of all the witnesses around the holy manger perhaps it was the animals saw best what lay ahead for they had paced the aching roads slept in the wet and hungry fields known the sharp sting of sticks and thorns and curses endured the constant bruise of burdens not their own the tendency of men to use and then discard rather than meet and pay the debt of gratitude. For them the future also held the knacker's rope, the flayer's blade the tearing of the bodies for the spring of a race. In the shadows of that stable might it be his warmest welcome lay within their quiet comprehending gaze?

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Dear Parishioners,

About this time of year, many people including myself, can feel overwhelmed and frazzled by what I refer to as, "the dynamics of the holiday season." These include all sorts of details, great and small, that demand our attention to various degrees. We've almost come to expect this frazzled feeling as an inevitable feature that permeates the days leading up to Christmas. Many of us exclaim that it seems to be getting more intense each year and we wonder why that is.

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