christmas
Waiting Through the Seasons
Editor’s Note: As Kim Wagner anticipates beginning her time on mission, she relates her waiting to the liturgical seasons of Advent and Christmas. As I have worked to unpack my bags in my new home in Douglas, Arizona, I have begun to reflect on the past month and a half at home and the Advent…
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Nativity in Cochabamba
Editor’s Note: During the Christmas season, lay missioner Victor Artaiz describes the nativity scenes from his ministry sites and how they capture the simple joy of the Nativity. In spending my 2nd Christmas here in Cochabamba, the peace and simplicity of the Nativity really came into focus for me. In my ministry at El Abra,…
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Day 16: Humility
Editor’s Note: For day 16 of our Advent series, “The Day of Joy Drew Near,” Amanda MacMillan, a DCSC alumna and former house manager, reflects on the Feast of the Epiphany and contemplates how we can approach our Lord with humility. The Feast of the Epiphany celebrates the first visitors to the Holy Family. The…
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Day 14: Stood Before the Manger
Editor’s Note: For day 14 of our Advent series, “The Day of Joy Drew Near,” Executive Director Elizabeth Hughes shares farewell with the FMS family after 7 years of service to the organization. It is early Advent, and I join my friend’s 5-year-old in setting up their nativity from Cote d’Ivoire, comprised of the Holy…
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Day 10: Joy to Be Found
Editor’s Note: For day 10 of our Advent series, “The Day of Joy Drew Near,” Susan Sarkissian, a newly-commissioned missioner, recounts a season in her life when God helped her experience genuine joy. Today is a celebration of the birth of Jesus. There is great joy to be had in recognizing this incredibly humble and…
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Day 8: Solemn: An Advent that Looks Beyond the Blow-Up Santa
Editor’s Note: For day 8 of our Advent series “The Day of Joy Drew Near,” DC Service Corps member Bohdan O’Shaughnessy contemplates the solemn nature of Advent and Christmas. Admittedly, the word “solemn” is not a term I have associated with Advent or Christmas. I typically would assign “joy” or “anticipation” to describe this time…
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Day 27: Gifts
Editor’s Note: Communications Associate Bekah Galucki dives into what “gifts” and how we can offer them back to God by recalling the Presentation of the Gifts within the context of Mass. She shares how her own personal experience of bringing gifts to the altar has been transformed. When I think of gifts, my mind immediately…
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Day 22: Preparation
Editor’s Note: DCSC volunteer Airianna Beitler reflects on the impact of preparation, in its many forms. She invites us into introspection as we prepare ourselves in this time of Advent. The big day is almost here and I can’t wait to spend Christmas morning with my family. We have been prepping for dinner all day,…
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Faith Calls Us to Be Neighbors: Christmas Night with the Shepherds
Editor’s note: Elizabeth Hughes is the Executive Director of FMS. After our Advent reflections on experiences of hospitality, she invites you to join her in a Christmas imaginative prayer, accompanying the shepherds to welcome Jesus to the world. What gifts and graces might have unfolded during the journey of welcome? “O, Holy Night…the thrill of…
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The Light of Belen
I went to my first misa de la luz de Belen (mass of the light of Bethlehem) in December. I went with a new friend from Poland and found out that this Girl and Boy Scout tradition happens around the world, and that the light is actually being passed from city to city as well.…
Read MoreMerry Christmas!
Jesus is happy to come with us, as truth is happy to be spoken, as life to be lived, as light to be lit, as love is to be loved, as joy to be given, as peace to be spread. -St. Francis of Assisi Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus when he crossed the great…
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Advent 2013: The Light of One
Today’s beginning of Advent coincides with World AIDS Day. The 2013 World AIDS Day theme is “Shared Responsibility”. As we learn the facts about HIV and put that knowledge into compassionate action, we also recommit to our shared responsibility this Advent. We return to the very source of our compassion: the Incarnation. “I want to…
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Merry Christmas!
The FMS staff: (front) Mariam Mitry, Anna Robinson, Naomi Amsberry, (back) Chelsea Tanous, Br. Paul O’Keeffe, Kim Smolik and Bridget Higginbotham Merry Christmas from the Franciscan Mission Service staff in Washington, D.C.! This Advent, we’ve been sharing stories of encountering God this year in our families, friends, strangers and those whom we serve. But there is…
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Come, Journey in Love This Advent
This first Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of a journey. Around the world, Catholics joyfully welcome a new Church year and start to ready ourselves for the coming of Christ’s birth. And here in Washington, D.C., Franciscan Mission Service comissions our new class of lay missioners. We mark the end of Annemarie Barrett and Jeff Sved’s three-month…
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The Christmas Challenge: Getting Creative and Simplifying
Our missioner Kitzi Hendricks shares how she challenged herself in her Christmas preparations and hopes you’ll do the same. As the Christmas season approaches, I find myself contemplating the best way to prepare myself for it during my first year on mission. I have found myself turned a little bit upside down without the sounds, the…
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Christmas without Consumerism: The Wise Women of Christmas
For the second post of this series, Fr. David B. Couturier, OFM Cap. reminds us that those gifts we’re exchanging on Christmas do not in fact come magically on a red sleigh, hand-crafted by elves. Before you buy that gift, take a moment to think about the worker who made it. Several years ago, I…
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Christmas without Consumerism: Unwrapping some Franciscan Thoughts
Just in time for the holidays, Fr. David B. Couturier, OFM Cap., helps us focus on the reason for the season with a two-part Franciscan Friday series on having a Christmas without consumerism. Christmas is a time for tradition and rituals. Unfortunately, many of the customs we have been developing lately are stressful and inordinately…
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First Christmas in Zambia
As we wrap up the Christmas season, our missioner Sandra Bradford shares how she and her husband Bryce spent the holiday. In Zambia, they serve as high school teachers and help run the retreat center for the St. Francis Friary. Our liturgical Advent celebration was a wonderful preparation for Christmas. I made new banners with…
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Prayers for Christmas: Wisdom and Strength in the New Year
The Christmas liturgical season is just beginning! Join us through the new year in praying with our missioners and those they serve overseas. Today’s prayer for Christmas comes from Noemi, a teacher at an after-school program in Bolivia where our missioner Catherine serves.“Lord, for the next year I ask you to continue to bless me, and to…
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Prayers for Christmas: Joy to the World!
“Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room, And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven and nature sing, And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.”Share in our joy with our “Prayers for Christmas” video. May you have a happy, healthy, holy day filled with…
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Prayers for Christmas: Why Christmas?
Original photo by Ambuj Saxena “Why Christmas? Our vision, our purpose, our goal: to know, to love, and to serve God. To know God, to know the love between the Trinity, to know the Son, and through Him the Father, and the love that is the Spirit. To know the almighty, the creator, the everlasting,…
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Prayers for Christmas: Witness of Love
“This Christmas I am grateful that the love God showed the world in sending His Incarnate Son has been shown again to me personally in the grace of His sending me to witness to that Love, Jesus Christ, in Africa.” – Sandra Bradford, missioner, Zambia Sandra serves with her husband Bryce through a partnership with the Province…
Read MorePrayers for Christmas: Food and Health
We hear the Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat, in today’s Gospel from Luke: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;my spirit rejoices in God my savior.for he has looked upon his lowly servant.From this day all generations will call me blessed:the Almighty has done great things for me,and holy is his Name.He has mercy on…
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Prayers for Christmas: Silent Night
Today’s prayer for Christmas comes from Rhegan Hyypio, FMS program director and returned missioner who served in Brazil from 2005 to 2007 and Bolivia from 2007 to 2008. “May we truly hear the cry of the poor, hungry, sick, afflicted and marginalized in our midst this Christmas. And may we respond in love, acting with…
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Prayers for Christmas: More of God, Less of Us
John the Baptist spent his life announcing the coming of Christ. When Jesus was beginning his public ministry, John said “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30). John had done his job in baptizing with water, and it was now time to step aside for the one who would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit.…
Read MorePrayers for Christmas: Jesus
“This Christmas I am thankful for the sky, the flowers, the trees, and the people around me — and that Jesus died for us.” – 90-year-old South African woman to whom FMS missioner Tim Marcy brings communion weekly Photo by Rennet Stowe It might seem strange to talk about Jesus’ death this time of year. Suffering…
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Prayers for Christmas: Family
The Gospel for today looks at Jesus’ family tree. Forty-two generations culminate in the birth of Christ. Generations of our own families gather in celebration of this birth this time of year. “I thank God that for having had one more year of my family being together. At Christmas we reconfirm the unity of our…
Read MorePrayers for Christmas: Art and Sharing
Photo from flickr, localjapantimes Today’s prayer for Christmas comes from Andrew Kaleya, a Zambian artist and friend of missioners Sandra and Bryce Bradford. “My prayer is to support my family through art in this coming year, and also to be able to share with others the little things which we have during Christmas.” Andrew…
Read MorePrayers for Christmas: Compassion
Happy Feast of Blessed Mary Frances Shervier, member of the Secular Franciscan Third Order and founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor! Frances dedicated herself and her congregation to the healing of all persons, especially the poor and the suffering. “I believed that I saw the Lord himself in the poor and the sick,…
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Prayers for Christmas: Reason for the Season
“My prayer for Christmas is that the REAL reason for the season takes ahold of our hearts and grows us more in God’s unabounding love.” – Michael Redell, FMS lay mission class 27 Kitzi and Michael at their commissioning. Photo by Gerald Martineau. It is because of God’s love that Michael and fellow missioner Kitzi…
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Prayers for Christmas: Mothers and Fathers
From flickr user Samuraijohnny “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” Luke 1:43-44. The gospel for today features two mothers: Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and…
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Prayers for Christmas: Joy
On this Gaudete Sunday, the third Sunday of Advent, we rejoice that Jesus is almost here, that our wait it almost over! Today’s joyful prayer for Christmas comes from Sr. Erika, one of missioner Lynn Myrick’s students in Bolivia. Sr. Erika is a St. Joseph sister studying to become a physical therapist. We’ve included her…
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Prayers for Christmas: Volunteering and Human Rights
FMS Executive Director Kim Smolik offers a reflection as today’s prayer for Christmas: To say I am blessed in the work I do would be an understatement. I think a job like mine is a rare gift — it takes me around the world, to places one does not usually think of visiting, into the…
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Prayers for Christmas: Strength and Hope for Zambia
FMS lay missioners spend much of their time on mission in ministries of presence–cultivating relationships and connections in their host communities that change them as well as the people to whom they minister Through this journey, the prayers of the community can become the prayers of the missioner. Missioner and teacher Bryce Bradford shares his…
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Prayers for Christmas: Mary and God’s plan
Today we give thanks for Mary and her Immaculate Conception. Through her appearances, she has had a powerful impact on the lives of the people with whom we walk overseas, especially those in Latin America. Because God intended for Mary to be the mother of Jesus, God protected her at the first moment of her…
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Prayers for Christmas: Children
Happy Feast of St. Nicholas, patron saint of children! Today’s prayer for Christmas comes from our youngest contributors: 6-year-old Bolivians recovering from burns. “We are grateful for airplanes, flowers, dolls, backpacks and shoes.” The children live and heal at the Franciscan burn center in Cochabamba until they are well enough to return home to their…
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Prayers for Christmas: Love and Companionship
Padre David uses a rose and holy water to perform blessings after Mass. Today’s prayer comes from Padre David Cordozo, parish priest of Our Lady of La Salette in Bolivia. “Esta navidad, estoy agradecido por todas las personas que conocí y por las que estan siempre a mi lado. Para el año nuevo, espero que…
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Prayers for Christmas: Opportunity and Service
Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” (Matthew 9: 36-38). FMS missioner Joel Vaughn expresses gratitude for being one of these laborers in his prayer for Christmas. “This Christmas, I am thankful for…
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Prayers for Christmas: Youth and Inspiration
Our missioner Nora in Bolivia with children at the Franciscan burn center Remember what St. Paul said in his letter to Timothy? “Let no one look down on you because of your youth, be an example of faith, love and purity to all believers.” FMS trains, commissions and supports lay missioners as young as 22…
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Add to Our Prayer Wall
Each day of Advent, we’re sharing a prayer from one of our missioners, people they serve, volunteers, staff, board members and friends all around the world. Today’s prayer is from Tim Marcy, one of our lay missioners in South Africa who works at an HIV/AIDS clinic and is a practicing deacon. “This Christmas I am…
Read MoreFMS’ prayers for Christmas
Join us in preparing for Christmas by giving thanks for all the blessings God has bestowed on us! We’ve gathered prayers from around the world to share with you this Advent, and this video is a collection of some of our favorites: Check our blog each day until Christmas for a new prayer from someone…
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