Storytime

Christmas – Cycle A
Is 62:1-5, Psalm 89: 4-5, 16-17, 27, 29, Acts 13:16-17, 22-25, Mt 1:18-25

Storytime
When I was a kid my parent’s told me that St. Nicholas was very clever, he would not come to my house until I was fast asleep, and then he would sneak in and leave presents for us under the tree. I was always so excited on Christmas Eve that I had a hard time falling asleep.

I thought about that we might be able to help the kids get ready for bed tonight by reading a bedtime story.

[[READ The Clown of God by Tomie dePaola]]

There was a young orphan named Giovanni. He begged for food and slept in the doorways. Giovanni was happy because he could do something wonderful. He could juggle!

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In the morning Giovanni would juggle oranges in front of Signor Baptista’s vegetable stand. People would watch Giovanni and buy vegetables. Signora Baptista would always feed Giovanni a bowl of soup.

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One day a troupe of traveling players came to town with a play. Giovanni saw their pretty clothes, dancing and singing and said – “That is the life for me!” So he begged the Maestro “Please let me come with you. I will be a hard worker and … I can juggle!” The Maestro agreed and Giovanni became a traveling player.

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Whenever he juggled Giovanni would dress up as a clown. First he would juggle rings, then clubs and then the Moon, the Earth and the Sun. When he got to the Earth and the Sun and the Moon he would juggle them higher and faster and the crowd would laugh and cheer.

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Giovanni became famous, He traveled all over Italy playing to people. Once he juggled for a Count, then a Duchess, then a Prince. His act was always the same.

[[PICK UP THE RINGS]]

First he would juggle the rings.

[[PICK UP THE CLUBS]]

Then he would juggle the clubs.

[[PICK UP THE EARTH, THE MOON AND THE SUN]]

Then he would juggle the Earth and the Moon and the Sun in the heavens! Each time the people would clap and cheer and laugh. They really enjoyed Giovanni’s show.

[[BOW AND SIT BACK DOWN – THEN PAGE]]

One day when Giovanni was between two towns he was sitting in the shade of a tree eating a lunch of bread and cheese when Two Little Brothers came down the road. “Will you share your food with us good Clown for the love of God and the blessings of our Brother Francis?” “Of course good fellows, there is more than enough” said Giovanni.

As they ate, one of the two little brothers named St. Anthony told Giovanni how they went from town to town begging their food and spreading the joy of God. “Our founder, Brother Francis, says that everything sings of the glory of God. Why even your juggling.” “I only juggle to make people laugh and applaud” said Giovanni. “That is the same thing”, said St. Anthony, “If you give happiness to people, you give glory to God as well.” “Thank you” said Giovanni and after lunch they went on their way.

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Giovanni became richer and richer and more famous. Wherever he went the crowds would be all smiles and laugh and clap – especially when he juggled the Sun and the Earth and the Moon.

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Then one day while he was juggling the Sun, the Earth and the Moon he dropped the Sun in the Heavens. All of his balls came crashing down. The people laughed at him – but not from joy. They did a terrible thing and threw vegetables at him and so Giovanni had to run for his life.

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Giovanni gave up juggling. He took off his clown face gave up juggling forever. He lost what little money he had saved and soon he was once again begging for food and sleeping in doorways. It is time to go home he thought.

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It was a cold winters night when he got back home. The wind blew and the rain was icy and it was dark. The only place that was open was the Church of the little brothers, so Giovanni crept inside the dark Church and fell asleep cold and tired.

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Gloria in excelcis Deo! Giovanni woke up to the Church filled with people singing the Gloria. He could scarcely believe his eyes! So much beauty, a long procession of Brothers and Sisters, Priests and Townspeople all bringing their gifts in front of a Statue of Mary and Jesus. He asked one of the townspeople what was going on. “It is the birthday of Jesus, it is Christmas! We are all bringing him our gifts to celebrate His birth”.

When Mass was over, everyone went home. The Church was dark again except for the candles around Mary and Jesus.

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Giovanni went closer. Mary and Jesus seemed so serious, so stern. “I am but a poor beggar thought Giovanni, but I know what I can give as a gift.”

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He opened up his juggling bag, put on his clown makeup and began to juggle for Mary and Jesus.

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The porter came in and saw Giovanni and ran to get the Father. Giovanni was now juggling the Sun and the Earth and the Moon. They went around and around faster and more beautifully before. His heart was pounding, “For you sweet Jesus, for you!” cried Giovanni.

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Suddenly his heart stopped, and he fell dead on the floor.

[[PAUSE]], [[PAGE]]

When the Father came in, he found Giovanni on the floor and he said – “This poor old clown is dead – may he rest in peace.” Then looking up at the statue of Mary and Jesus he noticed that Jesus was smiling, and in his hand he held the Sun. The End.

[[PAUSE – THEN PICK UP THE SUN]]

The Sun was Giovanni’s gift to Jesus for Christmas – he gave him part of himself, he showed Jesus his love by juggling for him. That is why Jesus had a smile on his face at the end of the story.

The gospels give us three different ideas for gifts for Jesus this Christmas.

The gift of love.
The gift that St. Joseph gave to Jesus was the gift of his love. Joseph responded to the Angel and took Mary to be his wife. His gift of love lasted his entire life, where he provided for, protected and cared for Mary and Jesus.

The gift of obedience.
When the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary to ask if she would be the Mother of Jesus she responded with her yes. She said “Let it be done to me according to your word!” Mary’s gift to Jesus was to listen to his word and act on it in her heart.

The gift of help.
After Mary became pregnant with Jesus, she traveled to visit her cousin Elizabeth who is the mother of John the Baptist to help her in her own pregnancy. Mary’s response to having Jesus grow within her was to share him with Elizabeth and John the Baptist.

What is your Gift to God this Christmas?
On Christmas we celebrate God’s generosity by giving one another presents. This Christmas, what gift are you going to bring to Christ? Love? Obedience? Help? When we give gifts of ourselves we share God’s love and proclaim Glory to God in the highest!

Christ’s Herald

Christmas

Is 52:7-10 Psalm Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4, 5-6 Heb 1:1-6 Jn 1:1-18 or 1:1-5, 9-14

Story Telling
Whenever our family gathers together to celebrate birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, baptisms, weddings and funerals we always arrive at a point where we begin to share the stories of our lives together. All families have stories that are told in which we remember our history, in which we recall what has happened to make us the kind of family that we are. At the same time, when we recall these stories we remember that God has been good to us, has blessed us, and has been with us. Today is no different because today as a Church we gather together and remember the stories about the birth of Jesus.

Now that’s a Birthday Party!
The Church celebrates with a lot of color, grandeur and festivity. At Christmas, we gather as a family – the sons and daughters of God to remember the birthday of our brother Jesus. We retell the stories about Jesus’ birth and try to come to a deeper understanding of the meaning of this event for the members of our family. For this reason the Church celebrates the birth of Christ through four different masses, one at sundown on Christmas Eve, keeping with the Jewish roots of our family where the new day begins at sundown. Then, at midnight we celebrate the coming of Christ in vigil, waiting up through the night for the advent of this great day. We gathered again at dawn to announce the coming of Christ to the world at first light, and then finally, now in the light of day.

Genealogy – Christ came to heal what was broken
At each mass we retell the story of Christ’s birth, and we are invited to reflect on the events of this miraculous day. The first mass of Christmas is the mass on Christmas Eve, right after sundown. The readings of this mass celebrate the birth of Christ from Matthew’s Gospel – Reading the genealogy of Christ that emphasizes the point that Christ really became man – He really chose to enter into the flesh of our human existence. We read also of St. Joseph’s response to the angel to take Mary as his wife. In this we see that Christ entered into this genealogy to heal what was broken, to set right what had been corrupted, to make our family whole again.

Angels announce, Shepherds respond
Then we celebrated the mass at midnight where we entered into the most beautiful part of the Christmas mystery. In our celebration we heard from the Gospel of Luke, where the angels came to the shepherds who were watching their flocks at night announcing the birth of Christ – the Messiah. We followed this early in the morning when we celebrated the mass at dawn, hearing how the shepherds responded to the angels tidings; how they went to Bethlehem (which means the house of bread) and found Christ lying in a manger where they bowed down and did him homage. Their reaction to this first encounter with Christ was to make “known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds…Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.”

John’s Testimony
The fourth part of our celebration this day is to hear from the beginning of John’s Gospel, where we see how John responded to this event as he wrote down the story at the end of his life. John talks about giving testimony, of announcing that “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.”

[[PAUSE]]

Christ is inviting us to be His heralds
The readings for our liturgy invite us to become heralds to the truth. We are invited today to announce to those we live with that Jesus has come to heal and bring us to the peace of God the Father.

What is a herald?
A herald is one who tells the story. As Christians, we tell the story by living the story, and so we enter more deeply into our own relationship with God, and through our own personal relationship we proclaim the good news that is announced to us this day. Isaiah the prophet describes heralds when he says “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, “Your God is King!” Hark! Your sentinels raise a cry, together they shout for joy, for they see directly, before their eyes, the LORD restoring Zion.”

[[PAUSE]]

Are we living so that we can really be heralds? Do we see what God is doing in our lives and in our world? Do we allow God to establish His Kingdom in our lives by living according to His laws so that he is able to swiftly and silently come to visit our souls?

[[PAUSE]]

Today is a new day
In a way it does not matter how we answer these questions. That is the joy of our celebration today, because today is a new day. Today we are invited to a new encounter with God. It does not matter what I did yesterday, it does not matter what has occurred in my life up until this point, because today we have heard – perhaps for the first time that God has a profound interest in our lives. Jesus came to earth this Christmas to get to know you and I. He comes to heal what is hurt in our hearts and souls. He took on human flesh so that we could enter into eternal life with God the Father. Today we celebrate that Christ is God with Us – He is Emmanuel.

Share the Story that God is with us – Be Christ’s Herald!
This is why today is a new day. Today we receive the invitation to come to know Christ more fully so that we can enter into a true relationship with God. It is in our relationship with God that all of our desires can be satisfied. This is what today is about – that God became man to bring us into right relationship with Him. When we find ourselves in right relationship with God then we are able to experience the love that He has for us in the depths of our hearts.

• Today is a new day for us because today, Christ invites us to enter into the story, just as he invited the shepherds on the day of his birth 2000 years ago.
• Today, we encounter Christ in the Word, as we share the scriptures, the stories of our family.
• Today we encounter Christ in the flesh as we share in his Body that was broken for us to unite us with God the Father.
• Today, we are invited to become Heralds of the Good News – that Christ is born to us; that He is the Way to the Father, so that we can be embraced by His loving arms and be filled with His peace.