Newspaper Page Text
PAGE 4—The Georgia Bulletin, December 18,1975
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Editorial
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Arckbiskops Office
756 West Peachtree Street, N. W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Christmas 1975
God answers our Advent longing and waiting with the blessed day that is
Christmas. We, who cannot live by bread alone, are nourished, not on
sentiment or tinsel, not on poetry or rhetoric, but on the Sacred Word which
tells us: — “God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son.” —
or in the tender words of Luke: - “She gave birth to her first born Son, and
wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger ...”
These words are history, for they record a fact. They are revelation for
they proclaim the truth that by God’s gift we can have light, and life, and
love. They give us the meaning of Christmas and the knowledge that God’s
purpose is always true and unshaken. Our destiny is to be lost to ourselves
and to be gathered to God. His coming at Christmas is reassurance of our
worth which He created and willed to maintain.
Come, Let us adore Him.
Most Reverend Thomas A. Donnellan
Archbishop of Atlanta
Season Passing
BY ROBERT L. KIN AST
I’ve walked through a score of advents
to the hum of once-a-year hymns
and the sight of no-other-time ornaments
I’ve let the images of my expectations
melt their familiar flavors
into the cavity of a holy abstinence
too easily often in the past
to drift with comfort during this time
so I halt now
with a little bag of thoughts for the season:
the song of advent is the voice of the poor man
too weak to cry any longer for help
I’ve gathered up the shreds of correct Christmas
doctrine
and listed all the wrongs of our culture’s liturgy
I’ve put my preparations through their proper
formulas
so I’d be ready when the day would come
but the day passed
silent as yesterday’s wind
lost as the first snowflake
I’ve missed the mystery of these days
the fire of the season is the hearth of the wise man’s
hands
cupping a small space for the sacred
the color of the feast is the canvas of the poet’s eye
ready to match metaphore with the Spirit
/ wait to hear the Word
coming once more from the covenant
Perhaps the I
in all this
is you too.
— ■ -V
What One Person
Can Do
Rev. Richard Armstrong
V.
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WENDY CAMPBELL-PURDIE, DESERT TAMER
Wendy Campbell-Purdie is a small,
frail-looking woman of 48, with close-cropped
dark hair. She’s as unlikely a desert tamer as
you could find. But Wendy Campbell-Purdie
has set out to halt the growth of the Sahara
desert. And she seems to be succeeding.
She planted 2,000 trees. In four years, she
was able to grow wheat and barley in their
shelter. Then she moved on. Algeria is using her
idea to create a wall of trees 7'At miles wide
clear across the country. Botswana, Gambia and
Egypt are also interested. In 16 years, this
dynamic English woman has planted more than
130,000 trees to show that the desert can,
indeed, be pushed back and tamed.
Each year the Sahara claims an area half the
size of Connecticut. “Trees will stop the desert
in its tracks,” claims Miss Campbell-Purdie.
“Then you can plant inward, shrinking the
desert as you go. And you can plant pretty well
all the way across the Sahara.”
Miss Campbell-Purdie was working for a
lumber company in Corsica when a forestry
expert convinced her the “green wall” idea
would work. But he fell ill, so she took on the
challenge herself. She headed for Morocco,
leased 45 acres of desert, and started planting
trees. “People thought I was daft,” she recalls.
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“An awful lot of people are starving, and it’s
unnecessary,” she claims. “Once there’s a green
wall right across the Sahara, that’s going to save
a tremendous lot of lives.”
“The desert shall rejoice and blossom,”
prophesied Isaiah. Wendy Campbell-Purdie has
devoted her life to making that prediction come
true.
For a free copy of “God’s Good Earth - and
Ours,” send a stamped, self-addressed envelope
to The Christophers, 12 E. 48th St., New York
NY 10017.
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Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan — Publisher
Rev. Peter A. Dora — Editor
Michael Motes — Associate Editor
Marie Mulvenna - Associate Editor
Member of the Catholic Press Association
Telephone 881-9732
Business Office
756 West Peachtree, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
U.S.A. $5.00
Canada $5.00
Foreign $6.50
Postmaster: Send POD Form 3579 to THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
601 East Sixth Street, Waynesboro, Georgia 30830
Send all editorial correspondence to: THE GEORGIA BULLETIN
756 West Peachtree Street, N.W.
Atlanta, Georgia 30308
Second Class Postage Paid at Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Published Weekly except the second and last weeks
in June, July and August and the last week in December
at 601 East Sixth St., Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
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Statue: Saint John’s parish, Hapeville
Prayerfully Yours
Rev. David E. Rosage
Called
By
Name
“fweorgia-Carolina
Ministry"
REV. S.R. MIGLARESE
Vocation Director
Diocese of Charleston
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THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS:
THE RIGORS OF A SEARCH
In reaction to the commercialization of
Christmas, my parents would not allow the tree
to be trimmed early. It would stay in its place
until the Feast of Epiphany. “Don’t touch that
tree! Bring those empty boxes back to the
closet. Christmas is not over.”
The Feast of the Epiphany is a rich
compliment to Christmas Day. On Christmas
we celebrate the coming of Christ to us, His
taking on our flesh, God becoming Human. On
Epiphany we acknowledge that this Christmas
Day of coming is NOT complete until we come
to the Christ! The pilgrim-journey of the
magi-astrologers must become our journey too.
The Dioceses of Charleston, Atlanta and
Savannah recently held a weekend for college
age students to reflect and prayerfully consider
their call to ministry within the community of
believers, the Church. The theme of “Search”
emerged from that weekend as a vivid reality.
Young men and women are willing to undergo
the rigors of the search to discern whether the
priesthood or religious life is the best way they
can respond to the meaning of Christmas by
their coming to the Christ. And without priests
and religious who themselves have experienced
the rigors and pain of a search for their life’s
commitment, the Church would be devoid of
those persons chosen, vowed, and ordained to
assist the people of God in word and sacrament
in their discovery of God.
God is discovered by those who suffer the
rigors of a search. The chief priests and scribes
would not travel eight miles from Jerusalem to
Bethlehem, instead superstitious pagans,
because they troubled themselves to make the
journey, discovered the Messiah. This is the
meaning of Christmas.
Today, God is found by those who like the
magi suffer the rigors of a search. The mother
who seeks God in the death of her child or
husband; the teenager who begins his often
confused journey toward the meaning of God,
the puzzled doctor, the unsettled Catholic in an
unstable church, all these are closer to the
manger than those who either by “apathy” or
“security” feel no need to make the trip.
Let us sincerely beg the Lord Jesus, during
Christmas Tide to bless his Church with men
and women of faith, quality personnel, priests
and women religious to assist us to see the
presence, love, forgiveness, and compassion of
God in our journey, in our search, in our
coming to His Son, Jesus, as He so graciously
came to us.
BREAD OF THE WORD
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is divided into
two major parts: The Liturgy of the Word and
the Liturgy of the Eucharistic. The Liturgy of
the Word is often called the Table of the Word,
while the Eucharistic Liturgy is spoken of as
the Table of the Eucharist. We feed at both of
these tables. Both are necessary for our spiritual
growth and maturity. Let us look at the Table
of the Word in this reflection.
The Word of God is frequently called bread
in the Scriptures. In the Old Testament, the
prophets speak of life in the desert, also called
the Word of God. Already in the Book of
Deuteronomy God said: “Not by bread alone
does man live, but by every word that comes
forth from the mouth of the Lord.” The
Prophet Amos says that there will be a great
hunger and thirst for the Word of God and that
during those days of famine when God is not
speaking to His people, they will go in a mad
search to hear His Word.
For Jesus bread also means the divine Word
by which man must live. When Jesus was
tempted in the desert He refuted satan by
quoting the Old Testament: “Not on bread
alone is man to live but on every utterance that
comes from the mouth of God.”
When St. Mark recounts the multiplication of
the loaves he suggests that the loaves are the
symbol of the Words of Jesus, and also of His
Body which He was about to hand over. Jesus
reaffirmed this miracle when He said: “I myself
am the bread of life.”
Repeatedly the Word of God is called the
bread of life upon which we must feed as we
journey along our earthly pilgrimage back to
the Father. We need the food of the Word to
survive in this land of exile. The Church places
great emphasis on the necessity of the Word of
God for the nourishment of our spiritual life.
We find this emphasis in the Liturgy of the
Word in the Mass. There are many directives
and safeguards regarding the Word which are
intended to bring us to a better appreciation
and a deeper love of the Word of God.
Heaven is symbolized by the divine wedding
banquet. In heaven we will enjoy the bread of
life, God’s Word, because we will be totally
immersed in His presence which is His Word.
The Word is a Person.
One day a man listening to Jesus exclaimed:
“Happy is he who eats bread in the kingdom of
God.” Jesus responded with a rather pathetic
parable. He said that many were invited to
come to the great dinner, but they found ail
sorts of excuses for not coming: One bought
some land, another five yoke of oxen, another
was newly married. The master grew angry and
sent His servants out into the streets and alley
to “bring in the poor and the crippled, the
blind and the lame.”
There is a telling lesson in this parable. God
does invite us daily to feed at the table of His
Word by listening to and praying with His
Word. The rewards are enormous even in this
life.
Ponder His Word during these next few days
in the suggested texts listed below and discover
for yourself the nourishment which it will bring
to you.
FIRST DAY: Deuteronomy 8: 1-5 — “In
order to show you that not by bread alone does
man live ...”
SECOND DAY: Isaiah 55: 1-13 - “So shall
my word be ... It shall not return to me void.”
THIRD DAY: Amos 8: 11-14 - “Not a
famine of bread or thirst for water, but for
hearing the word of the Lord.”
FOURTH DAY: Matthew 4: 1-4 - “Not oh
bread alone is man to live but on every
utterance that comes from the mouth of God.”
FIFTH DAY: Luke 14: 12-24 - “Happy is
he who eats bread in the Kingdom of God.”
SIXTH DAY: Sirach 24: 18-21 - “Come to
me all you that yearn for me.”
SEVENTH DAY: II Timothy 3: 16-17 - “So
that the man of God may be fully competent
and equipped for even' good work.”
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Letters
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BALTIMORE, MD. - In reference to the
recent remark of Archbishop Bartoletti, the
president of the Vatican’s Commission for the
Study of the Role of Women in Society and the
Church, concerning the need of a “theological
study” on the question of the’ ordination of
women in order to “see why ordination is not
being granted,” I must ask: Why bother with
even calling it a study, when what the
archbishop is really describing is a
rationalization?
A study implies an open mind seeking insight
into a question, not a closed mind grasping for
justification of an already held conclusion.
Speaking as a theological student, I would
recommend to the archbishop that he study the
meaning of both “theology”-whieh is an
attempt at a systematic response to the
inbreaking of God into our experience and not
an easy explanation of our own prejudices of
how God must act-and also of “study”-which
is the striving for further insight and not the
defending against deeper understanding.
MICHAEL MCELWEE
ST. MARY’S SEMINARY
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Christmas Song
Teresa Gernazian
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Mary, “blessed art thou among women.”
You were the fare for a gossip feast
In a ridiculed town of the Middle East.
Mary, “blessed art thou among women.”
You were heavy and weak for the dusty
journey
Advised by some well-fed Roman attorney.
Mary, “blessed art thou among women.”
You had no inn for the child of God
So paileted Him on the hay and sod.
Mary, “blessed art thou among women.”
You reared your child in a hut, not a palace,
With sweeping, scrubbing, and praying as
solace.
Mary, “blessed art thou among women.”
You watched the death of this soft,
hand-taught,
On the mangied tree where His hands were
caught.
Mary, “blessed art thou among women,”
You were the gateway through which God
was giving
Him who is gate to eternal living.
This beautiful poem was written by Jeanne
Osborne Gibbs, and included in her Christmas
card to me. When I called to ask for permission
to use it, she was delighted and said she had
been praying that it would somehow receive a
wider audience. Not for her own tribute, but
because it called attention to an aspect of
Christmas that all Christians believe in: namely,
that because Man' is the mother of Jesus, she is
indeed the most blessed of all women.
Jeanne is an active member of the Druid Hills
Baptist Church and has published a book of
poetry, “The Other Side of the Water.” She has
won many poetry awards, including one for
Religion Poet in an International Contest of the
New York Poetry Forum.
In sharing this ecumenical incident, I would
like' to stress that because we are sisters and
brothers of Jesus, Mary is the spiritual mother
of all Christians.
Jeanne has expressed Mary’s role so
perfectly: “You were the gateway through
which God was giving Him who is gate to
eternal living.”
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