Grown-up Christmas List (Fr. Frank Pavone's Bi-weekly Column)

Dear Friends,

This column brings to you and your family my warmest wishes for a Merry
Christmas!

It also brings an invitation. As President of the National Pro-life Religious
Council, I will be hosting, on January 22, the annual National Memorial for the
Pre-born and their Mothers and Fathers. It will take place in Washington DC at
9:30 am in the Senate Office buildings, and is the largest indoor pro-life event on
Capitol Hill. It is ecumenical, with clergy from dozens of denominations
participating. We will have prayer, praise, music, special awards, and I will deliver
a message about what the pro-life movement needs to do in 2004. Moreover, we
will have special guests such as Rev. Alveda King (niece of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.), singer and actress Melba Moore, and a few other surprises. Admission
is free of charge -- just show up! Entire groups are welcome. I will send you in this
email further details of the exact location room in the Senate offices where the
event will be. The event will be over in time for you to make your way over for
the March for Life. If you will be anywhere near Washington, come and join me
for this memorable event!

Best regards,
Fr. Frank Pavone

Grown-up Christmas List

Fr. Frank Pavone
National Director, Priests for Life

One of the Christmas songs you'll hear on the radio during these days is called
"Grown-up Christmas List." It speaks of the fact that age does not stop us from
dreaming, and that as life goes on, our wishes at Christmas are not for ourselves,
"but for a world in need." The list begins, "No more lives torn apart, that wars
would never start...that right would always win."

Do we dare to hope for these things, just because the calendar says December 25 is
approaching?

Indeed, the question for a Christian is, "How we can dare not to hope for these
things?" Christmas lists, after all, spring from Christmas hope, and Christmas
hope is based on an historical fact: God has already given us everything in His
Son. St. Paul asks, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us
all-how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" (Rom.
8:32).

We look for good things in life, and good things are all around us. Yet the best of
good things does not satisfy us completely. The best relationships leave something
to be desired, and the best vacations always end and leave us looking forward to
the next one. This is because every good thing is just a reflection of goodness
itself.

In the birth of Christ, we find that total, infinite goodness. "For in Christ all the
fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" (Col. 2:9). "The Son is the radiance of
God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Heb. 1:3). In the birth of
Jesus Christ, almighty God has given to the human family His last, best offer of
hope.

The wonder of Christmas, in fact, is that the promised coming of the Messiah of
the Lord was fulfilled in a surprising way that surpassed the hopes and dreams of
the people of old. On the first Christmas night, angels announced Christ's birth to
the shepherds. But instead of saying that Jesus was the Messiah of the Lord, they
said that He is "Messiah and Lord" (Lk. 2:11). God, in other words, did not simply
send someone to represent Him. He came Himself!

Christmas is not about the birth of a child who became a great man. It is about a
God who created the human family, and then decided to become a member of that
family, thereby joining all of us to Himself. He joins to His Divinity all who share
human nature: the weak and strong, the small and big, the born and unborn.
Christmas is universal, and is about the exaltation of the human person.

That's why our "grown-up Christmas list" can say "no more lives torn apart" --
whether by abortion or anything else. Christmas lists spring from Christmas hope,
and Christmas is all about the victory of life!

Contact Priests for Life at PO Box 141172, Staten Island, NY 10314; Tel: 888-
PFL-3448, 718-980-4400; Fax: 718-980-6515; email: mail@priestsforlife.org;
web: www.priestsforlife.org