Although we are bringing the Christmas season to a close with the celebration of the adoration of the Christ Child by the Magi, I find that I am still humming a Christmas carol called “I heard the bells on Christmas Day.” It is based on a poem, Christmas Bells, composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1863, while the Civil War raged. He finds the proclamation of “peace on earth, good-will to men” impossible to reconcile with the hatred and carnage of the war.

And as we look around our world today, we still find endless suffering, destruction and despair. Here on Long Island, poverty of all kinds is everywhere. BUT…you, the parishioners of St. Joseph’s, celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace by responding with extraordinary generosity to meet the needs of those closest to us who are affected by material deprivation, social isolation and hopelessness. Our neighbors in Hempstead and Roosevelt received 205 holiday dinners at Thanksgiving and 154 holiday dinners for Christmas through our Sponsor a Family program, plus additional supermarket gift cards. The members of fifty families known to Parish Outreach at Our Lady of Loretto received beautiful gifts through our Giving Tree program plus extra toys and clothing which were donated. In addition to our December supermarket gift card distribution to the registered clients of our Parish Social Ministry program, your generosity enabled us to provide CVS & Walgreen’s gift cards to families with children. Seventy five poinsettias were delivered to the homebound of our parish and to those who were widowed during the past year. And your financial contributions will enable us to help those who seek our assistance during the coming year.

In all these ways, and through the joyful and loving efforts of so many volunteers who organized the programs, delivered food and plants, sorted, packaged and delivered gifts, the message of Christmas – of peace and good will toward all – came alive, both in our hearts and in the hearts of all those recipients. The Christ Child is born anew when we choose not to give in to hopelessness about the enormity of the world’s problems, but act instead in large and small ways to mitigate the suffering of those around us. And in the final stanza of his poem Longfellow hears the Christmas bells once more and is able to assert that “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Thank you for all the ways in which you promote peace and good will toward all throughout the year. May all the days of 2018 be rich in blessings for you and those you hold dear.

Gratefully,
Anna Sirianni, Director