Polska wersja tego postu znajduje się tutaj
O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ: Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
From the 1979 BCP
We wish all our friends and everyone who will visit our website this Christmas a blessed commemoration of the Birth of the Divine Child!
I asked myself what it actually means that in the Bible the birth of a child so often is an answer to human call for changes, a new beginning, redemption. And I suddenly realized that two things come together in birth. A child is a gift you receive, but – and both parents and grandparents know this very well – this gift is also a task. A child is a treasure that you have to cherish, a human being deserving attention, warmth and love. And all this even though you know that however your hands – your warm, caring hands – are constantly needed, you don’t have that child’s future in your hand. This future will surprise you, perhaps even astonish you, perhaps disappoint you or fill you with sorrow. In any case, however, it will be completely different than you think…
We talk a lot about the world. We argue whether we can really make it a better place. One mocks this, another says that we did manage to achieve one thing or another. And in the meantime children are born and every child says essentially the same thing: you cannot form me in the image of your dreams and desires, I’m a surprise, I carry the surprise in me – just as you do, by the way. But if you truly engage with me, if you welcome me, take care of me, then you really are building a future that will be just as surprising, astonishing as I am. Sometimes joyful, sometimes sorrowful, but it will be there: for you and for me – just as God from whom I come and whose breath I have in me.
From sermon preached in the KGIJ on December 24 2012 by Pradusz.
Using the opportunity, we we would like to address to all who visit this website an appeal which we think fits in perfectly with Christmas.
One of the participants of the Advent Retreat of the Polish Episcopal Network, a teacher in the School for Disabled Children and Youth in Lublin, told us about the action “Donate your old cellphone – help dreams of disabled children come true”.
The school collects old phones (all models, working and defunct, with and without chargers), then they are priced and paid for by firms which transfer the money to the School’s account. The money is used to organize trips for students – mainly with a sight deficiency or blind – for whom it is often the only possibility to travel somewhere.
Teachers and students will be grateful for every cellphone. You can send them to:
Specjalny Ośrodek Szkolno-Wychowawczy dla Dzieci i Młodzieży Niepełnosprawnych
ul. Hirszfelda 6
20-092 Lublin
Poland
