December 1 (P.S. Dec. 17)

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Here is a little sharing of my recent pro-all-life experience:

Why? Oh! Why?

This morning while sitting in my chair and meditating upon various subjects, I saw a small lady-bug slowly crawling along the floor at my feet. I immediately stood up, snuffed out its life with sole of my right foot. Then sat back in my chair. But why did I take its life? It was not out of revenge although lady-bugs had been pestering me all fall, lighting on my windows, flying into my floor light, getting into the shades of my ceiling lights, clinging to my walls, creeping over my desk. It was not out of fear of what they might do. It was not out of hatred for the little animals. It was doing me no harm moving slowly across my carpeted floor. Yet I in a sudden unheeding impulse crushed it to death. The only justification I could give for this sudden, unwonted, indeed cruel action was that it had invaded my space; it was where I felt it should not be, had no right to be, so to speak. I now I felt disgusted with myself, filled with shame for what I had done, oppressed with the thought of how often I deliberately, unreasonably perform destructive, irreparable acts upon the creatures placed here with me to share the riches and other good things of this earth. I have learned a profitable and important lesson. Let us live and let live!

Yours sincerely,

Fr. Michael Lapierre, S.J.

P.S. (Dec. 17)

In this bustling and busy time of year as its days are drawing to a close we may be inclined to forget or simply to ignore the real significance and importance of what we are truly preparing for and of its meaning in our lives. On one occasion Jesus told his disciples, "many prophets and kings desired to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." What was this that these disciples were seeing and hearing that these prophets and kings had longed to see and hear? Simply this. The kingdom of God had come among them; its King was in their midst. The promise of a Savior was now fulfilled, the desire of the nations had appeared. A virgin had conceived and given birth to a son to whom she gave the name Jesus. She was told that he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. He will be given the throne of his ancestor David; He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end. What a privilege, then, is ours, namely, to live in these times of the fulfilment of the promises, under a king who is our Lord and Savior. Let not the busyness and the turmoil of these present days obscure or set aside this consoling and saving favor of our gracious God to us.

* Fr. Michael Lapierre, S.J., and the editor John Cheng are currently taking part in this column. While the latter is doing January, March, May, etc., the former is partaking in February, April, June, etc. As usual, we take a summer break during July and August. The song in the background here is called "Immaculate Mary". Here we would like to apologize for the disappearance of the present website for last few days. It was due to the general renovations being done in New Jersey by our internet provider. Since it involves the change of directory, it will take some time for many files to be properly reloaded. Once again, our dear readers are asked not to read "into" the context. For examples, when "lady-bug" was mentioned, only "lady-bug" was mentioned. There has been no other implication. Also, when Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on us! is invoked above, we are simply asking the Holy Spirit to descend on us, i.e., both on the writers and the readers. No condescension from the writers to the readers has ever been intended. Thank you for understanding. Here, we wish everyone a very holy Christmas and happy New Year!