In a little while we will sing of the hopes and fears of all the years meeting in the child whose birth we mark this night. Our hope is for a life freed from fear and our fear is the progenitor of violence and victimization. Gratitude is both the fruit of real hope and the antidote to fear and we see the seeds of that truth in the Christmas story, the glad tidings of great joy that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us --all of us-- full of grace and full of truth, the first gift of God's self giving love which brings universes into being and opens to us the way of abundant and everlasting life.
