First- and second-graders at St. Joseph School in Olney participated in an Advent project called “Giving Our Hearts to Jesus” with encouragement from their teachers: Marcia Horstmeyer, Michelle Burgener and Casey Hemrich.
When I was a child, we generally “asked Santa” for a pony. The closest we ever came was a burro named Rosita, but since we had no transportation for the four-legged girl then living in St. Louis, my father breathed a sigh of relief and said he was sorry we just couldn’t get her to Illinois.
The Fourth Sunday of Advent, we experience the first of two “Birth Stories” in the Gospel of Matthew. Today, on the feast of the birth of the Messiah and Lord, (titles bestowed on him by the angel of the shepherds), we experience a very different story of the birth of Jesus.
