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DECEMBER 24 - ST. CHARBEL

St. Charbel was born Youssef Zaroun Makhlouf in the mountain village of Beka-Kafra in Lebanon. He was the son of a mule driver and his life was very ordinary.

Youssef attended the small school and the parish church. His favourite book was Thomas a Kempis's The Imitation of Christ. He loved the Blessed Mother and spent lots of time praying.

He had two uncles who were monks. Although Youssef did not tell anyone, he prayed to Our Lady to ask her help in becoming a monk. His parents wanted him to marry. There was a very nice girl in the village who would make an ideal wife, they thought. But Youssef believed it was time to follow his call to become a monk.

He joined the monastery of Our Lady at the age of twenty-three. He took the name Charbel, after an early martyr by that name. Charbel studied for the priesthood and became a priest when he was thirty. He remained at the monastery of St. Maron for sixteen years.

Father Charbel was a special person whose love for prayer became his outstanding quality. From time to time he would go alone to the order's hermitage for stronger prayer times.

The last twenty-three years of his life, Charbel spent in the peace of the hermitage in total silence. He chose to lead a very hard life. He made sacrifices, ate little, slept on the hard ground, and prayed long hours.

The years passed, and Charbel became a person totally in love with Jesus. Then as he celebrated the Mass on December 16, 1898, he suffered a stroke during the consecration. Charbel lingered for eight painful days, then died on December 24, 1898.

Miracles began to happen at the holy monk's grave. Some of those miracles were accepted for declaring Charbel "blessed" and then "saint."

Father Charbel was proclaimed a saint by Pope Paul VI on October 9, 1977. The pope explained that St. Charbel taught us by his life the true way to God. He said that our lives today give so much importance to wealth and comfort. Charbel, instead, teaches by his example the value of being poor, self-sacrificing and prayerful.

DECEMBER 26 - ST. STEPHEN

Stephen's name means crown. He was the first disciple who died for his faith in Jesus. As chapters 6 and 7 of the Acts of the Apostles tells us, Stephen was chosen as a deacon in the early Church.

Peter and the apostles had found that they needed helpers to look after the care of widows and the poor. So they ordained seven deacons and Stephen is the most famous of these.

God worked many miracles through St. Stephen. He spoke with such wisdom and grace that many people who heard him, became followers of Jesus. The enemies of the Church of Jesus were furious to see how successful St. Stephen's preaching was.

They could not answer his wise arguments, so they laid a plot and got men to lie about him. These men said that he had spoken sinfully against God. St. Stephen faced that great gathering of enemies without any fear. In fact, the Holy Bible says that his face looked like the face of an angel.

Stephen spoke about Jesus, showing that he is the Savior God had promised to send. He scolded his enemies for not having believed in Jesus. At that, they rose up in great anger and shouted at him.

But Stephen looked up to heaven. He said that he saw the heavens opening and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. His enemies closed their ears and refused to listen to another word.

Then they dragged St. Stephen outside the city of Jerusalem and stoned him to death. The saint prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" and he fell to his knees but begged God not to punish his enemies for killing him.

DECEMBER 25 - CHRISTMAS, THE BIRTHDAY OF JESUS

The time had come for the Son of God to become man for love of us. His mother Mary and St. Joseph had to leave their home in Nazareth and go to Bethlehem.

This journey had to be made because the Roman emperor wanted a count of the number of his people. So every Jewish family had to go to the city of their ancestors.

Since Mary and Joseph belonged to the royal family of David, they had to go to David's city of Bethlehem. The emperor had made the law, but this law helped to fulfill God's plan. The Bible said that the Savior was to be born in Bethlehem.

It was a slow, hard journey for Mother Mary as they had to travel over hilly country. But Mary was calm and peaceful. She knew she was doing God's will. She was happy thinking of her Divine Son soon to be born.

When Mary and Joseph reached Bethlehem, they found that there was no place for them to stay. At last, they found shelter in a cave. There, in that rough stable, the Son of God was born on Christmas Day.

His Blessed Mother wrapped him up warmly and laid him in a manger. Baby Jesus chose to be born poor so that we would learn that riches and comforts are not important at all.

The night that Jesus was born, God sent his angels to announce his birth. The angels were not sent to the emperor or the king. They were not sent even to the learned doctors and chief priests. They were sent to poor, humble shepherds.

These men were watching their flocks on the hillside near Bethlehem. As soon as they heard the angels' message, they hurried to adore the Savior of the world. Then they went home giving praise and glory to God.

The great prophets of the Old Testament had been comforted by the thought that someday the Savior would come into the world. Now he had been born among us. Christ came for all of us.

The Bible says: "God so loved the world that he sent his only-begotten Son." If those who lived in the hope of his coming were happy, we must rejoice much, much more because we know that as always, God had kept his wonderful promise.

We have Jesus' teachings, his Church and Jesus himself on our altars at every Mass. Christmas is the time when we realize more than ever how much God loves us.

DECEMBER 27 - ST. JOHN THE APOSTLE

St. John was born to Zebedee and Salome. He was a fisherman in Galilee and was called along with his brother St. James to be an apostle. Jesus gave these sons of Zebedee the nickname, "sons of thunder."

St. John was the youngest of the apostles and Jesus loved him dearly. At the Last Supper, John leaned his head on the chest of Jesus to comfort him.

John was also the only apostle who did not desert Jesus during his passion and stood at the foot of the cross. The dying Jesus asked John to care for his Blessed Mother, Mary.

Turning to Mary, he said to John, "Behold your mother." So the rest of her life on earth, the Blessed Mother lived with St. John. He alone had the great honor of assisting and caring for the all-pure Mother of God.

On Easter morning, Mary Magdalene and the other women went with spices to Jesus' tomb to anoint his body. They came running back to the apostles with exciting news. The body of Jesus was gone from the tomb.

Peter and John went to see if this was true. John arrived first but waited for Peter to go in ahead of him. Then he went in and saw the neatly folded linen cloths.

Later that same week, the disciples were fishing on the lake of Tiberias but did not catch any fish. A man standing on the beach asked them to let down their nets on the other side of the boat. When they pulled it up again it was full of large fish.

St. John, immediately knew this was Jesus, and called to Peter, "It is the Lord." With the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles were filled with new courage and St. John and St. Peter were thrown into prison for preaching the good news without fear.

After the Ascension, John performed many miracles in the name of Jesus. Hearing him preach, hundreds of people were baptized and became followers of Jesus so St. John founded churches in Asia Minor for the people.

John lived for more than 100 years. He led a life of suffering, preached the Gospel, and became bishop of Ephesus. In the last years of his life, when he could no longer preach, his disciples would carry him to the crowds of Christians. His simple message was, "My dear children, love one another."

St. John died in Ephesus (modern Turkey) around the year 100. A church was built over his tomb and was later converted to a mosque.

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