In December 1531, a beautiful woman appeared to an Indigenous farmer named Juan Diego outside of Mexico City. Over the next few visits this woman, who Juan Diego eventually learned was the Virgin Mary, asked him to petition his bishop to build a church. She also told Juan Diego to bring roses to the bishop, though it was not the season for roses. When he did as she instructed and opened his tilma before the bishop the roses dropped to the floor and an image of Our Lady appeared on his cloak.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has named the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 as a day of solidarity with immigrants and refugees.
Have the students work together to print the following prayer developed by Catholic Relief Services on a large sheet of butcher paper. Pin the prayer on a wall in the classroom.
Hail Mary, Lady of Peace, we pray for the peace in our world; make us peacemakers.
Hail Mary, Friend of Common People, unite us across economic lines; together let us raise up the cause of the oppressed.
Hail Mary, Mother of Mexico, help us both appreciate Latin America’s culture and work to end its poverty.
Hail Mary, Mother of the Infant Jesus, we pray for all children who are victims of war and hunger; let us stand for them.
Hail Mary, Wife of the Carpenter, Joseph, we pray for the rights of hardworking laborers in all the world; let their dignity be recognized.
Hail Mary, Woman of All Generations, move us to speak for the elderly who lack adequate health care and shelter.
Hail Mary, Homeless Mother, we pray for those without homes; let us advocate for affordable housing.
Hail Mary, Lady of All Colors, show us how to love all people by challenging racism and discrimination.
Hail Mary, Mother of Our World, make us global citizens, working for justice and well-being in all the world.
Amen
Next, share a link to Native Land Digital. Have the students check in on the site and locate the native people that once resided on the land where their ancestors first came to this country. Provide colored markers and have the students print the name of the indigenous people from their ancestral land on the prayer poster.
When everyone has printed a place, pray the prayer together with the class.
This famous short story written by William Sydney Porter under the penname “O. Henry” was first published in one of the New York City newspapers at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is a remarkable story of unfailing love between a husband and wife, and of self-gifts, both appropriate topics for Advent and Christmas. Share this story with your students. Ask them to complete both the Comprehension and Reflection questions.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Delia counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Delia did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.
In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James Dillingham Young.”
The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called “Jim” and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Delia. Which is all very good.
Delia finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling—something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.
There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an eight dollar flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Delia, being slender, had mastered the art.
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass, her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Delia’s hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Delia would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.
So now Delia’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.
On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: “Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” One flight up Delia ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the “Sofronie.”
“Will you buy my hair?” asked Delia.
“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take yer hat off and let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
“Give it to me quick,” said Delia.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation—as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value—the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the eighty-seven cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.
When Delia reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends—a mammoth task.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do—oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?”
At seven o’clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.
Jim was never late. Delia doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the comer of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think I am still pretty.”
The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two—and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Delia, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.
Delia wriggled off the table and went for him.
“Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It’ll grow out again—you won’t mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.”
“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.
“Cut it off and sold it,” said Delia. “Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?”
Jim looked about the room curiously.
“You say your hair is gone?” he said, with an air almost of idiocy.
“You needn’t look for it,” said Delia. “It’s sold, I tell you—sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Delia. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year—what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.
Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first.”
White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.
For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side and back, that Delia had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims—just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.
But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”
And them Delia leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.
“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.”
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.
“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ’em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.”
The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
Comprehension
How much had Jim’s salary been reduced?
What were the most precious possessions of the married couple?
How much was the wife paid for the sale of her hair?
What did the wife do with the money she received for her hair?
Why was the husband dumbfounded when he saw his Christmas gift—the platinum chain for his watch?
Reflection
What do the actions of the husband and wife tell us about real love?
Why does O. Henry compare this husband and wife to the magi of Scripture?
Here’s an activity and reflection to accompany either the Feast of the Immaculate Conception or the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
If you could create the ideal mother, what would she be like?
Have the students use an art medium of their choice to design the perfect mother.
Then have them listen and reflect on the Mother of Jesus (25:18) by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
This exercise works well as a classroom prayer and meditation.
Share this story in your own words:
An older man came to the library every evening, sitting at the same table each time. At 9:50 the announcement came: “The library is closing in ten minutes.” Still the man wouldn’t leave. Every night the librarian would have to come to his table and tell him that it was time to leave.
One night, she could resist no longer. “Why do you come here each night? You never have a book. All you do is sit here.”
“Oh,” the man said. “Why I am waiting for my friend. My friend is the most beautiful person you could ever meet. So talented in many ways. I love my friend so much. If you give me just a few more minutes, my friend is bound to come.”
So the librarian gave the man some extra time. A few minutes later, as the library was being closed, she returned to the man and told him to leave.
“My friend is extremely busy,” the man said on his way out into the night. “But tomorrow my friend will certainly be here.”
Ask the students to share some thoughts on what the story means. They should recognize that the older man is meant to represent God. The man’s friend is meant to represent each of them.
Point out that God longs to spend time with each of us. How patiently God waits for us. God will never give up on us. God will always be waiting. It’s up to us to notice God’s presence.
Play a reflective song as an interlude, perhaps “Center of My Life” by Paul Inwood.
Have the students turn to Psalm 139 in their Bibles. Tell the students to spend a few minutes reflecting on the words of the psalm. Explain that Psalm 139 is a message that God is a loving, caring presence in their lives and has been intimately connected with their lives since they were first conceived.
Ask the students to complete the following sentences as a journal exercise:
The thought of a God who is very close to me . .
When God examines my heart, he finds that I am . . .
As appropriate, call on students to share their finished sentences either with a partner or with the entire class.
Conclude by praying the Our Father.
This litany--appropriate for Advent--revolves around the theme of light and darkness.
Preparation
Assign students to search for Scripture passages around the theme of light and darkness. Duplicate pages of a Bible concordance that use the words light and darkness and give them to each student. Vary the pages of the concordance to include examples of light and darkness from several different books of the Bible.
Say something like:
Look for passages where light and darkness are used as symbols for good and evil. Skim down the concordance pages until you find a passage that seems to have symbolic meaning. Then look up the passage in the Bible to verify your guess. If you find that it is a meaningful passage for our light-darkness theme, copy it on a 3x5 card. Write down the Scripture reference and the parts of the passage that fit the theme.
Litany
Give everyone a taper. Dim the lights or darken the room completely. Light a larger candle and read Genesis 1:1-5. As each person reads his or her chosen candle, their taper is lit. Go around the room until everyone has read their passage. Conclude with the following prayer:
The light of Christ has been entrusted to us to keep burning brightly. May we always walk as children of the light. May we keep the flame of faith alive in our hearts. We ask this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ who is the light of the world. Amen.
Play a reflective song with lyrics that highlight the theme of Jesus as the light of the world.
The infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke reveal much about the identity and mission of Jesus. Have the students look up and print the Scripture quotations to match the following descriptions. Then have them answer the question at the bottom. Have the students meet in pairs to discuss their responses after they have finished.
Jesus was born . . .
…in an insignificant, back-water country (Mt 2:6)
…to an oppressed people (Lk 2:1)
…far from home (Lk 2:4)
…in a barn (Lk 2:7)
…to an unwed mother (Mt 1:18; Lk 1:34–35)
…to an unmarried couple (Mt 1:18)
…into poverty (Lk 2:24)
…with a prophetic, but fairly common name (Lk 1:31)
…as a threat to power (Mt 2:16)
…with a death sentence hanging over him (Mt 2:13)
…on the run as a fugitive and refugee (Mt 2:13–15)
…as Messiah—Emmanuel—Son of God
What does this all tell you about Jesus?
In conclusion, set up a nativity scene in class and ask students to describe at least two things they known now about this scene that they after reading these Gospel passages.
St. Maximillian Kolbe, the saint of Auschwitz, had a great devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He encouraged all people to consecrate themselves to Mary or to renew their consecration to Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8.
On December 8, 1940, Fr. Kolbe published his final article in his publication, the Knight, just months before his arrest and martyrdom. Here is the text of the article:
Once again, December 8th is approaching, the Feast of The Immaculate Conception.
Whoever can, should receive the Sacrament of Penance. Whoever cannot, because of prohibiting circumstances, should cleanse his soul by acts of perfect contrition: i.e., the sorrow of a loving child who does not consider so much the pain or the reward as he does the pardon from his father and mother to whom he has brought displeasure.
Therefore, this desire is good: to purify our souls on the feast of her whose soul was never stained.
Those souls who have the privilege of knowing her intimately, love her fervently. Most carefully they seek continually to purify and refine their conscience and in this way to resemble her more and more, to attach themselves to her, to please her.
But in what does the evil which stains the soul consist?
If virtue consists in the love of God and of all that which springs from love, evil will be all that which is opposed to love. This the soul should always fear; it should therefore desire to be ever more immaculate, after the example of its beloved Lady and spiritual Mother.
Those souls consecrated to her in a special way ought to renew their offering on that day. Also, the members of The Militia of Mary Immaculate should renew their act of consecration—by which they may gain a plenary indulgence, that is, the remission of all the punishment which, after the sin has been forgiven, they must expiate here on earth or in Purgatory.
On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, having received the Sacrament of Penance and having made the act of consecration, and also having thereby gained the remission of punishments, the soul should more easily find interior peace, even joy, for the soul knows that no cross, whether from within or from without, can come without God’s permission, which is that of a truly loving Father. He allows only what is for the greater good of souls as far as eternal salvation is concerned.
May the fruit of this feast be an ever greater purity of conscience and an ever deeper peace. May it be a peace of resignation to Divine Providence. May it be an ever more generous readiness in the most perfect fulfillment of duty, thereby giving tangible proof of love for our spiritual Mother and our heavenly Father.
[Signed] Maximilian Kolbe
With your students, explore the process of consecration to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This video by Fr. Michael Gaitley MIC explains its meaning. Fr. Gaitley also has written 33 Days to Morning Glory which is a thirty-three day retreat leading to Marian consecration. It may be appropriate within a theology course as a communal retreat or as part of your school’s campus ministry program.
As Christmas approaches, remember to tell your students not only that Santa Claus is “real,” but that the saintly figure behind the legend is even more of an inspiration than the jolly perennial visitor of mythical renown! On December 6, the Catholic Church celebrates the Memorial of St. Nicholas of Myra (ca. AD 270 – 343), and on December 7, the Memorial of St. Ambrose (ca. 340 – 397). These two holy men actually have a fair amount in common:
They were both bishops and profoundly intellectual leaders within the Church;
They were both staunch opponents of the Arian heresy;
They were both greatly devoted to selflessly serving the poor and oppressed;
They both lived during the same epoch in Church history;
They were both responsible for noteworthy conversions (with Nicholas inspiring others to turn away from the Arian heresy, and with Ambrose playing a key role in the conversion of St. Augustine of Hippo);
They both led many hearts to the Good News of Jesus Christ through their teachings and example, practicing what they preached (cf. Matthew 23:3b).
The occasion of these two back-to-back memorials on the liturgical calendar is a crucial opportunity to learn more about the lives of these two saintly men, both for your own inspiration as a teacher and in order to lead your students to a greater awareness of these saints’ multiple contributions to the Church and to the kingdom of God by extension. Below are some resources to use in your classroom (and be sure to tell your students about how St. Nicholas [in]famously “took matters into his own hands” at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325)!
Saint Nicholas (December 6) Resources:
Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Nicholas of Myra
Catholic Online: St. Nicholas (opening with a brief introductory video)
National Geographic: St. Nicholas to Santa - The Surprising Origins of Mr. Claus
The St. Nicholas Center: Discovering the Truth About Santa Claus
St. Ambrose (December 7) Resources:
Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Ambrose
Catholic Online: St. Ambrose (opening with a brief introductory video)
Franciscan Media: St. Ambrose
St. Ambrose: Strangest Life Story Ever? (8 things to know and share) (from Jimmy Akin’s blog at the National Catholic Register, December 2013)
St. Nicholas of Myra, pray for us!
Saint Ambrose, pray for us!
