Hello Sarah,
Your forum is interesting, and I would like to give you a spot as to the question about Christmas.
The story is a true one and occurred just a few years back in France, to a young girl named Hélène.
Hélène was (is) the elder daughter of a very Catholic abiding family, but with her friends at school she was always hearing about well doing foreign cultures and religions, she was always being told that all Gods were basically one, it was merely a language or a name that differentiated who God in essence was. It just so happened she was Catholic, but all have an equal right to salvation (if one believes in that!) disregardent of our beliefs, as long as we respect the beliefs of all. In fact, religion is in essence precisely the cause of so many wars in history: (the crusades) the elimination of great civilisations (South America) and the burning of people (Inquisition) and name it all. The fact is that we all have our own beliefs and what today needs to be promoted, is tolerance and all are to be considered Holy. Hélène soon accepted religious freedom, and later on stepped into religious disregard and indifference. She was living her own life and definitely affranchised from all that had any connotation of her education and past.
Christmas was coming, and of course, Hélène had no intention of going to Mass with her family. She laughed at the silliness of these Christmas preparations and she simply went to bed and slept. That night she had a dream that changed the course of her life, she even wrote the story thereof later on.
She dreamed that she went into the grange where the child Our Lord Jesus was born, and stood there between the three kings on one side and the shepherds on the other. All were giving their presents to the most beautiful child she had ever set her eyes upon. Soon she felt extreme embarrassment for not having anything herself to offer as present and was about to run out to find something when the child called her and asked where she was off to. “I’ll be back in a moment.” Said Hélène. The child told her to stay, and asked what she had on her shoulders that seemed to way her so heavily. “Oh, that’s nothing, just personal things”. “Give them to me” ordered the child to Hélène’s horror. “Oh! No, they are bad and horrid things. I cannot give them to you!.” “But do you not know that I have come to the world very precisely to take these burdens from you?” Hélène walked forwards and gave the burden to the child, and started to cry, that cry of relief and joy that drained her from her passed life. She had understood that Christmas was not what she had despised so much in that it, not only had simply become a commercial brawl but, accepted that this Child is indeed the one and only Redeemer.
Wishing you a merry Christmas,
Kind and best regards to you all,
Robert.