How are you preparing your heart to welcome the baby Jesus this Christmas? Fr Elie, a married Melkite Catholic priest serving in the Archdiocese of Brisbane, shares how he and his family prepare their home and hearts for the coming of Christ at Christmas. They enter into the beauty of their Eastern Catholic tradition, readying their house with love and reverence as they make room for the newborn King in their daily life and prayer.
Transcript
In the Christmas time. As a Melkite and an Eastern Catholic priest. Usually we prepare ourselves at home and in the church, too. At home, we can, like with my family, my children, as a married priest, a married Catholic priest. We do some preparation by doing the manger, the tree, the decoration, and we prepare also a space to pray together as a family. And also in the church here we have lots of events we do like Christmas carols, we do some, visitation for the elderly in our parish. And also we, we do some events for the young people, for the youth, for the ladies committee. And we also we do lots of prayer during the Christmas time. It’s the time when we meet, the baby Jesus in our hearts, the small manger in our body. Let us pray that Jesus Christ come and light the manger, that it will be darkness sometimes, or it will be like some struggle in our lives. So we pray that we keep the praise and the word of God preach through this world, through these doors. We invite everyone in our community to pray the same, to do the same, by praying, decorating, praising God and enjoy the time of Christmas