Have you prepared your gifts for Christmas? As we enter the final week of Advent, our hearts turn toward the joy and wonder of Christ’s coming. Seminarians Dylan and Gabriel bring our Advent series to a close with a meaningful gift exchange. Join them as they share the gifts they’ve prepared for one another, wrap them with care and reflect on the spirit of giving that flows from God’s ultimate gift to us, His Son, Jesus Christ. Watch and witness the joy that comes from giving and receiving in faith.
Transcript
Welcome to the fourth week of Advent. I’m Dylan, I’m Gabriel. We’re fifth year seminarians at Holy Spirit Seminary and we’re journeying towards Christmas, so, we put up our tree. We made our gingerbread houses, done our cards. It’s time for the presents. Oh, this is very exciting. Yes, Christmas is upon us. So, we are in this last week of preparation for Advent. And what better way we thought to prepare than to get each other a gift and to wrap them. Yes, I’m sure the three wise men did a very good job at wrapping their presents, let’s see how we do wrapping ours. So Gabriel, I’m going to leave, you’re going to wrap your present. All righty, let’s take it away. Let’s go. The gift I have for Dylan is this little icon. It’s actually the icon of Mary the Milk Giver. So, recently I’ve just gotten back into my artistry. I wanted to sketch something for him. In the past, Dylan has made me gifts of a sort like this. So, I thought, why not return the favour at a time like this. So, let’s go. So, probably the reason why I chose such an icon, the original of this comes from the sixth century, so, it’s an old icon of Our Lady in the act of nurturing, feeding the newborn child. Of course, in this scene, she’s doing it royally. Christ is dressed in His garments, His royal garments, and so is Our Lady. All you mothers out there watching this, actually, my poor mum watching this, knowing that my wrapping skills aren’t the best. I’ve seen people in the shops do this before, so I’m going off what I’ve seen them do. Oh, I’m butchering that. Okay, I’m so sorry, Dylan. Forgive me, this is painful. If you were having a good day up until this point, this is probably causing you some pain. So, my prayer for you, Dylan, in doing this gift is that Our Lady will gift herself to you in a new way this Christmas season. So, there you have it. That’s as good as it’s going to get. I can tuck in the corners, I’ve always seen my mum do that with hers. And it looks like that’s the only thing I’ve learned from her in terms of wrapping gifts. There you go. Just don’t look at the edges. But there it is, Dylan. Merry Christmas. I look forward to your reaction. So, for Gabriel, I have got this little statue of Jesus. So, a couple of years ago, I bought a 3D printer and I paint miniatures. So, I 3D printed him for I think it was his birthday a couple of years ago, Jesus in Gethsemane crying. And I thought I should give him a happy Jesus for Christmas. I think that’s, you know, a nice thing, have a happy Jesus next to his sad Jesus for Gabriel. So 3D printed it, and painted it up for Gabriel. So put a bit of thought into it. And I know Gabriel likes it when people, you know, make things. It’s better than sort of buying stuff. So I thought it’d be nicer to put some effort into it and then give it to Gabriel as a gift. That’s what I’ve got him for Christmas. I want to kind of disguise what it is, so I’m going to make it seem like I got him a bottle of wine or something. So we’ll see how we go. I thought about getting him a Mary because he hasn’t got a Mary statue by me yet. But I thought the Sacred Heart one was really nice, it’s got like a little gold shining shining chest and the Sacred Heart there, which I know Gabriel is a big fan of. So I thought that will be a bit of a nice personal touch. Gabriel’s a very thoughtful person. So I’m sure he wanted to wrap mine really well, but I don’t know how good he is at wrapping. It’s the thought that counts is what I’m sort of banking on. I know that some of you are probably horrified, horrified by the the level of wrapping but that’s what we’re going to go with. Now, one present for Gabriel, ready to put under the tree. So, we finished wrapping our gifts. Some people did a better job wrapping than others. Look, we did our best. We did do our best. We’re going to practice a little tradition of opening one present a little bit early before Christmas. So, Gabriel, Merry Christmas. Oh, thank you, Dylan. Whatever can it be? Is it safe to shake it like tradition? Oh, yes, very loud and clear. All right, let’s do it. Well look, you’ve done well with your sticky tape, I’ll give you that. The tape was the best part of the wrapping, was my strongest area. There we go. Oh! Oh, wow. That’s so cool. Look what it is! A little Jesus. Sacred Heart is it? Sacred Heart. Wow, that is beautiful, bro. That’s incredible. I love that so much. Thank you. Very good, Gabriel. That is one 3D printed, hand painted, Sacred Heart Jesus for you. It’s 3D printed! Oh my gosh. There’s no way! That is beautiful, thank you so much for that. My pleasure Gabriel, Happy Christmas. Alright, Dylan. There you go. Thank you, Gabriel. Gabriel did a very good job, he put a little bow on this one for me. There we go. Okay, good stuff. Look at that, that is wonderful. And you wrote my full name on there, I wrote D and G. Gabriel’s a very thoughtful man. Let’s go. He’s very good at wrapping, I tell you what, Gabriel probably took a lot more time to wrap than I did, so, that’s good, I appreciate the effort. I like that you’re being very careful with it. Yes. I should have put a delicate sticker on it. Oh, good, okay, very good, very good. I won’t to see it until it’s fully out. Gabriel, that’s fantastic. Look at that! So yeah, it’s meant to be a magnetic frame. Yes. But the magnets, not very strong. That’s alright, we can easily fix it. We can fix that. That’s fantastic. That’s wonderful. There you go. That’s wonderful, Gabriel. Hold it up so that everyone can see it. That’s wonderful. And this is hand done? It is. Oh, that’s very thoughtful, thank you so much, Gabriel. Merry Christmas. That is lovely. That’s really wonderful. I know exactly where I’m going to put that. Excellent, excellent. Thank you. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Well everyone, we wish you a very merry and blessed Christmas. Thank you for joining us these last few weeks of Advent. We pray it’s been a blessed time for you as it has been for us. We pray every sort of Christmas blessing upon your life, upon your family, and may you have that Christmas joy, that Christmas spirit with you as we get so eager in these coming days. Absolutely, absolutely, let’s keep Jesus in our minds. One more week to go till Christmas, one more week till family, till joy, till presents. And we hope you have a phenomenal end of Advent and a phenomenal Christmas and New Year. Amen. God bless you. Merry Christmas. Thanks everyone, Merry Christmas.