Christmas Memories
by fiddlehead bill
All Christmas's are special, some inspirational, and a few reach out to touch the humanity within us. It is at these times my memories are vivid. They haunt me in a nice way, one that I do not wish to forget. The experience of 1995 was special, not because of anything I did, but for what I experienced that Christmas Eve.
That year our congregation was looking for a priest to celebrate Midnight Mass with us. The shortage of priests in the area, and the wishes of every congregation to have one appeared to make it impossible for our small church at Lismore to find one. Our parish council would not give up - one major reason stands out for me. It was the one night of the year when all the community came together. Our church was small, our choir even smaller, however on that night the choir was bolstered by many members of local Protestant churches who came to help us celebrate in song and prayer the joys of Christmas.
Just when it seemed hopeless Father Bernie MacDonald from St. FX University volunteered to help us out. It was all the more special because he was very sick and dying of cancer at the time. He wanted to come.
When Mass started, he told us how much he loved to be with us that night to celebrate the joys of the season with such a special community united here for Christmas. Not all of us knew this priest but we quickly got to know him that night.
Several times he had to sit down because his pain was so bad. He would say with a smile, "Just give me a minute and I will continue." He ignored the pain and pushed himself to continue. He loved being with us, spreading the Christmas spirit of love and peace. Although he never once complained we understood his pain. For many of us, there was not a dry eye in the church. His was a Christmas gift to all of us - a giving of one's self for others. We all learned and shared the true meaning of Christmas that night.
He died shortly after that, but the memory of that night lives long in our hearts.
In 1997 in my own home church on Christmas Eve I was taken back. As a child, I attended the church in New Glasgow until the 1970's. There was at that time a move on to modernize the church. Up behind the alter there was a wonderful stained glass window that I grown to love. The window was considered behind the time, and that year they commissioned a large piece of art work to cover it. It was to make the area behind the alter more attractive to the younger people.
I never said anything, but I missed the stained glass window, it meant more to me than the new art work. Some thirty five years later someone made a discovery. The stained glass window was more attractive than the art work. The art work had lost it's luster.
On Christmas Eve 1997, visiting my home church I noticed the art work was gone, I looked at the window anew after not seeing it for over thirty years. I remember every detail. It was a special thrill for me.
The Christmas of 2001 was the most memorial of all - I will never forget it! That Christmas Eve an elderly gentleman came to church and sat in the back pew with us. We noticed he was crying and wishing to help we asked if there was anything we could do. He looked at us and said, "In 1944 on Christmas Eve, I was in a concentration camp near Poland, there was little food, and I was near death. Maybe it was my age, 16 at the time, or the fact I lived 9 miles down the road, or what ever but I was released by the Germans and told to walk home. It took all my energy but I managed to walk home and open the door. (Mom looked as frail as I did). We were so overjoyed to see each other we cried. There were no presents that Christmas but the presence of each of us was enough.
"In remembrance of that occasion, I return to church every Christmas Eve where I relive the memories of that night and feel not alone with so many of you around me."
That year he died but his story lives on in the hearts of each of us who sat in the back pew on Christmas Eve. We will say a prayer for him and understand in our own hearts the true meaning of Christmas this year and every year.
(To John S------ 2001, God Bless!) And to all of you this season, God Bless, and may your memories be memorial.
From all of us in the castle, may this be a memorial Merry Christmas.
Bill McTague aka, fiddlehead bill
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