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Christmas in Prison

Upon a Midnight Not So Clear, Some Wise Men from the East Appear

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on December 21, 2011 · 18 comments

Wise Men from the East, East of Eden, the Gifts of the Magi, Birth of Christ, gold frankincense myrrh, Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, These Stone Walls, Saint Matthew, Christmas in prison, Magi, Herod, Bethlehem, midrash, Father Georges Lemaitre, aggadah, Jewish Christians, Balaam, Old Testament, Infancy Narrative, Saint Luke, Annunciation, John the Baptist, Ark of the Covenant, Zoroaster, fall of man, Adam and Eve, Land of Nod, Star of Bethlehem, Blessed John Henry Newman

. . . But this morning, my Japanese friend, Koji, stopped by with some coffee he brewed using an old sock. (Trust me, you don’t want the gory details!). Koji handed me a cup – it’s pretty good, actually – and asked, “What can you tell me about the Magi?” That was odd because I’ve been thinking of writing about the Magi for Christmas. I told Koji I’ll let him read this post when finished. Maybe he’ll bring me more coffee made with that old sock of his. Lord, give me the strength to bear my blessings! Anyway, there’s no better place to begin the Magi story than St. Matthew’s own words: . . .

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Don We Now Our Gray Apparel: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas 17 Times

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on December 22, 2010 · 16 comments

The Grinch who stole Christmas, Rev. Gordon MacRae, The Catholic League Bill Donohue, the culture wars, Charles Dickens A Christmas Story, Christmas in prison, Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, Rev. Gordon MacRae, the Grinch, The Catholic League, Bill Donohue, culture wars, Christmas in prison,

. . . The readers of These Stone Walls have cast a light into the darkness and spiritual isolation of prison this year. It’s a light that’s magnified ever so brightly, in my life and in yours, by the birth of Christ. The Grinch doesn’t really stand a chance! He never did! . . .

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Disperse the Gloomy Clouds of Night

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on December 9, 2009 · 9 comments

Pornchai Moontri, Depression in Prison, Depression, Christmas in Prison, Depression during the Holidays, Depression during Christmas, O Come O Come Emmanuel, Noonday Devil

. . . Some prisoners have very little outside of here. Last year on Christmas day, I just had to get outside. It was cold, and it had snowed, but I went to the small, caged-in yard in front of this building anyway. A guard closed the gate behind me, locking me in the snow-covered yard for an hour. The only other person there was a young man I did not know. He sat on a frozen wooden bench staring at his shoes. It was a sad sight on Christmas Day. I walked over and sat next to him. “JJ” was hostile and angry, but under that – it’s almost always so – was a world of hurt. In an hour on Christmas afternoon I learned that JJ was twenty-two years old, had grown up in Boston in seventeen foster homes, had ADHD, and is now in prison for the first time because it’s where his incredibly poor judgment took him. Before prison, JJ was homeless, drifting from shelter to shelter. On this Christmas Day, he came face to face with the empty wreckage of his life. He was outside in the cold alone because he had to get away from the seven other prisoners in whose cell he had landed just the day before. JJ had not had a single contact beyond these prison walls. . . .

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