St. Nicholas of Myra!

Making Mitres at our St. Nicholas Feast - much fun was had by all !

Notes from the Children's Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Advent (also the Feast of St. Nicholas).

Good morning and a blessed Advent to all of you! Blessed Advent.

What does it mean to prepare the way? What is preparation?

Did you see the snow yesterday? Think of snowplows and snow shovels. Before we go out in the snow, we need to get ready. We need to prepare the way: to shovel the sidewalk or plow the street or clear off the car. If I don’t use this snow broom to clean off my windshield this morning, then I can’t drive here, because I can’t see where I am going! Only after this work is done, then we can go on our way to do what we need to do. The plows and brooms clear away the junk so that we can go about doing our work.

Do any of you like to eat pancakes? Well, first you have to heat up the pan and make the batter. This is preparing the way for pancakes, preparing the way for breakfast!

Who is John the Baptist? Here is an old picture, an icon, of St. John the Baptist. How did he prepare the way for the Lord Jesus? By telling the people that they needed to change, and by baptizing all the people, and by telling them that Jesus was coming.

I have another question for you: Who is Saint Nicholas? I also have an icon of him as well.
How does Saint Nicholas prepare the way for us to celebrate Christmas? St. Nicholas teaches us that we show Jesus that we love him when we give to help other people. We give gifts to Jesus when we give gifts to those who need them.

Let me tell you the most famous story about St. Nicholas. It actually starts out very sad. When he was a young man, both of Nicholas’ parents died from a bad disease that was going around. Like the swine flu, but much worse. They left him the money that they had. But Nicholas wanted to be a priest, and he decided to give his money away. He heard about a family in his town who was very poor, and the three young daughters were going to be sold as slaves. Their father did not know what else to do! Nicholas decided to act. Late at night, when everyone was asleep, he decided to secretly drop a bag of gold through one of the windows in the family’s house. (Some people say that it landed in a shoe or in a stocking that was hanging by the fire to dry out.) The family was so happy that one of the daughters did not have to be a slave now, but the other 2 girls were still in danger. So Nicholas went back again, two different nights, to secretly drop bags of gold through an open window. But the third time, the father of the girls was overcome with curiosity to know who their secret gift-giver was, so he stayed up late at night and ran out when he saw the bag of gold dropped in. Around a corner in the street, he caught up to Nicholas and thanked him, dropping to his knees. Nicholas told the father to thank God, not him, and to keep the gifts of gold a secret.

But everyone eventually heard about St. Nicholas, and how he cares for young children who are in need or danger.

So I want you to remember: John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus when he lived here on earth. And St. Nicholas prepares the way for Christmas every year. And I want you to try to be like St. Nicholas: to share what you have, to give gifts to those who are poor or hungry or needy. That will make this to be for you the best Christmas ever!