Welcome to St. Teresa of Avila!  We are a Eucharistic community rooted in Roman Cathuolic Traditions, and gifted by God with time, talent and treasure.  We are dedicated to witnessing our faith through worship, education, evangelization and nurturing our faith family through parish life and Christian service.
 

A Christmas Message from the Pastor

With or Without
For people of faith the crib is the center of our Christmas celebration.  Many families put up the crib early in Advent, but it is empty.  Gradually they add the figures:  first Mary and Joseph, then the shepherds, then the animals, and last of all on Christmas Eve night they reverently place the baby Jesus in the manger.
 
The crib has meaning because of faith.  Imagine what Christmas would be without faith.  We would not know God and his great love.  Without faith the first figure to go from the crib would be Jesus himself.  Why should we be concerned about a Jewish baby born in poverty more than twenty centuries ago?
 
Next to go would be Mary.  To us without faith Mary would be an unknown Jewish girl who lived and died like all the other girls in her village.  We would not know and love her as the Mother of God and our Mother.  Of course, Joseph would go too, since without faith we would not cherish his relationship to Mary and to Jesus.  We would not care about the shepherds; they themselves would take their sheep back to the fields, and the animals would wander away to look for a warm place for the night.  We would be the last to go.  Without faith a great darkness would come over our lives, and we would be no better off than the vicious King Herod, who attempted to kill the infant Jesus.
 
Without faith our entire lives would be different.  The crucifixion would look like a failure, and all the sayings of Jesus would have no more meaning than the reflections of a forgotten rabbi or an unrecognized prophet.  Without faith we would have no Church, no Eucharist, and no hope for eternal life!
 
Gift of Faith
But the truth is that Jesus has cured us of spiritual blindness.  He has given us the gift of faith!  That is why our Christmas is so surrounded by lights, the symbol of faith.  Multiple candles adorn the altar in church and they enhance our Christmas decorations at home.  The ornaments on our Christmas tree come alive in the reflection of the lights strung throughout the tree.
 
When Isaiah wrote of the future age, which is ours to enjoy, he put a strong emphasis on vision and light.  At Baptism the priest gave us a candle and said, “Receive the light of Christ.”  That light is the gift of faith, and it is faith that makes all the difference.  Even nature cooperates since from the time of Christmas the days gradually grow longer and the hours of light slowly increase. 
 
Light of the World
If we had to choose one image to symbolize what Christmas is all about, we should choose the image of light.  We should choose light for two reasons.  First, Jesus himself chose light to describe why he came into the world, saying: “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
 
Before Jesus came on Christmas, people were lost, staggering about in darkness.  By his birth, Jesus changed all that.  He rescued us from darkness and showed us the way to the Father.
 
The second reason that light is a perfect symbol of Christmas is because Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the light of the world… Your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”  In other words, just as Jesus is a light for us, so we are to be a light for others.  We’re to show them the way out of darkness, as Jesus did for us.
 
Christmas is all about celebrating the victory of light over darkness.  It celebrates the fact that Jesus came as a light into the darkness of our world, rescued us, and showed us the way to the Father.  It celebrates the fact that Jesus has called us to be a light in our world, just as he was a light in his world.
 
Our custom of gift-giving at Christmas follows the example of God the Father, who gave the first Christmas gift, his only begotten Son.  And yet his Son is not his first gift since something is needed for us to embrace Jesus with understanding, love, and gratitude.  That something is the gift of faith, which puts Jesus back in the crib and which puts meaning, purpose, and hope into our lives.
 
May God bless you and your family with a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with good health, happiness, and holiness!
 
In His Light and Love,
Fr. Mike Ingram