My emphasis added, of course.
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Don’t expect Christmas to be perfect this year, Nancy DeRycke says. (Christmas is perfect, for it brought the Saviour of the World, Redemptor Mundi, into our midst. Commercial woes do not detract from this reality.)

After all, the beginnings of the holiday were far from perfect.

“If we really look at the tradition of Christmas, what was happening in Bethlehem, Jesus was born in a manger,” said DeRycke, lay minister of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Henrietta. (This was supposed to happen. It was God’s will. Perhaps Nancy DeRycke knows something we and two thousand years of theologians don’t know?)

“There was no room for his head, no place,” she said. “It wasn’t perfect, but they found joy in that.”

This year, despite the economy and other sorrows, DeRycke and other local ministers say there’s still much to find joy in, including spending time with family and friends. (Well isn’t that a profound realization.)

For their Christmas sermons, many ministers plan on telling their congregants to take heart this holiday season and remember the true meaning of Christmas.

“There’s just so much negativity, and so much down and so much doom and gloom around,” said Vince DiPaola, senior pastor of Lakeshore Community Church in Greece. “We forget that God designed Christmas to be a time of cheer.” (Note how cheerful it was for the Holy Innocents.)

DiPaola, whose church has about 750 to 800 members, said he plans on telling his congregation today about accepting joy in their lives.

In years past, DiPaola also talked during Christmas about hope and about the scene where Jesus was born.

This year, Lakeshore is hosting a series called, “Cheer up, it’s Christmas,” which will include a message on Sunday about preparing for an unpredictable 2010.

“You can’t choose your circumstances,” DiPaola said, “but you can choose to be joyful no matter what. It comes from just your perspective. What are you going to focus on?” (This Protestant brother seems more profound in his theology and ministry than Mrs. DeRycke.)

Bill Hoffman, interim pastor of the Brighton Reformed Church, said many people were looking for a sign from God today amid all the problems in the world.

“They’re looking for something,” Hoffman said. “And I think the answer is: Even though I may be persecuted, or something is wrong, I can still trust in God and find that peace.” (Amen.)

During his Christmas sermon this past weekend, Hoffman told parishioners that Jesus was a sign from God. (Sign, sir? Nay, He was God. Fully man, fully divine.)

“We want God to do something,” Hoffman said, “and God sends” Jesus.

People should still look to God when they have troubles today, Hoffman added.

Brighton Reformed Church will have a service with carols and scripture readings this evening without a sermon.

For his Christmas sermon, Sammy King, pastor of the Trinity Missionary Baptist Church in Rochester, said he talked about loving, caring and sharing. King’s sermon was this past Sunday; Trinity Missionary will not have a service on Christmas Day, he said.

“Blessings are to share,” King said. “That is what we really have gotten away from. We have to care about our brothers and sisters.”

To emphasize that point, Trinity Missionary gave away about 70 Christmas dinner baskets to neighbors on Tuesday night, King said.

“(God) put you in the community to be a light and an inspiration and a help to that community,” he said. “When they reach out, we must reach back to them.”

Christmas is one of the most important services for a church because it usually comes with increased attendance, DeRycke said. (No. Christmas is not important because of “increased attendance,” madame. It is important because it set into action the promises of God for thousands of years to the Jewish people. He opened the gates of Heaven to all those who had died and who will die. He came to save all mankind, and this is why Christmas is important. No, Mrs. DeRycke, Christmas doesn’t exist to celebrate demographics. It exists to remind us of the joy with which we should lead our lives, the zeal for the poor which we ought to lead, our love for Christ in the Most Blessed Sacrament, and the enormous debt which we owe to our God and Saviour, who alone is the mighty one.)

“We have a lot of visitors and guests,” she said. “Christmas kind of pulls at people’s hearts and gets them looking for deeper meaning.” (Does this mean she’ll point them towards the nearest reverent Mass? I think not. She’ll just feed them the same banal tripe they subsist on twice annually.)

Along with not trying to make Christmas perfect, DeRycke said she plans on telling congregants about taking time to celebrate the holiday, no matter what stress or bustle it might bring.

“Just enjoy Christmas.”

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That was the most un-profound and bland description of Christmas I have ever heard from a Christian minister. I’m sorry, but it is.

By the way, the Democrat and Chronicle, which has this on its Christmas Eve front page, includes Nancy DeRycke with “area clergy,” something which she is not. Even by Protestant standards. Also note, that at no point does it state the denomination of Nancy DeRycke and her parish. For the record, it is CINO.

Catholic In Name Only.

Tags: Nancy, Progressive Drivel

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