December 2020 Newsletter
Bringing Peace and Joy To Chicago’s Families
The Christmas Baskets of Midtown Center has a 40-some year history of making Christmas a little more special for every family it has touched.
Before going further, an important distinction should be made between Midtown Cultural Center and Midtown Center. It’s easy to confuse the two: they share a name and are housed on the same property.
Midtown Cultural Center hosts a variety of activities for men, with a focus on young professionals. It partners with Opus Dei to host spiritual activities such as Evenings of Recollection and retreats. (It also hosts this website and publishes this Newsletter.)
Midtown Center for Boys offers award-winning programs that help urban youth to excel in school and become more virtuous persons. It too shares an affiliation with Opus Dei. Founded in 1965, it has helped tens of thousands of men to enroll in college and pursue professional careers.
Now then… every year the Midtown Center for Boys assembles more than 300 Christmas Baskets for families that need it most. The Christmas Baskets are 30-gallon totes filled with donated Smithfield hams; canned goods; boys’ and girls’ jackets and other clothing essentials; toys; and school supplies.
Some supplies come from Santa’s Helpers, a nonprofit that flexes its muscle every year to collect and distribute many essential supplies to its partners. But Midtown also purchases many goods, such as the totes themselves.
Baskets are distributed on the traditional family-to-family giving day when volunteers gather at Midtown to distribute dozens of Christmas Baskets. This year’s family-to-family giving day will be Saturday, December 19. Individuals and families will come to Midtown to pick up and personally deliver one or two Christmas baskets to designated recipients.
How You Can Help
Midtown welcomes any and every form of help. Financial donations, donations of unused items, or participation in the family-to-family giving day are all much-needed and will bring peace and comfort to a family this Christmas. To help out, please contact Midtown Program Director Carlos Martinez.
There is a second opportunity to volunteer as a helper. Santa’s Helpers, the organization mentioned earlier that helps a wider network of families, needs help assembling and distributing supplies. They and other partners will gather at 5:30am on Saturday, December 12 at a location in Zion, IL. The volunteer activity will conclude by 10am. Those interested in helping can also reach out to Carlos Martinez.
Book Review: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)
“MARLEY was dead: to begin with.” So begins A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843). A curious way to begin a Christmas story, though one that begins to make sense as we follow the story or carol until its final chapter in which the now reformed and altered Ebenezer Scrooge joyfully proclaims, “Merry Christmas!” just as the entire Carol concludes: “God bless Us, Every One”. It might be recalled that Dickens writes his now famous Carol during a period of time when the British were exploring and re-evaluating Christmas traditions such as huge family meals, a spirit of giving, and Christmas carols. And it will be noted that Dickens divides his work not into chapters, but into five staves. A stave being “a verse or stanza of a poem” or another term for the set of five lines that form a musical staff. Seen in this way, Dickens’s story now shows itself to be a real Christmas Carol that tells us the story of Ebenezer Scrooges’ journey from the miserly, cold-hearted uncle who constantly smoothers the spirit of Christmas with his characteristic “Bah! Humbug!” grumblings to the joyfully uncle who seeks, with his selfless and generous munificence, to bring a touch of warmth and Christmas joy to needy, poor, yet dignified families. And as with every Christmas carol, Dickens evokes a spirit of reflection and stirs within us a longing to turn from our own self-seeking “Bah, Humbug” attitude to a rediscovery of the joy that comes from generously giving to those around us who appear most in need. By accompanying Scrooge through his encounters with the Spirits of Christmas, we come to realize that we too are invited to rediscover this year, as in every year, the joy of Christmas giving.
In the Words of Pope Francis: “Sin and our lack of love is the worst kind of poverty”
On Sunday, November 15, 2020, Pope Francis celebrated Mass to mark the 4th annual World Day of the Poor. With the approach of the holidays (in the USA, Thanksgiving, and then, universally, Christmas), the Holy Father encouraged us to ask ourselves: “What can I give to others?” so as “to be like Jesus, who gave of himself and was born in the manger.”
In his homily, Pope Francis tells us that the poor are at the heart of the Gospel: “We cannot understand the Gospel without the poor. The poor are like Jesus himself, who, though rich, emptied himself, made himself poor, even taking sin upon himself: the worst kind of poverty.” In giving of ourselves to the poor, we are guaranteed and “eternal income” of love.
Perhaps reflecting on the holy Father’s words (found here) can help us prepare for the upcoming holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas by resolving to offer, in some concrete way, our prayers, time, and/or money to the poor.
Prelate Shares Reflections on the Vocation to Opus Dei
The Prelate of Opus Dei recently issued a letter inviting readers to reflect on the vocation to Opus Dei. He opened by describing the mission of Opus Dei and the vocational call to form a part of it, before writing on the different types of vocations found within the prelature. The letter concisely outlines the various aspects of these vocations, aptly describing their differences in availability as well as their fundamental likeness.
Ordination of 27 Deacons of the Prelature in Rome
On Saturday, November 21, 2020, twenty-seven members of Opus Dei from 14 different countries were ordained transitional deacons by Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta. The ordination took place in the Church of Our Lady of the Angels, in the Roman College of the Holy Cross (the international seminary of the Prelature in Rome). Due to the pandemic, only residents of the Roman College were able to be present. The Mass was streamed online so that family and friends could attend virtually. We thank God for these newly ordained deacons and let us accompany them with our prayers as they prepare for ordination to the priesthood on May 22, 2021.
At the end of the ceremony, the Prelate of Opus Dei, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, addressed the newly ordained deacons. He encouraged them to be centered on Jesus Christ in the Eucharist in order to be in love with Christ, and thus be servants of all souls.
For a summary of the ceremony, homily, pictures, and for a recording of the entire ceremony, visit this page on the Opus Dei website.
Men’s Recollection at St. Mary of the Angels
For the foreseeable future, there will only be one Evening of Recollection in English at Midtown. It will be held on the second Monday of each month from 7:00-9:00pm. St. Mary of the Angels Parish (1850 North Hermitage Avenue) is hosting the Recollections. We meet in the main Church, which allows ample room for social distancing. Please bring and wear a face mask.
Support Midtown Cultural Center
You can now make tax-deductible donations online at our secure site. Thank you for your generosity!
“Your work must become a conversation with Our Father in heaven.”
— St. Josemaría Escrivá