Christmas – Page 3 – Where’s Fran?

Christmas on Guam

After all those years in Micronesia, I fancied myself an old hand in Christmas devotions: incensing the manager scene in church, and especially presenting the infant to people after mass for them to venerate.? But never anywhere have I seen this as often as I have during the past week. In Pohnpei and Chuuk, we honored the old Spanish practice of presenting the image of the infant Jesus to those who attended the Christmas masses.? People would come up in long lines to kiss the infant after mass, leaving an offering in the basket nearby if they were so moved.? But this island has taken the veneration to a whole new level.? In one church Read More

Christmas Greetings from Guam

Christmas greetings from Guam?”Where America?s Day Begins,” as they once called this island. Since my return to the Pacific in September I have been residing here, living in the rectory attached to the cathedral with three other priests, two diocesans and Fr. Tom McGrath, a fellow Jesuit. Besides doing masses and other pastoral work for the parish,?I’ve?been teaching a course at the local seminary on Pacific Church History. The greatest challenge for me so far has been getting up on time to say the 5:30 AM mass, something that requires a serious change in lifestyle for an old night owl like me. Read More

Christmas Eve, 2011

Christmas Eve here in Oceanside.? A half hour of confessions in the early afternoon-?a nothing assignment compared with the hours we used to spend in the box in Chuuk and the afternoons of penance services on Pohnpei.? Mass at 4 PM in a crowded church, with Christmas mass celebrated in two other locations at the same time.? Here as everywhere there are crowds who haven?t seen the inside of a church in months, but people who seem to cherish even these occasional ties with the parish.? The traditional Christmas hymns, a homily that tries to speak to our lives on the day after Christmas as much as on the day itself, and communions that seem to go on forever.

Right after mass a visit to the hospital here in town to see a woman with one leg amputated and another Read More

Christmas Preparations in Oceanside

December 17, 2011
Francis X. Hezel, SJ
Christmas, General
Christmas, disability, drugs, exercise, Oceanside, parish, welfare

While I was in the gym working out the other day, I heard a voice coming from the other side of the alcove.? ?Hey, Tony, whatsamaddah wichya?? You can?t even do one push-up?? Dere?s a guy 93 yeahs old doin pushups.? Whatsamaddah wichya??

At that I stopped my 20 push-up routine and looked around the gym to see who this 93-year-old wonder might be.? I scanned the gym before I realized that there was no one doing push-ups but me.? (Gulp!)

The face of suburban poverty is becoming real here in Oceanside.? Read More

Francis X. Hezel, SJ, is a Jesuit priest who has lived and worked in Micronesia since 1963. At different times he has served as high school teacher, school administrator, pastor, and regional superior to the Jesuits of Micronesia. He spent thirty years directing the Micronesian Seminar, a non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Pohnpei, Micronesia.

He has written and spoken widely about social change and its impact on island societies. He has also written several books on Micronesian history, including The First Taint of Civilization, Strangers in Their Own Land, and The New Shape of Old Island Cultures. His most recent book, Making Sense of Micronesia: The Logic of Pacific Island Culture, is available through University of Hawaii Press.

Category - Christmas