By Nicole Hillman

Joy and blessings are what we all hope for during the Christmas season. Did you know the best source of joy and blessings one can receive is by giving to others? It is proven that the happiest people in the world are people who serve and give to others. Jesus taught the disciples that it is more of a blessing to give than to receive. There is a traditional Christmas song about counting your blessings but do you count the number of ways that you bless others?

This past November our parish middle school youth program did a service project of putting together personal hygiene kits for the homeless. The middle school youth also made cookies and wrote cards. I got the privilege of delivering them after our service project day. It was the best feeling anyone could have ever asked for. A group of homeless men helped me unload my truck and they couldn’t believe a group of middle school youth would do so much work for them. They were so grateful, one gentleman came up to me just before I left and said, "May God bless you the way you and these kids have blessed us."

During the holiday season we, as Christians, are offered many different opportunities to reach out and help those less fortunate. At our parishes we have angle trees, St. Vincent de Paul food drives, and many other ways to donate money or gifts. At the stores you can give your spare change to the Salvation Army. We can donate toys in Toys for Tots drives.

spiritandsong.com has teamed up this Christmas season with Mercy Corps and produced a fabulous Christmas CD called Christmas Child. spiritandsong.com will donate 25 percent of the purchase price to support Mercy Corps’ relief efforts around the globe.

This Christmas season find an organization to support, or better yet, give of your time to those who could use some Christmas spirit.

And somewhere, someone is waiting
for someone to love;
while somewhere, someone is preaching
about a gift sent from above.
But somewhere, someone is needing
more than just prayers,
'cause in the cold outside,
it's hard to hide,
and what they need is us to be there.
- Jesse Manibusan