NEW YORK. What do you get when you combine composer Leonard Bernstein, lyricist Stephen Sondheim, playwright Arthur Laurents and choreographer Jerome Robbins, then throw director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner into the mix?

You get “West Side Story” (PG-13, 20th Century), the splendid second film version of the classic 1957 Broadway musical.

COLORADO SPRINGS.  Service isn’t something that happens only during the holiday seasons at St. Mary’s High School. But holiday service projects do hold a special place in the hearts of the community. This year students and advisers were thrilled to be able to give back in concrete ways after a year of restrictions due to the pandemic.

The Colorado blue spruce is not only our state tree but one of the most attractive evergreens found in our diocese. The blue spruce — along with the Fraser fir, balsam fir, white pine, scotch pine and white spruce — all make fine, fresh Christmas trees. Tis the season for trees and boughs and a bright star to help us find the way.

I recently had the opportunity to visit our 14 seminarians who are in formation for priesthood at the college seminary of St. Gregory the Great in Seward, Nebraska (my home state), and at the graduate (or “Theology”) seminary of Mount St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  

Our 15th seminarian is Matt Kane who is currently teaching at St. Paul’s Catholic School in Colorado Springs. Matt is preparing for his ordination to the diaconate this Dec. 22 at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

MONUMENT. Father Gregory Golyzniak will celebrate the Mass of the Holy Innocents at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 28 at St Peter Church in Monument.

One afternoon earlier this month, I received a call from an attorney I know. He explained that a woman had been sleeping in a covered area behind his downtown office for some time and he was looking for guidance on how to help her. He was not asking to get rid of her — he had been allowing her to sleep in that spot for months, occasionally allowing her to sleep in the building. Instead, he was expressing a genuine concern for the woman’s health and safety as the nights have started to get much colder.

Saludos, hermanos y hermanas en Cristo. Recientemente tuve la oportunidad de visitar a nuestros 14 seminaristas que están en formación para el sacerdocio en el seminario universitario de San Gregorio Magno en Seward, Nebraska (mi estado natal), y en el seminario de postgrado (o “Teología”) de Mount St. Mary en Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Nuestro 15º seminarista es Matt Kane, que actualmente enseña en la Escuela Católica de San Pablo en Colorado Springs. Matt se está preparando para su ordenación al diaconado este 22 de diciembre en la Catedral de Santa María.

There have been quite a few adaptations of Charles Dickens’ literary classic “A Christmas Carol,” but there is one crucial element found in the original novel that is always omitted from the various film and animated versions. The morning after his confrontation with his past, present, and future, the first place the newly-reformed Scrooge goes is to church. Christmas for Dickens is not simply celebrated with figgie pudding and stuffed goose; it is venerated lest it fall into simply a sentimental, toothless (and truthless) holiday.

Before there were any buildings in Rockefeller Center, there was a Christmas tree.

At the peak of the Great Depression, construction workers hungering for holiday cheer pooled their money to buy a 20-foot balsam fir and placed it in the center of the construction site. They decorated the tree with whatever they could find: strings of cranberry their wives made, paper garlands, tin cans, even foil gum wrappers.

Father Gregory Bierbaum grew up in Beresford, South Dakota, where his parents owned and operated a ReXall Drug Store for decades. He has three younger brothers. As an adult, he worked in businesses in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Overland Park, Kansas. His father died in 2017 and his mother now lives in Olathe, Kansas.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Students at the Unified Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Colorado Springs practice service throughout the year, but each holiday season, special projects help them focus on giving rather than receiving.