First Reading
Christmas Mass During the Night (Isaiah 9:1-6)
Christmas at Dawn (Isaiah 62:11-12)

1. “For a child is born to us, a son is given us. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah said this in the First Reading for Midnight Mass. Would you expect to see someone born in a stable to be named God-Hero? Why was he? Who would be the most likely candidate to be born in a stable, the child of a president or a homeless person’s child? Today who is actually born in stable-like places?

2. The First Reading for Christmas Mass at Dawn says, “They shall be called a holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and you shall be called ‘Frequented,’ a city that is not forsaken.”Why will they be called holy? Is God with them constantly? What is it that Emmanuel (God with us) does for all people? What for you? 

Second Reading
Christmas Mass During the Day (Hebrews 1:1-6)

1. “In time past, God spoke in partial and various ways.”  What are some of the various ways God speaks to you? Do you look for God in the lowly/painful events of your life as well as the great ones?
                       
2. What does St. Paul mean when he says that the Son is the very “imprint of the Father’s being”? What would a person look like (be like, act like) if they are like an imprint of Christ? Could Pope Francis, your grandma, and/or Syrian refugees be imprints of Christ? Where do you find such imprints of Christ?

Gospel
Mass during the Night (Luke 2:1-14)

1. God’s relationship with humans rises to the topmost level, with the arrival of Christ. But he lives with constant rejection, and loves the humble and the poor of the world! Outside of his family why were the shepherds the first to meet Jesus? If you want to find God today where might you start looking?

2. “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.” (Luke 2:14) From his comment below on this song, what do you think Pope Francis’ is telling us to do to make a better world? Why does he ask everyone to share it?

Dear brothers and sisters in Rome and throughout the world, Happy Christmas!

I take up the song of the angels who appeared to the shepherds in Bethlehem on the night when Jesus was born. It is a song which unites heaven and earth, giving praise and glory to heaven, and the promise of peace to earth and all its people.

I ask everyone to share in this song: it is a song for every man or woman who keeps watch through the night, who hopes for a better world, who cares for others while humbly seeking to do his or her duty.

Text of Pope Francis' Christmas message
December 25, 2013