Alliance for Catholic Education
Reflection by Fr. Nate Wills, C.S.C. - Faculty, The Mary Ann Remick Leadership Program
In the 1940s, "I'll Be Home For Christmas" became a popular Christmas song that captured the hearts of a world at war, longing to be reunited with family and friends at this special time.
There's something about Christmas that makes us want to feel ... home.
Home is a funny thing. Home might be the place where you grew up and have memories. Home might be the place where you settled after moving around a bit. Home may just be wherever your loved ones are gathered right now. But all of us want to be home for Christmas, if only in our dreams.
Each year, the Alliance for Catholic Education invites our 180 teaching fellows to venture far from home - both geographically and figuratively as teaching takes them outside their comfort zones. Whether that's Armando Vizcaino going from his home in the Bronx to teach third grade in San Antonio, Texas, or Rachel Edelman, a recent Remick Leadership program graduate who moved from Boston to Indianapolis to help coach and support our Notre Dame ACE Academy teachers and leaders. For them and for so many, home isn't the place where you grew up, it's the place where you're needed most.
Today we celebrate a homecoming. We celebrate Christmas, the miracle of the incarnation. We celebrate the way that God loved our world and each one of us SO MUCH that his son became flesh and made his home among us. Jesus made his home in a place where he was needed most: humanity. And in doing so, lifted our hearts and lives toward God. Jesus came into our world so that all of us, wherever we may be, might find our truest home in him.
From all of us here at the Alliance for Catholic Education, we want to thank you for your support, love, and prayers, and we wish you a joyful and wonderful Christmas.
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