Even a pandemic couldn’t damper the glow the holiday season brings to Mercy Home! Though our Christmas celebrations looked a little different this year, they were still filled with the warmth and love that characterizes the holiday season at our Home.

Though our programs could not eat as a large community or enjoy a visit from Santa’s traveling entourage, each home more than made up for it by putting on their comfiest pajamas and doing fun activities together like baking appetizers before eating dinner together, devouring treats from Nyah Griffin, watching Christmas movies, playing Christmas bingo, and decorating cupcakes donated by our friends at Molly’s Cupcakes.

Our young people also had the opportunity to participate in the spiritual celebration. At the girls campus, everyone gathered in the chapel (sitting socially distant) and watched a message from Fr. Scott Donahue. Program Manager Gewanda Monroe also led our girls in a reflection. Our young men watched the special reflection from Fr. Scott in their own programs.

Our kids were told: “Christmas is a joyful celebration. It is joyful because what we are celebrating is that even in darkness, we always have the hope of light in the world. A lot about the world might seem dark now, but in that darkness, we must find the strength to hope.

“As a community, we are going to create a vigil of hope.”

The kids all participated in an activity where they wrote something they hope for in the upcoming year on a cutout of a candle and shared what they wrote with their program. All of the candles were hung on the doors of the chapel at the Walsh Campus.

A highlight of the evening, of course, was opening gifts together. Mrs. Claus even made an appearance at the girls campus!

Even under different circumstances, our kids’ joy and surprise at their presents still filled the air. No matter the circumstances, Christmas is still a magical time at Mercy Home.

The magic continued as Mercy Home will once again welcome Cardinal Cupich to celebrate Christmas Mass at Mercy Home with our televised Sunday Mass program.

Though the pandemic meant that we could not have parishioners in attendance this year, we are glad to continue this special tradition with all safety measures in place.

Sunday Mass at Mercy Home, known as the “parish of the airwaves,” brings the comforting Word of God to our parishioners each week who are unable to travel to their neighborhood churches.

The Cardinal’s special, one-hour Christmas Mass will air on WGN-TV 9 on December 25 from 8-9 a.m. With tens of thousands of faith-filled viewers, Sunday Mass at Mercy Home is a popular televised Catholic Mass in the Chicago area. We are thrilled that this will be the sixth Christmas Mass that the Cardinal has celebrated with us!

In a long and difficult year, we are filled with gratitude to all of the donors and coworkers who made sure this Christmas was still a special one at Mercy Home. Thank you!