![\"Father](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/STT-L-CHURCH-12XX-01.jpg\")
Father Paul McDonnell poses for a photograph behind the pulpit at Divine Mercy Parish in Scranton Monday, December 22, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\nIt isn\u2019t, by any obvious measure lyrically, a Christmas song. It never mentions the day itself, nor does it touch on themes that have become rather synonymous with the season in modern times. There are no jingle bells rocking, no sleighs dashing through snow, no halls decked with boughs of holly.<\/p>\n
But in its own way, the inspirational 1955 Harlene Wood and Sy Miller standard \u201cLet There Be Peace on Earth\u201d has become a staple of the season. Disney World\u2019s EPCOT Center attraction closed out its fireworks shows during the Christmas season with an emotional rendition of the song, and several popular music stars \u2014 crooner Harry Connick Jr. and country\u2019s Vince Gill, to name a couple \u2014 included their versions of it on their own acclaimed Christmas albums.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Paul McDonnell thinks often of that song, too. Especially at this time of year. Even more so, this year in particular.<\/p>\n
Father Paul McDonnell poses for a photograph behind the pulpit at Divine Mercy Parish in Scranton Monday, December 22, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
The pastor at Divine Mercy Parish on Davis Street in Scranton, McDonnell said the last line of the anthem making a plea for harmony among God\u2019s creatures is one that always tends to stand out in his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet there be peace on Earth\u2026,\u201d the old song goes, \u201cand let it begin with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The theme is not likely foreign to congregants at Divine Mercy the last few weeks. The line is at the heart of McDonnell\u2019s message this Christmas season, a plea to a fractured world struggling to overcome frustrations ranging from road rage to fracturing within families. To those struggling to overcome long-standing grudges or get past perceived ones, he said, the story of Jesus Christ\u2019s humble birth still should stand as an example of God\u2019s gift in the lives of man.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn light of events that have occurred in the last 12 months throughout 2025, there have been a lot of reasons to be down, to be in despair, to doubt ourselves and our faith,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cIt can feel like, \u2018God, where are you?\u2019 But this is the time of year to remember what it\u2019s all about. We can experience a loving and merciful God through our experiences with each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a source of comfort, but also a challenge for all of us, to live the Christmas message every day and just make the world a better place.\u201d<\/p>\n
This time of year is, by its very nature, a time of tradition. One of the biggest traditions in places of worship around the region can be found with the increase in people hoping to be inspired spiritually. That makes messages like McDonnell\u2019s especially important for those hoping to spread the word.<\/p>\n
No matter the location, or the denomination, or the religion for that matter, the content of those messages doesn\u2019t diverge all that much.<\/p>\n
Most can be found within the realities of a modern world that can be challenging for those trying to do the best they can with limited resources, for those who feel excluded.<\/p>\n
The spirit of the messages lies in reminders that the stories of the season provide blueprints that can ease those difficulties and eliminate those challenges.<\/p>\n
![\"Pastor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/STT-L-CHURCH-1220-02.jpg\")
Pastor Chris Stark poses for a photograph in his office at the Rock Church Worship Center in Scranton Friday, December 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
\nPower of hope<\/p>\n
A few miles away from McDonnell\u2019s Minooka parish, the Rev. Chris Stark prayed for guidance on the message he wanted to convey from the pulpit to those in the pews at Rock Church, a nondenominational, Bible-based church on Scranton\u2019s Morgan Highway.<\/p>\n
As he tends to do when the words are of particular importance, Stark felt God pull him away from his own more tried-and-true messages from Christmases past.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just believe that the message of hope needs to be brought out more and more, and looking back at previous messages during the Christmas season, I\u2019ve never talked specifically about hope,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re living in a time where hopelessness is at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sermons are often centered on the significance of important events and typically are reflective of the struggles congregants face, and inspiration for them can be found even from a years-old study.<\/p>\n
The Centers for Disease Control\u2019s Youth Risk Behavior Survey released in 2023 found that 40% of high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. The results have stuck in Stark\u2019s mind since he read them.<\/p>\n
As Christian\u2019s celebrate Christ\u2019s birth, Stark\u2019s message doesn\u2019t focus solely on the prophecies around it, but on promises Christ made himself. Stark cited the New Testament book of John, in which Christ said, \u201cI am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.\u201d It is considered a key verse for Christians, who believe that following Jesus is the pathway to eternal life and understanding away from the darkness that can often be felt without him.<\/p>\n
![\"Pastor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/STT-L-CHURCH-1220-01.jpg\")
Pastor Chris Stark poses for a photograph in his office at the Rock Church Worship Center in Scranton Friday, December 19, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to understand, Jesus is the answer,\u201d Stark said. \u201cHe isn\u2019t a figment of our imagination. He is real. He was sent to the Earth to give us hope, to give us the light of life. As we follow him, because he rose from the dead on the third day (after his crucifixion), we have been given his free gift, that we can walk with him. This is not just a message for Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finding a path<\/p>\n
The primary message of Christmas is one that will be the focus of many sermons and messages in churches throughout the area, of course, and it endures because for those delivering it, it is a central theme of the faith: God\u2019s love for mankind is unfailing, especially in the most difficult of times.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Mark DeSilva of the Living Hope Bible Church on Carey Avenue in Wilkes-Barre pointed out that most of the year, preachers talk about what Christians can do to seek out God. The magic of the Christmas story, he said, is God reaching down to man with the offer of salvation and eternal life. It is about mankind being valued.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why those who heard DeSilva\u2019s message this month heard about gifts \u2014 just not ones that can be found under the Christmas tree. He said his messages imparted the four gifts Christ brought to mankind upon his birth: God\u2019s love, hope, peace and joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came to seek and save that which is lost,\u201d DeSilva said. \u201cIt\u2019s the glad message of Christmas, that God humbled himself, and came down to Earth to seek us out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Patience and kindness<\/p>\n
At Scranton\u2019s Temple Hesed, those who gather to listen to Rabbi Daniel Swartz\u2019s message celebrated a different holiday, but hearing similar themes.<\/p>\n
Hannukah ended at sundown on Monday, three days before Christmas Day, but Swartz\u2019s central message of patience and understanding is not unlike those being preached at churches throughout the community.<\/p>\n
He said that message came in two forms. One, that while there are many reasons to be nervous or even afraid to share your beliefs, there is value in being proud of who you are and what you believe, that standing out and being different is a good thing. In fact, it\u2019s a key part of what makes society function.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat,\u201d Swartz said, \u201cis a key part of Hannukah.\u201d<\/p>\n
The other side of that coin, though, is welcoming that same trait in others, even in a time when so many seem anxious to feel \u201ctriggered.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe owe each other a little bit of kindness and patience,\u201d Swartz said. \u201c(It\u2019s about) recognizing that to be human is to be imperfect, and to try to extend some grace to each other. I don\u2019t know everything going on in your world, and we\u2019re all facing our own different kinds of difficulties. Pretty much, kindness is never the wrong response to anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do unto others<\/p>\n
In his annual Christmas message, the Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, bishop of Scranton, prayed for peace \u2014 both in the world and in the hearts of the people who inhabit it.<\/p>\n
It hasn\u2019t been easy to obtain. Bambera quoted Pope Leo XIV\u2019s message from the First Sunday of Advent, in which he said that followers who truly want to help people they meet must live their own faith consistently in charity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, however, while we are quick to embrace the hope that we are given through the birth of Jesus, we are often reluctant to heed his invitation to authentic discipleship,\u201d Bambera wrote. \u201cWe fail to make as our own the message of salvation proclaimed throughout the ages by the life, love, mercy, and forgiveness of Jesus. We\u2019re reluctant to heed Jesus\u2019 invitation to walk in his footsteps. We wonder why we are unsettled, and peace in our lives, our homes and our world seem so elusive. We question why God can\u2019t provide us with a way out of suffering and pain in Ukraine, in the Middle East, in Nigeria, at our borders, in the lives of our immigrant sisters and brothers, in our neighborhoods, in our families and in our hearts. And we miss the treasure that has been given to each of us through faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
For McDonnell, it comes back to a similar theme born from the Christmas story itself: What are we willing to do to make others\u2019 lives better? We might tell a stranger \u201cMerry Christmas,\u201d but what are we doing individually to make the \u201cmerry\u201d part a reality?<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at the Christmas story of Jesus being born into poverty, with very simple, very humble parents,\u201d McDonnell said. \u201cAll we revere now is opposite of that: wealth, prestige and power. But where do we find the spirit of God? In a cold, muddy, messy stable. There was no room at the inn, but we experience God in the messiness of our lives, and when things don\u2019t go as planned.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It isn\u2019t, by any obvious measure lyrically, a Christmas song. It never mentions the day itself, nor does…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,803,139,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-69745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-luzerne-county","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-scranton","14":"tag-scranton-headlines","15":"tag-scranton-news","16":"tag-top-stories-stt"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}