During his first Christmas in Boston, Archbishop Richard G. Henning visited programs helping those in need and celebrated Mass with local parishioners displaced from their church.

The archbishop began Christmas Eve with a morning stop at Catholic Charities Teen Center at St. Peter's in Boston's Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood, where Catholic Charities partnered with the family of the late Boston Mayor Thomas Menino for their annual holiday toy distribution. Throughout the course of the day, families representing over 600 children made their way through the gymnasium of the Teen Center to receive holiday gifts.

From there, Archbishop Henning traveled to Pine Street Inn in the South End to join other volunteers in serving a holiday lunch of lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and pie to over 1,000 clients of the shelter.

In the afternoon, the archbishop went to Franklin to celebrate the 4 p.m. Christmas Eve Mass with parishioners of St. Mary Parish, whose church was damaged by a fire determined to be arson in October. The Mass was held in the Franklin High School auditorium because their church is undergoing repairs.

He completed his public schedule celebrating the midnight Christmas Eve Mass and the 11:30 a.m. Christmas Day Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross.

In his Christmas homily, Archbishop Henning recalled visiting his young nephew undergoing chemotherapy at Christmastime many years ago. The archbishop said he witnessed the transformative power of Christmas carols played by a local high school orchestra that visited the pediatric oncology ward. In the midst of their suffering, he said, the familiar hymns brought hope and smiles to the children and their families.

The archbishop spoke of the impact of the words of those traditional carols, which he said speak not only of joy but also of the pain and suffering of the human condition. He said the carols present God's love and hope, speaking of "light in the darkness, hope in despair and warmth and love in the cold of winter," and that they reminded him of the power of God's love that came, not through displays of power, but in the vulnerability of the Christ Child in a manger.

He concluded his homily by urging the faithful to "be the carol," becoming "light in the darkness" for others in the Christmas season.