William Petruzzo » christmas

White Christmas

William — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:31:07 +0000

For the first time that I can remember, there is actually a substantial amount of snow on the ground on Christmas Day! It’s a special novelty in our culture and one that I’m only now able to experience for the first time.

Very cool. Merry Christmas, everyone!

A Prayer for Christmas

William — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 16:02:47 +0000

I pray this along with the puritan who penned it, many years ago:

O source of all good,
What shall I render to you for the gift of gifts,
your own dear Son?
Herein is wonder of wonders:
he came below to raise me above,
was born like me that I might become like him.
Herein is love;
when I cannot rise to him he draws near on wings of grace,
to raise me to himself.
Herein is power;
when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart,
he united them in indissoluble unity,
the uncreated and the created.
Herein is wisdom;
when I was undone, with no will to return to him,
and no intellect to devise recovery,
he came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,
as man to die my death,
to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
to work out a perfect righteousness for me!
O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
and enlarge my mind!
Let me hear good tidings of great joy,
and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father!
Place me with ox, donkey, camel, goat,
to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,
and in him account myself delivered from sin!
Let me with Simeon clasp the newborn child to my heart,
embrace him with undying faith,
exulting that he is mine and I am his!
In him you have given me so much that heaven can give no more.

Christmas Wrap-Up

William — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:02:16 +0000

Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with twelve full posts about Christmas; in fact this is probably the last one for another 364-ish days.

As I shared a few days ago, gift giving is not a huge deal in my family. We select names out of a hat and buy gifts only for the person whose name we drew. When buying for that person there is a fifty dollar limit that cannot be exceeded (at least not without getting a bunch of grief from the family). This year, I selected my mother and my father selected me. Here’s a run down, for all of your anxious to know what I got:

1.) Badly needed camera bag, large enough to hold my gear and comfortable enough to wear on my back for an extended period of time.

2.) Small square table to set next to my chair so that I can read and drink coffee/tea more comfortably.

(What can I say, I really like reading)

3.) Citrus zester; Santa overheard me complaining about using a cheese grater to zest a lemon the other day.

4.) A replacement lens cap for one of my poor lenses who’s UV filter is taking a heck of a beating.

So this Christmas, I got pretty much everything I needed and asked for and abundantly more than I deserved when I consider the Life that we celebrate on this day.

Christmas Eve Tradition

William — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:27:41 +0000

Christmas Eve and Christmas are two dates out of the year where the Petruzzo family gets together for some serious tradition. Which frankly, is kind of weird. Most other times there’s really not too much tradition involved in my family. But tonight and tomorrow night are among the exceptions.

Tonight, Christmas Eve, we share a simple dinner passed down through my father’s family. It came from the tradition of meat abstinence before Christmas. Originally, my father’s family would have plain olive oil pasta and seven kinds of seafood (I can’t say for certain what they were, although I know eel was in there somewhere). After my oldest sister was born the meal became simpler; only green salad, olive oil and bread crumb pasta, and shrimp. Over the years the simple Christmas Eve meal elaborated itself in other ways. Today we usually share the meal with a small army of people who enjoy a few hours of each other’s company and the free beer.

Tomorrow will be a smaller affair, although no less tradition involved. Joining us will be our family’s closer friends. We’ll eat homemade cheese ravioli with my grandmother’s homemade meat sauce, escarole soup and a salad dressed with my father’s recipe. In our family, it is this meal that is the most coveted. We look foreword to eating the ravioli all year long and when it finally comes we usually stuff ourselves stupid.

Of course, in the end it’s always the conversations and the relationships that are remembered and it’s the tradition we hold that they ride in and out on every year. So, I guess tonight, more than anything, I would simply like to thank God for a season in the year that gives families reasons to gather around each other. Thank you Jesus.

I Witnessed a Miracle

William — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:12:44 +0000

I’ve heard a hundred times or more, “the miracle of child birth.” I never thought even the slightest bit about it. But last night, my world was rocked. I was assisting a friend of mine in shooting a wedding when my sister called. She said she thought she was going into labor; she’s pregnant if you hadn’t deducted so already. After getting off the phone, I told my friend that I might need to leave early if she was going into labor and he was very understanding. Well, low and behold about two hours later, I got the word that she was indeed in labor and if I wanted to be there, I probably ought to be on my way soon. I quickly gathered my things and headed out the door. When I arrived at the birthing center, there was a small audience for the child’s arrival but also a recent word from the nurse that it was probably going to be two or three hours.

Having come straight from taking photographs at a wedding to the birthing center, I had my photo gear in the car, and seeing that my father was making active use of his camera, I ran outside to gather my things. I started out timidly photographing my sister Theresa and her husband Chris as she went in and out of contractions. I was avoiding spending too much time in the room because of the new awareness of how loud the shutter in my camera was (it’s interesting how a tense situation can do that). This all subsided though when the contractions became more intense and the sound of my shutter was hardly going to be something on my sister’s mind.

Truthfully, I had no intention of being in the room when she actually gave birth, but as the moment came nearer, everyone seemed to think I ought to be in there taking pictures. It’s weird, but I guess I just didn’t disagree. So the moment came and it was like the most intense part of any movie I’ve ever seen. Theresa was ready to have this child. The time came to push and she did. Through the lens of my camera, I saw the child’s head begin to show and all at once the shrill cry of the newborn baby. I welled up. I couldn’t help it; it was easily the most profound thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. And all of a sudden everything that was gross about the experience was suddenly just invisible.

After a few seconds, Theresa was holding the child and they were waiting to cut the umbilical cord and with all the excitement and tension, Chris shouted, “What is it!?” in reference to the child’s gender. They turned the baby a bit, then, with a huge smile on his face, Chris turned to the small congregation and said, “He’s got nuts!” Theresa had given birth to a son.

The minutes and hours after the birth were a blend of weird bliss and excitement; oogling over the baby and giving Theresa praise for doing such a great job. I just kept thinking about how amazing it was. Like staring God in the face or something. I had this insatiable urge to worship, I kept singing, How Great is Our God in my head- over and over and over again. On my way home though, it hit me as I was listening to the song Wonderful Maker by Chris Tomlin: This is just how Jesus stepped into this earth. In the same humble way this child entered in, naked and crying; Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords also humbled himself! I just started crying and worshipping. It was truly amazing. What an incredible reminder of the Power of God in Christ Jesus, especially now during this holiday where this is the very thing we’re to be remembering.

Father, thank you for the life of John Stephen Wellons. Thank you for knitting him together in his mother’s womb. Thank you for designing his life according to your good pleasure and for your purposes and to the end being your Glory. You deserve all of the worship, praise and adoration from our hearts and lives; and God, I pray that you would receive that from John Stephen. Father, I pray that in the same way that you required that your sacrifices be the first-fruits, the young lambs, that you would receive John Stephen’s life as a sacrifice, pleasing to you; and Lord, if it is your will, when he is still young. Father, I pray that your Spirit would direct Chris and Theresa as they raise the child you have given them and that he would be raised according to your Gospel. Father, I pray that you would direct John Stephen’s family and extended family to always help guide him back to You. Father, finally, I pray for the health and growth of this new child, and that Lord if it is your will you would receive glory by way of his salvation. Thank you Jesus, for coming into this world in the same way as John Stephen; thank you for being everything we could ever want or need.

I’ll post some pictures once I’ve been given the permission to do so.