It's Christmas in the Slums of Klong Toey and we have really tried all year to find the moms and dads of our abandoned kids who make Mercy 'their home' the only home they remember. They want to know of their beginnings - to have the memories no matter how heart-breaking or unpleasant so that they too can 'tell their own stories' to return somewhere that was once home, even for a moment. It's been unbelievably difficult locating remote rural villages; locating lost and not wanting to be found moms and dads, but we've succeeded a lot...

And it's like the family of Jesus coming home from Egypt, heart rending, painfully beautiful, often dangerous and that long trip back from Egypt to Galilee. Like it is, for us. To come home for Christmas.

And at Christmas we once again tell our Sacred Stories.

Joseph with Mary and Baby Jesus. "Master Carpenter for hire" going from Egyptian town to Egyptian town looking for work - migrants. Work construction, in wood and stone. The legends are that they were chased out of several towns as the statues there mysteriously fell down as they walked by, but others, and I prefer them, that the Land was Blessed as they traveled and Egypt also became a Holy Land.

It was almost two years now that they'd run, fled for their lives, that death filled night from Bethlehem where Jesus was born.

Joseph had that dream, an Angel sent dream: a premonition that something horrible was about to happen. Evil Herod sending his most ferocious men to kill the child. Mary was already up. Somehow she knew: women's intuition. She woke up baby Jesus, kissed him quiet, as mom's do and then in raw fear and horror of the screams and shouts about them, they had secretly slipped out into the midnight darkness. The voice in Joseph's dream said: Take the mother and child to Egypt."

Our oldest Christian legends say they traveled alone that night - took the dangerous route through the Negev desert, trusting in God - guided by the Stars, Afraid if they traveled the normal route through Gaza, that evil Herod's soldiers would be waiting with their swords.

They'd traveled about a month into Egypt. Lonely strangers in a strange land. Cautious - trusting no one.

Now, again, The second Birthday of Jesus. Centuries later we would call this day the Feast of Christmas. But tonight, they are alone. Mary and Joseph and two year old Jesus. No Angels singing Glory to God in the Highest Heavens. No Shepherds. No Magi bringing gifts of Gold, frankincense and Myrrh.

Short on money. No real home. Living probably in workers camps, on or near construction work sites. Joseph, not Egyptian born, part time work when no one else would do the job. No bickering for wages - take what you can get - what they give you. Smile. Strangers in a strange land. A foreigner working on an Egyptian or Roman Military construction site.

Joseph heading always towards "Old Cairo: where centuries later, the present Cairo would be built. Old Cairo on the Nile River. He had heard that there was steady work there for a Master Carpenter. And so as the Legends say they stayed there a while. Settled down for a couple years. Always waiting, praying for an Angel Sent Dream. Waiting for a Sign that would tell them they could go home.

They'd spend five long years in Egypt - so the legends say -and then a Sign came. Scriptures say that Joseph had another dream. A Dream that evil king Herod was dead. Mary had heard the rumors also in the Fresh Market.

Joseph and Mary talked - prayed. They decided it was safe for the child to go home. Home to Galilee, their ancestral home.

They traveled about a month. Home to Galilee. By boat down the Nile River, by donkey, by foot. Cautious again, they traveled round about way - avoiding the city Jerusalem and big towns back home to Nazareth. A family reunion - lots of tears - catching up on news. Who had died, who had had new babies. To begin life again. They'd been away going on six years. A life time really.

So once again we welcome all of you good and holy folks reading this - welcome you home again to Mercy Centre. And maybe "Your own special Mercy Centres" are places in your own hearts filled with memories - often bitter sweet - but let us all come home. You there, and we here, and maybe if we are lucky, really lucky we might meet Joseph and Mary with Baby Jesus walking along the pathway, and you might even meet an abandoned street child. Perhaps they are cousins of Jesus. Please wish them Merry Christmas. Give them a big hug.

Merry Christmas to you all. Prayers - fr joe and our Mercy Centre kids.