Merry Christmas!

Even though the secular world tends to think that Christmas lasts from Thanksgiving until December 25^th, as Roman Catholics, we celebrate the Christmas season from Christmas Day until the Baptism of the Lord, on January 12^th this year.  When everything around us goes “back to normal”, we still celebrate.  Usually, we are reminded at Easter that we are “Easter people,” celebrating the Paschal Mystery of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection each Sunday at Mass.  But think about it.  If Jesus wasn’t born, he couldn’t suffer, die, and rise again.

Those “C and E Catholics” or “Chreasters” miss out on a ton.  They only celebrate the “big stuff”, and perhaps they don’t even really celebrate except in the secular sense.  Think about it in the context of your own life.  If you only really lived for the “big stuff” – births, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and deaths – is that really living?  What about all the in-between bits?

Think about that as we near the first period of Ordinary Time, but for now, try to keep a sense of Christmas joy with you for as long as you can, and, as Father Erik said in his homily this weekend, make your neighbors think you’re crazy!

Advent Themes for Focusing Prayer Part 4: Love

This year, the fourth week of Advent was very short, but it wasn’t as short as it could have been.  There are years when the fourth Sunday of Advent is also Christmas Eve, so the fourth week of Advent ends up being only a few short hours long.  Nevertheless, the fourth week of Advent has its own special theme for focusing our prayer:  Love.  And how appropriate is it that in the last hours or days before Christmas, we focus on the virtue that Jesus Christ embodies as fully human and fully divine?

Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is love incarnate, love made flesh.  He is the fulfillment of God the Father’s love for humankind.  The oft-referenced verse, John 3:16, tells us “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (NABRE translation).

Jesus shows us how to love more perfectly.  He teaches us that we are to love those around us (our “neighbors”) and he gives us a model of how to love them.  At Christmas, we recall Jesus’ first coming at his birth in Bethlehem.  Now, invite him to come again, into your heart to perfect how you love others, and ask him to help you love more perfectly.

Advent Themes for Focusing Prayer Part 3 of 4: Joy

Rejoice!  The Lord is coming!  Our theme for the third week of Advent is joy.  We take a break from the violet, more subdued theme of the rest of the season, and celebrate in rose, by lighting the rose candle and, if the parish has them, by the priest wearing rose vestments.  We are rapidly approaching Christmas.  It’s time to get excited!

I liken this time of year to the feeling of anticipation I get when arriving at a final destination or coming home after a long road trip.  For many, many years, my family made yearly road trips to Southern California to visit family members there.  I recall the feeling of joyful impatience when we would reach the city limits and I could start counting down the exits until we would be at my grandmother’s house.  And, when we returned home after a long time away, it was a similar feeling when we got closer to home.  I just wanted to get there already!

It is, of course, important to take journeys, whether actual or figurative, in our lives.  The process of getting somewhere gives us an opportunity to grow.  But, imagine if we took absolutely no pleasure in the act of getting from point A to point B.  What would our lives be like then?  It would be a nearly unbearable slog from one thing or place to another.

So, this week, reflect on the things in your life that bring you joy.  What are you looking forward to in the not so distant future?  What do you have to be grateful for?  Thank God for this opportunity to wait joyfully for the good things to come.

Advent Themes for Focusing Prayer Part 2 of 4: Peace

This week, the daily readings tell us of the peace that is to come when the Messiah is born for us.  Even on Monday, when we celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we heard themes of peace and harmony in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  And Gabriel bid Mary “Do not be afraid.”  In other words, let your mind be at peace.  In Wednesday’s Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus tells the crowds, and so tells us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Be peaceful and rest in God’s presence.  In Saturday’s first reading from the book of Sirach, the author says of Elijah, “You were destined, it is written, in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD, To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons, and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.”  He was destined to restore a broken world to the harmony it once had.

The angel Gabriel, Jesus, and the author of Sirach are all giving us the same message in a sense:  Trust in God, in His all-knowing wisdom, and in His plan for our lives.  He knows what is best for us, and He will not lead us astray.  Be at peace, and trust that all will be well.

It may seem difficult to pray for peace at times like these when the world is divided by conflict and disagreement, but we must continue to trust that God has a plan, and ultimately, better days lie ahead.  Nevertheless, we must continue to pray for peace, in our hearts, in our families, in our country, and in our world.  God wants us to ask for things, even though He knows all that we need.  It is in turning to Him, in placing our trust in Him that we can find true inner peace.

Theme for Next Week:  Joy

Advent Themes for Focusing Prayer Part 1 of 4: Hope

Happy Advent!  In his homily last Sunday, Fr. Erik talked about being prepared to celebrate the mysteries of our faith in the coming of our Lord at Christmas, but also at the second coming at the end of time.  This is a predominant theme in our readings for daily Mass this week.  One way to prepare is to focus our prayer in different “directions” during Advent.

Try focusing on the following themes during the four weeks of Advent.  During the first week, focus on hope, during the second, on peace, during the third, on joy, and during the fourth, on love.  Try to relate these themes to how you are preparing to welcome Jesus at Christmas.

With hope as the theme for this first week of Advent, think about what you hope for during this Advent and Christmas season.  Jesus’ coming at his birth in Bethlehem gave the shepherds hope as the angels announced to them that a savior had been born for them, “who is Christ the Lord” (Luke  2:11).  The shepherds would have recognized this to mean that this child who had been born was to be the savior of the world.

We can also see hope in the Mass readings during this week.  The first readings come from the book of the prophet Isaiah, describing the good things to come and the wonderful things that are to happen in the future when God the Father will provide for Israel.  As we read these passages today, we can think about the fact that, just as good things were promised to the early Israelites if they kept their faith alive and strong, if we strive to remain faithful as well, we do so in the sure and certain hope that we will one day share in eternal life with God.

How will you incorporate and develop hope during the rest of this first week of Advent?

Next week, the theme to focus on is Peace.  Stay tuned to our Facebook page for an Advent prayer for peace, which will be posted next Monday.