Honouring Christmas In Our Hearts

I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

While we like;y haven’t required the jarring and intense conversion of Ebenezer Scrooge, it’s likely that throughout the Advent Season, we were able to identify ways in which we could grow closer to Christ our Lord. Perhaps we are wasteful with our time as we doomscroll, or could do more than we do to help our neighbors in need.

Perhaps as we provided food items, and Christmas gifts through various drives we found ourselves reflecting on the ways our brothers and sisters struggle. Recognizing that the need to help is ongoing, and that those in need during the holidays remain in need.

Just maybe as Scrooge was notified of the coming of the Ghosts by the tolling of a bell, we’ve been reminded that we need to make the space to listen, sit in silence, and reflect from time to time. 

Whatever we’ve learned during our travels and practices of Advent, we are called to take with us throughout the year. As Scrooge said in the famous short story, and its many short stories throughout the years, let’s heed the call to keep Christmas in our hearts, to live kindly, joyfully, and generously all year round. Not just because it is nice, but because what should be central to our life, is our relationship with Jesus Christ. 

This week, let’s continue to joyously live Christmas without fatigue, so that when Christ comes again, we will be ready to greet Him, and that He might recognize us as His own. Pray for all those who are caught up in their own greed, or misery, and that all might know Christ in their lives, and through our actions.

God Bless and Merry Christmas. 

The Day is Coming

Can you feel the anticipation as we await the coming of our Lord on the day of His birth? The people of Israel waited over 5000 years for the coming of their Messiah, and in all that time, they misunderstood.

It is hard for us to judge the perspective of a people who had been dominated and oppressed by every great empire of their time. It makes sense that they were awaiting a great general to smite the Roman Empire. Yet they had been so far separated from the original promise of redemption, given to mankind at the time of the Fall of Adam and Eve. 

As your homework, as we prepare for Christmas, take a look at Genesis 3:15. Redemption and final victory was promised to our ancestors. However, that victory more than over an evil empire of oppressors was over the greater scourge of sin and death. 

In a way similar to our forebears, we are thousands of years separated from the promise made to us, that one day Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. This isn’t a threat, we don’t need to fear like those looking toward Armageddon and Rapture. No instead, we should use what remains of Advent, and even of our lives to truly prepare for the promise we await. 

That promise is eternal union with God in Heavenly Jerusalem. Let us pray that we prepare well our hearts, homes, and families for what we ultimately await.
God Bless and have a prayerful last few days of Advent. 

Living a Season of Christmas

The Season of Advent is a time of preparation. What are we preparing for? Lavish dinners, the exchange of gifts, for some a yearly visit to Church? These are all good things, but they are so brief, and even fleeting. 

If we had a full Advent of preparation, and then Christmas was over at 11:59 pm on December 25th we would have  slept on something truly spectacular. A month of preparation for a day of celebration seems a little lopsided, doesn’t it?
The season of Christmas is 12 Days! If you’ve joined us for our Intergenerational Cookie Swap Event, you were introduced to a new family tradition. If you weren’t there, here’s the invitation for the 12 Days of Christmas. Follow along with the 12 day calendar presented here. Loosely inspired by A Christmas Carol, your family will be guided through 3 sets of 4 activities that focus on Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future. These easy attainable activities will keep the season alive in your hearts and homes!
This week, I am praying that you have a fruitful rest of your Advent Season, and a truly joyful Christmas to Come. Prepare the way of the Lord, as we joyfully await His Birth, and for Him to come again.
God Bless and have a fruitful Advent. 

Advent

Advent is the beginning of our Liturgical Year. So, if you are inclined to make New Year’s resolutions, and immediately break them, why not have a faith based trial run! The cool part of this strategy is that a faithful resolution can better prepare us to celebrate the Christmas Season. 

While weight loss, and exercise routines might be unattainable, this is the perfect time for us to double down on the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Round one begins with the Corporal works, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, offer shelter and support to those in need, visit the sick, ransom the captive, and bury the dead. These are all things that we think of during the lead up to Christmas. 

If you are ready to level up, there are the Spiritual Works of Mercy. We don’t always think of these, but they are deeply and spiritually important. We can instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful (in spiritual crisis), call sinners back to God, bear wrongs and injustice with humility and grace, forgive abundantly, comfort the afflicted, and pray for the living and the dead. 

These works of our faith can prepare us to welcome Christ the Lord in commemoration of His Birth, but much more importantly, when He comes again. 

This week, let us pray that we can approach the world with an open heart, to care for those both physically and spiritually in need. When we do this, we truly see, and walk with Christ. 

God Bless and have a fruitful Advent. 

Give Thanks to the Lord

I hope that you and your family had a joyful Thanksgiving, and that you are making good headway through all of those leftovers. We give thanks for the food that we have, the company that we share, and for all the ways that God continues to bless us. 

For me there was a particularly special blessing, because my daughter Avila just this weekend turned 4 years old. It is hard to believe how time flies when you are busy living your life. When she was born it was a challenging time. Her birth was not without complications, and the world was also not without complications. 

While it wasn’t the beginning of Covid-19 the world had not returned entirely to normal. There were still fears and struggles and uncertainty. Yet that same time brought the joy of new life. 

As we enter today, into the season of Advent we can reflect on the fact that there were a ton of complications, trials and tribulations from the time Adam and Eve were cast from the Garden to the day that Christ was born. 

Even when Jesus was born, and grew up, that joy and time of transition brought uncertainty, change, and challenge. While Christ Jesus came to restore all things to God, it meant that people who were doing it wrong were all called to grow, and change, and face where they were wrong. You have to imagine that this was a complicated time for them. 

This year, as we begin Advent, let us pray that we can have the fortitude to grow, and change, and shift with the reality that Christ is King, and we are called to follow Him through times of suffering, trial, and change.

God Bless and have a fruitful Advent.