News - December 2017 RSS Feed

Dear friends in Christ,
Merry Christmas! Yes, it is true. Our Christmas celebration indeed continues today. The birth of our Savior is not a once-and-done proposition but continues up until the celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord next weekend. So, let the Christmas spirit reign in your hearts and in your homes a few days longer. Don’t be so quick to put away the decorations (especially the crèche!) and try to hold on to the spirit of Christmas – the celebration of the Word made flesh that dwells among us – throughout this coming year.

Dear friends in Christ,
“And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Dear friends in Christ,
Today is the 3rd Sunday of Advent, and our last full week of this great time of waiting for the Lord. Next week we have the 4th Sunday of Advent on Dec. 24 and then, a few hours later, Christmas will be upon us. Let’s use this week to wait in joyful anticipation. As a people we don’t usually like to wait, whether it be in traffic, the doctor’s office, or in line at the grocery store. But Advent waiting is different and worth the effort. We light the rose-colored candle on our Advent wreath today as a joyful reminder of the two-fold coming of Christ at His birth and at the end of time. Today is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday from the Latin word meaning “rejoice.”

Dear friends in Christ,
This second week of Advent finds us still waiting and watching for the coming of the Lord, but we get a most welcomed visitor today – John the Baptist. He comes seemingly out of nowhere to prepare the way of the Lord and while he was by all accounts a bit eccentric, his message is as timely today as it was 2,000 years ago. Let us heed his message to repent and as we go about busily preparing our Christmas lists and making plans for the holidays, let us prepare our hearts as well to welcome the coming of the King of Kings.