Overheard at Christmas Mass

"For those of you that are disappointed that you didn't get a present you really wanted ... don't worry about it ... IT ISN'T YOUR BIRTHDAY!"

I hope you all had a very Blessed Christmas!  Sending you my prayers for a very Holy, Peaceful 2018!

Random Musings from Christmas Season

As we celebrate the Epiphany, and close out the Christmas Season, there have been some random thoughts crossing my mind ...

We hear much about the shepherds and wise men visiting the baby Jesus.  But what about the relatives of Joseph in Bethlehem?  Did they spend time with the Holy Family?  Every day?  Did they clear space for them in their homes immediately?  Or did they think they were just crazy?  And how about the people of Bethlehem?  Surely they heard the commotion, and were told what was going on.  How many of them believed?  How many of them took the opportunity to gaze upon the Face of God?  And how many went about their merry way, oblivious to the Gift in their midst?

Speaking of the wise men ... and the star they followed ... I realized at Mass that today there are millions of stars that can lead to Jesus ... us.  The problem is some of us don't shine as brightly as we need to to get people to follow us.  

I wonder if anyone found it odd that one of the gifts from the wise men was myrrh.  Why give a child something that is more common for the dead?  (Although I am reminded of the saying that from the minute you are born you are constantly one step closer to death...)

What about Mary's family?  When did they receive news of Jesus' birth?  Did they make the journey to Bethlehem to visit Him?  

I imagined the birth of our Lord happening in today's day in age.  So many things would have been different.  For example, on the plus side, the world would have been able to watch His arrival because someone in Bethlehem would have captured it on their cell phone.  On the downside, social media probably would have made it very easy for Herod to find the Holy Family.  

I still can't believe how fortunate we are that God chose to come here in human form, and all of its constrictions, and suffer for us.  His love is incomprehensible. 


I hope you had a wonderful Christmas season.  God Bless you and your families.

Just Like One of Us

Overheard:

"I just love Pope Francis.  He is just like one of us!"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, he is the Pope ... the most important Catholic on Earth ... and yet, he acts like he is one of us 'common folk'.  He speaks in a way that we can understand, he takes public transportation, he eats with homeless and criminals alike, etc.  It's almost like he stoops down to our 'level'.  I like that."

"I see what you mean.  A lot of people probably feel like you do.  (pause)  So if people are so impressed by Pope Francis acting like one of us ... imagine how impressed they'd be if they stopped to think how much further God had to 'stoop' to come down and be just like one of us."

A very Blessed Christmas week to you and your families!

My Conversation with Jesus on the Mountain

A vision popped into my mind at Mass this weekend. 

I imagined sitting on a mountain with Jesus, looking down at the town and busyness below.  

We were talking, mostly about how hard it is to keep God a priority in this day in age, and especially at Christmastime.  We read all the right passages in the Gospels, and hear all the right perspectives from our priests and religious men and women.  

But for the other 90% of the time, I told Him, it gets really hard to not get caught up in society.  From jobs to politics to buying presents, we are focused on many, many other things.  

I asked Him for a thought ... a reminder ... anything that could help me feel the right perspective.  

He motioned to the crucifix I wear around my neck, and looked at me with eyes that said "What else could you possibly need?"  

I nodded bashfully in acknowledgement.  

Then He said, "Ok, how about this ... if I were to tell you I could take you to Heaven right now, to be with me forever ... what else down there (motioning back to society) would you worry about?  What else would you care about?"

I soaked that in. 

The answer, of course, was nothing.  In fact, other than my family and friends, every other thing in my life shrunk smaller than a spec of sand.  And I actually felt it in that moment*.  I did not have another care in the world.

Just then, the gift basket at Mass arrived at my lap, and I returned to reality.  But I did not forget the example Jesus gave me, and will definitely remind myself of it often.

God Bless you.


*  I must admit, after re-reading this post, much of the feeling is lost in putting the words on paper screen.  In order to recreate the feeling, I find I need to not read it, but imagine the scenario again, and try to feel what it would be like to be in that situation.  Just reading the words is a poor substitute.  (Probably because there is a poor writer behind them!)

The Day After Christmas, Then vs Now

In this day and age, December 26th is a bit of a letdown for most people.  

The presents, the feasts, the music ... all of it has been replaced with a dose of reality.  Some call it a Christmas Hangover, others the Christmas Slump.  

But I wonder what the day after Christ's birth was like for those in Bethlehem.  Sure, Mary and Joseph had to deal with a newborn - which was life-changing in its own right. 

(We interrupt this blog post for a tangent.  Did you ever think about life for the Holy Family those first few days?  How long was it until they found a better living situation?  How many visitors did they have the day after?  What were people in Bethlehem saying?  How many residents of the city even knew what happened?  What did Mary and Joseph talk about?  Did Joseph find any relatives?  How often did the baby Jesus cry?) 

In any case, I'm guessing there was no hangover for them at all.  Or the shepherds.  Or any of those that witnessed the Miracle in their midst.  

I bet they felt hope.  Yes, it might have been coupled with some wonder and questions.  But I bet it was quite different than what society feels today.

The reason is obvious, of course.

Their Christmas was truly focused on Our Savior.  

Today's Christmas seems to be focused on anything but.

I hope you and your families are having a blessed Christmas season.  God Bless you.

A Christmas Analogy

I heard a wonderful analogy this Christmas that I wanted to share with you.

There was once a man who went to a local park every day to feed the geese that lived there.  One day, he saw a sign posted on the gate that the town was going to shut down the park and build a shopping mall in its place. 

The man was devastated, and immediately thought about his geese.  He would have to lead them out of the park to safety, for they would not know better on their own.

So the man walked up to the flock of geese and started to motion to them to follow him.  

Nothing.

Then he decided to chase them towards the gate.  As he ran towards them, the geese scattered, only to return to the same cluster once he was a safe distance away.

Over and over he tried to corral them and lead them in the right direction.  And over and over the geese would scatter and then return to their previous behavior.  

"If only I could become one of them, and show them the way," the man said to himself.

And that, my friends, is what God did for us over 2000 years ago.

Merry Christmas and God Bless you.   

Good News of Great Joy

Praying that everyone remembers the true meaning of Christmas this year,

and wishing you and yours God's Blessings!

Enough is Enough (A Soapbox Rant)

(steps up on soapbox)

Perhaps I've been living under a rock these past few years, but the other day was the first time I ever heard the words Holiday Tree.

Holiday Tree. 

Really?

Listen, I completely understand our culture's habit of wishing people a Happy Holiday.  Even though I celebrate Christmas, and want to remind folks the real reason for the season, I get why people may not want to assume others share the same views. So they default to the now politically correct Happy Holiday.  I get it.  

But reaching into Christmas tradition and removing the word it is based on is not only insane, but ignorant as well.  And I know trees have nothing to do with the religious part of Christmas - but a line has been breached and there is no telling where it will stop.

What is next?  Nativity scenes will be replaced by a nondescript brick building and labeled Holiday scenes?  

Ok, ok.  Maybe I am overreacting just a bit.  But each year it feels like Christmas becomes less and less about Christ and more and more about everything else.  In fact, sometimes I wonder if people would even remember Him if they didn't have to mention His name every time they said Christ-mas.

Maybe that is why the Holiday Tree thing bothers me so much.  

Anyway, to be fair each of us is free to act and worship as we choose.  That was God's second greatest gift to us.  

But hopefully you won't blame me if I tell the world enough is enough.  It is time to stop diluting our holiday Holy Day.

God Bless you.

(steps off soapbox)

St. Francis and The First Nativity

As many of you probably know, St. Francis is credited with creating the first Nativity Scene during a Christmas Eve Mass.  

In 1223, he staged a live recreation of Luke's account in Greccio, Italy, to help tell the story of our Savior - and to remind people that their focus at Christmas should be on the birth of Christ, not the materialism of the world. 

(It is said that that scene was so blessed, that when the cattle ate the hay St. Francis used as a prop, they were cured of all their diseases!)

The other day I came across St. Bonaventure's version of that wondrous event and was moved by the following line:

"The Man of God [St. Francis] stood before the manger, full of devotion and piety, bathed in tears and radiant in joy..."

And that got me thinking ... how many times do I stand before a Nativity scene with that much emotion?  Do I treat each scene that I encounter with the reverence Christ's birth deserves?  Or do I treat them as just another Christmas decoration?

I pray that, during this Advent season, all of us feel the same awe and joy that St. Francis did that night.  God Bless you.

Christmas Excitement

This Christmas, many of us will get some nice gifts.  

Some will get the digital device they have been craving.  

Others will get a tie.  Or a dress.  Or the latest Xbox game.

A select few, that apparently only live in commercials, will even get a new car.

And we will smile, cheer and pump our fists in joy.

Which is fine, as long as we show 100x the excitement at Christmas Mass as we celebrate God's gift to us.


Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas, and the peace of God's love.

Did You Just Miss Today?

Today.

It's what passes us by while we are planning for tomorrow.

Or the weekend.

Or next week.

Or next year.  

Or when we are older/smarter/richer/less busy.

Yes indeed, we are a people that like to plan.  To think about what's next.  

Half the time we ignore what is right in front of us because it is in the way of what we perceive to be our finish line.

And you know what?  

We are missing God's beauty today.

In fact, I shudder to think about how much I have missed.  

And maybe that is why, today, on the first Sunday of Advent (ironically a time of preparation) we need to stop and smell the roses.  

To slow down our sprint to Christmas and enjoy God in this minute.

Because in our race to get all our gifts for December 25th, we are missing all of His...


May God Bless you and your families this Advent Season.

Are We Telling Our Story All Wrong?

We love to romanticize everything.
  
Clean it up. 


Make it shiny and beautiful.


We just completed the Christmas season where we sang of a beautiful star, a Holy Babe wrapped in perfect linens, and a confident, smiling Mary and Joseph.  There were angelic shepherds, and perfectly behaved, fragrant sheep and cows.  Heck, even a little kid played a catchy little ditty on his drum in the background.


As I wrote earlier, it probably didn't happen like that.


But it just feels all warm and fuzzy when we add some creative touches to it, doesn't it?  


Well, perhaps we are doing a disservice to the real story and to our religion.

Anne, who is always teaching me new things, posted an article written by Bishop Hying in which he wrote:


"We cannot romanticize the Christian narrative without decreasing its potent reality. God comes to us in all of the messiness and lunacy of the real world to save us as we are, not to redeem some idealized version of ourselves." 


I've been thinking a lot about that over the past two weeks.


The power of the Catholic story shines through most brilliantly in the ugliness of this world, not the cleaned up version of it.


God sent His only Son to us in the remoteness of Bethlehem, not the grandeur of Jerusalem.  In a crowded, smelly stable, not a lush palace. And in a world full of sin, not the perfection of Paradise.


Mary and Joseph didn't go from wedding bells to cigars and baby announcements.  They struggled with the reality of being chosen. Walked miles and miles through harsh terrain while pregnant.  Were chased after giving birth to their Son far away from the "comforts" of home.


And our Savior did not come here on a cloud and banish all His enemies from an Earthly throne.  He was born among the animals, grew up in a lowly town, and was beaten and crucified for teaching love. 


Bishop Hying is right.  Our world is not perfect.  It is ugly and full of sin. And our Salvation happened within those realities ... not in some fairy tale we cannot relate to.  


Ironically, it is through that lens that our story becomes more powerful, not less so.


(Thanks again, Anne, for that thought provoking post.)


God Bless.

The Hangover

There is quite a letdown after Christmas, isn't there?


The adrenaline of the holiday rush has worn off.


Family and friends go their separate ways.


The radio stations stop playing joyous Christmas music.


The sparkling and twinkling decorations start to come down.


The cleaning is endless.


It's easy to get caught up in the Christmas hangover ... I know I do.


But ironically, the days after the first Christmas were filled with joy, hope and wonder.  After all, it was from that day on that our Salvation became real for us.  


Said another way, the birth of Christ was just the beginning of our eternal life, not the end of a commercial holiday season!


So yes, I still get caught up in the Christmas hangover.  But now I use it as a barometer to measure how far off my perspective is.


The more "hungover" I am, the farther off base I am from what the Season really means.


Here's to a year filled with love, peace and Christ.  May this one be your most Holy yet.


God Bless you.

A Savior

A blessed Christmas to you and your families!

God Sent Us ...

If our greatest need had been information, 
God would have sent us an educator. 

If our greatest need had been technology,
God would have sent us a scientist.

If our greatest need had been money,
God would have sent us an economist.

If our greatest need had been pleasure,
God would have sent us an entertainer.

But our greatest need was forgiveness,
So God sent us a Savior.  
                                    - Roy Lessin




Merry Christmas and God Bless.

It's Party Time

Yesterday I was told that the sign language movement for Hallelujah involves swirling your hands while raising them up above your head.   

And, that when you watch a Mass for the deaf, when the attendees "sing" Hallelujah before they hear the Gospel reading, it looks like one big festive party.  

Which got me thinking:  That's what it should be like for everyone.  We should all get as excited to hear the Word of God as we do to go to a big party.   (written as I look in mirror)

Which got me thinking more:  With Christmas coming up in less than a week, most people are getting ready for a big party.

The question is: Is it a present-exchanging, eat-lots-of-food, drink-lots-of-wine, party...

... or a birthday party?

God Bless.

I Wonder

I wonder what it was like to go from "nobodies" to the Earthly parents of the Most Important Person Ever to Grace the Earth.  In the blink of an eye.
 
I wonder what plans Mary and Joseph had for their future - before God laid out His plan.

Speaking of, I wonder what it was like to be sitting there minding your own business only to look up and see the Angel Gabriel speaking to you.

I wonder what it was like when Mary saw that Elizabeth was indeed pregnant.

I wonder how hard it was for Joseph to believe, when human logic told him otherwise.

I wonder what it was like to travel 100 miles while very pregnant (and with a very pregnant wife). 

I wonder exactly what that nativity scene looked like.

I wonder what it was like - to wonder what it would be like - to raise the Savior of the World.

I wonder what message God is sending us by choosing such an "ordinary" family, and modest setting, for the birth of His only Son.

I hope you are enjoying the wonder of this Advent season.

God Bless.

Merry Christmas

"Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy
which will come to all the people.
For to you is born this day in the city of David
a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
(Luke 2:10-11)


May we all welcome Him into our lives and into our hearts!

Merry Christmas,
And may God bless all of you.

Return to Tree

I was going to take a break from my usual reflective-type posts this week, and leave you with a picture of the Christmas Tree in Rockefeller Center.

For those of you that aren't in the NY area, I thought this would be a nice way to bring the tree to you.

But I feel like God wanted me to do more than that and go through the normal reflection.

So here goes ...

As you can see from the picture, I made my annual trek to the tree on a night full of rain and light snow. Part of me was disappointed at the less-than-ideal weather, while the other part was hoping some of that snow would stick to the tree. After all, what could be prettier than a 65-foot lighted tree with snow glistening from each branch?

Alas, the snow did not stick. And while the tree was as beautiful as always, I feel like my experience was less than optimal.

The more I thought about that experience, the more it reminded me of some Catholics this time of year. Like me to Rockefeller Center, they return to the Church year after year at Christmas-time.

And that's it.

Three hundred and sixty four days between visits (unless they also go for Easter).

Like that snow, it just doesn't stick. And while that day is probably beautiful for them, their overall experience with our Lord is less than optimal.

So I decided to start praying for those people this week. I pray for all those who only come to the Church a few times a year, and even more for those who have left the Church entirely. I pray that God guides them back regularly, so they can start living their lives more fully - the way He intended them to.

God Bless.

Pregnant + Desert - Epidural = Sacrifice

I love looking at Nativity scenes.

Mary and Joseph proudly looking over their Son, who is in swaddling clothes and nestled comfortably in a manger.

Wise men on one knee, presenting gifts to the new King.

Shepherds looking on in adoration, with a sheep or camel nearby.

Maybe even a single light bulb casting a soft glow over the entire set.

Those scenes are always so peaceful, but they betray the challenges that must have led up to that perfect moment.

Take the journey, for example. Bethlehem is about 90 miles from Nazareth. That journey must have taken over 5 days given the trail and Mary's advanced pregnancy. I've never been 8+ months pregnant or on a donkey in the desert, but I have a hunch the combination is probably extremely uncomfortable. I'm sure it was also littered with bandits, treacherous hazards, and extreme temperatures.

Or what about the delivery itself? In a stable? On hay? With animals around? And no drugs?

Let's not forget eight or nine months before all that, Mary had to find the courage to tell her parents and future husband that She was pregnant. Can you imagine how that conversation went, especially after She told them the Father was God? Not only was that probably a terrifying conversation, but one that could have led to her death!

And in between, I'm sure both Mary and Joseph had to overcome serious doubts, fears and concerns. What would the Son of God look like? Was He going to come out speaking? Glowing? Was it all really happening to them? How would they know what to say to Him? Would they be able to teach Him anything at all? Would He lead Israel in some kind of war? Would He be able to fly or walk on water?

I always take for granted that I know what happened thanks to Evangelists like Luke - but Mary and Joseph were running on 100% faith.

That's why every time I see a Nativity scene, I not only reflect on the birth of our Savior, but on the incredible sacrifices Mary and Joseph made, and the inspiring faith they had.

I hope you are having a blessed Advent.


P.S. I almost signed off without reminding you that Mary and Joseph went through all of that at the tender age of 16ish.

P.P.S. Stay tuned for follow up posts entitled "How to escape to Egypt when a king wants to kill your baby" and "Traveling through the desert with a Newborn"