ADVENT,CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS

The next few days will be pretty busy beginning with a wedding rehearsal tonight. Tomorrow evening I will hopefully be putting the finishing touches on the wedding homily, and then the wedding takes place Saturday evening. Sunday I will probably spend the day trying to NOT feel a year older!

Speaking of Sunday, I was hoping for a birthday trip to The Shed, but it looks like the weather isn’t going to cooperate. I’m open to some suggestions for dinner if the Shed doesn’t pan out. I know we all like Outback, but we DID go there TWICE last week!

I think we’ve got most of Christmas covered, as far as gifts are concerned, which is very good. It leaves time for reflecting on the season and what it means to us as Christians. As the KC motto goes, we need to “Keep CHRIST in CHRISTmas”! And let’s not forget another favorite Christmas catch phrase, “Jesus is the REASON for the SEASON”.

We have only two weeks left of the Advent season. As we look forward to Christmas, we still have two more weeks to look back on the past year and ask ourselves if we’ve done our best as Christian brothers and sisters. Advent is the time to prepare ourselves for the birth of our Lord, much like Lent being a time of preparation for Easter. Some suggested areas of contemplation: Have we been more considerate of others? Have we been more patient with others? More forgiving? Have we put ourselves first, before everything or everyone else?

And while we’re on the subject of Christmas, you know what really chaps my butt? The “12 days of Christmas” begins on Christmas day and goes until January 5th, ending with the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6th. They are NOT the 12 days BEFORE Christmas, as the merchants who commercialize this most Holy day would have you believe. THOSE 12 days are still part of the Advent season, not the Christmas season.

A-A-A-A-A-A-A-nyway. That’s my two cents worth for today. May you all enjoy a very Merry Christmas, a wonderful Christmas season, and a Happy New Year!!