Do You Hear What I Hear?
Sunday, December 27th at 5pm in the Churchyard
Great Music, Okay Cheese, and Cheap Wine

Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God
Thursday, December 31^st, at 6pm (livestreamed)
Friday, January 1^st, at 10am (drive-by at 10:50)

This pandemic has been brutal in so many ways but hopefully we can use the isolation it has imposed to draw closer to the Mystery of God’s love, to reflect on the Christmas season. So often Christmas day seems to come and go very quickly, and with it, the spirit of the Christmas season can be lost.  But for us as Catholics, Christmas is a season. It is a two (sometimes three) week period that allows us to enter more deeply into the mystery of the One who came to become one of us - to save us from our sins.

Today’s Feast of the Holy Family can be a wonderful time for us to contemplate the hidden life of Jesus.  The scriptures are silent about the thirty years of Jesus' life as an ordinary part of the Nazareth community. These many years he lived in a fairly ordinary, hidden way, which places him in solidarity with our ordinary day to day lives. He knew work, he knew service, he had friends and he loved family. We suppose that Joseph died during those years. Jesus knew the grief of the loss of one who had held him and nurtured him and became an earthly father to him. Reflections like these will allow Jesus to come very close to us these days.

Holy Family Sunday is a good day to talk about God’s plan for Family life.  On the way home, you might talk about the vision that our Church Fathers have for your family:
a.) Does my family consistently pray together? What can we commit to do together on a regular basis: a decade of the rosary after dinner, reading a short meditation daily, or simply reciting the Our Father as a family?
b.) As a parent, do I lead my spouse and my family closer to God? Am I a witness of Christ not only in my words but in my actions?
c.) Is my faith evident to those around me?  What can I do to shine ever brighter as a light of Christ in my daily life?

I hope the above discussions will get your family off to a great start in the New Year.  I thank you for all you do celebrate the love of God within your “domestic church” and within our faith community.

Finally, don’t forget that Friday is the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.  It is a Holy Day of Obligation.  There is a special schedule for this Holy Day.  There will be a vigil Mass at 6pm on Thursday and then Mass at 10:00am on New Year’s Day.  For the committed Catholic there can be no better way to begin a New Year than to be in Church celebrating the Eucharist.

Praise God for a New Year!  May 2021 be filled with much grace for you and your family.