Thanksgiving for the Seasons!

When I worked at The Josephinum seminary in Columbus, OH, I would often tease the Ohio seminarians: “Why would you live in such a cold place, where the sun never shines from October to April?”  They would respond, “You southerners don’t get to see the four seasons like we do.  And how can y’all live in a place where it is so hot and humid all year long?” I would respond: “You don’t have to shovel heat.”  

It takes a special grace to adapt to the seasons wherever one lives.  In the Catholic Church, we celebrate seasons from the life of Christ.  Today is the beginning of Advent, the four-week time of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Christ (purple).  This is followed by Christmas Day (white) and the twelve days of Christmas, leading to the Epiphany.  We celebrate Ordinary Time (green) for most days of the year, the longest of our seasons.   And we celebrate the forty days of Lent (purple), which lead to Holy Week and then Easter (white).  Easter is then celebrated with great solemnity for fifty days.  

I really like the changing of the liturgical seasons.  It helps us to walk with Jesus Christ through His life, death and resurrection again and again.  Our lives really have no meaning and purpose apart from His life!  Sometimes we forget this.  Our mother, the Church, reminds us of it.  “Jesus is the answer to which every human heart is the question.”   (Pope St. John Paul II)

I hope that you had, and are still having, a great Thanksgiving with your family!   And I am proud of you being here at your parish on Sunday.  This shows that you really understand the words of the Mass: “Let us give Him thanks and praise.”  The people of God respond: “It is right and just.”

We can all remember the many Thanksgivings and Christmas’s from our lives.  The seasons change every year, and we grow old with our memories.  This (liturgical) year let’s resolve to not just grow older with our memories, but to grow more holy and Christ-like.  I thank God for my many blessings and gifts which He has bestowed upon me in the past year.   And you are all a great part of these blessings and gifts.  I thank God for you. 

Fr. Brett Brannen

Pastor