December 25th, 2021 & January 2, 2022

“For behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord.” Lk 2:10-11

It is my sincerest hope that the divine person of Jesus Christ, fill you with life and light this Christmas. If that is true, then you join me in being the most fortunate of people; for most people live without the knowledge that God became man, born of a virgin, to love us to death, and guide us to our true home – heaven. Imagine the world being without a savior, we’d be doomed to confusion and hopelessness. Many people throughout the world live like that now, as most people aren’t Christians and most Christians don’t practice their faith.

Whenever we turn on the news we see the world filled with anxiety and dysfunction, ripe for break down, and this fear of breakdown is stressful. Regardless of what is going on in the world and our personal lives, we can have supernatural peace and enlightenment when our lives are lived in Jesus Christ. We can have that because God has come down from heaven, in the divine person of Jesus Christ, to give us His Catholic Church with God’s Truth and sacraments for our salvation and sanctification. So let us give thanks and praise to God for the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Let us also resolve to serve Jesus Christ in the coming year, a year that may start to see great changes happening in the world. Changes that can be managed, even handled well, if we have a committed relationship to Jesus in His Church; changes that the vast majority of the human race will not handle well because they don’t have a close relationship with Jesus Christ. You can be a great help to them. To that end, please strive to develop the habit of daily prayer; and spiritual reading a few days a week, even if only a few minutes a day. Please strive to live the seven precepts of the Church: attend Mass on holy days of obligation (Sundays are always holy days of obligation); confession at least once a year (ideally monthly); receive Holy Communion at least once a year (must be in a state of grace – hence the sacrament of confession); observe the Church’s laws on fasting and abstinence; be a steward of the Church through the commitment of your time, talent and treasure; evangelize according to ability and opportunity; and observe the Church’s (God’s) laws on marriage. If one is trying to live all these things, especially in our super secular age, then God will grant that person (you and others because of you) great graces.

Finally this – I love you. I feel embarrassed and guilty in saying that. Guilty because I could do much better and more; embarrassed because I feel like such a hypocrite knowing that I could be doing much better and more! But it must be true at some level, like a parent who loves their children but feels as if they are muddling through for the most part. That ‘muddling’ is motivated by something and that something is love. God loves you and it is important for you to know that your pastor loves you too (although pathetically compared to God). While the parish is too large for one priest to have a personal relationship with everyone (especially when he’s not that extroverted), sometimes just knowing that someone out there loves you, is praying for you, and rooting for you, can be lifesaving. O, and Jesus loves you too J.

May baby Jesus Bless You,