Christmas

Merry Christmas!! As we celebrate the coming of God as man, it is a good time for us to re-evaluate our own relationships with family and friends. We have been discussing intimacy, and at Christmas time, we have many opportunities to share intimate moments with those we love, especially our children. Christmas is a time when you are called to explain the true meaning of Christmas to your children. Being with family brings with it a special kind of joy and peace, but it really shines through when the mother and father have really shared with each other a depth of true intimacy as well, which will carry over to your family.

But at Christmas, with a society that has been decimated with the breakdown of the traditional family, you may find it difficult to really share that peace of Christ. St Joseph also found it difficult on the first Christmas two thousand years ago. He traveled with his wife over some rough terrain to bring her to Bethlehem for a census, and yet when he arrived at his home town, his own family and friends turned him away, which led him to find shelter in a cave, where his wife, having given birth to the Savior, laid him in a manger. The Blessed Mother, who always brings us to her Son, Jesus Christ, presented her Son to the waiting world by placing him in the very place that animals feed. Our Blessed Mother still points the way to the Eucharist as she places her Son in our midst at every celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

May you have a Blessed and Joyous Christmas, and may the peace of Christ be with you and your family.

It's a Wonderful Life

It's that time of year. The classic Christmas movie, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, has so much to offer the whole family. Interestingly, the movie did not do well when it first premiered in 1946, but over the years it has endured and endeared many to the timelessness of the themes of family and sacrifice. To watch George Bailey sacrifice his dreams and remain in Bedford Falls, raising a family will bring tears to your eyes. Frank Capra brilliantly portrays small town life and the scraping by of an existence, but the true nature of what transpires overcomes the dull, dreary small town life.

For it is the belief, the very Catholic belief, that each and every life has meaning and that you are created for a purpose. It took George Bailey a financial crisis in his Savings and Loan to find that the answer to all his dreams was not building skyscrapers and bridges, living in the fancy cities. No, the answer to his dreams was always right beside him, Mary Hatch Bailey, and their four adorable children.

Imagine if you had never been born. You may not even be aware of all the good you have done just by your existence, and what you may think are inconsequential actions. Now think how different this world would be if fifty million babies since 1973 were born. It boggles the mind, doesn't it?