St Ann’s Knights Meeting
December 4, 2014
So Happy St
Nicholas' Feast Day to you and yours, on the 6th-my boys are way old, but
Traditions are what they are but modified with age--I now put the mounds of
gelt for them not in their shoes, but on top of their key board and phone
charges-Giggles, but what "kid"
out grows gold covered chocolate coins-giggles.
Now, after Mass on the Great Feast
Day on the 8th and after the Hour of Grace, I start putting the 9 creche sets
around the rooms--all with the 3 Wise Men far removed so they can travel to
their destination and finally land on January 6th which yes, is the end of the
12 days of Christmas--but no not the END of the Christmas season--that is
February 2nd-Candlemas. And then we have two weeks off before Ash Wednesday on
the 18th of February.
Here are some ways to enjoy
Christmas through the Whole Advent and Christmas Season--
St Nicholas
Feast Day-December 6th—great
fun for the children and grandchildren.
Tradition is to put gold chocolate coins in the children’s shoes. Then as a family you go from there-special
breakfast, or dinner, or out to eat and movie night. A good teaching moment
too—how did he become a Saint? Taking care of the poor and those in need- we
are always called to help the poor.
December 8th-Immaculate Conception-Wonderful Holy
Day—and yes this year there is a work around the Sunday-Monday mass if two in a
row is simply too much for you-you must make your mass obligation. But, if you
go to Sunday mass after 4:00 PM according to Cannon law that is an anticipatory
mass for the following day- your Mass would count as the obligation of mass on
the 8th. Some will try and
say that you have to have the readings of the mass to be valid-but that is nowhere
to be found in Law .Giggles. I know you
were thinking that.
I like to
begin my home decorations after this mass and finish up by the 12th. Of course December 12th is the glorious Feast of Our Lady
of Guadalupe. I suggest you treat it as a Holy Day if you want any favors from
your Mother. Seriously.
I have nine creche sets which I put in different places, and with each one the 3 Wise men
are put away a ways and they travel to Bethlehem. They arrive January 6th.
Now you all know the 6th is
Epiphany, but how many of you think that is the end of the Christmas
Season?
You would be
wrong. As Catholics we take our cue from our Elder Brothers in the faith-the
Jews-we celebrate in Octaves and in Forty Day cycles. So we have our Christmas Eve Mass—so
wonderful, and then we come home to late night snacks and some presents.
Christmas
Day (a Holy Day if you have not made the Vigil) and then we keep the
celebration going for Eight Days and it cumulates on New Years Day (another Holy Day of obligation and need to
make mass) is the celebration for the Great Mother of God, Mary Most Holy.
Then we
continue to keep the Season of Christmas-Christ in our hearts-come as the
Emmanuel-The Christ Child all the way to February
2nd-Candlemas. The first day out of the Christmas Season is
the 3rd and St. Blaze Feast Day where we have the blessing of the
throats and blessing of candles at Candlemas.
A Christmas Version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah that
will Give You Chills
Notes for a
Reflection Talk to Grandparents:
Now for
those of you who have raised your own children and think that life is passing
you by—this is for you. Samuel, the Old Testament Prophet was very great in
Israel’s history. I Samuel 1-2-3 tells the story of Samuel's birth and very good
to read if you do not know it well.
During this
historical period Israel unlike the heathen nations around them had no
King—they were ruled by a Prophet of God. And sadly the previous prophet, Eli
had gotten very old and had left the running of all things to his two sons—and
they were corrupt. Actually, they were
so evil that God decided to kill them-have them die in such a way that all
would know it was a judgment of God to the way they acted and to the fact that
he as there Dad did not stop them. So
Hophni and Phineas, the father Eli, and the son’s wife all died in the same
day.
And Samuel
became Judge of Israel and Scriptures say Samuel judged Israel all the days of
his life and was the best Judge and Prophet Israel had seen—and when he became
old, he appointed his two sons to rule over Israel. Now you would think, Samuel would be very
aware of the way things turned out under Eli, and that he would make sure
things did not go badly with his sons----but NO, his sons started down the same
path of doing what worked for them, accepting bribes-and it got bad enough that
the people had a March on Samuel and said—look you are old, they are no
good-appoint us a King.
Of course I
am leaving out many details and building a particular story. We can address how wrong it was to want a
king and the judgment of God that came upon them for that choice and make
comparisons to today’s government and problems in another talk. What I want you to consider is this.
Eli and
Samuel were just like so many of us—it takes such effort to hold a family
together, to make a living and to build and keep a carrier that will give you
the ability to provide for your family—and so many of us as parents make the
same mistake made famous in Harry Chapin’s famous song—the Cats in the Cradle.
And our children do not always come out the way we had hoped, prayed for and
dreamed all our dreams around.
One of my
favorite Bible verses—Romans 2:4 “Or
do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience,
not knowing that the
kindness of God leads you to repentance?”
I grew up singing it this way and it
became a prayer of my heart:It's your kindness that leads us to repentance, oh Lord, Knowing that You love us-No matter what we do-Makes
us want to love You too.
God’s
Kindness is Grandchildren
Heman- I Chronicles 25:5
The
Chief Seer of David-Choir Director to the King
God
gave him fourteen sons and three daughters—and none of them ever departed from
the Temple of the Lord or its service.
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