MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It’s Christmas Eve, 2020. By this time most of us know that this will be a Christmas unlike any other we’ve experienced before.

Christmas can be the most joyful time of the year and for many it can be the most difficult time to manage, perhaps this year more than any other. We want to be with family . We want to ‘raise a glass’ with our friends. We want to hug and laugh and experience joy. But how can we do this when we have to be apart from almost all those we love?

The answer to joy I believe is to be found in 2 special words : Christmas and Faith.

If we take Christ out of Christmas it can just become about us and our own wants. But celebrating the birth of Jesus who came to show us the meaning of Love helps us realize that love is about giving not receiving. And whenever I give I realize that I receive so much joy!

Thinking about the word Faith today I decided to break it down this way :

F – for FAMILY , The Holy family who gave us Jesus and the love we have been given from our own families.

A- for ALTAR , we come to the altar in our churches to give ourselves to God and to receive him in the Holy Eucharist . And we ask the Lord to come to the altar in our hearts so that every beat will proclaim His love.

I- for INSPIRATION, to gain insight and inspiration from the life and eventual death and resurrection of Jesus through meditation ( like the rosary) , written word ( like the bible), and prayer.

T- for TRUTH, so that we realize we are never alone, that we can call upon the Holy Spirit any time of the day and night to find peace.

H- for HAPPINESS, what one feels when “hugged” and comforted by the knowledge that God is love and we are loved by God. He knows exactly who we are and He loves us no matter what.

So let’s have faith this Christmas…. faith that God is aware and weaves everything together for good. Let’s have faith that even death is not the end for us if we believe. And let’s look forward with hope that someday (maybe next Christmas!) we will be able to be with our loved ones and look back on this time with ‘2020 vision’ and remember the lessons learned.

Merry Christmas, dear friends. And in the immortal words of Tiny Tim…” May God bless us, everyone!”

p.s. My photo of the “Bethlehem star” in the first image above.