So I gaze on you in the sanctuary

Psalm 63: 1-2
O God, you are my God, for you I long
For you my soul is thirsting.
My body pines for you
Like a dry, weary land without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.

This is from Morning Prayer today, and must say that it sums up how I feel at Mass this week. I cannot help but gaze upon the Christ-child in the Nativity set with amazement. God truly is with us. He is the living God!

But this goes daily, all year, with the Eucharist. I cannot help but be amazed at the love of God—a love so great that it cannot be expressed by human words. And that great love is crammed into something so simple yet extravagant as the Eucharist!

I leave on New Year’s Eve for a two week mission trip in Nicaragua with the seminary. Please pray for us all. Then I will spend a week on retreat, followed by three days in Washington, DC for the March for Life. Classes begin January 22. Please keep us all in your prayers.

Merry Christmas (because Christmas only began on December 25)!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Recently at Louisianna State University, a spokeswoman for a university department referred to the campus Christmas tree as a “Holiday Tree”. Needless to say this did not fly with many people, so the name isn’t sticking. However, it is a great example of just how much Christ is being removed from this season, so much so that Christians are becoming unable to publicly recognize the season which is meant to give them so much joy and hope.

In moving from saying “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays”, you are doing a number of things. First, you are removing God from the season that He created! And in removing God from the season you remove Christ. And in removing Christ, you remove all public witness to, and may I be so bold as to say all hope for, salvation.

Second, in saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”, you make other holidays as important as Christmas, the holy day when God was born of a virgin. You are saying that anyone’s “holiday” that they may make up is just as important as the birth of the world’s Savior! How can such a thing be said and believed!?

In removing “Merry Christmas”, we make it easier for us Christians, and the rest of the world, to forget the reason for the season. We make it easier to forget why we exchange presents and come together as a family over a meal on December 25 of all days. Worst of all, we forget one of the most beautiful sights eyes have ever seen—the Incarnation silently born in a manger, lovingly being gazed upon by his family and visitors.

Recently Pope Benedict said that Christmas without Christ is meaningless. I concur!