Merry Christmas Everyone!!

In the middle of the Christmas season, I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas - I hope everyone's Christmas day was joyful and peaceful. I have had a very good Christmas season this year, it was much more laid back and less stressful, which can cause some stress in itself (e.g. thinking that you need to do more or get things done you have decided to put off or eliminate). We did a lot less decorating inside this year and I think that was good. One thing we did do was to buy an outdoor nativity display (3 wood panels with nativity scenes painted on them, very cute) but because of the rain, I didn't put it up until Dec. 23 which was fine because it wasn't even Christmas by then anyways. I enjoyed the Christmas parties sponsored by my two favorite Catholic organizations, Marriage Encounter and Knights of Columbus, they were great parties full of fun people and families that have goood Catholic values.

I read the Pope's Christmas homily and I think it was great, the point he made that God loved us so much he became a defenseless little baby was such a superb viewpoint, God became small for us, he became a child for us and that is what we celebrate on Christmas, God becoming child and we give gifts to each other as a sign of us giving gifts to the newborn King. I read that some people have been calling for people to give gifts of money or items to the poor as a gift to relatives and I think I may try that next year with my daughters, one gift will be a donation to a charitable organization and I will wrap up the receipt or something and give it to my daughters during Christmas. Our church already has a Christmas giving tree and we participated in that and my daughter even picked out a few for us to give for ( one girl wanted books, my daughter loves books and another girl wanted makeup, my daughter is too young for makeup but she liked that she was able to pick out makeup for this girl) and we do give to other organizations but we don't treat them as gifts to us and they are, as Jesus said, whenever you give to the least of your brothers and sisters, you give to me.

I want to remind everyone that Christmas season is two weeks long so keep the Christmas joy and peace in your heart for another week. Today is the feast of the Holy Family, a big feast for my family as our parish is Holy Family and so it is a big feast day for us. I pray that I may become more like St. Joseph in my family and be the provider of the faith and all things that my children need to grow to be faithful Catholic adults. God bless you all and a Happy New Year, I see things turning around for the Catholic Church especially in America - more seminarians, more bishops that want the Church to be faithful witnesses to the American people, more decent entertainment opportunities (especially EWTN being put on a lot of digital cable outlets), and more eucharistic adoration opportunities. Keep praying for all this.

XLT - Adoration for the younger set

I went to XLT for the first time a few weeks ago and I have to say that I was very impressed even if we were in the Church Hall and not the Church because of a school concert. XLT is basically a mixture of praise and worship and eucharistic adoration. It seems to be broken up into 3 parts, 1st part is praise and worship, 2nd part is a teaching and 3rd part is the adoration. However, what makes the adoration different is that after the normal adoration songs/chants, the Eucharist is adored while worship music is played softly, so you can either sing the worship music or pray your own prayers. The eucharist is then put back away and then the evening ends with praise songs. It was a blessed moment and I enjoyed it. The teens in attendance also seem to like it which is the whole point of it. I hope to be able to go again soon.