1. Reflect on Mary as Mother of God. Read up on Marian theology. There are also many beautiful spiritual reflections on Mary’s role in salvation history.
2. Meditate on the Incarnation. Aside from the romantic image of the baby Jesus born in a stable, what does it mean for God to take on human nature, to become a baby and a child with human parents, to have to grow up, to live a human life? What does this Mystery do for human nature?
3. Meditate on the theological virtue of Love. Read, for example, Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, God is Love
4. Turn your prayer toward praise and worship. Praise is giving God love and glory for the good things He does – like the Incarnation. Worship is giving God love and glory just because He is God. Praise & worship music is a great help in this kind of prayer. With or without music, just lift your heart to God filled with love. Of course, books such as Beginning Contemplative Prayer can also help train you in this beautiful form of prayer.
5. Speaking of praise and worship, attend Eucharistic Adoration! What a perfect way to give praise and worship to God Among Us (Emmanuel)!
6. Study the lyrics and origins of Christmas carols! Many of them – Oh Holy Night (my favorite), It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, Silent Night, etc. – have deep theological significance worthy of prayerful reflection. What a beautiful way to pray!
7. As a New Year’s Resolution you can actually keep, take an easy step to increasing your knowledge about your faith. The Lighthouse Catholic Media CD of the Month Club brings some of the best Catholic teachers right to your mailbox every month for just $5 a month. Even if you don’t have time to read a book or take a class, you can just pop a CD into a player in the car, at work or at home and listen while you’re on the go.

So what are you going to do to make Christmas beautiful? Add to the list – share your ideas below!

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It’s Not Over on Christmas Day – It’s Just Getting Started!

It’s the fourth week of Advent. How are you doing on your Advent observation? Many Catholics use Advent as a time for spiritual reading and reflection, which is great! I love that From the Abbey has played a role in that for some of you by providing your spiritual reading material.

A good temperature reading is to ask yourself what your attitude toward Christmas is right now. Are you getting excited? I know, it’s been a long time since you’ve had the excitement of a child for Christmas day. But as we mature in our faith, that excitement should be growing deeper rather than getting weaker as we come to an ever-greater understanding of the significance of the Incarnation. However, if you’re like most of us (including me most years), you’re probably more exhausted than excited. While the the worldly preparations of Christmas and the shopping season are good as far as they go, when we let them overwhelm our spiritual preparation, the excitement we should have for the coming of Christ dies.

Whether or not you were able to take the time this year for some extra prayer and reflection, the end of Advent doesn’t end your opportunity! Did you know that Christmas is also a great time to deepen your spiritual life? Most of us know that Christmas is not just a single feast day in the Church calendar, but a season. However, too often we think of the Christmas season as beginning on the first day of Advent and ending on Christmas day. Christmas is actually the beginning of the Christmas season! In fact Christmas “day” – the feast of Christmas – is actually an octave! That’s right – eight days of full-fledged celebration! What a shame if by Christmas day we’re sick of celebrating and consider ourselves done. But that’s not all! The Christmas season spreads beyond the octave of Christmas through the Feast of the Presentation, giving us over two weeks of actual Christmas.

So, how are you doing this Advent season? Are you excited, or just plain exhausted? Leave your comments below!

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The Incarnation of Christ is such a great sign of love that it has transformed an entire season of the year in to a season of joy, even for those who don’t know Jesus. In the Incarnation, Jesus so completely emptied Himself of His rightful glory as the Second Person of the Trinity that when He took on human nature, He came to earth as a tiny, helpless baby in a poor family. Imagine the creator of the universe stripping Himself of every form of dignity and power. He could have taken on human nature as a fully-grown human, with at least some station in life. Instead, He puts Himself at the complete mercy of human parents.

True love is sacrificing yourself for the good of another person in order to ensure they receive all that is good. The only better example of love we have is Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross.

That’s why gift-giving is such an appropriate expression of the Christmas season. In giving gifts to one another, we offer a piece of ourselves (our money representing our labor and time) as an expression of love. Yes, our crazy culture has warped this beautiful expression of love into a materialistic expression of our right to have stuff. But that doesn’t erase the potential of the powerful potential that gift-giving has to point our minds and hearts to the true sacrifice of love made by Jesus.

One way to preserve the true meaning of gift-giving is to include gifts that point your loved ones directly to Christ. As you know, the mission of From the Abbey is to promote Catholic literacy and to lead people to the Joy of the Truth. Gaudete Sunday and the third week of Advent is such a perfect time for you to explore how From the Abbey can help your loved ones find the Joy that comes from knowing the awesome love of God.

Are you ready to get started spreading the Joy of the Truth to your loved ones? Click here to find out how From the Abbey can help!

What else are you doing to point your loved ones to the love of Christ and the Joy of the Truth this Christmas? Please leave your comments below!

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Long lay the world
in sin and error pining
’til He appeared
and the soul felt its worth.

Since the Fall, the world has been covered by the darkness of sin and error (ignorance). Humanity wears itself out seeking happiness in what can never satisfy. Without Christ there would be no hope to find rest in true happiness. Exhausted and hopeless, the world lies panting and dreaming of a better way. From the Fall, the desire for true happiness beat in our hearts, but there was no way to fulfill that desire. Then Jesus took on human nature and showed us how much God loves us. The Creator of the Universe places Himself helpless and vulnerable in the hands of human beings. The great Law-Giver becomes obedient to human parents. The Incarnate Word works the greatest miracle through the body of a human woman. Humanity catches its first glimpse since Eden of the perfect happiness of loving God and being loved by Him.

A thrill of hope,
a weary world rejoices.
Yonder springs
a new and glorious morn.

Christ’s birth thrilled through the entire world, and continues to do so. Humanity now has the hope of gaining that for which it was created — covenant with God. Even before we fully understood the redemption Jesus offered, we felt the seeds of that redemption in the closeness of our God. The sun has arrived, the darkness flees before it. Noontime has yet to come (in the Resurrection), but we catch a glimpse of the light and heat it promises and we are filled with hope. This hope is felt by the shepherds greeted by the angels, and also by the magi who see the hope in the changes of the universe and follow a star to the God-King. It is the hope we celebrate every Christmas.
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One of the worse Christmas clichés is the “Frenzied Christmas” cliché. It is actually just an extension of the larger cultural cliché – the busy life. “Everyone is so busy.” To me, it’s not a question of how “busy” we are. After all, isn’t every moment of life filled with activity of some kind? If I’m not “busy” with my projects and commitments to our parish, I’m “busy” raising my daughter. If I’m not “busy” raising my daughter, I’m “busy” playing video games. Life isn’t “busy” in the sense that it could ever not be busy. I think that when people say, “I’m so busy,” they are really saying, “I’m not using my time in the way that I find most fulfilling.”

The December 25, 2006 issue of the Marshfield News Herald, our local news paper included an article by Matt Crenson from the Associated Press entitled “Christmas has been frenzied for centuries, history shows.” The link for the article is below, under a different title. Matt Crenson bases his article on a book by Stephen Nissenbaum called The Battle for Christmas. Of course, Nissenbaum begins his examination of Christmas with the Roman festival of Saturnalia. Saturnalia was apparently a topsy-turvy free-for-all filled with drinking, gambling and sex. Nissenbaum points out that Saturnalia was not unique for winter solstice celebrations in the pre-industrial era. Indeed, as a United States History teacher (and amateur scholar) I have discovered Catholic feast days in pre-industrial England were very often excuses for drinking and carousing. The vision of a peaceful, domestic, Norman Rockwell painted Christmas was nothing more than crowd control imposed by entrepreneurs of 1820s America (specifically, New York City) to keep their unruly labor force in line. And, hey, why not make a few bucks off the poor slobs in the process? Let’s sell them the ideal of buying gifts for everyone and his brother. Matt Crenson offers a comment from Russel Belk, “Christmas and America’s consumer culture have fed off one another ever since.”

The ideas expressed in this article and in the book that it is based on are interesting and, as far as I can discern, historically accurate. However, as are most secular commentaries on Christian customs, these ideas are incomplete. You see, there is a fundamental difference between the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice and the Christian celebration of Christmas. While winter solstice celebrations were narcissistic, hedonistic escapes from harsh reality, the celebration of Christmas is a celebration of love. Specifically, it is the celebration of God’s gift of Himself when the Second Person of the Holy Trinity united Himself to humanity by taking on human nature. What we commonly call the “Christmas Spirit” is the realization that such love from God demands a response from us. We are called to give the gift of ourselves to others.

Michael Medved, a Jewish radio commentator, put this all in perspective for me in an interview on Catholic radio. Is Christmas “frenzied” and busy? Sure, for most people it adds a number of responsibilities to our normal daily business. However, as I said at the beginning of this post, what are we busy with for Christmas? All of that frenzied activity is done for the sake of others! We are busy during Christmas making ourselves a gift for others! All of the food we cook, all of the gifts we purchase, all of the time we spend cleaning and decorating the home is for other people to enjoy. Christmas is rarely the peaceful, idyllic season that we expect it to be. But it is a Christian holiday. It is a season of love. I agree with Michael Medved – a Jew who says, “how wonderful!”

In the love of Christ,

Jeff

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First Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation “The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary . . .”

Jodi received the phone call at about 8:30 on a Friday morning. It was our adoption agent asking permission to share our name and information with another agency that had an emergency situation and needed to place a baby right away. Of course, we said yes. At 11:00 she received a call from that adoption agency telling us that we had been chosen by the birth mother. That evening, Jodi and I called the agent back and we talked about the details regarding how to proceed: paperwork, traveling, working with the interstate agencies, and the steps toward finalizing the adoption. Now, Jodi and I have not really been waiting long for a child, compared to some couples who have struggled with infertility. We have only been trying for about three years, and we have only been in the adoption “pool” for only three months. So, our journey toward parenthood was rather quick. However, in those three years the longing in our hearts has grown tremendously. We so much ached for this expansion of our marital love, for the fulfillment of our vocation. As the good news sank in, I thought about all the times in the Bible that God had brought life out of barrenness. Abraham’s wife, Sarah, bore Isaac. Manoah’s wife was infertile until she bore Sampson. Elizabeth bore John the Baptist “in her old age.” And Mary, who as far as we know was not infertile but who was a virgin who did “not know a man,” conceived Jesus. They too knew the longing that our hearts experienced. Ironically, Mary knew it best, even though as an unmarried woman (and possibly a consecrated virgin) she had no reason to expect pregnancy. Her longing was the longing of all of Israel waiting for their messiah. I don’t believe that she felt the desire explicitly all her life, but I can easily imagine the dammed-up desire of the entire Hebrew people (indeed of all of humanity) throughout history suddenly rushing into her heart at the Angel’s words. How painful and joyful that news must have been – the satisfaction of the desire of her heart that she had not even been fully aware of until just then. We knew it well on the day we received our own annunciation.

Second Joyful Mystery: The Visitation “Immediately Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth…”

At the close of our phone conversation with the adoption agent, he said, “So when can you be here? If you can be here on Monday …” Monday! That gave us only the weekend to get plane tickets and to get ourselves together for a journey. The preparation that weekend was frantic but joyful. We had the opportunity to celebrate our good news at a family birthday party on Saturday night. Mass that Sunday was especially filled with feelings of gratitude. Monday was a long day of flying and layovers, though the journey went smoothly. We arrived at our destination late Monday night and got to the hotel room too tired to do anything but sleep, but almost too excited to sleep. What must have Mary’s trip to Elizabeth been like? She was not traveling to receive her promised child. Instead, she was traveling to complete an act of love, to care for her cousin in her pregnancy. I have always admired this about Mary. However, now I know what kind of act it really was. Mary’s heart must have been bursting with joy, with the Good News that she had received from the Angel and with the sense of the new life inside her womb. She must have been aching to share that news with somebody. Yet, she suppressed her desire to make the journey to care for Elizabeth first. I can clearly picture her packing for her journey. I can feel the almost painful excitement, bordering on impatience, as she worked, and then as she waited for the long journey to be complete. Did Mary have anyone to celebrate with before she met Elizabeth? How many prayers of Thanksgiving and Praise must she have uttered as she traveled? Then, when she meets Elizabeth, Elizabeth greets her with, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, as soon as the sound of your greeting met my ears the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed are you that believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to you by the Lord.” The dam in Mary’s heart bursts and she pours forth the words of praise and wonder that have been forming in her heart during the entire journey:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.
My spirit rejoices in God my savior,
For He has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed.
The almighty God has done great things for me.
His mercy endures form age to age,
And holy is His name…

Oh how this same song was streaming from our hearts as we tried fruitlessly to sleep that night, realizing all of God’s goodness.

Third Joyful Mystery: The Nativity of Our Lord “…Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.”

Our new baby was born before we even knew about her. We experienced her nativity when we picked her up from the foster home and held her in our arms for the first time. While we had nothing to do with giving her life, we knew at that moment that we were being called to be her parents, to nurture her and to love her. We experience this overwhelming epiphany again and again whenever we look into her beautiful face. Our hearts overflow with love. What must it have been like for Mary? Her baby too was born before she knew about Him. He was the eternal Word before He took on human nature. While Mary gave birth to His human nature, His Divine Person existed before all time. Yet, she accepted the overwhelming responsibility of being the Mother of God. She nurtured Jesus’ human nature and she loved Him. What must if have been like for Mary? We don’t know if she experienced pain in child birth. Popular Catholic tradition is that she did not, and that would make sense since pain in childbirth is a consequence of Original Sin. Would Christ, who conquered the effect of Original Sin throughout his earthly ministry and in His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, not come into this world already conquering sickness, suffering and death? Yet, if she did feel pain in child birth, Mary’s love would have made that pain meaningful, beautiful. Our love for our new baby daughter certainly transformed all of the pain we experienced facing our own infertility. All of that suffering was for her. It suddenly did not feel so much like suffering as we gazed into the peaceful face of our new baby daughter. What must it have been like for Mary? If our hearts overflow with love as we gaze at our baby, what must it have been like for Mary to gaze into the face of Love Himself? If our love for our daughter is almost painful at times, how unbearable must her love have been as she looked into the face of God? I am caught up in reverie as I watch our family accept our new baby daughter into their lives and hearts, as I see her fitting herself into our household and family. I have a new appreciation for Mary as she pondered the mystery of love in her own heart.

Fourth Joyful Mystery: The Presentation of the Baby Jesus in the Temple ”And after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they carried him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord.”

The adoption of our daughter will not be complete until this summer. We await that day with a little apprehension, and wit
h eager anticipation. Most of all, we look forward to the day when we can present her to the Lord in Baptism. On that day we will allow Jesus’ grace to wash away original sin so that our adopted daughter may be adopted by God as His own child. When Mary and Joseph presented Jesus at the temple, Simeon and Anna gave them a glimpse into who their baby boy really was, and what kind of person he would be like: “Behold this child is set for the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel and for a sign which shall be contradicted.” What will our baby daughter become as she grows up? Looking into her beautiful eyes I sometimes think I catch a glimpse of who she is, but it is elusive. It is only enough to make me wonder. When Mary said, “behold, the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word,” she did not fully know what she was saying yes to. She was saying yes to whatever God planned for her. Her yes was an act of faith, of loving trust. I made my own “fiat” when I said “I do” at the altar. When I married my wife, I was saying yes to whatever God had planned for us. As we adopt our daughter, we continue to say yes. We say yes to whomever she is, whomever she becomes. We say yes in loving trust to the mystery.

Fifth Joyful Mystery: The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple ”…and not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him.”

Well, we haven’t actually lost our daughter yet, or left her anyplace. However, perhaps this mystery is the most relevant of all. Even though she was full if grace, Mary was still a human parent. She still struggled to grasp the mystery of parenthood, as well as the mystery of her Son. This is the challenge and the joy of parenthood. It is a mystery. It is cooperation in the very love of God. This was especially true for Mary, who was the parent of Love Himself. But it is also true for us. Marriage is a sacrament, a reflection of a divine reality. As we love each other, and as we love our daughter, we are sharing God’s love. This is an awesome reality. It is also an awesome responsibility. Are mere human beings capable of it? Only by the grace of God.

Conclusion
Isn’t God amazing? By coming to earth and taking on human nature, the Second Person of the Trinity has intimately tied Himself to human experience. In a very loose paraphrase of Pope John Paul II, Christ draws close to human experience. Now, as we go through the natural occurrences of human life, we are able to reflect on the Divine Life of God. Our human experience is given Divine meaning, Moreover, we are able to daily participate in God’s divine life. As we exercise love for each other, even (especially) in the family, we are also exercising our love for God, and experiencing His love for us. I hope the Holy Spirit continues to bring these truths to my mind. As we experience everything that people warned us about – stinky diapers, sleepless nights, changed schedules, changed lives – these meditations have turned potential suffering to great joy. God is great!

Who would have thought that such a little baby could give rise to such deep ponderings? It’s amazing what comes to mind during these 5:00 AM feedings…

In the love of Christ,

Jeff
(No pen name – this was a personal experience of the true author!)

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