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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Happy Feast of Christ the King! Today we celebrate with
the whole Church around the world, the fact that Jesus is the
King of kings, and the Lord of all lords! This is a glorious
Feast Day that reminds us Who we follow and Who we belong to.
It is not a coincidence that we celebrate this Feast Day this
weekend as we come to the end of our liturgical calendar. The
Feast of Christ the King is meant to help us transition into
Advent and the First Sunday of Advent next weekend. With the
Feast of Christ the King, our liturgical cycle comes full circle
and we go back to preparing for Jesus’ birthday. The older I
get, the more amazed I am at how powerful the entire liturgical
cycle really is. The Church year allows us to look at and
celebrate all of Jesus’ life and teachings from every aspect.
It is yet another great advantage to belonging to the Catholic
Church.
As we prepare for our new Church year to begin next
weekend with the beginning of Advent, it is time, of course, for
me to issue my annual Advent challenges. The most basic of the
challenges is that we all actually do all that we can to keep
Advent. That’s not an easy thing to do when so many in our
culture and society have already started celebrating Christmas.
Advent is NOT Christmas. It is, instead, an extremely important
time to prepare for Jesus’ birthday and Christmas. It is so
very important for us to not let Advent get lost in “secular
Christmas”, which, by now, is well underway. The Christmas
candy, and the Christmas cards, and I even saw Christmas
fruitcake, have all been out in the stores since the day after
Halloween. There are radio stations already playing Christmas
music. This weekend, they light up the “tree” on Monument
Circle, and we haven’t even begun Advent yet! Is it any wonder
that our society and culture have such messed up ideas about
Christmas? A lot of it goes back to the fact that they, the
world, does not see Christmas as something to get ready for.
Oh, you may buy lots of presents, and food, and decorations, but
the general public doesn’t have a clue as to how to get
spiritually prepared for Christmas. Advent is
counter-cultural. It should feel more than a little bit
uncomfortable. The Church does Advent. The world does not.
Advent reminds us that we can’t be like the world. That’s why
we NEED Advent!
Advent 2006 is as short as Advent can ever be. This
year, the Fourth Week of Advent is only a few hours long. That
puts additional pressure on this shorter than usual season to
get us ready for Christmas. Advent is not the time for
Christmas parties and celebrations. There needs to be time for
that later. It is not time to put up Christmas decorations
yet. That too will come later. Now it is time to clean up and
get our souls ready for Christmas. It is not even time for
Christmas music. Contrary to popular opinion, there really is
some awesome Advent music out there to listen to first, to get
us ready for Christmas. There’s a lot more than just “O Come, O
Come, Emmanuel”. But more than parties, and decorations, and
music, the real truth is that we should be so busy during Advent
helping others, praying, serving, getting involved, working, and
making a difference, that there really shouldn’t even be any
time to waste doing anything else before Christmas. Let us
think this week about how we are going to use this upcoming
Advent season to get ready for Jesus’ birthday. We only get one
Advent per year. Wouldn’t it be a shame to lose this valuable
time pretending that it was already Christmas?
This year, once again, we are singing our Mass parts
during Advent in Latin. The Vatican has issued several
statements in the last few years about how the Holy Father would
like all Catholics to know the basic parts of the Mass in Latin,
which is still the “official” language of our Church. Latin is
meant to remind all of us of our communion with Catholics all
over the world and our unity in the Mass. Here at St. Maria
Goretti, we will be singing the Mass parts in their original
Latin and Greek forms during Advent. If you don’t know these
Mass parts in their original forms, please use the hymnal this
Advent to become more familiar with them this year, as the
Vatican has asked us to do.
Next weekend, we also welcome the Little Sisters of
the Poor from St. Augustine’s Home for their annual appeal at
St. Maria Goretti. Have a great week! Let’s get ready for a
great Advent.
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
It is only with
gratitude that life becomes rich.
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