Time for New (Liturgical) Year Resolutions

It's the last day of the liturgical year. Advent begins with the vigil tomorrow for the First Sunday of Advent and we trade the green of ordinary time for the purple of the penitential Advent season.

And what a great sermon we got at Mass this morning from Fr. Ley. He urged us to look back and thank God for the blessings of the old year, ask forgiveness for our failures and make a firm purpose of amendment, and make some resolutions for the new year. He gave a few examples: being on time for Mass (He always pauses when late comers walk in until they're seated.), examining our prayer life to make sure we are giving time to Our Blessed Lord, and he especially recommended beginning the new liturgical year with a clean slate by going to Confession. Sounds like a great suggestion to me. But we are out and about all weekend so Confession is on my schedule for the 9th. I think that's a good way to celebrate the feast of St. Juan Diego.

How Will You Spend the Last Week of the Liturgical Year?

Tomorrow is the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the feast of Christ the King. How will you spend the final week of the year? Will you focus on the Holy Trinity reflecting on how Advent can bring you closer to God? Or will you focus on the unholy trinity of "me, myself, and I."

What gifts will you prepare this Advent to put under your Christmas tree for the Christ child?  Can you give him daily Mass? the daily rosary? a daily or weekly holy hour? Confession at least once during the penitential season? Visits to a nursing home or prison or rosaries in front of an abortion mill?

For families with children here's a suggestion. Make a beautifully decorated box with a slit in the top. Every day when you light your advent candle, let each member of the family write down the gift for Jesus for the day and put it in the box. After you decorate your Christmas tree put the gift in a prominent place underneath. On Christmas Day open this box first (Whose birthday is it after all?) and read all the gifts your family has prepared for Jesus. Won't that focus on the real reason for the season?

"The people in darkness have seen a great light." How will you bring light to your little corner of the world during the next month beginning with your family? It's worth thinking about, eh?

Feast of Christ the King: the Alpha and the Omega

How wise Holy Mother Church is. On the last Sunday of the liturgical year she holds up before us the culmination of our year of worship, Christ the King. In Him we live, and move, and have our being.

Think of the pomp and circumstance of royal coronations and other celebrations. Remember the royal weddings? Prince Charles and Princess Diana: seven hundred fifty million viewers, a paltry showing compared to William and Kate's estimated three billion (give or take 500 mil.)! How many would watch if Jesus were being crowned on international TV today? Would he garner all those worshiping watchers? Or would picketers march outside with blasphemous signs, a mob screaming, "Bring in the lions!" When He comes will He find any faith on the earth?

"Who do people say that I Am," Jesus asked his apostles, and through them, men and women of all ages. Today, the Church answers. He is Christ the King, the alpha, the omega, the beginning and the end. Today shows us the glorious end of the story, the triumph of Christ the King coming on a cloud of heaven.

Next Sunday we begin the cycle again remembering the long centuries of waiting in anticipation for our Savior promised to Adam and Eve before they were driven from paradise. We will hear again the promise of a Messiah, the prediction of His birth in Bethlehem, His glorious names -  wonderful, counselor, everlasting Father, Prince of peace. We will watch and wait and see the star rising in the east to lead us to the crib -- not in a glorious palace -- but in a manger, a food trough, a graphic image to remind us that He will, indeed, feed us. All the words tell us so: manger - to eat in French, an animal's feed box in English; Bethlehem - house of bread; lamb of God - sacrificed and eaten at the Passover Feast; and, finally, the promise of the gospel, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." Do we take Him seriously? We had better!

What a journey we begin next Sunday, the first week of Advent. We look back remembering His birth 2000 years ago, we look forward to His future coming on the day of  Judgment, and we live today with Him dwelling among us in His Eucharistic presence in the tabernacle and in the tabernacle of our bodies when we receive Him in Holy Communion.

Let use these coming weeks of Advent to grow in faith, hope, and love.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Ash Wednesday Question: How Will You Draw Closer to God During Lent?

Do you have ashes on your forehead today? How will that sign of penance affect you? Will it be just a visible sign that you're a Catholic and Lent has arrived - washed off and forgotten? Or will Lent be asignificant time of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that renews your soul during the next six weeks? Answering that question is what Lent is all about for each one of us. But there are plenty of helps. Catholic Culture is one of my favorite sources for spiritual growth. Visit their Lenten Workshop if you need some ideas as you begin your spiritual journey. Repent and believe the Good News of the Gospel!