Another Fun Tradition for the Season -- Building Candy Houses

Everyone has traditions that they repeat again and again over the years. One of ours is decorating graham cracker houses. We usually do it during the Christmas season, but if we miss it we can play catch up on Valentine's Day or have a Christmas in July event. One of our granddaughters is a tremendous artist and her houses are always exquisite. She's grown up now, but still enjoys the project when she's around for it.

Guest Post - Handing on the Faith to a New Generation: You Can't Give What You Haven't Got!

We can only bring others to Jesus
if we have a personal relationship
with Him ourselves. 

HANDING ON TO A NEW GENERATION

by James M. Thunder*

Last month I listened to a parish Director of Youth Ministry describe a sociological study documenting how so many young Catholics think of our Faith as a set of propositions without a personal relationship with God Who is the subject of the propositions. Then I watched World Over Live broadcast a videoclip of Bishop Robert J. Baker of Birmingham at the June meeting of the American bishops (the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), request that the words, the Name, Jesus Christ, appear at least once in one of the USCCB documents that was then under review.

These two events prompted me to think of the time I heard a priest say that St. Paul had such a deep relationship with Jesus that there are passages in his epistles where he uses the Name over and over again. When his letters are read at Mass, I’ll sit up and notice, for example, that St. Paul writes the Name five times in the opening eight verses of his Letter to the Romans, and eight times in the opening 10 verses in his First Letter to the Corinthians.

St. Nicholas Day

How I loved St. Nicholas day when our children were little. They always put their shoes outside their bedroom doors and we put in a few gold covered chocolates and maybe a tangerine or a small toy. It wasn't a mini Christmas, just a reminder of the great saint who loved the poor. We liked to tell the story of St. Nicholas providing dowries for poor women in his village who otherwise couldn't marry. (Some customs are well gone!)

What will I do for the poor this Advent season in memory of St. Nicholas? The food pantry at the parish comes to mind and the Giving Tree in the Church vestibule filled with wish-list items -- so many opportunities to share this time of year -- and they make the light of Advent shine brighter.

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