I'll have a Blue Christmas

“A voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.’” Matthew 3:3

Have you prepared for the coming of the Christ this Christmas? Have you attempted? Do you feel like you have failed? Is it even possible with so little time left?

Seek the perfect way to welcome the newborn king, our messiah! The way which will not fail!

Have a Blue Christmas.

You might be starching you heading and saying, “Huh a blue Christmas? Here we going something about offering up our sufferings or how I am a terrible person and I have to do something hard and painful to have a good Christmas.”

 It is quite the opposite. Something so easy even a child could it. Ask Our Lady in Blue to prepare our heart. Ask the woman who first welcomed the savior of the world into her heart, to prepare yours. She is our most perfect example. Mary is the one whom God chose to give us his Son. She is still given that role today. Mary, the perfect instrument of God, can give us Christ. Ask her!

Mary, Mother of God, all that I have, I give to you.  Mold my heart to be like your Immaculate Heart. Prepare me to receive your Son, the Savior of my soul.  I give my full consent for you to do your work in me.

Dayenu

The Dayenu is seen as one of the greatest prayers of thanksgiving. It tends to be sung as part of the Jewish Passover. The word Dayenu is translated as "it would have been enough for us" or "it would have sufficed."

The prayer is as follows:
If He had brought us out from Egypt, and had not carried out judgments against them
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had carried out judgments against them, and not against their idols
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had destroyed their idols, and had not smitten their first-born
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had smitten their first-born, and had not given us their wealth
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had given us their wealth, and had not split the sea for us
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had split the sea for us, and had not taken us through it on dry land
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had taken us through the sea on dry land, and had not drowned our oppressors in it
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had drowned our oppressors in it, and had not supplied our needs in the desert for forty years
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had supplied our needs in the desert for forty years, and had not fed us the manna
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had fed us the manna, and had not given us the Shabbat
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had given us the Shabbat, and had not brought us before Mount Sinai
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had brought us before Mount Sinai, and had not given us the Torah
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had given us the Torah, and had not brought us into the land of Israel
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!
If He had brought us into the land of Israel, and had not built for us the Beit Habechirah (Chosen House)
Dayenu, it would have sufficed us!

I wonder if many Jewish people say this prayer and think, "I don't know about the rest of you but this stuff God did for us was not enough. It was nice but He should have done more. I mean really He is the King of the Universe. And what good is all of that stuff to me now."

Prayers like the Dayenu or the Magnificat or even the Our Father, can be difficult prayers for us at times because we know the words we are saying are not true to us or we don't mean what we are saying. As in the case of the Magnificat we may think there is no way one can live up to these words of Mary. "My soul Magnifies the Lord!"  That is quite a boast! Or as in the Our Father when ask God to forgive us as we forgive others. I would rather just say forgive us and pay no attention to how I forgive other.  But I believe it is good for us to say them even if the words we are saying are not true for us. In fact I think it is all the more reason to say them and to say them often. Because maybe, just maybe the more we recite these words the more they will become true for us.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and maybe you are not feeling very thankful. Give thanks anyway. Choose to be thankful! He has given us more than enough. Dayenu.

Nobody Wants to Go

I have not had much time to write here. So I thought I would share with you something I wrote for the parish bulletin. 

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Nobody wants to go to youth group, at least not at first. At the end of the year we have our seniors share about their experiences at BRICK, and many teens share that they originally did not want to attend youth group. I mean really, who wants to join a group that sounds like it is going to be another class? Didn't I already learn about Jesus in grade school? I am done with learning about religion. Although many teens enter youth group with this attitude, they leave changed for the better. Many form valuable friendships that last for a life time. Many state that BRICK is the highlight of the week and the only good thing about Monday. They say that without BRICK they would not be ready for college. Even more importantly, they tell me that without BRICK they would not have found Jesus and would not have entered into a relationship with Jesus.

I understand your children or your grandchildren may not want to join a youth group, but maybe they need to be pushed. We push them to go to school, to exercise, to clean the house, mow the lawn, get a job, eat right and wear appropriate clothes. Why don’t we push them toward Christ? Our main goal as parents is to get our children into heaven. Let us help with that mission. Please push your teens to come to BRICK, at least for a few weeks, and we will do our best to keep them coming. 

How He Loves, How We Love

Oh How He loves. God loves us more than we can ever imagine. We may be told this often but we may not experience it very often. But the truth is no one is special. He loves us all the same.  You might be saying to yourself “Well that sucks.”  But I tell you it doesn’t. He loves us far more than any person could ever love us. He has given us everything and even himself for us. And as my friend Barb would say “He would have died for you if you were the only person.”

God Loves Us.

I could go on about how He loves us. I might even be able to write books about it and I think you might be able to do the same. Now the real question is how do we love him. For most of us I believe the answer might be in whatever way is easiest for us: showing up the say “Hi” once a week at mass, giving a dollar here or there, being nice to others, maybe wearing a cross, or some act of service. I doubt all of us don’t do all these things nor should we. My point is we often do what we want to do and then say it is for God. I know that I will often wake up late skip breakfast and not have time to pack a lunch and then all it fasting. Maybe you donate something I am trying to get rid of, or go to mass because we know there is a pancake breakfast this weekend. We are often selfish in our relationship with God.

There is a book that has been out for some time about five love languages. I am not going to

recommend the book because I have not read it nor does this psychologist have plans to read it. Anyway the author suggests these five ways to loves your spouse: gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical touch. We often tend to love our spouses in the way we want to be loved and then get disappointed when our spouse does not want to be loved that way. Is it really love if we just do what we like and not think about what the other person wants from us? This is a frequent theme in marriage therapy.  We need to learn to love others by loving them how they want to be loved.

So how does God want to be loved? I think it is different for each of us. But I am pretty sure it is not what is easiest for us. I don’t think anyone has it easy when it comes to building a relationship that lasts and the same goes for our relationship with God. If we only spend an hour a week with Him, give him canned spinach when he asks for food, or only talk to him when we really need help what kind of relationship are we building? I know I wouldn’t want to be your friend.   He wants all of our being, not just what we can spare. We need to continually ask the question, Lord what is your will for me?  And that takes prayer. Daily prayer.  And not just rattling off a few lines, but quieting our heart and listening. 

Lord what is your will for me this day? How can a better serve you and your people? Please guide me.

Prayer is not easy. It takes time. Lots of time.  Start today.  Start Now. Stop what you are doing and take time to pray. 

WARNING: Going to Church Might Get You Pregnant

Okay now that I scared you and got your attention by giving you a misleading title let me tell you the truth. Today I heard an interview by Al Kresta with Jonathan Last. Last was talking about his book that came out earlier this year called What to Expect  When No One’s  Expecting (Great title btw, let me know if you end up reading it). Now the interview went on about how people don’t have babies anymore and the world is going to hell or something like that. But the one piece of data that stuck with me was that Women who go to any sort of religious service weekly have more children than those who go less often. And those who go less have more than those who only go on holidays. And those who go on holidays have more than those who never go. I figured that those who are Catholic and go to mass every week might have more children and maybe Muslims or Mormons but all religions!    

And then I got it. People who go to church weekly must feel loved by God. God is love and he created us out of that love. When we go to church and worship we are able to see the reality of that love and what a great gift our life is. We become thankful for our life that we find it difficult not to share this gift of life. God brings forth life.  And when you are not spending time with the Author of Life you spend it with the other guy.   

In the Zone

A fellow father of three children mentioned to me the other day the differences of two versus three children. He saw it in terms of sports, which I love, and said it is like switching from a man to man defense to a zone.  I liked this analogy at first but it just didn't sit well. I came to the conclusion that it implies that parents are against their children. Like some battle is being waged or that we are one different teams. Family life is not a battle or even a juggling act between parents trying to take care of the child who is in most need at that moment. Family life is community. We all work together. Maybe a better sports analogy is of coaches and players. My wife and I train our kids to play the game.

We don't play it for them. They become self sufficient and need us less. We by no means abandon our kids but we trust them to make the right play when the time comes. The more we do for our children the worse players they become. They become players who cry to the ref for every foul, cheat to win, don't know the rules or pick fights with the other kids.

Anyway back to having three kids, when I am home alone with three kids I don’t play zone. I coach. I tell the 4 year old or 2 year old to rock the baby while I make them a snack. I make the oldest one put on his own clothes even when he cries for me to do it. I make sure my sassy two year old spends lots of time in the penalty box.  I play “Red light, Green light” but use the words stop and go and call it the “Listening Game” because I think they do not remember what stop means. We dance and sing and play together. I don’t play against them. I coach them and sometimes they let me play too. 

The Grind

In the Morning, I sing your praises

Your Word is  food for the day

You cover me with your Spirit

Armour and Sword to protect and fight

With zeal I enter the battle

Stuck down, confused, lost

Who is my brother, 
Who is my enemy?

Where are the battle lines?

Where is Your banner?

Am I aiding in this fight?

Am I even fighting?

All is a blur

Have I killed my friend?

Or helped my foe?

I do not know...

I return weak and wounded

Am I making a difference?

Should I continue in this war?

Give me eyes to see.

Show me the errors of this days

Make all clear

Forgive my faults

Mercy

You heal wounds

Give rest

Calm fears

Hope for the Morning

Greetings

I find the visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth as an unusual event in history. These figures do not act as typical people would act. Let’s have a look at the facts from Chapter 1 of Luke.

Mary goes to visit her elderly cousin Elizabeth who was once said to be barren but is now in the last few months of her pregnancy.

Elizabeth’s husband is currently mute.

Mary is seen as sinful for being with child and not married. And this is where the story begins.

Mary greets Elizabeth and the baby in her womb leaps for joy and she says, “Most blessed are you 

among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, and how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

I mean that seems like a bit much.  Most people in Elizabeth’s shoes would say something like, “Who do you think you are getting pregnant out of marriage and then stealing my husband’s story and saying that an angel came to you and you became pregnant by God! And how does this happen to me, that you come and rub this in my face after you know how long I have suffered and failed to have a child!”

Maybe we would not have said this but we might have very well been thinking it while we said, “ Oh Mary nice to see you, thanks for coming to help…”

Elizabeth was given the grace of God to see the truth in Mary, to see Christ in Mary. She was not thinking about  herself but goes even further in her greeting and states, “Blessed are you who believe that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. “ She complements Mary on her faith. 

When in my point of view Elizabeth is displaying a huge amount of faith.

And then Mary responds in her normal fashion with humility and trust in God, “My soul proclaims the greatness of God” or in the more literal translation. “My soul magnifies to Lord!”

How would we greet Mary if we were in Elizabeth’s shoes?

How do we greet Mary today?

How do we greet others?

I think I need to do a better.

Greetings