Month: November 2020

Today our Catholic Church begins its annual season of Advent which  invites us to prayerfully wait in hope for the birth of our Lord Jesus on Christmas Day. It is a time to reflect on the many stories surrounding God entering our world two thousand and twenty years ago in a  makeshift crib in Bethlehem.  It is time for us to join with Mary and “ponder many things in our hearts.”

Most years, it can be challenging to embrace this period of quietly waiting and preparing for the coming of Christ as the demands on our lives and schedule of events normally seem busiest during these often-hectic weeks in the calendar year. Annual Christmas parties, writing cards, decorating homes, the never-ending need to go shopping for special gifts, baking cookies, fighting threw large crowds to go see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center or the Rockettes at Radio City are but only a few annual rituals that have become part of our normal build up to Christmas routines. Because of the pandemic, many of these activities will look quite different or will simply not happen this year.

In the midst of these dark and scary times that we live, could there be an unseen gift? Might we be invited to utilize a little bit of our newfound time? Rather than spending time in the usual hustle and frantic buildup to Christmas Day, might we go a little deeper this year? Instead of waiting on long lines in crowded malls to purchase the perfect gift, could we instead wait in a peaceful quiet place for the coming of the most perfect gift of all, which God gives each Christmas in the birth of Jesus. 

Hopefully, our world will never again witness the harsh realities, lockdowns and plague like deaths that we have endured in 2020. As we wait for vaccines and a return to normality, what type of “new normal” do we want to embrace with our lives? Are there demands and stresses in our life that we may choose not to again allow to become our lived reality? Might we instead, opt for more quality time to spend with those we love and cherish? 

The great spiritual writer, Meister Eckhart reminded us, six hundred years ago, what this season of advent can be, when he wrote:

“What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born.”

How will I allow Christ to be born again this year through me? As Marists of Champagnat, we are each called to be like Mary and bring God into our world in our own time and way. As 2020 ends, let us each find real ways to allow the Light of our world to be reborn in and through us. May your advent journey be filled with wonder, peace, loved ones and allow you to wake up on Christmas morning with new hope that Emmanuel has again been born. Have a blessed Advent season! 

As we prepare for Thanksgiving this year, the only true certainty is that this year’s celebration will be dramatically different than any of our previous ones. Due to all the Covid-19 restrictions, our nation’s normal busiest travel days of the year will see all-time record lows for holiday travel and the usual large family gatherings will, likewise, look drastically different for most homes around our country. Even our homeless shelters which normally feed millions each Thanksgiving Day will be restricted to how they will be allowed to distribute meals to our Brothers and Sisters living on the streets of our towns, cities and country.

So many of us in our vast nation have been richly blessed to have enjoyed countless memorable Thanksgiving gatherings with our families and loved ones. It is one of my favorite holidays because it is one that all people in our great country can be united in celebrating and also one that allows families to celebrate being together without all types of demands such as worrying about decorations, gifts and presents, Christmas cards, wedding planning details, etc.

In more recent years, I was very disappointed that we as a country allowed, our annual Black Friday shopping madness, to slowly invade more of the great family day that is Thanksgiving. So many malls and stores had begun offering early bird Black Friday specials at midnight on Thanksgiving and even earlier that day which ruined the opportunity for all those workers to be able to enjoy one sacred holiday with their families each year. I suspect there will be fewer people this year who will want to rush into crowded malls or stores on Thanksgiving evening or night in the midst of this pandemic. That may not be a totally bad thing as it will allow these folks to instead spend some more precious and valuable time with their loved ones, they will be lucky enough to be with this year.

There will millions of families around our country next Thursday, who will have empty places at their tables that would have been filled by the more than 250,000 individuals that have died from the coronavirus. How so much in life can change in a year, in a month, in a day was never so real, as it is this year, for so many, who lost so much!

While this year is certainly different, it also calls us to look deeper and maybe appreciate all the more the numerous blessings in our lives. I lived in the heart of the epicenter in NYC during the tragic days of March and April. Although, it felt like being in a war zone with truckloads of body bags being stored in hundreds of refrigerated tractor trailers, I also witnessed bravery and heroics by first responders and essential workers that could only be paralleled in my lifetime by our 2001 9/11 Heroes. 

Those unbearable months in NYC and similarly today in so many other parts of our country and world that are experiencing similar spiking numbers of cases and an increasing death toll, must challenge us to never again take for granted the precious and irreplaceable gift of our loved ones in our lives. We may not be able to physically be together around the same table with everyone we desire to be with this year, but we can make real efforts to cherish those individuals and allow them to be significantly part of our celebrating a true day of Thanksgiving. We can remember them in our prayer and connect to them via calls, FaceTime or Zooms.

I invite you in the coming days, to join me in spending a few quiet minutes reflecting on the abundance of blessings in your own life so that we might each truly allow next Thursday to be a real day of actually Giving Thanks!

My family was blessed to have never known the pain and suffering of losing family members to the tragedies and cruelty of war. My uncle Jerry, a Catholic priest, served as a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force for many years and was the only member of our family who served in a war. He was among the first to be put in harm’s way during the first Gulf war in 1990 and proudly served our country during Operation Desert Storm while ministering to the heroic men and woman on the front lines in Kuwait and Iraq. He was someone who always went above and beyond the call of duty in loving and serving others. When I think of our Veterans, I think of men and woman, who like my uncle, were deeply loved by their families and who had the strength to be willing to put their lives in danger and make incredible sacrifices. For my uncle, his motivation was to be a witness of faith and bring Christ to his fellow soldiers and be a beacon of hope and faith for them.

I have spent many hours walking the fields of Gettysburg, the hills of Arlington National Cemetery and the shores of Normandy as well as visiting sacred monuments such as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in D.C. While I never personally knew any of the men or woman whose names are remembered on those sacred grounds, I was always filled with a deep reverence and a sense of immense gratitude for their sacrifice and their love of our country. So many of them were young people who never had the chance to know the many gifts and joys I have been so blessed to experience. What were their dreams, hopes and unrealized potential? We will never know, but yet every time we stop to pray for our country, recite the Pledge of Allegiance or to sing our National Anthem, can we proudly remember the countless men and woman who gave their lives for our freedom. They sacrificed their lives and all they could have been so that our country might one day reach its potential to truly be that Shining Light on the Hill. While, we as a Nation have not yet reached that goal and we might often stumble, let us not forget the lives of all those who have helped get us this far up that mountain and may we always honor their memories with hearts filled with gratitude, compassion and love.

Take a few minutes today to pray for those who died so that we might enjoy our freedom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PksSjMFA6N0

Previous Blogs…

• Happy Fathers Day
• Feast Day of St. Marcellin Champagnat
• Easter Blessings
• Embracing Good Friday
• Ash Wednesday

In Mexican and many Latino cultures, Halloween, All Saints Day and All Souls Day culminate into one of the most sacred days of the year and is referred to as the “Day of the Dead” or “Día de los Muertos.” In recent years, this special feast was highlight in the superb Pixar film, “Coco”, which beautifully illustrates the importance that our ancestors can continue to play in our life and the life of our families. The film highlights the amazing respect and reverence that so many families continue to express in remembering and keeping alive the impact and influence their departed relatives and loved ones had on their lives.

In the Catholic Church, the month of November traditionally is a time to remember our deceased loved ones with a memorial Mass in their honor. The Catholic Feast days of All Saints Day and All Souls Day are not just about remembering the many famous and canonized “Saints” recognized, officially by the Church, but also to remember our own personal “saints”, who rest now with God and continue to watch over us. We need to remember them and the significant impact they had and continue to have on our life.

During my morning walks each day this month as well as at prayer and eucharist, I spend time praying for and to my own “saints” in Heaven. I lovingly remember my parents, uncles, aunts and other family members who helped shape me into the person I am today. Likewise, I recall friends, colleagues and former students who have returned home to God, but who I still love, deeply miss and find ways to keep their memory and impact on me alive.

One of my favorite songs that I like to reflect upon each year during this month is “Standing on their Shoulders” by Joyce J Rouse, aka Earth Mama. It reminds me that I must follow in the footsteps of those who have gone before me and who greatly impacted my life. We are all called to cherish the impact of our departed loved ones and to carry on their legacy of love by passing it onto those that follow us. 

I encourage you to pray with the following music video of this great song and to remember those in your own life and reflect on how you might better embrace their gifts and legacy in your daily life. Likewise, let us also remember all those we have lost this year from Covid-19.