Hope you had a Gaudete Sunday! 🙏😊
Time for another Catholic Meme Monday.
That’s all I have this week. Stay alert for next week’s Catholic Meme Monday. Receive updates straight to your email inbox by subscribing to The Simple Catholic blog.
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on December 4, 2018.
The season of Advent usually begins with a perception of being a magical, jovial, and anticipatory time of the birth of Jesus. My Advent began with an anticipation. Yet it lacked marvel and apparent joy. God encountered me in an incarnational way this Advent season. I juggled the infectious side effects of projectile vomit and diaper explosions. Both of my sons came down with the stomach flu over the weekend.
Nothing tests a parent’s patience, will-power or love of their children quite like a continual cleaning of bodily fluids. On top of the symptoms of the stomach flu, my youngest son is also recovering from an adenoidectomy (see below diagram if you never heard of that organ before–as I never did prior to this surgery!) Because the flesh is healing behind his nasal cavity, my two year old’s breath smelled like death since the surgery. The doctors estimate three weeks before his rotting-breath odor stops! What a start to the New Liturgical year!
Too often society places pressure for the perfect “holiday” season: all the gifts must be precisely wrapped and laden under the Christmas tree in a tidy order, the Christmas meal has to be cooked to the exact temperature and paired with the appropriate side dishes depending on the main dish, and family members need to behave–especially your “estranged/weird” uncle [or aunt or other unique relative you may have]. Honestly, I fall into this fallacy almost every year myself.
This year was no different.
I hoped to be able to take my entire family to Mass to celebrate the First Sunday of Advent. Sadly, this didn’t happen. Because of my priority as a parent, I had to miss this Mass to care for my ailing family.
After taking some time to reflect on the apparent failures of the weekends, I realized maybe God was preparing me for something greater—Advent really is all about preparation for the coming of Christ. Revisiting the birth narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, showed me the arrival of Jesus did not occur in the ideal standards, at least according to the world’s standards.
Luke 2:7 details how Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem “too late” and the innkeeper denied them a room at the inn. Mary had to give birth to Jesus in a humble way—in a simple stable. American novelist Flannery O’Connor wrote the following about the Incarnation,
Man’s maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witnesses, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.
By becoming a human Jesus was able to encounter the entirely of the human condition save for sin. In my children’s pain, suffering, tiredness, and thirstiness this past weekend, Christ was with them in a unique way as he already suffering all those things during his 33 years on Earth.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 463, “Belief in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian faith: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” The season of Advent is not about preparing for the “perfect” Christmas where Mary and Joseph get a room at the inn. Advent prepares us for the birth of Jesus Christ. His birth took place in the messiness of the stable. And his Passion and Death took place on the messiness of the Cross.
Not everything in my life will be neatly fit in my control. But after this incarnational and infectious start to Advent, God grace me with the gift of perspective and opportunity in serving my children as Christ served the world.
An Advent Reflection on Finding Gratitude in the Stressful Season
By: Mark Wilson
You Better Watch Out…
You Might Just Cry…
You Better Not Complain…
I’m telling You Why…
Advent is coming to town…
and it is that time of year that we prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas. Christmas is on its way. Lovely, glorious, beautiful Christmas, upon which the entire kid year revolves. Advent helps prepare us for having the hap-hap-happiest Christmas we could have. I’m hoping that this article will help you smile, as smiling’s my favorite.
Catholics and other Christians liturgically celebrate the holiday December 25th. The rest of the world celebrates Christmas anytime around Thanksgiving up until Christmas. This is what I like to call secular Christmas as opposed to liturgical Christmas. Does society know it’s not Christmas? It’s the only time during the whole year you actually hear secular society mention Jesus in song on the radio and in stores. As Bart Simpson reminds us…
During Advent or Secular Christmas as Mary and Joseph are getting ready to travel to Bethlehem and the three kings of orient are journeying to the same place from the east as God places the Christmas Star in a far away part of the universe, other people in our time and place are preparing for the grand celebration of yuletide festivities by singing Christmas Carols loud for all to hear which is the best way to spread Holiday Cheer, and by going Christmas Shopping to support people who have to work in retail, and by watching Christmas movies and TV Shows.
Christmas movies help us get in the mood and spirit of Christmas by capturing our imaginations with grand stories of holiday merriment and wonder. And if you watch and take it all in and tie it to your faith, then it can happen, then the miracle can happen to you! So let’s get ready to Deck those Halls and Step into Advent as God gets ready to send us his Hallmark Christmas Movie wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manager.
As God is getting ready to honor Mary’s fiat, by developing a combo of man and God without mixing the two together in Mary’s womb and bringing Joy to the World, certain individuals who are lovingly creepy but smiley and nice are getting ready to combine two different holidays of giving. Say for example Halloween and Christmas. ‘What’s This?’ you may ask.
As I said above, the holy family is preparing for their trip to Bethlehem and will later plan their trip to Egypt. Families are usually preparing their kid’s Christmas Vacations, but COVID has brought a halt to the usual kid’s vacation plans. Still some people are
This is best exemplified in the film ‘National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.’
As we get ready for grand celebration of Christ’s birth, angels from realms of glory are getting ready to earn their wings by helping humans on earth. Sometimes they are allowed to grant grand interdimensional visits to another reality.
As the three kings of orient are trying not to get lost, a bunch of Catholic priests are trying not to get lost while Christmas shopping in a department store during the shopping season. It’s easy to wind up lost in the lingerie section, which would be embarrassing for the priests.
As we get ready to prepare a fitting place for Christ in our heart, the King Herods of the world are planning chaos and destructive acts to disrupt the arrival of Christian love and peace. This is especially true of men who are greedy and want to use the occasion of Christmas to terrorize and steal. But as the shepherds guarded the Christ child, so did a NY city cop help protect and save Christmas partygoers trapped in a building seized by terrorist thieves. And up at the North Pole a Majors TV legend helped fend of terrorists trying to steal Santa’s workshop of toys.
Those of us who know DIE HARD is a Christmas movie are so over the argument. We just go about our lives and drink eggnog and watch DIE HARD in December, and we don’t give a rip who has Objections. -Deacon Steven D. Greydanus
The innkeeper was planning for the census rush and was not as prepared when the couple which included a pregnant woman came to his inn and wanted in a room. As the innkeeper helped to set up the stable suitable for an incarnated God to come as a baby, in other places, children geniuses set up their homes to thwart less lethal thieves from breaking into their home and stealing their earthly goods. The traps and devices are designed only to hurt and maim but not utterly destroy with death.
As the wise-men were planning their trip back and forth across the middle east they were eventually contemplating how to deal with nasty king Herod. Small towns were also busy planning for Christmas and would eventually contemplate what to do with vicious nasty little monsters who have infected their town like Tribbles.
As God was getting ready to give his Son to the world, Santa was also busy getting ready, by loading up his sleigh and finishing the last batch of toys to put into it for the Christmas eve dash around the world in his sleigh, The Little Saint Nick. The master toymaker made sure he included in his sack…
Besides getting ready to go around the world, Santa is also planning on going to court, after an altercation with someone at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. He now has to prove he is the real Santa. But he can’t use Christmas magic in front of others.
As all this is going on, Santa’s number one fan travels to New York to spread Christmas cheer.. Santa’s little Buddy was hoping to go to Pine Tree, Vermont to put on a Christmas show and experience a White Christmas, but off to NY he goes. He was willing to make the sacrifice of giving up his dentistry practice to do this task.
It was tough traveling such a distance from the North Pole. This honoree elf had to get by the dreadful Cotton Headed Ninny Muggin Snow Miser who whips up storms every time Santa tries to leave the north pole. Santa is also prepping his special magical train to pick up various children for a special visit to the north pole.
As Herod gets ready to take the life of the newborn king of the Jews, a misunderstood loner was getting ready to steal Christmas away from the annoying citizens of the town near where he lived. He eventually had a change of heart that grew in size, unlike Herod who had his heart grow to stone.
As the angels get ready to sing to the shepherds and announce the arrival of a savior, 3 ghosts get ready to visit grumpy, pessimistic and miserable people who once loved Christmas but have grown cold in their love for the holiday and other people.
This is best exemplified in any version of ‘A Christmas Carol’. One of my favorites of recent years is Scoooged in which Bill Murray prepares his network for the airing of A Christmas Carol LIVE on Christmas Eve.
As secular society gets ready to tell all these wonderful stories of Christmas, a group of school children gets ready to re-enact the true story of Christmas in one of the few mainstream stories to actually give the real meaning of Christmas.
And as we reflect on the words of Linus as he explains to Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas, we can get into the spirit of getting ready for the coming of the Lord by watching movies and relating them to the spiritual realities of our Catholic life.
Mary did you Know… your life would one day be in a movie?
Happy Advent and Merry Christmas…
By: William Hemsworth
In sacred scripture, we read that man was created he had a perfect relationship with God. Man is the pinnacle of creation. God gave man everything.
In return the Lord asked man not to each of one tree in the garden. Man did not listen, rebelled, and had to face the consequences of sin for the first time.
The sin of our first parents also applies to us. We all have sinned, and the penalty for that sin is death. Saint Paul had the same opinion in Romans 6:23 which states, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. However, the second person of the blessed Trinity, Jesus himself became incarnate to atone and redeem us from our sin.
The Incarnation was needed because we could not atone for our sin on our own. Only someone who was perfect, and without sin could do that. As I write this it is the final days of Advent.
The time of preparation for the birth of Christ is soon coming to an end. Soon we will be celebrating his glorious birth. The second person of the Trinity loving us so much that He became man. He lived as we did with hunger, fear, betrayal, and even death.
Hebrews 4:15 sums this idea up perfectly when the inspired author writes, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.”
This far we have seen that Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses, but this doesn’t completely answer who he is. Who He is the ultimate gift that we experience this time of year.
So who is Jesus? This question goes back to some of the greatest controversies in the early church.
There were some, such as the Arians, who tried to explain Jesus as being the first thing created. The problem here is that Jesus, as the second person of the Blessed Trinity, has always existed. There are many verses that show this and John 1:1 is one example. That passage of scripture states, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
He always was, yet he took the form of a man, and was born in the humblest of conditions. In our society we have been conditioned to view the manger scene in a very sanitized way. That manger that the divine Son of God was laid in after his birth was a food trough used for livestock!
The creator of the universe became a man because he wants us to live. His love for us is that immense. In the letter to the Philippians St. Paul writes, “Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness and found human in appearance he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:7-8).
While on Earth he did not appear as a man, nor was He a spirit that possessed man until the point of the crucifixion as the Docetists and Gnostics would say. From the time of His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary he was both fully God and fully man. This was stated by many church fathers, declared at the Council of Nicea, and at the Council of Chalcedon this became known as the Hypostatic Union. Jesus was not either or, but He has BOTH a human nature AND a divine nature.
That is why the Incarnation is so amazing, and to be perfectly honest this barely scratches the surface. As you gather with your families over the next few weeks and exchange gifts and hugs may we remember the ultimate gift. That ultimate gift is our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. The second person of the Blessed Trinity, who became man, and experienced everything that we did but was without sin. He died as the perfect offering for our sin because He loves us that much and he thinks that we are worth being with for eternity!
William is a convert to the Catholic faith. Before entering the church he was ordained as a Baptist and Lutheran and earned a Master of Divinity from Liberty Theological Seminary. William lives with his wife and four children in Tucson, AZ and teaches religious education for children and adults. Check out his website/blog at williamhemsworth.com for more great and informative Catholic content!
Great read on one of my favorite saints! St. Alphonsus Liguori pray for us!
https://epicpew.com/9-inspiring-advent-quotes-from-st-alphonsus-liguori/
By: Jonathan Hicks
On the first Sunday of Advent, our parish priest gave a homily about how during this season the world tends to speed up and get “busier,” but the Church is actually calling us to slow down and spend more time in prayer. My wife and I both left Mass that Sunday with a high resolve to “slow down” this season and not let the usual culprits get the best of us.
We got off to a great start. I joined an Advent Meditation group that I was invited to. I committed to some new service opportunities. My wife, Kate, took up extra prayer devotions and made a commitment to go to Confession regularly throughout the season. She went on a retreat. We both decided not to get too crazy with parties, and shopping, and all the usual suspects. We got our kids involved in some new Advent traditions. Things were looking fantastic.
The first week went really well. We worked everything into our already existing routine. We held each other accountable. It seemed like this was going to be the best Advent ever for our family spiritually. However, once Kate left for her retreat, we got a series of unexpected circumstances that through us way off track.
Once Kate left for retreat, our two year old son got sick with a fever. He couldn’t go to daycare. The illness was prolonged by an ear infection. This was quickly passed to his older and younger brothers and the illness took a week and a half for our family to recover from.
My ability to work during this time was severely limited. Fortunately, my wife and I are both self-employed so it was somewhat manageable. However, ironically during this time I began to generate some new leads and was getting into the thick of a re-vamped marketing plan that I was trying to pick up some steam on before Christmas break.
Nobody was getting a good night’s sleep in our house for about two weeks. Finally, once we thought it was over, then came the stomach virus that afflicted everyone in our family including myself. Suddenly, I found myself stressing out over the season because I was backed up on work and we weren’t ready for Christmas. My prayer routine had gone out the window as I was just trying to stay above water.
Despite my best plans, my ideal Advent had been de-railed. I had to accept that my prayer life was not going to be perfect, and that I needed to focus on my top priorities for work and possibly save the other tasks until after the New Year.
I’m called in my vocation to love my wife and children. Sometimes that means I cannot commit to a regular routine prayer life and fruitful time of deep contemplation. Sometimes it means holding my five year old while he watches Star Wars until he feels better, or making sure the house is in order because our six month old is sick and just wants to be held by his mom.
The Advent Meditation Group that I joined is looking at Advent through the eyes of St. Joseph. My two biggest takeaways from this group so far in how I am preparing during Advent are:
Although I am having trouble getting out my prayer materials at the same time everyday to find fruitful prayer in my routine, I have been seeking God in humble service (to my family) and trying to live a more organic prayer life.
My prayer life has not included things like regular Adoration and Scripture study like it usually does, but I have been taking time regularly throughout my day to thank God for my wife, my kids, the ability to work from home, and the people that have helped me in different facets of my life. It has left me with a more grateful, and simpler attitude.
My marriage has blossomed this Advent as Kate and I both practice gratitude, and I am learning to see God in everyday moments in a special way.
Wherever you are spiritually this Advent, whether your Advent hasn’t gone as planned, you didn’t plan anything special, or it is going better that you thought, I encourage you to stop and consider what God is calling you to in this next week.
Our individual call is just as unique as our set of circumstances. There is always a way to “roll with the punches” and discover our infinite God in new and exciting ways. God meets us where we are. Right in our glorious messes!
The Nativity story is the perfect example of finding God’s will and rolling with the punches. If you are finding that there is “no room at the Inn,” I challenge you to look around you and find your manger where you can slow down and sleep in heavenly peace.
Jonathan Hicks is a husband and father of 3 boys, ages 5, 3 and 6 months. He works as a grant writing consultant and has a passion for Catholic causes, particularly those that serve the poor. Originally from Scranton, PA, he currently resides in Grand Rapids, MI.
Here is a great article about the expectant mindset we should foster during Advent.
My family and I have been praying the Rosary daily and it has been a great grace to be reminded of Mary’s maternal intercession and guidance toward her Son.
https://catholicexchange.com/mary-calls-us-to-embrace-the-waiting-of-advent