Below is a letter I dedicate to our Lord Jesus Christ in celebration of his birth, December 25, 2020 Anno Domini.
Dear Baby Jesus,
In a stable, 2000 years ago, a seemingly ordinary infant was born. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, shepherds and kings from afar learned about His incredible presence. God uses the most common of circumstances to work the greatest of all miracles–the Incarnation. God so loved the world He sent you–His only Son– to bridge the great gulf, the separation caused by sin.
Wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger, you my king took the form of mankind. I have heard the Nativity story dozens of times. This Advent I feared I would took your origin story for granted. Instead, I am grateful for the opportunity to gaze on the Nativity scene through new eyes–not merely of a follower, but also as a father.
My children are a reminder of your goodness, truth, and beauty. Seeing the twinkle in their eyes when they gaze at the Nativity Scene at home or church is priceless. The smiles on my kids faces as they color “presents” pictures for my wife and I remind me the true reason for the season!
People are born everyday on this earth, but only once a year do we remember the greatest birth of all.
Jesus my servant king, Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, God-hero, I adore you and celebrate with my family and friends the anniversary of your birth. I pray that my heart is enlarged to make room within the inn of my soul for you, my family, friends, and people I meet daily!
Praise we to God in the Highest and Alleluia for our Savior’s arrival.
With great love and gratitude,
Your adopted son,
Matthew
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
I’m commissioned to write my family’s inaugural Christmas card.
Pray I have inspiration to think up of something before next week’s deadline.
I did receive a message from my future self that the words: platypus, shenanigans, inaugural, and wherewithal must be included in it.
P. S. If you’re wondering about the time travel don’t question it. It is 2020 after all.
P.P.S. I won’t talk about the “successes” of my perfect life because my life ain’t perfect. I’m limping to the finish line of 2020. But I will be jovial and honest about my year.
P.P.P.S. Do you write family Christmas cards? Why or why not?
💫 💫 💫Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Time for another Supertip (this is a series I started on LinkedIn and figured why not add it to my website).
I love sharing information & connecting individuals with each other. While theology is my expertise a deep passion of mine is writing about writing. I want YOU to power-up your writing skills. You will be able to do that with this supertip!🚀
Here is my tip ⤵️
💡Excellent copy provokes a response.
It prods (like a bear in hibernation) and awakens your audience toward an action.
Legendary copy makes you act.
Here’s an epic example of copy from the comedy The Office.
Bears. Beets. Battle Galactica.
Jim used this line to get Dwight’s attention (and viewers).
This quip is among the most famous from the show.
I wear a hoodie with Jim’s quote…
And every single time I’ve worn the hoodie I got a reply at least once!
Bears. Beets. Battle Galactica.
It follows two important rules of copywriting:
🐻 Rule of three— include a trio in your copy to make it easier to remember
Use a pattern (small, medium, large) or a random break on the third item
🐻 Alliteration— the human brain loves similar sounds
Delight your readers with delectable copy.
That’s my tip. Now, the super part of comes in from YOUR participation in the comments!
Share a tip specific to your niche and tag a connection who helped you the past week in the comments ⤵️
Best scene from The Office.
P. S. No bears or beets were harmed in the writing of this blog post. I can’t be for certain about whether any starships were captured by aliens.
Editor’s note: Article originally published on September 23, 2018.
According to Rick Riordan, author of the acclaimed young adult series Percy Jackson, “Names had power!” Among the first questions people ask parents upon the birthday of a child is “which name did you choose? Names also possess a meaning.
Now you may or may not be aware of the meaning or purpose of the name your parents choose for you. If you are not aware, it would be an interesting conversation to discover why they choose a particular name? If there was no particular reason, it would still be interesting to look up the history of your namesake or the literal meaning of it!
The general reason for my name selection is due to my parents being Catholic had myself and my siblings to be named after a holy person who espoused the truths of the Gospels. While I am not entirely sure why my parents, specifically picked Matthew out of the myriad of Catholic saint names available.
Celebrating the feast day of the St. Matthew is something that I regrettable not truly did until last year. Along with eating a special dinner with my wife, reading today’s Gospel, and playing a fun board game, I am going to also celebrate by recognizing a few similarities I share with my personal patron!
You Owe Me
Within the past year, I took on a new position in the company as a student loan debt collector. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and modern technology certainly has softened collection practices in recent year. But debt collectors still don’t have a positive connotation in today’s society. Back in the time of 1st century Palestine, the stigma against debt collectors was prevalent. In fact, tax collectors were especially hated by the Jews as they were viewed as sell-outs who worked for the “evil” Roman Empire.
My new association with debt collections brings the challenges of dealing with angry, concerned, confused, and desolate customers. However, my new job comes with a hidden joy of being more closely linked with St. Matthew.
Lover of Theology
Along with sharing similar occupations with St. Matthew, I possess a thirst for discovering knowledge about God just like the Gospel writer. Theology refers to faith seeking understanding. Among the saints Matthew possessed a privileged opportunity of being selected as an Apostle of Jesus Christ. What is more, Matthew together with St. John are the only individuals able to claim being both an Evangelist and Apostle!
Matthew’s Gospel is laden with parables and the incredible Sermon on the Mount. He shows Jesus as the Good Teacher always willing to shed light on the truth of God’s love. I am always emboldened by the following words of Christ proclaims to conclude Matthew’s gospel, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20, emphasis added mine).
Called by God
While the saint whose moniker I bear did not always believe in Jesus, he experienced a profound conversation. Matthew’s calling is significant. All three Synoptic Gospels include this episode as important in the public life and ministry of Jesus.
Being a cradle Catholic myself, I lack that momentous public conversion that St. Matthew experienced. However, this does not mean that I never underwent a conversion. Actually, my Catholic faith and reliance has slowly deepened over the course of my college years, and nascent parenting years.
A couple years ago I took an assessment on the various charisms that would most likely be my natural God-given gift. My two highest [according to the questions I answered] included the charism of writing and evangelization. I’m sure St. Matthew helped foster those talents.
The craziness of wrangling three ( now four) overtired kids and bustle of the workday delayed my celebration of Matthew the Evangelist’s Feast Day. Tonight, I plan on celebrating my patron saint! Jesus choose an unworthy man to be among his apostles. If God can choose sinners and tax collectors, certainly we are called by Him to follow in the footsteps of the saints who came before us.
Collect [From the Liturgy of the Feast of St. Matthew]
O God, who with untold mercy were pleased to choose as an Apostle Saint Matthew, the tax collector, grant that, sustained by his example and intercession, we may merit to hold firm in following you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen
💡Dadhack #123—Think like a child to relate better to your children
Someone made a comment to me that everything is rainbows and unicorns to me.
Initially, it upset me. But after thinking about it I realized he was right.
✨The young don’t have a monopoly on imagination.
Thank God for it because reading only the news or talking about serious stuff makes me curmudgeony.
✨Amelia had trouble sleeping because of her brother making noise (she had a long week at school)
I hugged her tight and told her,
“Tonight you’re a caterpillar. I’m wrapping you tight into a cocoon. Tomorrow you will be able to fly like a butterfly. Maybe we will see a butterfly and say, ‘Is that Amelia?'”
🦋 She gave a sheepish grin and a tired laugh.
I could have easily got frustrated (it’s been a long week and I have failed in similar situations in the past).
🌈 But I think the Holy Spirit gave me patience and the ability to summon up silliness (who doesn’t like butterflies or find them calming?) to help her calm down.
Imagination isn’t merely child’s play or silliness. It’s living life open to the possibility of a higher reality—a world where anything is possible.
But I still got sick— and my content game never recovered fully
But many times life never works out as planned.
The good guys lose and the bad guys win
By the grace of God and the support of my family, friends, and my faith community I survived the virus.
🎶 Let the good (insane) times roll 🎵
But the hits of craziness kept coming:
Remote learning for my kids (mental health drainer there)
The insane requirement on teachers (my wife is a special education teacher) forced me to rethink my approach to my freelance business.
I knew my limits— pandemic + special needs kids + increasing work demands at my “day” job made it a simple choice— I had to put a pause on consistent writing.
I’ve been living on recycled content (mostly) or less than my 💯 work.
I used to be ranked #92 in Feedspot’s Top Catholic Websites and Bloggers. Now I’m in the top 110. I’m not upset about the ranking loss. But I am a bit frustrated at myself for losing the influence I had to help educate and inspire Catholics across the world to find joy in the Gospel.
The Devil is in attack mode
The Enemy has attacked me unceasingly with the sins of anger and sloth. Too often I got distracted by others’ failure to take the pandemic seriously and that wrath zapped me of energy to read and write about Catholicism.
Return of The Simple Catholic
Today is the start of a restart— my goal for the rest of the year is to get more creative, collaborate more, and be more disciplined.
Why?
Because I want to provide YOU with a how-to guide to return from a bat 💩 crazy year and succeed (all the while thriving in the truth and hope of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Today I renew my commitment to earn back trust. I won’t wait for the calendar to flip to 2021. Partnering with the Holy Spirit and my team of The Simple Catholic Supporters I gathered over the past year or two, I will end 2020 on a high note.
How do you bounce back from a big backslide in success?
