Family Day

Family Day

Gospel for the Feast of the Holy Family:  Matthew 2.13-15;19-23

Here in Alberta, we "celebrate" a day for families in mid-February. As a statutory holiday, government agencies, public services, and schools, have a day off so that families can enjoy a day together.

I'm thinking that there are very few families who can actually take advantage of the day as it was intended, but I guess it's the thought that counts.

We, as a Catholic Christian community, have been celebrating a different type of family day for a few hundred years. The Feast of the Holy Family became part of our liturgical calendar in 1893, and is celebrated in the octave (eight days) of Christmas, usually the first Sunday after Christmas.

It is really a good time to reflect on the relationship of Mary, Joseph and Jesus during this time when many of us have gathered together to feast and frolic with our families.

We have heard countless homilies on how the Holy Family is a model of family life. But what do we make of that? Is it too high a pinnacle for us to attain? A father who is a saint, a mother without sin, and a child who is the Son of God?? How can we possibly follow such a model??

The Holy Family is a model of Christ himself. At once containing both the divine and the human, our families can be in union with the Holy Family, by embracing their lived experience. Now we don't have very many accounts of this experience in Scripture, but look at what they went through:

1. There was confusion and anxiety from the beginning ( Matthew 1.18-25)

2.They experienced homelessness and poverty (Luke 2.1-7)

3. They lived as refugee immigrants and suffered persecution (Matthew 2.13-15)

4. They lost their child for three days (Luke 2.41-51)

The message is clear. The "holiness" of the Holy Family is found in poverty, alienation, and anxiety. And through it all, we see the parents of the Holy child trust in their God, above all else.

So, when we encounter alienation, anxiety and poverty of spirit, may we trust in our God, always.

And may we reach out to those families who struggle every day to survive- the separated and abused, the poor and displaced, the immigrants and the refugees, the lonely and forgotten.

Let us reach out in love.

For when we touch lives such as these, we

encounter the Holy Family.

For this week:

Consider a donation to Development and Peace, or L'Arche Canada

Lessons in Grace and Disgrace

Lessons in Grace and Disgrace

Gospel for the Fourth Sunday of Advent: Matthew 1.18-23

As a teacher I've always felt bad for the fourth week in Advent. There's that fourth candle that never gets lit at school, and it's rarely a full week before the big day. This year it's three days!

But these are powerful days of waiting for us as Christians. In the Liturgy of the Hours, we pray the  "O Antiphons" See: http://www.rc.net/wcc/antiphon.htm

Yes, I know this is the height of crazy in most families, and you may not have time to pray these. But how about just a little pause and reflect on today's beautiful Gospel from Matthew.

It gives us the "real" stuff of that first Christmas. A time of angel visits (how scary could that be?), impossible messages (WHAT? Mary pregnant? From WHO???) and, well, STRESS.

I really was struck this year with Joseph. Maybe it's because of Pope Francis' call to honor Joseph and include him in the liturgy. It was this line that caused me to ponder:

"Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly."

Joseph was about to do the most honorable thing a man in his position could do. And yet, it would be the wrong thing.

 So I ask myself, how many times have I tried to do what is right, to do "God's will" only to discover that God has something entirely different in mind????

That's the first good lesson.

The second and the most powerful, is to remind myself that God's grace is everywhere, but especially  in the places you least expect.

 Mary, who in the eyes of the world around her was full of "public disgrace" was, in fact FULL OF GRACE!!!

 And her Son, the King of Glory would be born in dis-grace, in a feeding trough for animals.

The King, Grace Himself, would die a dis-graceful death on a cross designed for enemies of the state.

And  through His Death and Resurrection He would pour out His Grace on the world and save it.

We, who were dis-graced way back at the beginning have been graced with new life. Our humanity has been re-graced, thanks to the Incarnation which we celebrate on Wednesday.

O Wisdom, O Holy Word of God

 O Sacred Lord of Ancient Israel

O Flower of Jesse's stem

O Key of David

O Radiant Dawn

O King of All the Nations

O Emmanuel, God with Us,

Come Lord Jesus!

 

In the Pink...

In the Pink

Gospel for the Third Sunday of Advent: 

Matthew 11.2-11

This can be a really wild week for parents and teachers. It is the last week before a vacation, and we are both wound up and wiped out at the same time. We tried slowing down and pausing ( see last week's blog ), but it's really quite impossible - the kids are really fired up, and there's a full moon, and there's chicken pox in the classroom... and...

 What should be a joyful time has become stressful, annoying, and tiresome. 

I guess for most of us, we're not in the pink.  

(Ever wonder where we get an expression like that? From all accounts, it comes from Elizabethan England. Shakespeare has Mercurio say " I am in the pink of courtesy" in Romeo and Juliet. It may be connected to the Dianthus flower, or "Pinks", one of Elizabeth I's favorites. She thought them excellent, so perhaps being amongst them meant you were in an excellent state.)

 

This Sunday the Church was "in the pink", as we lit the rose colored candle of the Advent wreath. This represents the beginning of a week of great joy, and  we call the third Sunday of Advent Gaudete Sunday. It takes its name from the Entrance Antiphon (which we seldom hear, because it is usually replaced by the opening hymn). In Latin the entrance antiphon of the Third Sunday of Advent begins "Gaudete in Domino semper" 

Rejoice in the Lord always.

 Always.

Like John the Baptist in his prison cell, asking if Jesus is the one.

Like Jesus who rejoices in John: "Truly I tell you, among those born of women, no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist."

But the Gospel today gives us an even greater reason to rejoice.

Our Lord is among us!

When John's disciples ask Jesus if he was the "One who is to come", Jesus tells them to tell " what they see and hear".

But isn't strange that Jesus has to tell them what they are seeing and hearing? 

"Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offence at me."

Could they not see that for themselves? Perhaps I'm reading too much into this. Perhaps this is merely a literary device used by Matthew to bring across the point that the Scriptures were being fulfilled.

But I think the point is this- its not that the miracles that proclaim the reign of God are not present to be seen and heard, it is that we have lost the capacity to see or hear them.

  Every day those who had been blind to the reality of God are having their eyes opened,

Every day those paralyzed by fear and hopelessness are being touched by God and moving forward.

 Every day someone is hearing the Good News for the first time.

Every day people who were dead inside are being brought back to life.

Every day our lives become richer when we receive the light of Christ. 

It is up to us as his disciples to see the world immersed in the grace of God, and to share that Good News with others.

And then our lives, and  our world, will truly be

in the pink.

For this week:

Share the joy of the Lord with one of these videos:

• "The Piano Guys" play Angels we Have Heard on High
• "The Skit Guys" present salvation history with Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

'Tis the Season to be Waiting: Advent and the Catholic School"

'Tis the Season to be Waiting: 

Advent and the Catholic School

As we enter the second week of Advent, I've been thinking about just how important this season is for us in Catholic education. It is an incredible opportunity to share the Good News, and to witness to the coming of the Lord into our history, into our lives, and into our destiny.

 So what should Advent look like in a Catholic school?

This?

 

Or This?

Now,  perhaps you think that I might be the Grinch. Perhaps I am. I would very much like to steal Christmas, only to release it on the night of December 24th!!

As Catholic Christian educators, one of our primary responsibilities is to be faithful to Christ and to his Church. One of the ways we do this is by living and breathing the life of the Church. We do this through the liturgical calendar. In her wisdom, the Church has times which are "ordinary", times of feasting, times of fasting, and times of waiting. "To everything there is a season..."

For us, now and until Christmas eve, we wait.

 We wait for the Lord. We wait as Mary waited. In peace. In prayer. In service to each other.

 Waiting in peace. 

It is so hard for us to quiet ourselves during media blitzes urging us to spend (The Source's campaign "I want that" makes me weep). How many of us attend five or six "Christmas" parties, without so much as single Christmas carol sung? And don't get me started on radio stations attempting to put us "in the spirit" in the second week of November.

Do our Catholic schools reflect peaceful waiting? Or do classroom parties, Christmas concerts, and droning "holiday music" in the hallways mimic the mayhem outside the school doors? Take time in your classroom for quiet reflection. Ask the tough questions about consumerism, about "want" vs "need", and about media manipulation. Help students, ( and staff) pause and take a breath!

Waiting in prayer. 

One of the best ways to express the peaceful waiting of Advent is through prayer. To this end, every classroom should have an Advent wreath that is used every day and not just on the day that Father comes in to have them blessed. School administrators, this is the time for you to do your "classroom walk through's" and pray with your staff and students. And let's stop using intercom prayer. Teachers should be leading prayer in their classrooms, face to face, period.

One of the best practices that I've encountered during Advent is the "Joy Box" or "Joy Bag". This is a mini advent wreath that goes home, so the family can pray, do activities, and have a treat. Here is one example: http://nextgencoatesy.blogspot.ca/2012/12/the-advent-joy-box.html

Traditionally, Catholic schools will celebrate Mass during the week before the Christmas break.  Here's where I get really Grinch-y.

Masses during Advent do not celebrate Christmas. I have many a discussion, often heated, with well meaning teachers who say, "but for most of the children, this is the only time they will get to celebrate a Christmas Mass." This is simply overstepping our role. Catholics schools are an arm of the Church, but they cannot and must not replace the life of the local parish. And we do harm to both seasons. Let's be authentic in the way we pray as Church. (Singing Christmas carols at an Advent Mass is not very authentic either). If we want our kids to attend a Christmas Mass, advertise the parish celebrations over and over again!

This is also a traditional time for celebrations of Reconciliation. The Catholic school should do its best to communicate when the local parish(es) are having these evening celebrations. I've also been to schools where the priest makes himself available for confessions on one day during Advent. The response from the students is overwhelming.

Waiting in Service

Advent is a wonderful time to show our love for others through thoughtful acts of service. And there are countless ways that we do this. Giving Trees. Santas Anonymous. Food Bank Drives.

All are excellent. And all are done by our public school counterparts as well.

So what distinguishes our giving? It is certainly not "better". 

But it is different.

It is different because it is a non-negotiable of our life in Christ.

When we encounter the poor, we encounter Christ.

So we need to teach our students that while it is important to do charity, it is more important to work for justice. 

Serving the poor is a way to wait for the Lord. And actual serving is the best way. There is a huge difference between donating to the Food Bank and working there.

Even the youngest of our students can go visit the sick or seniors in a home. These are the best of field trips, and simple ways to show children the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

Continue to have a beautiful Advent. And let me end with this refrain from the Taize community:

Wait on the Lord

His day is near

Wait on the Lord

Be strong, Take heart.