Merry Christmas!
Today I am filled with the joy of Christmas, and most thankful that Christmas will last for 11 more days. I will have enough time to rest in Church and really enjoy the season of celebration. Today held very little of what I associate with Christmas, but that is alright.
I do not need to participate in the astoundingly beautiful Midnight Mass with my siblings while my parents sleep. I do not need to hear my niece & nephews recite the Christmas story. I do not need the smell of spices, the glow of fire, or even traditional Christmas hymns. Because I am human I do need these things in some sense, but I do not need them today. There is yet time for Christmas beauty, and there is quite enough beauty in even the starkest of liturgy celebrated by a man who says that he would not go to Church if he were not a priest.
There are still 11 more days to sneak away from the clamor of daily life and find an open Church or monastery in which to ponder the great Joy which I have been given. The pictures below are from a day filled with some of my best Christmas memories, and they are from December 30, 2007.
Merry Christmas! I hope that your Christmas season is off to a wonderful start, and that you are able to enjoy the blessing of the entire season!
I love the picture taken through the church arches!
As for the manger scene, I have a strong tendency to like the one at our mission church better than any others I have seen because the feral cats come in and sleep in the hay. It makes it so very real.
Have 11 more days of a happy Christmas season!
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