It very well might be the busiest 24 days of the year.  I'm speaking of the days starting with the First Sunday of Advent until Christmas Eve.  The Advent season calls us to preparedness, patience, and prayer, both at church and in other settings.  It also is a time of public and private Christmas gatherings that can fill up the calendar and lead to stress instead of expectant joy which is the mood that is fostered by the practices and activities in Advent.  

I pray that as you determine what you will be doing in these days leading up to Christmas, that you will prioritize the things of God that are truly part of the Advent season.  This includes activities like daily Mass, a Day of Recollection (December 20), an Advent Reconciliation Service, charitable endeavors, the daily reflections from our "Little Books" and perhaps some extra time with Jesus in our 24/7 Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel.  If we are busy with these and other opportunities, I will predict a Christmas and Christmas season that will be joy-filled and truly meaningful in what Christmas is truly all about, the coming of the Lord of Glory.

All of us, no doubt, remember the time when almost every business closed on Sundays.  This was not only respectful of "The Lord's Day" and our need to participate in Mass and "rest" from our work week labors, but it also provided family time, which strengthened bonds between family members.  This respite from work and our regular routines, has been the case on certain holidays, like Thanksgiving, until our present time.   Now the idols of commercialism and materialism are urging us to worship them on "family days" like Thanksgiving with businesses now opening all day or part of the day on Thanksgiving.

 I ask you to consider respecting the traditions of Thanksgiving and refrain from the lure of sales that is out there on that day.  Even if you will not be with your extended family this Thanksgiving, some who do have families will be made to leave their families to serve you and other customers on this wonderful holiday.  There are daily attacks on the family, which we need to work against by our words and actions.  Here is the one day that if enough of us say no to this temptation, perhaps the retailers and others will consider leaving Thanksgiving as the family day it has always been.  By the way, I invite you to join with your parish family at 9:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving for Mass to thank God for the many blessings we have received as a country and as families who call God our Father.

Last Thursday while in Canada for the Knights of Columbus mid-year state chaplain meeting, I joined with my brother priests which included a chaplain from Manila, to pray for the people of the Philippines in light of the approaching typhoon that was about to hit that country.  After it hit with devastating power, I continue to pray for those who were affected by this terrible typhoon and considered what I can do to help the rescue and clean-up effort.  My thought was to contribute some money to Catholic Relief Services (CRS) which is one of a number of agencies that is always prepared to swing into action after natural disasters.  I want to ask you, in the name of our compassionate Lord, to also reach out (if you haven't alread done so) to help the poor people in the Philippines. The phone number for Catholic Relief Services is 1-877-435-7277 and their address is Post Office Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21297-0303.  Also, I would ask you to consider, if you can, to donate something to CRS on a regular basis.  We never know when the next natural disaster will occur.  Also, pray for the relief workers themselves that God will strengthen them and the people of the Philippines for what is happening now and for what will need to happen to give these people hope for the future.