I have yet to complete my multi-year meditations on the twelve days of Christmas (I didn't write any last year--one of the worst years of my life) but here I am with number TEN!
The Christmas decorations may be put away now--at work they are definitely down. There is only the leftover and marked down Christmas branded merchandise at stores.
Corpses of Christmas trees are laid at curbs like rejected sacrifices.
And yet...Christmas isn't done with you yet.
If you'll allow it, you can savor it for two more nights. Forget the artificial deadlines of the culture. Christmas is stronger and more joyous than the Wal-Marts of the world--though at times, admit it, you've thought Christmas has been swallowed by economics.
Think of teachers, especially the good ones, and ask St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to pray for them.
Think of the ranks of your friends and then ruminate on the 70 Apostles--the next concentric ring outside the non-anonymous 12.
Think of St. Phillip tutoring the Ethiopian Eunuch of Queen Candace about how Christ is found in the book of the prophet Isaiah and then Phillip vanished when the lesson was completed (Acts 8).
Think of Apollinaria of Egypt who so desperately wanted to serve God in contemplation that she disguised herself as a man.
Christmas saints? No weirder than the God beyond existence i.e. He who doesn't exist, dressing up in human flesh.
Make Christmas weird!
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| Courtesy Creative Commons |
The Christmas decorations may be put away now--at work they are definitely down. There is only the leftover and marked down Christmas branded merchandise at stores.
Corpses of Christmas trees are laid at curbs like rejected sacrifices.
And yet...Christmas isn't done with you yet.
If you'll allow it, you can savor it for two more nights. Forget the artificial deadlines of the culture. Christmas is stronger and more joyous than the Wal-Marts of the world--though at times, admit it, you've thought Christmas has been swallowed by economics.
Think of teachers, especially the good ones, and ask St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to pray for them.
Think of the ranks of your friends and then ruminate on the 70 Apostles--the next concentric ring outside the non-anonymous 12.
Think of St. Phillip tutoring the Ethiopian Eunuch of Queen Candace about how Christ is found in the book of the prophet Isaiah and then Phillip vanished when the lesson was completed (Acts 8).
Think of Apollinaria of Egypt who so desperately wanted to serve God in contemplation that she disguised herself as a man.
Christmas saints? No weirder than the God beyond existence i.e. He who doesn't exist, dressing up in human flesh.
Make Christmas weird!
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