December 14th Letter from the Pastor
-
December 14, 2025Just beyond the half-way point during the penitential seasons of Advent and Lent, the Church encourages us to rejoice. Today is traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin word for “Rejoice,” which opens the Introit or Entrance Antiphon of today’s Mass. The deep color purple is lightened to a rose color. The third rose candle is lit on the Advent wreath.
Why must we be told to be joyful? Some people imagine that a sign of holiness is a sour face or at least a perpetual frown. But peacefulness, calmness, contentment, and acceptance of God’s will in one’s life – all make for genuine joy. Joy is the state of the soul. Joy arises from knowing that God is in charge, and that nothing will happen this day that He and I – together – will be unable to handle.
Knowing that we are not alone in this world and that God is always with us provides us with joy which leads to having a real sense of humor. Not a fake sense or giddiness, but realizing that we can’t take this world so seriously, our salvation, yes, this world no!
Although Advent has a penitential quality to it, it also includes a spirit of joyful anticipation. And what is the cause of our joy? The fact that we know God loves us to the point of becoming one of us and living our human life. God could have quit on us a long time ago, but He is relentless in pursuing us to holiness and eternal salvation. Christmas is that moment in time, when He was born just like all of us.
So enjoy Christmas by making the necessary Christmas preparations holy. Shopping for gifts for family and friends should be done happily. We give gifts at Christmas in imitation of our Heavenly Father, who gave first to us the enormous Gift of His Only Son.
Be generous not extravagant. Think about giving religious gifts like spiritual books, or Catholic subscriptions, or Christian art for the home. In your Christmas cards or e-cards, or messages, mention you remember them in your prayers.
And above all else, make Christmas Mass the high point of your Christmas celebrations.
Only after you attend Mass, do the other aspects of the day have any real meaning.
Keep Christmas alive for at least 12 days after Christmas, if not longer. In the Liturgy, the Christmas Season ends with the feast of the Lord’s Baptism (this year, January 11th). So keep up the tree and outdoor decorations until then. Friends or neighbors will ask you why which will give you an opportunity to catechize or evangelize on the meaning of the feast.
Another joyful moment will be this afternoon at 3:00PM, when we will have our parish’s annual Service of Lessons and Carols. I invite you today to come and hear once again how God planned for His Son to come among us as a man, at the moment of the Incarnation, through Scripture readings and hymns and carols. It is a wonderful opportunity of prayer and preparing for the real meaning of Christmas with its joyful music and carols. Then afterwards in Toner Hall, come for some hospitality and share in all the Christmas cookies and fun.
Remember, Be Joyful-Gaudete!!