My Christmas Miracle

Rejoice and be glad… I bring good tidings to you… For today a savior is born…

What great words to hear and read. Jesus is born… Well almost. For us Catholics the pink candle of the advent wreath was lit this past weekend. The Pink candle is use to let us know that we need to celebrate, that the preparation is almost over, and the true celebration is about to start. So rejoice and be glad!

As a lifelong Catholic, I think that I sometimes miss the meaning of all we do. Case and point, I, for some reason, thought the pink candle was lit on the last weekend of advent. That is signified the birth of Christ. But my friend, Theresa, who is the religious education director at my parish and my partner in STATIC Solutions (www.staticplace.com) corrected me.

So see even I can learn, in my old age, as my middle school youth keep reminding me. The pink candle is to remind us to celebrate to rejoice. The preparations are over and the time to celebrate is at hand. Well almost, we have a little over a week until the Christ Mass is truly celebrated, but we can now start to look forward to that day.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year, both of my parents loved the session. They decked the halls, the bathroom and any other part of the house. They went all out, and made sure that we celebrated the birth of our Lord in style. It truly was a magical time of the year at our house. They never got stressed, as far as us kids knew. There were 5 of us total, and even when my dad was without a job, they seemed to pull it all off. We never went without. It truly was a Christmas miracle happening every year. The spirit of Christmas was never lost at our home. Christmas time was truly one of the happiest times of my life, and still is. I love the session and all it stands for, bit secular and spiritual. The meaning never gets lost on me. I truly believe that Christmas miracles happen all the time. In fact I believe that the death of my parents is one such miracle. Now hear me out, I am not saying that for someone to die is a miracle, nor am I saying that I was overly happy when they did pass on. What I am saying is that the timing of their deaths was in God’s plan, a Christmas miracle.

My father passed away November 26, 1997, the day before Thanksgiving. This is the start of the Christmas session at our home, the day after Thanksgiving all the Thanksgiving decorations came down and all the Christmas went up. What a transformation, the Holiday spirit filled the house, it was magical. My mother passed away January 6 2005. January 6^th is the end of Christmas, the feast of Epiphany. My mom said she wanted to live until Christmas was over, and that she did. So in a way, my parents are bookends for this magical time of the year. They are my advent wreath; they remind me of the true meaning of Christmas.  It truly is a Christmas miracle and I thank God for that every day.

So rejoice and be glad, for I bring good tidings to you, for today  a savior is born…

Paul