Message from Fr. Cyrain
Long before anyone decorated a Christmas tree or heard about Santa Claus, the Church had the season of Advent, the weeks before Christ's birth that aim to put us in the right mood.
Four weeks may seem like a lot of time to spend generating the right mood for a single holy day. It is less time however, than some merchants spend stirring up enthusiasm for the holiday they still call Christmas. And that is all what Christmas means to many: a holiday of getting much and giving little, fun and feasting. It has no more religious significance than the mid-winter revels celebrated by the pagans of Ancient Rome.
Precisely because the pagans of today are so loud in their preparations for the biggest spending splurge of the year, many of us find it hard to focus on what actually happened at Bethlehem. How can we drown out the hoopla of a commercialized Christmas and fix our attention on its original meaning?
Advent is the Church's way of helping us do that. Let us put back Christ in Christmas and make this holiday a holy day once again!