On February 8 our Parish will be hosting a film night. The film is the cartoon "God is with Us" that is found on formed.org. It is meant primarily for those ages 7+, but I enjoyed seeing the Gospel come alive in ways I haven't seen before. One can do more with cartoon films than non-cartoon films sometimes. 

If you don't want to watch the film, then you have two other options. First, you could join those under 7 in playing or second, you could join other adults downstairs in fellowship. This event is not just for families. You can head on down to room D to share in fellowship with your Church family. Let's get to know each other a little better, go outside our bubbles and clicks to share the joy of Christ.  

Welp friends Christmas is officially over and we are in Ordinary time for the next 8 weeks. We kick off this weekend with the Wedding Feast of Cana found in the Gospel according to John. This reading is very loaded, but I want to just touch on a couple things. One, that Mary is present at the wedding. And two, that Jesus probably doesn't have all of his disciples yet. 

First, since Mary is present we can deduce that those getting married were relatives of Jesus. How can we reach to this conclusion? Well, not everyone would have known that they had run out of wine. Those in the inner circle would have had this knowledge. Mary was in the inner circle, and Jesus wasn't. This is very interesting to me. It points to some spiritual insights. If we let Mary into our lives, then she will bring our concerns to Jesus. There are religions out there, like Islam, that accept more Marian truth than they do Christology. 

The second point that Jesus does not have all of his disciples yet can be seen by looking at the previous verses. He has at least six so far. One can then imagine Jesus showing up with a plus six to a wedding and since these guys have not been taught that they may have had a little to much to drink. Maybe Mary saw this and it's one of the reasons she went to Jesus. One thing we do know for sure is that the disciples saw the exchange between Mary and Jesus and that John wrote about it because it was Gospel worthy. 

Yes, it's still Christmas. We just had the Epiphany last weekend and this coming weekend we will remember Jesus' baptism, which will conclude the Christmas season. Therefore, I hope you all still are saying Merry Christmas to people and still have some of your stuff up. Sometimes I hear people shoulding all over themselves after the new calendar year that they should have all their stuff down. I try and remind them to be easy on their self and remind them that it's still Christmas. Don't buy into the fast pace of the secular world. We are still in the slow down season. Slow down, but confusing Christmas season is. 

Something I have noticed this Christmas season is that I along with a number of other people get all confused at the time of day and which day it is. How can we not? Just to name a few: meal times are different, we go to Mass four times in two weeks, and talk to family at not the normal times. An example of the confusion is that one night after dinner my daughter almost had a melt down because I told her it was time to shower. She was so mixed up on the days and times of days that she thought we had just had breakfast. I hadn't even served a breakfast food like waffles. Sneaky me wants to do that next year though. 

It's nice this last week of Christmas to be getting back to normal. It's the first full week of school and work. But, there must be something that God wants us to learn about the confusing time that is the Christmas season. Please share your stories and thoughts on your Christmas season confusions and things you have learned. 

​God bless, -dave

I had a really nice one written. Probably the best blog ever about Christmas in the history of the world. But, I lost it and don't have enough coffee in me to recreate it. But, I do remember the ending. I asked the readers, um... YOU, some questions. What are some things that you do spiritually during the Christmas season to grow closer to Jesus? How do you approach the Christmas season differently than all the other seasons? I pretty much just restrain myself from some secular things during Advent, like eggnog. I try really hard to hold off on the nog till Christmas day. Please comment below to help me grow. Thanks!