Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

The more I read about the mega-churches closing on Christmas Day, the more thankful I am that I’m Catholic. So many of these stories seem to revolve around the idea that liturgy at these churches is like a Broadway play–there’s musicians, singers, readers, coffee people, greeters, what have you. It’s nutty! To have a Catholic Mass you need a priest and a parishioner, and sacramentary, and hosts in the tabernacle. That’s it. It’s about as bare bones as you can get. If these churches don’t want to have a big service, then don’t have one. Have a big vigil service and have quieter services Christmas Day, but have something . It’s Christmas! It’s Sunday! Those are two very very BIG reasons to have some sort of service, whatever it is, on that day. I don’t really buy the explanation that people want to “spend time with their families”. OK, but whatever happened to “keep holy the Sabbath day?” Or the fact that it’s Christmas and you should have something to celebrate the Lord’s birth on His actual birthday?

I don’t know. Maybe I’m a little weirded out by this because Catholics do Christmas big time (OK, at least we do at my parish). We have three Christmas Eve Services–Vigil services. They’re about an hour and a lot like regular Mass, except the Christmas stuff is up (trees, manger, the Church mice ). Then there’s Midnight Mass (where I will be singing) which begins around 11, 11:15 with a fourty-five minute choir set (we practice very hard for this, so y’all better appreciate it!). Mass itself begins at precisely midnight. The Gloria is sung for the first time in four weeks and the church bells chime. The Mass is a little longer than usual, but it’s so magical–the cold, the snow (usually), the place crammed with people you only see at Midnight Mass (no, not the Christmas/Easter people–they’re usually at the vigil. But the kids I knew in elementary school who are home from college or wherever…you know what I mean). It’s just awesome. Then there’s one Mass on Christmas Day.

All of these Masses have seperate readings and emphasize different things. It’s only at the Midnight, for example, that you hear the Christmas story from Luke. The vigil is the nativity from Matthew (with the genaology thing that takes forever). And John is the reading for the Masses during the day (”In the beginning, there was the Word”). So it’s a totally different thing at each Mass. I just can’t understand why these churches would choose to neglect the day of the Incarnation so totally. I understand wanting to spend time with your family–Catholic priests do, too–but isn’t your first obligation to the congregation?

Good Morning, America (which has, in recent weeks, become increasingly hard to tolerate) has a story today about B XVI’s recent statement that Christmas has become too commercialized and that we’re forcusing too much on the gifts, instead of the, ahem, “reason for the season.” He suggested every home have a Nativity scene (I’ve never seen one that doesn’t around Christmas, but whatever) in order to teach children and others the true meaning of the holiday and help kids see that there’s more to it than just the gifts under the big tree on the morning of the 25th.

The hypocrisy part comes in when the reporter started talking about his red Prada slippers, his Gucci sunglasses, the Merceedes “popemobile”. Uh, I think I r4ead somewhere (somebody please correct me if I’m wrong) that most popes before JP II wore the red slippers that were fashioned by Prada or another Italian designer house–that’s the way it was, it was what they wore. The Gucci sunglasses and the Merceedes were gifts, according to a Vatican source, so why do we have a problem with that? I mean, come on. The pope gets more gifts than probably anyone in the world, and he’s bound to use some of them. That’s not stated as wrong anywhere in the papal by-laws, is it? Unless he’s part on a religious order that’s sworn of material possessions, he can have them. He doesn’t have many–I’m inclined to let him have his Gucci sunglasses. Besides, he lived in Rome a long time before he was Pope and I’m sure he did some “shopping” on his own, or had people give him gifts before he was pope. What’s he supposed to do, stop using them because he has a new title? That seems a little odd, or even wasteful, if the items are still in good shape. I’m sorry, but I don’t think the fact that the pope wears Prada shoes or is driven around in a Merceedes creates credibility problems for the Vatican.

Today’s verse:

In the little village of Bethlehem
There came a child one day
And the sky was bright with a holy light
O’er the place where Jesus lay
Alleluia! How the Angels sang!
Alleluia! How it rang!
And the sky was bright with a Holy Light.
(refrain)

Last carol: “Of the Father’s Love Begotten”

Today’s piece of Catholic trivia: The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. On Dec. 12, 1531, outside of present-day Mexico City, the Virgin Mary appeared to a peasant man named Juan Diego, in the appearance of an Indian woman. (Mary usually takes the ethnic form of the culture she’s appearing in during her apparitions.) She told him to climb a hill and pick the roses he would find there. Juan Diego brought them back to his bishop, and when he opened his cloak, the roses poured out and an image of Our Lady was left on his tilma (cloak), which remains to this day. Given that the lifespan of a tilma is approximately 20 years, the fact that this relic has lasted more than 450 years is astonishing by any standard, and the image hasn’t faded. It has since become one of the most popular images of Our Lady in Catholic iconography, especially in the Latin American countries and the American Southwest.

Today, take some time to maybe say a rosary or a special prayer to Mary in order to thank her and God for all the blessings in your life. (My non-Catholic readers will cringe at this advice, but as I say, “she’s your mother, too!” And Martin Luther was always devoted to Mary, even after his unfortunate split with Rome. You could just say you’re being faithful to Luther…or something.) She’s always ready to listen to us and recommend us to her Son. Or perhaps you could read some excellent books on Mary and apparitions. A few of my favorites:

– The Essential Mary Handbook from Ligouri Press
– Hail, Holy Queen by Scott Hahn (I love his stuff)
– Mary: The Church at the Source by B XVI and Hans Ur von Balthasar (that’s a heavy one!)
–many of JP the Great’s works talk about Mary, so you can peruse those, too.