Do you need a patron saint for the new year?

By Mary DeTurris Poust

So I went ahead and gave the old Patron Saint Generator a spin over at Conversion Diary for a little New Year's fun with a spiritual twist. (Hat tip to The Anchoress for that one.) With the click of a button, a little prayer, and another click of a button, you can get yourself a personal patron saint. Sort of like a Catholic version of Spin the Bottle or Magic 8 Ball.

I clicked and prayed, hoping for some spectacular saint to show up in my queue. Drum roll, please...St. John Berchmans. Really? I have to admit that I was more than mildly disappointed at this turn of events, which is probably not the right attitude to have when seeking a patron saint. If not spectacular, I would have settled for a saint whose name I at least recognized. I was convinced that my 14-year-old son had transferred his energy to my pick by standing near me when I clicked and he was really meant to pull the patron saint of altar servers and young people. But, alas, my son tried again on his own and came up with Francis Xavier. We are apparently in need of Jesuit patron saints.

I went to St. John Berchmans' info page, and found this: "John Berchmans was not noted for extraordinary feats of holiness or austerity, nor did he found orders or churches or work flashy miracles." Come on, my son's pick of Francis Xavier was all about flashy: "The gift of tongues. Miracle worker. Raised people from the dead. Calmed storms. Prophet. Healer."

Then I continued reading the St. John Berchmans' bio and found the one line that seemed to make this saint a perfect pick for me after all: "The path to holiness can lie in the ordinary rather than the extraordinary."

Sigh. So that's it. Story of my life. Trying to work my way toward sainthood through the ordinary stuff of life. Okay, okay. I'll take it. Although I did spin a second time to get a backup patron saint and came up with John of the Cross. That's what I'm talking about. Darkness, struggle, mysticism. Surely that first spin was just a warm-up, right?

I'm going to head into the new year with an eye on St. John Berchmans to see what this saint might have to say to me, but I'm hedging my bets by keeping John of the Cross on the sidelines in case I need an alternate at any point, or, more likely, an extra. Can't have too many patron saints.

So give the Patron Saint Generator a spin and let us know which saint will be watching over you during the coming year. And if you get St. Francis of Assisi, I don't want to hear about it.

Pope shares lunch with 250 homeless Romans

Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust

Pope Benedict XVI invited 250 homeless people served by the Missionaries of Charity to share lunch with him at the Vatican. During the meal, he told those present that Jesus wanted to be born poor and that "charity is the force that changes the world because God is love."

Shaw: Why leakers leak secrets

By Russell Shaw

The latest Wikileaks fiasco — hundreds of thousands of U.S. diplomatic cables spilling out in the world’s media like the contents of an overturned water pitcher — raises an important question that seldom gets asked: Why do they do it? Why do leakers leak secrets, that is?

In the case of those who do it for money, the motivation is perfectly clear: they do it for personal gain. This seems not to be the case with Wikileaks, where the source this time is said to have been a disgruntled private first class in Baghdad. But if not money, then what does move such people to take big risks and potentially do great harm?

During years of handling media relations at the national and international levels for several church groups, I drew some conclusions on that. A non-exhaustive list of motives for leaking would include at least the following. (But, you ask, does leaking really occur in Church-related settings? Yes, little ones, it happens even there.)

Start with altruism: to head off a mistake (or what the leaker considers a mistake) or correct an abuse. Often in combination with other factors, this is what frequently drives whistle-blowers. Not uncommonly, the aim is to rally support for a course of action that seems to be losing out in some internal deliberative process.

Altruism clearly is at risk of shading off into something much less attractive. One writer speaks of “adolescent self-righteousness” said to be operative in the Wikileaks case.

Ideological motives: to tilt the playing field in favor of your point of view, to embarrass and punish opponents in debate, to propagandize by giving only one side in an argument in hopes of influencing public opinion.

This was the motive in 1967 behind the leaking of documents from the papal birth control commission. The goal was to manipulate opinion in such a way as to discourage Pope Paul VI from doing what he did a year later anyway—reaffirm the Church’s teaching against contraception.

Odds and ends: to accomplish one or more of a gaggle of mean-spirited private purposes—getting revenge, burnishing your own reputation, puffing up your sense of self-importance as a mover and shaker, currying favor with a journalist or journalists in hopes of getting favorable coverage for oneself now or later, or just having some malicious fun at somebody else’s expense. The triviality of the motives in such instances by no means eliminates or even diminishes the quantity of harm that the leaking can do.

These motives and others not listed here can and frequently do combine in particular acts of leaking. Altruism and self-seeking, for example, are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and a leaker may wish to serve some high public purpose while simultaneously undercutting a hated rival.

It’s important to grasp, too, that the phenomenon of leaking in itself constitutes an implicit argument against abusing secrecy by keeping things confidential that ought to be publicly known. In such cases, the secrecy is an incitement to leaking, and the leaking may actually be a way of promoting the common good. Items like that may be part of the Wikileaks cache, though probably not enough of them to justify leaking this whole body of confidential documents.

As for the rantings of web fanatics defending a totally open and unfettered ethos in their medium of choice — ranting is ranting, even when it’s done on behalf of some genuinely good cause like freedom of expression and most certainly when done, as here, in the service of mere anarchy.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

Christmas greetings from Pope Benedict via BBC

In his first BBC radio broadcast, Pope Benedict XVI sent a Christmas message of hope to Great Britain and "every part of the English-speaking world."

"Let us give thanks to God for his goodness to us, and let us joyfully proclaim to those around us the good news that God offers us freedom from whatever weighs us down; he gives us hope, he brings us life," the pope said. (You can listen to full message at the video link above.)

Merry Christmas from all of us at OSV Daily Take.

This season, celebrate faith and reason

Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust

Too often, faith and reason are seen as incompatible, as if believing in God means you're just not smart enough to know better. Never was that misguided notion more obvious than in this year's atheist Christmas campaign. (There's an oxymoron if ever there was one!) The giant billboard on the approach to New York City says, "You know it's a myth. This season, celebrate reason!" Those of us inside the Church, which has been -- and continues to be -- filled with some of the greatest minds of history and modern time, know better.

I opted to ignore the campaign. Mainly because it seemed so ridiculous it didn't deserve my energy. Then again, I didn't see it live and in person. Here's a great column from someone who did. Kathy Gallagher, director of pro-life activities for the New York State Catholic Conference, writes about her reaction to the campaign in her column in the current edition of the Long Island Catholic:

I recently saw a billboard that took my breath away. It didn’t leave me breathless in a “just woke up to the first snowfall of the season” kind of way; it was more like a “just witnessed a horrific car accident” gasp. The 48-foot advertisement, sponsored by the American Atheists organization, depicted a silhouetted Nativity scene with the bold words: “You know it’s a myth. This season, celebrate reason!”

I felt like I had been punched in the gut. Like every moral lesson I had ever been taught by my parents, every prayer I recited for the nuns at school, every Scripture passage I listened to on countless Sunday mornings were being derided as lies. My deeply held religious beliefs were being publicly mocked for all the world to see.

Recovering my breath, I suddenly felt angry. Because in addition to attacking Christmas and disrespecting my faith, that billboard implies that I’m stupid. It says that Christians can’t be rational thinking people, that faith and reason cannot be joined, and if you have one, you cannot possibly have the other.

Rubbish. Faith is not an excuse to evade thinking. Faith and reason are not competing alternatives. They are, as Pope John Paul II has said, “like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth” (Fides et Ratio, 1998).

Continue reading HERE.

Now Father Rhonheimer responds to Smith's critique

Father Martin Rhonheimer says American moral theologian Janet E. Smith misconstrued his positions — on condoms, contraception, abortion, masturbation, to name a few — in her critique of his interview with OSV Newsweekly.

I did an earlier post about her critique here. Here is Father Rhonheimer's response in full.

It is worth underscoring that both Father Rhonheimer and Janet Smith are coming at this issue with full acceptance of Church teaching as expressed in Humanae Vitae and other magisterial documents, and that this conversation was prompted by Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks on condom use. We believe this is a legitimate and even necessary conversation — among "non-professionals," too — in order that the fullness of the Church’s teaching on marital love and human sexuality be discovered, taught, cause hearts to convert and ultimately, of course, be practiced.

Street cleaner's Nativity in Rome

And you thought your Nativity scene took a while to set up. Check out this amazing Nativity created over the years by a street cleaner in Rome. It's beautiful. Now I have another reason to go back to Rome, next time during Christmas season.

Janet Smith responds to OSV's Rhonheimer interview on condoms and pope

Professor Janet E. Smith, a well-known American moral theologian, has responded to an OSV Newsweekly interview with Opus Dei Father Martin Rhonheimer over the morality of condom use, particularly by a married couple or by promiscuous people.

Father Rhonheimer,  an ethicist who teaches at a pontifical university in Rome, discussed the issues in light of Pope Benedict XVI's recent remarks on condom use, at least by prostitutes to prevent the transmission of HIV.

Here are Smith's remarks. Rhonheimer's are here. And the pope's words on condoms are here.

Smith is a professor of moral theology and the Father Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Issues at the Sacreed Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Mich., and is the author of "Contraception: Why Not," of which more than 1 million copies have been distributed.

Dear Santa: signs of the times

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Mixed in with all those funny stories you hear about kids asking Santa for outrageous or charming things is this heartbreaking story from the Washington Post. Apparently, this year more than ever, adults are writing to Santa, asking for life's basic necessities, some including return addresses in hopes that Santa -- or some kind soul -- might deliver.

From Petula Dvorak's story:

Nearly 300 letters sat on the other desks, written in neat print or loopy cursive script, detailing jobs lost and hungry children, addressed by adults to a man in a red suit who is apparently their last hope.

"I'm a single mom living in the D.C. General shelter with my kids," one letter began. It ended not with a request for toys or bikes or a remote control, but for clothes. And instead of model numbers and prices, she included her children's shoe, underwear and clothing sizes.

"I want them to know there is hope," she wrote.

They went on and on like this, hundreds of Hail Mary passes to Santa or the Postal Service or just anyone who might get the letters and read them. Some were optimistic enough to include addresses and names, should a secret Santa choose to respond.

To read the full story, which includes some of those funny children's letters as well, click HERE. And maybe it's time to put in a call to our local post offices to see if there's someone nearby who's hoping against hope for an answer to a letter -- or a prayer.

Imagining the Nativity in the digital age

A little pre-Christmas mischief to brighten your day. Enjoy!

Shaw: Iraq war's tragic consequences

By Russell Shaw

I see that apologists for the Iraq war are now pronouncing it a success. Even by modest standards of success — a sort of stable kind of democratic Iraq, with a tolerable level of violence (whatever “tolerable” violence might be) — that judgment plainly is premature. Although I opposed the war from the outset on moral grounds, while it was underway I wrote that, applying the most modest of pragmatic standards, it couldn’t be judged either a success or a failure for at least 10 years. That still seems about right.

Meanwhile, though, at least two things about this war are all too clear. One is that, pending further developments, the big winners up to this time are the America-hating mullahs of Iran. The United States has handed them a weakened Iraq under Shiite leadership, a highly desirable gift from the mullahs’ point of view. The other is that, with the exception of Saddam Hussein and his crowd, the biggest losers as usual are innocent parties, and in a special way Iraqi Catholics and other Christians.

George W. Bush was eager to go into their country and Barack Obama was eager to get out. By a painful coincidence, the disparate exigencies of these two American presidents have come together to help create conditions for a tragedy of historic proportions now being experienced by the Iraqi Christian community.

The tragedy reached a bloody climax last Oct. 31 when terrorists stormed into the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Deliverance in Baghdad. Before it was over, 58 Christians had been killed, including two priests, and 75 injured. As the slaughter was taking place, a three-year-old boy named Adam wandered amid the carnage pleading with the killers to stop. Finally they killed him, too. That’s what you do in a holy war, I guess.

Before the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Iraqi Christian community numbered about 900,000. Now it’s about 350,000. Most of the rest are refugees stranded in camps in Syria and Jordan. Terrorists like the ones who stormed the cathedral in Baghdad are most directly to blame of course. But the U.S. needs to shoulder its share of responsibility and take quick and effective action to relieve the plight of these people.

Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, outgoing president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, made that point in a Nov. 10 letter to President Obama. “Having invaded Iraq,” he said, “our nation has a moral obligation not to abandon those Iraqis who cannot defend themselves.” Among the minimum steps necessary, according to the cardinal, are strengthening the capacity of the Iraqi military and police to provide security for everybody, “including minorities,” promoting human rights, especially religious freedom, rebuilding the country’s “shattered” economy, and assisting Iraqi refugees.

Toward the end of last month, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for the protection of Iraqi religious minorities. The action was praised by chairmen of bishops’ conference committees for international justice and peace and migration. No doubt it was a welcome gesture, but a congressional resolution is only words on paper.

What’s imperative now are tangible steps by the American government to give concrete help to Iraqi Christians who choose to leave their troubled country along with those who choose to stay — or who perhaps stay because they have no other choice. In his letter to Obama, Cardinal George termed “decimation of the Christian community in Iraq” one of the “tragic consequences” of the war.

If that’s success, what could failure possibly look like?

'Meet Jesus' in the new Roman Missal

Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust

Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre uses the video clip above to invite young Catholics to go beyond simply learning the words of the new translation of the Roman Missal and to embrace it and to allow the revised Missal to bring them closer to Jesus and to others. It's a message we can all take to heart as we begin to explore the new changes and make them part of our collective language. The new translation will go into effect in Advent 2011, so we have one year to get used to the idea.

You can also access Bishop Murphy's new pastoral on this subject, "Belong More Deeply," by clicking HERE.

While we're on the topic of the new translation, let me share my own news related to it. I'll have a new book,"The Essential Guide to Catholic Prayer and the Mass," coming out on March 1. It will include not only extensive information on all types of Catholic prayer and devotion but an entire section on the Mass and, specifically, the new translation, complete with all the changed prayers and responses. I'll keep you posted as the release date nears.

Whose feet are we willing to wash?

Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust

I am simply in awe of this program and the people who make it possible:

The custom of washing another’s feet was embedded in the cultures of ancient civilizations as an act of hospitality and necessary cleanliness. For obvious reasons, the health of one’s feet can judge the wellbeing of the body.
For those who live outside, disease and fungus are a constant threat in the Northwest winter. Calluses erupt from always walking and wearing shoes. Sores develop and nails may become ingrown.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples before the Last Supper, as an act of humility and gesture of service. Every Wednesday morning from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., volunteers emulate this act by caring for the feet of those in need in the basement of Portland’s Downtown Chapel.
Pink towels form a pathway between two rows of facing chairs where the soaking takes place and three nurses’ stations where the real work happens. The room smells fresh and clean, everyone seems happy, relaxed.
“Washing a person’s feet puts you truly below them, it is an act of kindness with much human symbolism,” says Andrew Noethe, pastoral associate at Downtown Chapel. “Your perspective of a person changes.”
Read more at "Street Roots" blog...

Wisconsin apparitions through the lens of Lourdes

Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust

Jesuit Father James Martin, who has written a book about his own Lourdes experience, writes today about the similarities between apparitions to Bernadette Soubirous in France in 1858 and Adele Brise in Champion, Wisconsin, in 1859. The Champion apparitions were officially approved by Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay after a two-year investigation, making them the first U.S. apparitions to be approved by the Church.

From Father Martin's post today on In All Things:

In both cases, the apparitions were to a woman; in both cases the woman was outdoors, in the middle of carrying out chores (Bernadette looking for firewood for her family; Adele Brise carrying wheat to a mill); in both cases the women were pious, Massgoing Catholics; in both cases the woman might be seen as on the margins of society (Bernadette's family was indigent and living in a converted jail cell; Adele was an immigrant) in both cases the local pastor asked for an identification from the vision (Bernadette's pastor, Abbe Peyramale asks; Brise's pastor asks as well); in both cases the identification given was short (Lourdes: "I am the Immaculate Conception"; Champion: "I am the Queen of Heaven"); in both cases Mary asks for prayers for sinners; in both cases the woman later becomes associated with a religious order (for Bernadette the Sisters of Nevers; for Adele a group of Third Order Franciscans); and in both cases a chapel is built which receives many visitors.

Here's some background on Brise from the CNS story on the apparitions:

Brise, a Belgian immigrant, was 28 when Mary appeared to her three times in October 1859. The first appearance took place while Brise was carrying a sack of wheat to a grist mill about four miles from Robinsonville, now known as Champion. A few days later, on Oct. 9, as Brise walked to Sunday Mass in Bay Settlement, about 11 miles from her home, Mary appeared to her again. After Mass, Brise told the pastor what she had seen. He told her to "ask in God's name who it was and what it desired of her," according to a historical account found on the shrine's website. On the way home from Bay Settlement, Mary again appeared to Brise. When Brise asked who the woman was, Mary responded, "I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners and I wish you to do the same." She told Brise to "gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the cross and how to approach the sacraments."

Brise devoted the rest of her life to teaching children. She began a community of Third Order Franciscan sisters and built a school next to the shrine. Brise's father, Lambert, built a small chapel near the spot of the apparitions. When a brick chapel was built in 1880, the trees where Mary appeared were cut down and the chapel's altar was placed over the spot. A school and convent were also built next to the chapel. The current chapel was dedicated in 1942 under the title of Our Lady of Good Help. Today the shrine, which sits on six acres of farmland, receives thousands of visitors each year. Brise died on July 5, 1896, and was buried in a small cemetery just east of the chapel.

To read Father Martin's full post, click HERE. For the full CNS story, click HERE.

Waiting for "La Madonna" to arrive tonight

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Another "new" Advent season tradition has just come to my attention, so I had to share. (The fact that it's an Italian tradition makes it that much more wonderful, in my book.) In the town of Assisi tonight, a bonfire will be lighted, sausages roasted, and mulled wine served -- all to prepare the way for "La Madonna." (Remember, tomorrow is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.)

From ItalianNotebook.com:

As darkness creeps in on December 7th, the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (on the 8th), the men of the Comunità Montana (Forestry Service) light a huge bonfire in front of the massive 14th-century Papal fortress La Rocca Maggiore towering over Assisi. They roast sausages on the fire and offer them with hot mulled wine to “the locals” gathered around the fire. According to tradition, this bonfire lights the way for the angels who are flying in Mary’s home from Nazareth!

In fact, during the night of December 7th, la Madonna will stop at each Assisi home, leaving a simple gift for the children. In the past (and in the 1970′s when we moved here – and when Italy was still largely an agricultural economy), the gifts were only basic clothing needs such as socks, underwear, perhaps gloves – in harmony with the saying (in Umbrian dialect) Chi si rinnova per Maria, sgrampola da ogni malattia (“whoever renews – ie, replaces old clothes with new – for Maria, escapes all illnesses”).

Our children used to wake up on December 8th to find new socks or underwear, a scarf or gloves, next to their pillows. One year on December 8th, our Giulia returned home from elementary school quite mystified by the new bicycle that one of her friends had received from la Madonna – “and not clothes as she should have, Mamma. I guess la Madonna made a mistake!”

My children were just bemoaning the fact that St. Nicholas "missed" them this year. Oops, looks like mommy was asleep at the wheel. I remembered around midnight and couldn't scrounge up a single little gift around the house to stick in their shoes. Now I have another chance! I'm off to buy some socks.

Click HERE to see the original post with lovely photos of Assisi.

Princess Diana's ancestor moves toward sainthood

A Vatican investigation has declared that Passionist Father Ignatius Spencer, the great, great, great uncle of Diana, Princess of Wales, lived a life of "heroic virtue," paving the way for his possible eventual canonization.

From the BBC News story:

The priest, who is buried in the church of St Anne and Blessed Dominic, in St Helens, was a great, great, great uncle of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Rome has to verify two claimed medical cures to declare someone a saint.

Father Ben Lodge CP, who is responsible for promoting Father Spencer's cause, said the Vatican's move was "good news."

...On becoming a Roman Catholic priest, Father Spencer was attracted to the Passionist congregation - a religious congregation which lived a life of radical poverty.

He became noted as a preacher who was equally at home among the aristocracy as he was among the urban poor.

He was a forerunner of the drive for better relations between the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian denominations with his desire for "unity in truth."

The Vatican, which has been studying his writings since 2007, said it had concluded that he lived a holy life and there was nothing in his written work which was contrary to Roman Catholic teachings on faith and morals.

Read the full story HERE.

Find any candy or fruit in your shoes today?

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas! Want to know the real story behind the man with the white beard? Check out OSV's article "The Real St. Nicholas," by Thomas J. Craughwell:

There is St. Nicholas, and there is Santa Claus, and, contrary to common opinion, they are not the same person. We’ll explain how the saint became confused with Santa later, but for the moment let’s focus on the real St. Nicholas.

St. Nicholas (died c. 350) was the bishop of Myra in what is now Turkey, where he was famous for his generosity to the poor. The details of his life have not come down to us, but a host of legends have sprung up to fill the void, almost all of them emphasizing Nicholas’ goodness to people in need.

Continue reading...

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Remembering martyred missioners: The true cost of discipleship

Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the martydom of Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel and lay missioner Jean Donovan. It's hard to believe it's been that long, or that it happened at all. People willing to lay down their lives to carry out the Gospel. We're all asked to be willing, but few of us dare to follow through. These women did, and many more continue to do so today.

Maryknoll Sister Janice McLaughlin this week offered a reflection at Maryknoll, New York, to mark the anniversary:

The death of our Sisters, Maura, Ita and Carla, lay missioner Jean Donovan and Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel was a wake-up call to all of us – those who knew the women and those who only heard the news in the media. Their brutal murder shocked us out of our complacency. It made us aware of the cost of discipleship.

Our martyrs were awake. They were conscious of the dangers they faced. I entered Maryknoll in 1961, the same year as Ita. We were together in 1978 as consultants to the General Assembly on matters of justice and peace. I recall clearly Ita’s words when we read the first draft of the assembly document. “We are considering allowing lay people into our parlour’s, and we think that’s radical,” she said, with that dry humour of hers. She then became deadly serious and concluded: “In the next few years some of us will be killed.” Ita was wide awake. She left Chile for El Salvador and stayed in El Salvador after Carla’s death, aware of the dangers she faced. Maura volunteered to come to El Salvador to be with Ita, aware of the risk of this choice. Jean and Dorothy, Maddie Dorsey and Terry Alexander all stayed on because they were committed to justice and a better future for the people, even though they knew it was dangerous to be there.

Our founder, Mother Mary Joseph was fully awake throughout her life. She issued many wake up calls to us over the years. From the earliest days of Maryknoll, the possibility of martyrdom was held out to us as an element of our mission vocation.

In 1940, Mother told us: “Ours are to be the labors of the apostolate at home and abroad, hard, unflagging, continuous: we are to expect reproach, ingratitude, weariness of soul and body; to be betrayed – to have our own passion – and in the end, death.” She ends this somber reflection with what appears to be a contradiction. She tells us to accept all this with “joy, eagerness and exhilaration.”

Read the full text HERE. And let us pray tonight for all those missioners who serve around the world, putting their own lives in danger so that others might have dignity, peace and justice.

Advent Conspiracy: Let's not try so hard

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Every Advent I set out with the best of intentions. I will pray more, and I will not allow the secular world's clarion call of "Buy, buy, buy" to drown out the less flashy but more important scriptural message of "Stay awake!" I vow not to go to shopping malls. I refuse to put up decorations too early. I take tags off the parish Giving Tree. I talk to the kids about asking for reasonable gifts and not expecting everything on their lists. But inevitably, by the time we're one week out from Christmas, I find we've blown our budget and bought way more than anyone needed -- or wanted, for that matter.

I just got off the phone with a friend and I talked about my issues with this season. Most people I know are almost done with their Christmas shopping. I haven't even started. So I told him, "Don't expect too much. I've decided I'm just not going to try that hard this year." I do not mean that in a Bah-Humbug! sort of way. I mean that I'm just not going to let worries over meaningless gifts that will probably get tossed in a closet become the focus of the next few weeks.

Then I saw the video clip above. (Big h/t to Mike Hayes over at Googling God for bringing this one to my attention.) It says it all. Watch it, and then join me in not trying so hard -- or spending so much -- this season.

And while you're at it, check out the second part of Patrice Athanasidy's Advent series over at Fathers for Good. Click HERE to read about how her family counters the focus on material stuff at Christmas.

Then click HERE to read Jesuit Father James Martin's post on Advent "desire" and how it's not all bad.