Is a retreat one of your resolutions?

By Mary DeTurris Poust

What's on your list of things to do or accomplish in 2012? If "go on retreat" isn't on there, you really should think about adding it to the bottom of the list. Or, actually, to the very top. There's nothing like a retreat, especially a silent retreat, to get your spiritual house in order and reinvigorate your prayer life.

If you need a little inspiration, check out this "Personal Journey" article about a five-day retreat at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, Pa., in the New York Times. It's a beautiful reflection on the power of silent prayer and a little spiritual direction to set even the most chaotic and complicated life on a better track. Click HERE to read the piece by Susan Gregory Thomas.

Over on Huffington Post today, there's another helpful article on "Reviving Your Religious Life in 2012." Among the contributors is Jesuit Father James Martin, who offers these words of wisdom:

The best way to jumpstart your spiritual life is with the examen. Popularized by St. Ignatius Loyola, this quick prayer helps you find God in your daily life. Normally done at the end of the day, it has five steps. First, remind yourself that you're in the presence of God. Second, remember things for which you are grateful today -- anything from a good breakfast to a phone call that lifted your spirits. Savor them and thank God. Third, see where you failed to be loving. Fourth, ask God for forgiveness. Fifth, ask for the grace to see God tomorrow. The examen helps you see where God was active in your day. And once you see where God has been it becomes easier to see where God is.

Read the rest of the tips (from people of various faiths) by clicking HERE.

I was lucky enough to spend a long weekend praying with the Trappist monks of the Abbey of the Genesee out near Rochester, N.Y., this fall. You can read about my experience with silence over at my own blog, Not Strictly Spiritual, by clicking HERE. You can also find yesterday's post about my avoidance of New Year's resolutions in favor of long-term, broader "goals." Click HERE to read that.

Do you have any spiritual goals on your 2012 list? Any retreat plans? If so, what are your favorite retreat centers?

2011: Best of Pope Benedict XVI

What were the highlights of the papal year? Here's the Top 10 list from John Thavis of Catholic News Service:

An interfaith meeting in Assisi, a new book on Jesus of Nazareth and a website-launching tap on an iPad were among the highlights of 2011 for Pope Benedict XVI.

Although the year saw a further cutback in individual papal audiences, the 84-year-old pope still enjoyed a productive and busy 12 months, meeting privately with nearly 400 church or civil leaders, addressing more than 180 groups and presiding over about 40 public liturgies.

He traveled to Croatia, Spain, Germany and Benin, delivering 60 speeches on the road. In weekly talks at the Vatican, attended by nearly half a million people, he gave a series of reflections on the great teachers of the church and on prayer -- a continuation of the "back to basics" approach that has marked his pontificate.

The reduction of papal meetings and the introduction of a rolling platform for his entrance into St. Peter's Basilica fueled speculation about the pope's health. Close observers say that, like most octogenarians, the pontiff tires more easily today, but that he suffers no serious health problems.

The year 2011 saw two of Pope Benedict's favorite themes come into clearer focus: new evangelization and religious liberty. Increasingly, he has linked the two topics, telling bishops that both tasks require courageous truth-telling in sometimes hostile environments.

No doubt the pope has his own favorite remembrances of the closing year. From a journalist's point of view, here's a "top 10" list of moments from 2011 that seemed to capture what Pope Benedict is all about: Read the Top 10 list HERE.

Top 10 OSV Newsweekly stories of 2011

Reader's choice! Here's a list of the most popular OSV Newsweekly stories of 2011:


1. Nineteen words every Catholic should know, by Emily Stimpson.

2. Home-schoolers sometimes at odds with dioceses, by Michelle Martin.

3. Exclusive analysis: National Catholic marriage rate plummets, by Mark M. Gray.

4. Revised Roman Missal: Understanding the reasons for the changes, by Emily Stimpson.

5. Father John Corapi walks away from priestly ministry, by Brian Fraga.

6. Openers: Lessons from the allegations against Father John Corapi, by John Norton.

7. Church dress codes call for more modesty at Mass, by Jim Graves.

8. Girl Scouts: At odds with Catholic teachings? by Brian Fraga.

9. Ten things to do before you kick the bucket, by Mark Shea.

10. Devotion to the Blessed Mother in the Americas: A look at Mary's many national titles, by Thomas Craughwell.

Shaw: You should be paying more attention to Clinton's speech on gay rights

By Russell Shaw

An address by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s on gay rights as a priority of U.S. policy deserves far more attention than it’s gotten up to now. As a statement of the views of the Obama administration, Clinton’s remarks were a remarkably candid — and remarkably chilling — exposition of official determination to make the world safe for LGBT at home as well as abroad.

Speaking last month at United Nations offices in Geneva, Clinton first sought to spin a muddled synthesis linking gay rights and religious faith. In part, this was how it came out:

Our commitments to protect the freedom of religion and to defend the dignity of LGBT people emanate from a common source. For many of us, religious belief and practice is a vital source of meaning and identity, and fundamental to who we are as people. And likewise, for most of us, the bonds of love and family that we forge are also vital sources of meaning and identity. And caring for others is an expression of what it means to be fully human. It is because the human experience is universal that human rights are universal and cut across all religions and cultures.

With all due respect — what on earth does that mean? The strikingly confused venture into reasoning in this passage would provide rich material for a logician’s intellectual scalpel. And just what is this common source from which the protection of religious freedom and the defense of LGBT people are said to proceed? One can favor both things, as I do, without succumbing to the sentimental fallacy of an unnamed “common source.”

But set that aside for now. What’s really troubling about Clinton’s text is what comes next: “While we are each free to believe whatever we choose, we cannot do whatever we choose, not in a world where we protect the human rights of all.” On the surface, that’s true to the point of banality. But what lies below the surface? The answer is: coercion on behalf of LGBT interests.

“Progress comes from changes in laws,” Clinton explains. “In many places, in including my own country, legal protections have preceded, not followed, broader recognition of rights. Laws have a teaching effect. … It is often the case that laws must change before fears about change dissipate.”

Take that out of the realm of abstraction, and the classic case to illustrate the point is abortion, where the U.S. Supreme Court rammed legalization down the nation’s throat by an act of what one dissenter called raw judicial power.

And now it’s LGBT’s turn? Acting under the aegis of anti-discrimination laws, government agencies move to enforce the newly discovered right of same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, the right of gay partners to rent the local K of C hall for their wedding reception, the right to have pro-homosexual indoctrination inserted into public school textbooks, and on and on “rights” sprout like mushrooms in the fertile soil supplied by the state.

“The Obama administration defends the human rights of LGBT people as part of our comprehensive human rights policy,” Secretary Clinton affirms. And to those who object, remember: “Laws have a teaching effect.”

Clinton and the administration she serves aren’t bad people. But they’re secularists at heart (though sometimes with a superficial religiosity) and committed to enactment and enforcement of an expansive program for the bestowal of rights upon causes they favor — abortion rights, LGBT rights, whatever. Woe betide those foolish enough to object in the face of the coercive power of the state.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

Merry Christmas from OSV

"Do not be afraid. For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." -- Luke 2:10-11

Best wishes for a happy and holy Christmas from all of us at OSV Daily Take.

Nun who kissed Elvis praying for Christmas miracle to help monastery

A former Hollywood starlet who shared an on-screen kiss with Elvis Presley before leaving her acting career behind in favor of the cloister is in the limelight once again, this time in an effort to bring some attention -- and much-needed funds -- to the aging Connecticut monastery she has called home since 1963.

From an AP story:

Dolores Hart, who walked away from Hollywood stardom in 1963 to become a nun in rural Bethlehem, Conn., now finds herself back in the spotlight. But this time it's all about serving the King of Kings, not smooching the King of Rock and Roll.

The former brass factory that houses Mother Dolores and about 40 other nuns cloistered at the Abbey of Regina Laudis needs millions of dollars in renovations to meet fire and safety codes, add an elevator and make handicap accessibility upgrades.

Like 73-year-old Mother Dolores, the order's nuns have taken a vow of stability with the intent to live, work and die at the complex. The order was established in 1947 in Bethlehem, a small burg in Connecticut's rolling western hills.

Now, the historically self-supporting nuns have launched a fundraiser for the $4 million renovation project dubbed "New Horizons." They don't have much money, but they have Mother Dolores: a starlet-turned-supplicant whose unique story might lure the attention and donations of generations of movie fans, particularly those who adore all things Elvis.

"This work may not be in my lifetime that it's finished, but we're sure trying," Mother Dolores said of the upgrades, which are budgeted to run about $2 million for the fire code and accessibility compliance work and another $2 million for improvements to the housing and other facilities.

Read the full story of her Hollywood years and movie credits HERE.

Researchers: Shroud of Turin not a forgery

Italian researchers who tried and failed to replicate the Shroud of Turin say it's not likely the controversial piece of linen could have been forged by someone in the Middle Ages or before.

From a Daily News story:

“We have shown that the most advanced technology available today is unable to replicate all the characteristics of the Shroud image,” lead researcher Paolo Di Lazzaro told msnbc.com in an email.

“As a consequence, we may argue it appears unlikely a forger may have done this image with technologies available in the Middle Ages or earlier.

But that doesn’t necessarily solve the intensely debated mystery, he added, noting that the findings have attracted media attention in recent days due to articles in the British press.

“The probability the Shroud is a Medieval fake is really low,” Di Lazzaro said. “In this sense, the Shroud image is still a scientific challenge.”

Read the full story HERE.

Lessons in faith from Luke and Linus

Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust

Ever since I was a little kid waiting with unbridled excitement for the annual airing of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on TV, the above scene of Linus reciting the Gospel story of Jesus' birth has been a favorite (even before I knew what a Gospel was). So, today, to suddenly get some new and profound insight into this old scene was like a Christmas bonus.

Over on Facebook, Jesuit Father James Martin wrote this:

Yesterday on The Washington Post chat a reader mentioned something beautiful that I had never noticed: When Linus recites the story of the Nativity in "A Charlie Brown Christmas," he unexpectedly drops his security blanket. With the Word of God he has no need for any other security.

It's true. Watch for yourself. As if I needed any more reasons to love this Christmas special. Thanks, Father Martin. And Charles M. Schulz

Sainthood path cleared for two New York women

From CNS:

Pope Benedict XVI advanced the sainthood causes of Blessed Marianne Cope of Molokai and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.

He also formally recognized the martyrdom of 64 victims of the Spanish Civil War and advanced the causes of 18 other men and women.

During a meeting Dec. 19 with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, the pope signed the decrees recognizing the miracles needed for the canonizations of Blesseds Marianne and Kateri.

Before a date is set for the canonization ceremonies, there must be an "ordinary public consistory," a formal ceremony opened and closed with prayer, during which cardinals present in Rome express their support for the pope's decision to create new saints.

Blessed Marianne, who worked as a teacher and hospital administrator in New York, spent the last 30 years of her life ministering on the Hawaiian island of Molokai to those with leprosy. She died on the island in 1918 at age 80 and was beatified in St. Peter's Basilica in 2005.

Blessed Kateri, known as the Lily of the Mohawks, was born to a Christian Algonquin mother and a Mohawk father in 1656 in upstate New York along the Hudson River. She was baptized by a Jesuit missionary in 1676 when she was 20, and she died in Canada four years later. In June 1980, she became the first Native American to be beatified.

Read the full CNS story HERE. The official decree is HERE.

The afterlife of an atheist

Posted by Mary DeTurris Poust

This morning at breakfast my husband mentioned that Christopher Hitchens, well-known atheist, had died at age 62 after a prolonged battle with cancer. Our teenage son happened to be there, and the topic turned to the afterlife, at which point my son asked if Catholics didn't believe Hitchens would go to hell for his beliefs, or lack of them. Ah, a complex subject for so early in the morning, and about something we cannot answer definitively this side of heaven. So we talked about our hope in the love of a merciful God and the smile-inducing possibility that maybe Hitchens would be surprised at what came next in the life he believed would end when it ended here.

Jesuit Father James Martin, writing on In All Things, offers some hopeful and helpful thoughts on this uncertain subject. From his post:

Someone asked me this morning what I hoped for Christopher Hitchens, the fierce atheist who died after an agonizing bout with esophogeal cancer, and my first response was to say that I hope he’s pleasantly surprised. And I do. I certainly didn't agree with him on many things (on almost anything, frankly; and I was particularly annoyed at his treatment of Mother Teresa), but I always hoped that somehow he would experience an invitation from God in his earthly life; and I hope that he may now come to know God. (I could never quite shake the feeling that Mr. Hitchens' lifelong struggle with God betokened a deep hunger for the divine, or at least for answers.) Of course the famous atheist would surely dislike hearing that, as he objected to people praying for him in his final illness.

...Henri Nouwen, the Dutch priest and spiritual master, wrote in his book The Prodigal Son that most of us are like the older brother, despising any forgiving actions. We feel that we are the ones who have worked hard, who have led good lives, who have tried to act morally; so why should others be forgiven for their failings? We often resent forgiveness and reconciliation, because it doesn’t seem “fair.”

But as Jesus points out, God’s love is far different than our own; it is prodigal, generous, even wasteful.

I hope that Christopher Hitchens enjoys some of this prodigal love. Of course committed atheists may not be ready to receive it. So for them, and for many others, there will probably be a time of conversion, what Catholics call Purgatory: a time of preparation to meet God, a time of reviewing one’s life, and asking for forgiveness. And of course it will be up to each individual to decide if he or she wants to accept that Father’s love or turn away. For me, hell is the ultimate turning away of that forgiving love.

So I hope that Christopher Hitchens, famous atheist, fearless polemicist and, in his own unique way, brave seeker, will now be pleasantly surprised by God. And if he finally makes it to heaven, I hope he gets a chance to get to know the prodigal love of God, which eluded him on earth. After that, I hope he gets to know Mother Teresa a little better than he did on earth.

Read Father Martin's full post HERE.

Occupy Christmas: Taking Jesus to the people

Due to the general insanity at our local mall, I recently swore off going there again for the rest of the Christmas season, but something like this would definitely make me reconsider. Just awesome. Thank you to all the Facebook friends who shared this one.

Testifying to the light: Third week of Advent

By Mary DeTurris Poust

A reflection from my own blog, Not Strictly Spiritual:

It's always right around this time each Advent season that I move into high holiday spirit. I take that pink candle very seriously. Gaudete! Rejoice! And with that I break out Christmas boxes and begin to decorate the house. My kids, having been not-so-patiently waiting for a couple of weeks by now, finally get to light the lights and string the ornaments and push the buttons that play Christmas carols on endless loops.

I like the waiting time of Advent. I'm not a patient person, but in this season I tend to find my stride, enjoying the slowness of preparing for the feast, stepping out of character and trying not to rush things, knowing it will all be here and gone soon enough. But it won't be gone, will it? Only the external trappings will be gone. If this season does what this season is meant to do, we will be left with the internal light that shines long after the ornaments and singing Santas are put away for another year.

This weekend at Mass, one line from the Gospel kept ringing in my ears:

"He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify to the light."

That role isn't reserved for John the Baptist. We are all called to testify to the light so that others might believe. But how do we do that? It's not always easy in this frantic world, where people steal our parking spots at the mall and smash into our cars without leaving a note (both of which happened to me this week).

I recently had an experience of light that jumped out and grabbed me. I was at Kripalu yoga center, attending a workshop called "Pray All Ways" by Paulist Father Thomas Ryan (which I posted about briefly last week). At the end of the weekend, Father Tom asked us to do a lectio divina exercise, using the weekend itself as the point of reflection. We were to find the thing that stood out to us, pray on it and share with the group. Although there were many, many gifts received that weekend, one thing kept coming to the front of my mind, from the very first session of our workshop. Here's what I shared with my group (more or less):

As I sat in this circle, sharing faith stories and prayer with a group of strangers, my mind kept returning to the famous Thomas Merton story, where he's standing on a street corner in Kentucky and looks around at the people surrounding him and feels complete love for and unity with them. I never really "got" that story because most of the time I'm standing on the street corner feeling frustration and wondering when all those people are just going to cross the street, for goodness sake. But here, at Kripalu, from almost the first instant, I knew exactly what Merton meant. I looked around and felt complete love for complete strangers, people from all different walks of life who are searching for the same thing -- a deeper connection to God. Being in this place gives me hope. And Merton's words keep echoing in my heart: There's no way to tell people they are walking around shining like the sun.

When I returned to "real" life later that same day, I tried to bring that light back home with me. The truth is, I often withdraw to my sacred space to pray or do yoga or both and then emerge only to jump right back into the chaos without letting my prayer reverberate in my words and actions. But the point of the weekend workshop and the focus of my prayer life these days is to take what happens in that sacred space and let it influence everything else, because my children and husband and friends will never understand the power of God's love in my life if I don't let that love come out through me, if I don't walk around shining like the sun, or Son.

It's hard to keep that light shining through all the difficulties and frustrations and annoyances of life. It's much easier to slip back into dissatisfaction, to take up my poor-pitiful-me position and wonder why everyone can't make it easier for me to be prayerful. Sigh. It's not supposed to be easy. What merit is there in being prayerful if it only sticks when times are good?

And then I went to Mass on Saturday evening, and my pastor hit the nail on the head with a homily focused on that same theme. He reminded us that to rejoice isn't to be "up" all the time, outwardly bouncing around happily from one thing to the next. To truly rejoice is to remain inwardly joyful even when times are hard because our joy isn't in things of this world; our joy is in God and what God has done for us. Amen.

When I was at Kripalu, Father Tom led us in many Taize chants at the start of each session. One of my favorites was this one:

"Our darkness is never darkness
in your sight.
The deepest night is clear
as the daylight."

The play of light against darkness is so apparent during this season when the ever-increasing glow of the Advent wreath stands in stark contrast to the darkness outside. I am often all too aware of the darkness, sometimes even seeking it out when there's light all around me. But once we realize there is no darkness with God, everything becomes clear, and we shine like the sun, even at midnight.

So rejoice! Testify to the Light that can never be extinguished.

A priest's remembrance of Cardinal Foley

By Msgr. Owen F. Campion

What day was it? A month ago? Cardinal John Foley telephoned me. We have spoken with each other at least weekly for many years. We have been in each other’s presence often. The call in itself was not unusual. The message made it unusual, being as it was literally about life and death.

“Pray for me,” he said, “The doctors have just told me that I have only a few months or maybe weeks. Pray that I will be worthy to meet the Lord." What do you say in reply? Long ago, as a priest, I learned that such are times for honesty.

“If you are not ready,” I answered, “I wonder who is.”

I was utterly honest. No one met the cardinal without seeing in him his profound faith. His Christian faith formed everything about him. He was a disciple, unquestioning and forever eager. It enriched his priestly and episcopal vocations. It was a gift to him in grace, and it was a gift to the Church.

Over the last year, I have made the point to visit him in Philadelphia every month. The sequence of these visits enabled me to see the deadly progress of his illness.

My last visit was just over three weeks ago. A mutual friend, Matt Gambino, the very capable editor of Philadelphia’s archdiocesan newspaper, The Catholic Standard and Times, accompanied me.

Ever the gentleman, the cardinal could not stand as we entered his presence, a sign of his decline. Anxious about tiring him, I suggested several times to Matt that we should be going. The cardinal each time insisted that we stay longer. He knew that it likely would be our last meeting. I knew as well. At last, time came to part. Long ago, we formed the habit of saying farewell by conferring our blessings on each other.

I gave him my blessing. He took my hand and kissed it. “I love you, Owen.” I said, “And I love you. Promise me that you always will pray for me.”

I shall, he promised. In that promise I find consolation. In thanksgiving I pray that I knew him and loved him. I give thanks that the Lord gave him, disciple, priest and bishop, to the Church. May he rest in peace.

Msgr. Owen F. Campion is OSV associate publisher.

Shaw: Why do you expect so little from Christmas?

By Russell Shaw

The problem many of us have with Christmas isn’t that we expect too much of it but that we expect much too little. My Christmas wish for all of us, myself included, is that we raise our sights and ask for all that God really wants to give us. If we can open ourselves to receive that, we may be astonished at what we get.

There’s a hint of it in something written by Jesuit Father Alfred Delp, a German priest executed by the Nazis near the end of World War II. Speaking of Christ’s coming, he said:

All these are not merely one-time historical events upon which our salvation rests. They are simultaneously the model figures and events that announce to us the new order of things, of life, of our existence. …

The world is more than its burden, and life more than the sum of its gray days. The golden threads of the genuine reality are already shining through everywhere. … Hope grows through the one who is himself a person of the hope and the promise.

Jesus commonly is said to save us from our sins. That’s surely the heart of it. But besides simply saving from sin, redemption is empowerment. In the Son of Man, the world, including ourselves, are restored, renewed (see Eph 1:9-10). In Jesus, we are co-redeemers, participants in building the kingdom of God.

The Second Vatican Council expands on that in an extraordinary passage in Gaudium et Spes (the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World). Speaking of God’s entry into history as a man, and recalling the scriptural promise of a “new earth” to come, the council teaches:

Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. ... 

When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise — human dignity, brotherly communion, and freedom — according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom. ... 

Here on earth the kingdom is mysteriously present (Nos. 38-39).

Co-redeemers with Christ, Jesus’ collaborators in building God’s kingdom — the kingdom that will last forever — these are the roles Christ’s coming opens up to us. If that sounds grandiose, so be it. In fact, it’s very grand. But for most of us, it’s realized in quite ordinary ways, much as Jesus’ coming took place in the ordinariness of a stable.

St. Josemaria Escriva underlined that in a Christmas homily in 1963:

Can it be said also of you who have been called to be another Christ, that you have come to do and to teach, to do things as a son of God would? Are you attentive to the Father’s will, so as to be able to encourage everyone else to share the good, noble, divine and human values of the redemption? Are you living the life of Christ in your everyday life in the middle of the world?

That is the triumph of Jesus Christ. He has raised us to his level, the level of children of God, by coming down to our level, the level of children of men.

And that is why we ought to put aside the mistake of expecting too little of Christmas.

Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.

Making change

What moves you to change? Where do you need to be healed and where can you offer some healing? Take ten minutes to watch this powerful clip and see what feelings and thoughts it stirs up. We often don't think about the chain reaction of love we can set in motion through even the smallest kindness.

Thanks to Deacon Greg and Mike Hayes for bringing this clip to my attention today.

Surprise decision will keep restrictions on Plan B emergency contraception

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled FDA experts and stopped a decision to offer Plan B morning-after emergency contraception on drugstore shelves to girls of any age without a prescription. The ruling surprised people on both sides of the controversial plan.

From an AP story:

The Food and Drug Administration was preparing to lift a controversial age limit and make Plan B One-Step the nation's first over-the-counter emergency contraceptive, available for purchase by people of any age without a prescription.

But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius intervened at the eleventh hour and overruled her own experts.

Plan B instead will remain behind the pharmacy counter, as it is sold today — available without a prescription only for those 17 and older who show an ID proving their age.

Sebelius' reason: Some girls as young as 11 are physically capable of bearing children, and Plan B's maker didn't prove that younger girls could properly understand how to use this product without guidance from an adult.

"It is common knowledge that there are significant cognitive and behavioral differences between older adolescent girls and the youngest girls of reproductive age," Sebelius said in a statement. "I do not believe enough data were presented to support the application to make Plan B One-Step available over-the-counter for all girls of reproductive age."

Read the full story HERE.

Which Christmas Mass are you attending?

A little more than a year ago, we moved across town and joined a new parish, much larger than our last one. It has been a great community to get plugged into and get to know.

I'm always interested to see how things are done there. One interesting change this year for the parish has been some modifications to the Christmas liturgy schedule.

• The Christmas Vigil Mass is a children's Mass held at 5 p.m. By all accounts, this is by far the best-attended liturgy.
• Midnight Mass has been moved up to 10 p.m. (hoping to draw more families frightened by the late hour)
• Only one Mass on Christmas Day, at 10 a.m. 

From our days in Rome as a young family, we've always attended Midnight Mass. Our four kids (the oldest is now 13) probably couldn't imagine Christmas otherwise -- the anticipation, setting out Christmas clothes before being made to lie down for a few hours of sleep (yeah, right) before getting up in the middle of the night to go to church.

But I want to ask about the Christmas Day experience in your parish. Are you, like us, seeing fewer and fewer Catholics forgo Christmas Day Mass in favor of Christmas Eve?

Interestingly, that seems to be a trend in some Protestant communities, too — even in a year like this in which Christmas falls on a Sunday. The Baptist Press reported a few weeks ago that a full 6 percent of Protestant churches plan to have a Christmas Eve service but NO service on Christmas Day. A few years ago, The New York Times ran a story titled, "When Christmas falls on Sunday, megachurches take the day off," and detailed the controversy over the practice.

What are things like where you live? And what Mass will you be attending?

Celebrate the real Santa today

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas! This day has become a favorite at our house, ever since I began the tradition years ago of leaving little gifts in the kids' shoes the night before. This morning when they came downstairs, they didn't even remember it was St. Nicholas Day until they saw the chocolates and little items lined up in shoes by the front door. I loved seeing the smiles on their faces as they came down for school one by one. And, let me tell you, getting a smile out of the almost-15-year-old is not an easy feat.

It's not too late to celebrate this feast day, which has come to mark a deepening of the Advent season for me. I'm not one of those early shoppers or early decorators. I like to wait -- longer than my family likes to wait. But I have to admit that this feast usually puts me in the mood to start making the physical preparations for Christmas.

If you want to know more about St. Nicholas or would like some activities to share with children of all ages, check out the St. Nicholas Center, an awesome website chock full of resources, stories, coloring pages, games, history, and more.

So how did the real story of St. Nicholas and the story of Santa Claus become so intertwined and confused? For the answer, click HERE to read the OSV story "The Real St. Nicholas."

And if you didn't get to put a little something in the kids' shoes this morning, leave a little chocolate, an orange or some small gift item for them to find when they come home this afternoon. If your house is anything like my house, there's no shortage of shoes lying around just waiting to be filled.

President Obama on the meaning of Christmas

In case you missed it, here's President Obama's beautiful message offered during the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on Dec. 1. (He starts speaking about two minutes into the video clip.) Here's just one small piece of what he had to say:

"...We all know that this tradition is much larger than any single tree. And tonight, once again, we gather here not simply to light some decorations, but to honor a story that lights the world.

"More than 2,000 years ago, a child was born to two faithful travelers who could find rest only in a stable, among the cattle and the sheep. But this was not just any child. Christ’s birth made the angels rejoice and attracted shepherds and kings from afar. He was a manifestation of God’s love for us. And He grew up to become a leader with a servant’s heart who taught us a message as simple as it is powerful: that we should love God, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

"That teaching has come to encircle the globe. It has endured for generations. And today, it lies at the heart of my Christian faith and that of millions of Americans. No matter who we are, or where we come from, or how we worship, it’s a message that can unite all of us on this holiday season. "

Read the full text of his message HERE.

Where else will you find The Muppets and The Anchoress in one post?

Two short items to get your weekend off to a great start:

If you're looking for some family fun this weekend, go see The Muppets. I took my 6-year-old yesterday and she loved it, although I think what she really loved was seeing me grin from ear to ear and occasionally giggle out loud. It really took me back and made me a little nostalgic for those days when television programming like The Muppet Show was out there for families to enjoy together. A really fun movie for kids of all ages and kids at heart.

If you're too busy Christmas shopping to go out to the movies, here's just what you need. The Anchoress has posted a list of Christmas book and gift suggestions for just about every type of person on your list. (And I'm not just saying that because one of my books made the list.) You can check it out by clicking HERE.

So what are you waiting for? Hop online, order your gifts, and then grab the kids and head to the movies.