Every year about 4 or 5 days before Christmas, people say to us "Oooh, your busiest time, Father..." Well, in fact the previous weeks get really full of pre-Christmas liturgical and social stuff, and, of course, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are indeed jam-packed. But this day or two before The Day are strangely quiet, except for kind people dropping in presents and the odd phone-call. People are scurrying around doing their Christmas stuff - and they leave us alone for a day or two! Added to this of course, in terms of the liturgy, Holy Week and Easter are more spread out. So we get a brief pause to prepare homilies, ask ourselves what we have forgotten, and do postings on blogs.
However, we will have eight Masses in the 24 hours from 6pm tomorrow, with help for one of them. Like many places, the Christmas Eve Masses have rather swept the board in attendance, so we need three of 'em, all at the same time, 6.00pm... I'm on Christ the King for the two Eve Masses and St Paul and St Brigid in the Morning. 6pm at Christ the King is probably the most popular of our eight, indeed the biggest Mass of the year. It's big, child-filled, family-oriented, a bit chaotic... and beautiful. I love it!
The last part of Advent this year has been tinged with sadness, as we have had several deaths, including two involving families with teenage children. At the funeral that I celebrated, I tried to tie it in with Advent, talking about the Lord coming to meet us at Bethlehem, but that we also, like the Shepherds and Kings, have to journey in order to meet Him.
Meanwhile, I eventually got round to buying a new TV with the money I received for my 60th birthday way back in June. My last one was for my 50th, so there's a kind of symmetry about it - well, that's my excuse anyway. There are so many to choose from! I eventually plumped for a Panasonic Viera Smart TV with sound bar and sub-woofer - 'coz I like a good bass sound. So now I'm all set up to blast the neighbourhood, well Fr Tomy anyway!
I'm still amazed that this blog gets a good number of views, so to all who visit, thank you and have a very, very happy Christmas!!
ps My telly isn't quite as big as the one in the pic...
ps My telly isn't quite as big as the one in the pic...
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