As I write this, I am sitting at
my mother-in-law’s home, waiting for our Christmas festivities to begin. God blessed me with two beautiful Roses – my
mom and Brian’s mom. I always called
them both the Christmas Rose because they both celebrate the season with such
joy! As I light the candle of love this
week, I will be filled with thanksgiving that God chose these two beautiful
ladies to mentor me and show me how a Catholic Christian woman should live her
life ~ with the unconditional love of God.
It is not always easy to find joy
in life, is it? It is a choice that must
be made. I could choose to sit here in
sadness that this is the tenth Christmas that the McCue’s will celebrate
without our beloved Charlie and the first Christmas that the Makosky’s will
celebrate without our beloved Rose. On
the other hand, I could choose to sit here filled with joy and celebrate the
many blessings that God has bestowed upon me and my family. I choose joy as I relish in the love so
freely given me!
As the celebration of our Lord’s
birth fast approaches, it may not be easy to remember the reason that we bake
and shop and prepare enormous feasts. We
are a people who love to celebrate! My prayer
for you as you rush about your day to accomplish all of these tasks is to
remember the reason for the season – JESUS!
All of this celebrating culminates for me on Christmas Eve as we
celebrate the moment that love touched down upon the earth once again! Oh how I love to walk into the dimly lit
church and watch it fill with families reunited to celebrate. It always warms my heart to see people who I
have not seen in a while ~ young adults home from college ~ young adults with
their children coming home for Christmas!
I now am able to understand the joy in my Mom’s heart when we would all
come to celebrate Mass together, for my heart swells when all of my children
are home and we come to the table of the Lord to celebrate the most important
meal we ever share together. The love of
family brings such joy.
One of my favorite Christmas
memories is when Brian and I used to come back and celebrate our midnight
Mass. My parents would come and watch
our children so that we could have this precious time together. On the way home, we would be able to see all
of the luminaries that different neighborhoods and churches display. We would get home around 1:30am and just soak
in the quiet of our busy house and my sainted parents would then drive
home. Once they moved to Campbell, this
became more difficult and our tradition stopped, but oh how I love to think
about those special times.
If you feel overwhelmed in the
coming days, take a moment to close your eyes and think of your most favorite
Christmas memory. Allow that joy to fill
your heart and strengthen you to carry on as you create what will become the
memories of Christmas 2015. I hope to
share with you, with the permission of my siblings, my memories of Christmas
2014 . . .but that is for another day.
Remember to light your world with
joy this week as we prepare to celebrate incarnate love!
Shalom,
Tina
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