December 23

Spirit of Christ Catholic Church, Arvada, Colorado

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 1:57-66

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son.  Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.  When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, "No.  He will be called John."  But they answered her, "There is no one among your relatives who has this name."  So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.  He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name," and all were amazed.  Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.  Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea.  All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, "What, then, will this child be?"  For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.  

This child was special indeed.  A Nazarite for life, as told by the Angel Gabriel.  With my imagination, I think of Elizabeth with her precious boy - she's waited all of her life for him.  And she can't comb his hair!  Imagine what a mess that would be!   But these were holy people, after Zechariah's initial questioning, he got over it - they named the child "John" without hesitation, and I guess they raised their son as a Nazarite without question.  

Oh, I am so excited today. I have only one meeting.  It is at 10 a.m., and then I am done for the year.  I have a week without one thing scheduled next week.  Don't get me wrong, I have plenty to do, but I don't have all these pressure-filled meetings where I have to get materials ready and present them.  Yesterday I had two meetings where I had to get volumes of data ready and present them.  And be prepared to answer questions about them.  Today I have one tiny meeting I am chairing.  I am so relieved.  

My son called last night and expressed his concern about his sister, my daughter.  He thinks she is using drugs again.  I think she isn't - but I have been fooled before.  After speaking to him for about a half hour, I began to lose my composure, I was starting to cry.  I tried to hide it, I wrapped up the conversation, got off the phone and sat and cried.  And prayed.  I thought about Our Heavenly Father and how he must hate the way we judge each other.  My son was very kind and said everything as nicely as possible, but it still cut my heart.  I can't imagine how we wound the heart of Our Lord with the cruel things we do and say.  

I am a bit frightened.  I will be praying a lot.   And I would ask for your prayers for my daughter and our family.  Thank you.  God bless you.