Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception!

Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin Mary. We do not worship her, rather we worship and praise God for creating her in this way so that Christ, the Word of God Incarnate, would have a pure and holy vessel untouched by sin, just as the Ark of the Covenant, which held the Word of God inside it, was pure and untouched.

Here is more about the Immaculate Conception from Catholic Answers:

It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is the Virgin Birth. Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived "by the power of the Holy Spirit," in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin or its stain—that’s what "immaculate" means: without stain. The essence of original sin consists in the deprivation of sanctifying grace, and its stain is a corrupt nature. Mary was preserved from these defects by God’s grace; from the first instant of her existence she was in the state of sanctifying grace and was free from the corrupt nature original sin brings.

When discussing the Immaculate Conception, an implicit reference may be found in the angel’s greeting to Mary. The angel Gabriel said, "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). The phrase "full of grace" is a translation of the Greek word kecharitomene. It therefore expresses a characteristic quality of Mary.

The traditional translation, "full of grace," is better than the one found in many recent versions of the New Testament, which give something along the lines of "highly favored daughter." Mary was indeed a highly favored daughter of God, but the Greek implies more than that (and it never mentions the word for "daughter"). The grace given to Mary is at once permanent and of a unique kind. Kecharitomene is a perfect passive participle of charitoo, meaning "to fill or endow with grace." Since this term is in the perfect tense, it indicates that Mary was graced in the past but with continuing effects in the present. So, the grace Mary enjoyed was not a result of the angel’s visit. In fact, Catholics hold, it extended over the whole of her life, from conception onward. She was in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence.

Today is a Holy Day of Obligation, so don't forget to go to mass!

St. Nicholas - The Real Santa

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas, the 4th century bishop who became the larger than life Christmas icon. Having come from a wealthy family, when his parents died he began to use his wealth to help the poor and needy, and he gave generously.

One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.

See this page to read more about St. Nicholas and the traditions that many people practice to celebrate this day.

Some Holiday Humor

Question:
What's the difference between a Protestant and a Catholic?

Answer:
The Protestant puts away his graven images after the holidays are over.

Thanks to Tiber Jumper for that little gem, and for the nice explanation of why Catholics don't worship statues that follows! Praise God for Beautiful sacred art!

Getting To Know You Holiday Edition

Just for Kasia! :-D

1. Egg nog or hot chocolate? That's tough...but I have to agree with Kasia, eggnog at the holidays, hot chocolate the rest of winter!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? When I was a kid, it was both. There were usually a handful of "biggish" presents that were unwrapped. (Stuffed animals, globes, big plastic toys, etc.)

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? I prefer white, more classic looking.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Never have!

5. When do you put your decorations up? The day after Thanksgiving!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Ummm...I love candied yams.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child: Waking up and walking into the living room on Christmas morning, seeing the beautiful tree, eyeing the stockings and wondering what they were filled with. Good stuff!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I honestly don't remember!

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Growing up we never did. Now we open gifts after we get back from midnight mass, so it's technically Christmas by then =)

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? White lights with gold and red balls, gold and red ornaments that are usually a music or religious theme (angels, angels with instruments, etc), draped with garland of gold beads. So far the new cat has been VERY well behaved around the tree!

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Umm...I love the idea of it, so I think I would love it, but I don't have enough experience to actually say for sure.

12. Can you ice skate? Absolutely not, I have NO balance.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? That's tough...my pretty cherry wood music stand? As far as practicality, I love my PDA!

14. What's the most important thing about the holidays for you? Christ’s birth!

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Hmmm, I love all things mint chocolate, so pretty much anything mint chocolate, and there's a lot of that around during the holidays!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? It's still pretty new for me, but I have to say going to midnight mass (if that can be called a "tradition.")

17. What tops your tree? A nice gold star on top (which I was never allowed growing up, as we didn't celebrate Christ's birth at Christmas)

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Ok this is going to sound weird...but I think my favorite part about gifts is wrapping them!!! Lol, I love to make pretty packages, and I'm kinda sad once they're opened and destroyed, ha. But I really, really love receiving gifts too, it is my primary love language so that's a given. ;-)

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? Either O Holy Night, or Ave Maria (which is not really a "Christmas" song, but it's always played a lot around Christmas time.)

20. Candy canes: yuck or yum? Yum!

21. Favorite Christmas movie? Uuhhh...A Charlie Brown Christmas? No! Rudolph!! Lol, it just brings back memories of when I was a kid =)

22. What do you leave for Santa? Now nothing, as a kid we always did cookies and milk!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!...or Advent, anyway!

Hey Hollie, since today is your birthday you popped into my head...why don't you fill this one out? And I hope your B-Day is wonderful!!

My Early Christmas Present!

This adorable kitty is Berlioz, my new cat!! He is my first cat, I've never owned a cat (my sisters are both horribly allergic), and until recently I thought of myself pretty much as a strictly dog kinda person. But, hubby helped win me over into appreciating cats, and after seeing my parents (and brother) adopt Max, and trying to figure out what I wanted for Christmas, the idea of adopting a cat grew and grew on me. I finally decided once and for all that a cat would, indeed, be my Christmas present, and we went to the shelter this past Friday.

We had looked online and seen several precious cats. Once we saw the cats in person at the shelter, it didn't take long for us notice Berlioz (then named Freddie.) What I have always loved about dogs is that they are so sweet and affectionate. Most cats I have interacted with are pretty snobby...but not Berlioz! As soon as Camille and I sat down, he came right to us and started rubbing up against us, and standing on his hind legs like he wanted us to pick him up. When he came up into our laps, he started rubbing his face on ours, which was just too cute! He wasn't too playful (I'm still a bit shy around cat teeth and claws!), or too hyper, or very loud...he was just perfect! We visited with several other kitties, but kept coming back to him. He's about a year old, is super friendly, and so, so sweet and tender. We put him on hold before leaving, and then came back the next day to pick him up. We couldn't wait to get him home!

Since Berlioz has been home, he has checked out the whole house, and he tends to follow us around and want to be with us. He loves to snuggle and give kisses. Last night he was gone for a little while and we couldn't figure out where he was! We looked and looked all over the house, and finally realized he had fallen into the Christmas tree box under the bed and gotten stuck, lol! He was so quiet the whole time that we had a hard time finding him.

Well, that's about all I have to say about Berlioz for now. I'm so happy to have this sweet cat with us! I'll be sure to share more about him in the future!