This year my mom offered me a few dozen pins that said “Keep Christ in Christmas.”  I handed them out at the St. Clement Young Adults’ monthly social, and wore one to work the next day.  It seemed hypocritical to ask others to wear them and not wear one myself.

Usually people saw the bright red pin, lean in, and asked what the pin said, to which I would reply: “Keep Christ in Christmas – want a pin?”  Some people took the pin, others didn’t.  One coworker said “No thanks; I’m not a Jew for Jesus.”  Another saw the pin from a distance and thought it showed a skull and crossbones.

I found that nobody was offended and everyone was extremely respectful.  I sometimes entered into rather interesting conversations about faith and tradition – another coworker mentioned that he sometimes used his lunch hour to pray at a local cathedral.

I’ve become a lot more comfortable with my Catholic identity in the past year; it felt good to wear my religion on my sleeve (or shirt pocket) rather than keeping it hidden.  I enjoyed being a bit more overt with my faith and hope I can continue sharing Christ’s love with others during this new liturgical year.

Merry Christmas!

I am VERY pleased to note that the Serra Boston site is now live at: www.serraboston.org

As noted on the home page, Serra Boston’s mission is “to assist the Vocations Office of the Archdiocese of Boston in any way possible to foster, promote and support vocations to the priesthood and religious life.” The first meeting is Saturday, January 19, 2008 at 8am at St. Mary’s Parish in Waltham, MA.

This is one of the best sites I’ve done; the code is very well structured and I’ve used Google Sitemaps to (hopefully) increase traffic.  Hopefully it’ll serve as a good portfolio piece in addition to an important web presence for this new (but growing) organization.

This post is probably unnecessary since The Golden Compass has already flopped, but this interview offers a useful critique of the film:

The film “The Golden Compass” isn’t simply about using fairy-tale magic to tell a good story, it corrupts the imagery of Lewis and Tolkien to undermine children’s faith in God and the Church, says Catholic author Pete Vere…

Collectively, the trilogy is known as “His Dark Materials,” a phrase taken from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.” This is appropriately titled in my opinion, since each book gets progressively darker — both in the intensity with which Pullman attacks the Catholic Church and the Judeo-Christian concept of God, as well as the stridency with which he promotes atheism.

Full Zenit interview about The Golden Compass here.

The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord. Look, the Lord is ready to pass by.”

A very powerful wind went before the Lord, digging into the mountain and causing landslides, but the Lord was not in the wind.

After the windstorm there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.

After the fire, there was a soft whisper. When Elijah heard it, he covered his face with his robe and went out and stood at the entrance to the cave.

- 1 Kings 19: 11:13

Back from a retreat in Biddeford, ME. It’ll take me a while to process all that I learned and experienced, but I have a newfound sense of peace as well as a new appreciation for Eucharistic Adoration.

More to come…

In his latest post, Cardinal Sean O’Malley writes of the possibility of unity between the Greek Orthodox and Catholic Church:

My own confidence in the possibility of unity during our lifetime has been strengthened by my experience of the pilgrimage and my friendship with Metropolitan Methodius and so many brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Church.

…I was very encouraged by the recent meeting between Catholics and Orthodox that took place in Ravenna. On November 15, the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the catholic Church and the Orthodox Church released a statement entitled “Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church: Ecclesial Communion, Conciliarity and Authority.”

In that document, the Orthodox have actually recognized the primacy of the Holy Father. There is still much to be done as far as to clarify what that means but that was a very important step towards unity.

Here is a portion of the document that I also shared with the Boston Greek Orthodox:

That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17, 21). We give thanks to the triune God who has gathered us — members of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church — so that we might respond together in obedience to this prayer of Jesus. We are conscious that our dialogue is restarting in a world that has changed profoundly in recent times. The processes of secularization and globalization, and the challenge posed by new encounters between Christians and believers of other religions, require that the disciples of Christ give witness to their faith, love and hope with a new urgency. May the Spirit of the risen Lord empower our hearts and minds to bear the fruits of unity in the relationship between our Churches, so that together we may serve the unity and peace of the whole human family. May the same Spirit lead us to the full expression of the mystery of ecclesial communion, that we gratefully acknowledge as a wonderful gift of God to the world, a mystery whose beauty radiates especially in the holiness of the saints, to which all are called.

More at Cardinal Sean’s blog.

What a fascinating idea – this could be a wonderful blend of the best of both Churches.