Shoot, my New Year's started a long time ago!

People have been asking me, “Ryan are you excited for New Years?” …My response? “Shoot my New Years started November 28, 2010-the beginning of Advent!” As I continue to grow deeper in love with Christ Crucified, I find myself yearning to enter more deeply in the mystery of the Incarnation. How blessed are we that God humbled Himself and took the form of a human being to save us from death. Isn’t beautiful, that the same wood that was used to build Jesus Christ's first crib would be the same wood that Jesus Christ would be crucified on!?

My friend told me that he just read a questionable posting from a Catholic institution on facebook, “Now that the three kings have left, the shepherds have gone back to the flock, the presents have been accepted, and the baby is sleeping. We can enjoy the true meaning of the season, peace!”…What!? As if we can capture the full essence of a transcendent God becoming human in one night? People are back to their busy lives, going back to work, taking down their Christmas lights and decorations, rescheduling appointments, and enjoying their Christmas presents. I hope they do not forget that next to the octave of Easter, the Christmas octave (which means eight, hence the eight days of Christmas) is one of the most important periods in the Roman Catholic Church. This means that we should not just honor Christ’s birth on December 25th but there is an eight day period of celebration and rejoicing! These eight days of commemoration which ends after the Solemnity of the Mother of God, Jan 1st should be a time of awe, wonder, and thanksgiving that the savior of the world has been born.

However, to give the secular calendar homage, this year has been one of the most amazing years of my entire life. I honestly believe it was because I rang in the New Years with Jesus Christ in adoration last New Year’s Eve. If you ever have the opportunity and know of a nearby parish, I encourage you to pray before the Blessed Sacrament on New Year’s Eve! If you are anything like me, it is kind of weird in a holy way?... I am so used to fireworks, people giving each other hugs, drinking champagne, gun shots (crazy AZ) and crazy Nicaraguan women (like my mom) running down the street in suitcases, purses and pennies yelling Happy New Year’s! Yet, as the countdown begins New Year’s feels a little different. The priest raises Jesus Christ aloft, in front of us the kneeling worshippers, and blesses us for the upcoming year. No blow horns or “snaps”, no yelling or hollering. Just stillness and silence with our Blessed Lord…What a great way to start off the New Year and what a great way to end the Christmas celebration. Have a Blessed New Year’s everyone.

As always…Stay Catholic!

Ryan

A Social Network Christmas...

Happy New Year!

Obama, Are You Listening?

Living with the Pox!

You won’t believe it! I have the Chicken Pox, (varicella zoster virus) I thought I was safe from that awful virus, I am 21 years old for crying out loud. So, I wake up early Sunday morning feeling as if a plane had just landed on my body. I was dizzy, had a headache, my temperature was through the roof, and I had two pimple like substances on my neck. I end up going to the Emergency Room and the Dr. says “Yep, you have the chickenpox.” Since it was new, they gave me an anti-viral (Acyclovir). The Doc must have forgotten to tell me that for the next couple of days I would be living a nightmare!

I am transferred out of Old College into Moreau Seminary, into a nice little room all by myself. I wake up the next day. I have them all over my neck and chest. Next day. My face, my stomach, my arms, my back, and even my butt! Little, nasty, itching, red, draining, scabbing sores-everywhere! By far, the worse pain I had ever felt. I hurt, I itch, and I am supposed to start school up again this week. I am miserable and feverish.

To make matters worse, there is a tornado alert going on in South Bend? Leaves are flying all over the place, the phones are ringing telling me that I should seek shelter, ducks are being flipped upside down, and the alarms are howling throughout the campus. How did I go from illustrious hot, dry, climate of Phoenix, to sticky, cold, tornado watch South Bend?

At this point I’m starting to feel like Job (Biblical Figure)- sad, disgusting, tired, and disappointed. So, I go online and start playing pacman! This was by far the most peaceful thing because I imagined myself as pacman; eating away all of the little pac dots (chicken pox) it was my revenge.

As you can imagine being in a room with no contact with the outside the world can take a toll on you mentally. What better way to curb ones enthusiasm about having chicken pox by learning how to do the Chicken Dance?



I still have the chicken pox, however, it is slowly healing. So what lessons can be learned from this experience? God is with you--no matter what! I find myself staring at the crucifix over my bed, and its comforting to know that in the midst of my frustration and anger, I can still come to God. Come to the healer, you disgusting mound of sores! So when a Christinan suffers whether it is from spiritual or physical it doesn’t matter whether the suffering is the consequence of sin or not.All that matters is that all suffering be accepted and carried as one’s cross. Let it be a testament to God’s glory and a penance for all the sins that nailed Christ to the cross. Christ endured all suffering for our redemption, so, as we bear our suffering gracefully, we share the burden of the cross with Christ. Let all suffering end in love. Let us meditate on the words of James 1:2-4:

Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

What religion is this?

Turn your heads to the East!