Reflecting on the Meaning of Christmas

Winter weather on the Jersey Shore

With Christmas happening next week, many of us have very long to-do lists typed into our Blackberries. Everything has to be arranged so that our celebration of the birth of Christ is just right. But perhaps that constant frenetic pace is not always the right approach to this time of the year. Residents of the Jersey Shore certainly had the opportunity to stop and reflect on this season earlier this week when some of them attended a reflection service at the Conventual Franciscan-run Church of St. Catharine in Seaside Park.

We spend a lot of time just before Christmas in malls

Former St. Catharine pastor – Friar Brennan Joseph – led the service, which included a celebration of Mass with a homily and reconciliation.  After the service, attendees were in a quiet, pensive mood, remembering that tiny child born more than two millennia ago who came to this world to save all of us.

The real meaning of Christmas

(Sources of related images on homepage and webpage: alisonpavlos from flickr.com, Justin Marty from flickr.com, www.wikipedia.org, and rightee from flickr.com.)