I think two of the funniest quips I’ve ever heard about family life are from the notoriously irreverent comedians George Carlin & Phyllis Diller:

“The other night, I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going” and
“I want my children to have all the things I couldn’t afford. Then I want to move in with them.”

You may have heard the phrase “you can’t see around the corner”, meaning that you generally cannot know what’s going to happen in the future, even when it’s near. I learned this in a literal sense working in Chicago’s “Loop” district - full of skyscrapers. Walking from the train station to the office I would go down streets that were full of people but otherwise pretty calm air. Turn the corner onto another street however and you’d be blasted by a wall of wind. You had know idea that it was coming until you made that turn… but you sure found out!

One of my favorite things about December is the back-to-back celebrations of Our Mother Mary: her Immaculate Conception on December 8 and under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Certainly we are preparing ourselves in Advent for Christmas and the Birth of Jesus. This time of year we also are busy with parties, travel, gift-giving (and receiving, if you’ve been good…) and wrapping up study and work before a holiday break.

Last evening, Saturday Nov. 30, at sunset we began the sacred season of Advent and our new Church year. As I hear it said (more often around Jan. 1), it can mean a “new year, new you!” In our faith this is better called conversion and over the coming weeks we will hear much from the Prophet Isaiah and about the Precursor, John the Baptist. Both proclaimed the coming of the Messiah and the need for each of us to prepare ourselves - by leaving behind sin and self-seeking and looking toward the Light and Liberty our Messiah will bring.