Do you want a cookie? How about the Eucharist?

A couple of days ago I went to the Edge group at my parish. Since I am away at school, this was the first time I was able to attend an Edge Night. This night they just just had a small Christmas Party. We watched a movie and then they were allowed to play games. The thing that I chuckled about was how they reacted when they were told that they can decorate Christmas cookies. They reacted the way I expected. 

Many of them rushed over to the table and picked out their two cookies that they could decorate. They preceded to open up the icing and dumped tons of icing on their cookies as if they thought that there could never be enough sugar.  Once they were satisfied with the amount of icing on their cookies, they took sugar sprinkles and did everything but sprinkle them on their cookies - it was actually more like pouring them on top of their already overloaded cookies. I loved seeing the excitement and passion in their eyes as they decorated their cookies just as they wanted. They made it their own. When they ate them they no longer were generic sugar cookies that were all alike, but ones that were individual. 

I began reflecting on how they were so excited to decorate their own cookies and how they flocked to the table to do it. My question became, why don’t we as Christians become so excited and impassioned with love when we have the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist? Why are we not flocking to Mass every Sunday, or heaven forbid on weekdays as well? 

Joseph's Dream

This upcoming Sunday's Gospel reading is from Matt 1:18-24 - Joseph's Dream. It can be found here. Please read the Gospel reading before reading the rest of this post.

It has been Advent for the last 2 weeks. I am not sure about you, but it hasn't completely felt like Advent for me, and that is not because their isn't any snow on the ground. It is because I haven't put forth the effort to really bring Christ into my life this season. This is a sad reality as we all are supposed to be preparing our hearts to receive the Christ-child very soon. What an awesome gift that has been given to us, but rarely do we take the time to realize the immensity of this gift.

While I was thinking about what I should write for this post, I read this upcoming Sunday's Gospel. The Gospel reading is about the Lord appearing to Joseph in a dream. I am sure many of us get distracted by everything else that goes on during the "Christmas Season," but I know with myself, whenever I think of Advent I usually think of Mary and Jesus. Does Joseph even come to our minds, when the words Advent and Christmas are mentioned? Many times St. Joseph is forgotten about. I suppose that is due to the high emphasis of a devotion to Mary in the Church today. We must not forget about St. Joseph and what he has done.