Dear Fellow Catholics, It’s NOT Christmas

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

I can hardly believe I’m writing this. It’s embarrassing really. I feel like I’m telling someone “your zipper’s down.” But it’s become clear to me that it needs to be said. Please, share this important — albeit obvious — note with your friends. Tell everyone. Maybe even your priest.

Today is the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Advent is quickly approaching, but it’s not here yet. You have to wait to wait.

Since it’s not yet Advent, it is surely not Christmas.

In the Catholic Church we have a time for everything. There is a liturgical order to things. I’ll be writing to you again and again during Advent on how important it is that we not skip it, that we observe Advent in our homes and our workplaces. That we prepare for Christ.

Believe it or not, the Christmas season at Macy’s is not our Christmas season. The two are not the same. American secularists celebrate things differently, according to their own (consumerist) liturgies.

I just wanted to remind you that, no, it’s not Christmas yet. Not even Advent. Wait for them. Let them come in their due season, at the right time.

Otherwise, it is terribly confusing. Think of our children and youth! No wonder they think we’re nuts. Celebrating Christmas during or before Advent is just plain crazy. It makes no sense and, even worse, it mocks the sacred timing of the traditional season of Christmas. Don’t make fun of your Mother Church. It’s very mean and a bad example and poor catechesis.

Please, let’s keep Christmas in Christmas.

Yours,

PS: Read (and watch) the follow-up: The Beauty and Sufficiency of Catholic Liturgy.