The Saints, The Souls, and Me

It is really hard to believe, but I have a planning meeting tonight for Christmas - a little family dinner to discuss the who, what, where and how of the tree trimming, turkey carving, church going, and present opening of 2011. (The first time I will do it away from Pittsburgh.) I also just designed my very first photo card for Christmas; picked out invitations for our rocking retro Christmas Party where I will definitely be making deviled eggs; and downed a cup of Starbucks coffee with the message, 'When we're together snowmen come to life' on it. (My hunch is that they were trying to convey that Starbucks was magical or something, but I'm seriously wondering how that agency pitch made it out of Seattle and into a store near you.) The blood, guts, goblins and ghouls are slowly coming down from the trees, windows, porches, and doors of Naperville, and in their place are going twinkling lights, wreaths, and the G-Rated collection of lawn ornaments. It's officially the holiday season. And like I said, I can't believe it.

I always complain about it, but I hate how our culture says, 'forget about November, forget about Thanksgiving, let's get right into the job creating, economy stimulating, consumer sentiment raising Christmas holiday.' But this year, it's really bothering me. This year has already gone fast enough, why do we need to rush it more?

So I've decided to give November and it's holidays, their due attention. Starting with the first and second of the month - All Saints and All Souls Days. All Saints is an obligatory church going day for us Catholics, and All Souls is more of a suggested thing. (They never seem to want to make you go two days in a row.) And in my own little way, I celebrated both.

On Tuesday evening, after leaving work a little early, I joined a full church of parishioners to celebrate the Saints, to pray for their intercession, and to hope that one day I might be like them. The mass started and ended with St. Edmund's Chapel classics - (down beat) "For All the Saints ..." and "Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones." I didn't even need to turn to page 783 in my blue book to belt out the words. I knew verses one through five of both hymns by heart.

The music coordinator missed my all-time favorite hymn though - it wasn't included in the line-up for the evening. I really wanted to sing, "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God." The best. It's all about who the saints were - just regular old folks like us - "one was a doctor, and one was a queen, and one was a shepherdess on the green" - and how we should aspire to be like them too.

But just as I was thinking about that song and its message, the priest delivered a homily that said all that and more. He said that we tend to hold the Saints up like super heroes - like they were born with some super human power. But by seeing them in that way, we are actually diminishing how special they were. He said, that they were just as human as us - and that they just chose God's way over the world's even when it was very difficult. He said that we had the ability to do so too and asked why we chose the way that wasn't right. I rarely commend a priest on his homily when I shake his hand upon leaving church, but this time I did. "Great homily Father."

Yesterday was All Souls Day, and although I didn't make it to mass, I was able to find some quiet time during the day to pray. And to think about the friends and family members who have gone before me. In particular, I prayed for one of the kids who used to belt out "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God" with me - a St. Edmund's classmate that passed away three days ago.

Eric was perhaps the funniest person at that school. Making fun of Ms. Pimentel's cuatro, creating the world's largest paper hat and hanging it from the English room, molding clay into a nacho and cheese bowl instead of "something beautiful," and transforming Katy's school photo into "The Cap'n," were just a small sampling of the things that made me laugh as hard as Meredith makes me laugh today. He was actually my inspiration for becoming the prankster of the Ellis School and enticing Nicole to get involved with me, locking Katy in Latin Class, writing all over Mr. Walker's chalk board and steeling his erasers, and throwing Jessica's clogs in the bin to go to Chinoux Village in Peru. I always thought, I definitely brought a little bit of Eric to Ellis today.

I was very sad to hear about his passing yesterday, and it made me think that more than ever, I need to take each day at a time - to live life to the fullest - and to continue to think about the Saints and trying to live my life as they would have.

So I've decided to postpone thinking about how snowmen will come to life when drinking a Grande Pike, and I'm focusing on this holiday message at the start of the season ... "there's not any reason, no, not the least, why I shouldn't be one too."

Lo.