PLANNING FOR CHRISTMAS
I know, I know, we haven't even had Thanksgiving yet and here we are thinking of Christmas, or X-Mass as we Christians would say. In our UCC church recently (Thanks, Til!), we spoke of the bad reactions of some folks to us when we admit to being Christians. "Oh, I know," one neighbor said to a friend, someone shared in church. "You can commit all the sins you want on a Saturday night, then go to Confession on Sunday morning and have them forgiven." Well, no, actually, that is not how it works, although this is what my dad told me about a Catholic roommate he had when in the army. He was quite anti-Catholic as you may imagine. Good thing he passed before I became Catholic! What a serious misunderstanding of what it means to be Catholic, to repent, and so much more. When we lived in England, dear friends of ours followed the British custom of "stir-up Sunday," where you would stir the plum pudding 6 times one way and 6 times the opposi...
