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QUESTION: While everyone else seems joyful, I often feel depressed around the holidays. Could you suggest some ways to cope with the holiday blues?
RESPONSE: By William McKenna, M.S., clinical extern at the IPS Center for Psychological Services
We so often hear Christmas songs with lines such as, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” and “Christmas time is here. Happiness and cheer!”
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
Please let me first wish you every blessing of Christmas, and abundant blessings for the year to come — blessings of joy, health, and above all, always deeper faith.
I hope that you are continuing to live in the glow of the Christmas season, for we should remember that Christmas is not something that begins at Thanksgiving (or even as soon as Halloween has ended) and ends when presents are returned on December 26.
Our commemoration of Christmas should start on Christmas Eve and carry forward through the Epiphany and beyond. For indeed, Christmas should serve as an annual reminder of the tremendous gift and mystery of the Incarnation.
Christmas is a mystery, and there is a danger, between the commercialism and the outwardness of Christmas (all of the arguments about if and where you can put a Nativity Scene, and how you greet people), that the fact that Christmas is a mystery gets lost.
Christmas is a time when budgets get challenged, when people get defensive about their beliefs or lack of beliefs, and now where people have all kinds of parties as an excuse to eat and drink too much! (Not that I am immune from the fault of eating too much!) But Christmas is so much more!
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It might seem that everything that could be said, has been said, about the shepherds, the wise men, and the Christ Child.
But that’s one of the marvels of Scripture: the unfolding history of the Church draws out of the inspired Word of God allegories and images previously unrecognized.
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Every time a baby is born, there is new hope for the human race. I learned this as a high school sophomore when my baby brother was born.
What a miracle of grace! As I studied his perfectly formed hands and feet, I was filled with awe and hope. I wondered who he would grow up to be.
I hoped that he would be bigger, stronger, more athletic, and more intelligent than I was. My sister hoped that he would grow up to be a gentleman.
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
The timing of this column falls into one of those awkward periods that comes with the schedule of our weekly publication.
As I write, we are still at the height of preparation for Christmas, yet this will likely be the edition of the Catholic Herald that is in your homes on Christmas Day. As such, I’m going to look forward joyfully and reflect upon the goodness that is “already, but not yet.”
I suppose it’s appropriate to be stuck in this place of anticipation, as it does speak to our lives each and every day, and it’s made especially clear at Christmas.
At Christmas we celebrate and rejoice in the reality of eternal life made possible for us by God’s coming into the world.
We celebrate that everything is now changed for humanity. We celebrate God with us, a light in the darkness, the Word made flesh, God’s Kingdom at hand.
And yet, we remain in a period of waiting and of laboring. The world is not right. We may be redeemed, with hope for forgiveness, but we still fail, and falter, and sin.
When Jesus came into the world, it meant redemption from sin and the hope of an eternity of joy, but it did not mean mankind would be unable to choose otherwise, it did not mean everything would be peachy for us at all times.
One of the most commonly-used words during the Advent season, as everyone looks ahead to Christmas, is “tradition.”
SUN PRAIRIE — Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish will host a Christmas Concert on Friday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. at the church, 221 Columbus St. The concert will feature the Adult Choir, Folk Choir, and Grace Notes (young people’s choir).
MIDDLETON — St. Peter Catholic School’s Christmas Program will take place on Monday, Dec. 15, at 6:30 pm.
This year’s program will feature the musical Miracle at Midnight performed by pre-K to fifth grade students. The moving story includes Bethlehem’s mayor preparing for a decree by Caesar Augustus, angels in heaven anticipating an important announcement, and a young couple from Nazareth getting ready for the birth of their first child.
EVANSVILLE — All are invited to attend a Service of Remembrance for people of all faiths to remember, honor, and celebrate their loved ones who have passed away and to find comfort for their grief during this Christmas season.
The service will be held on Sunday, Dec. 14, at 7 p.m. at St. Paul Catholic Church, 39 Garfield Ave., Evansville.
BERLIN — For the second year in a row, everyone is welcome to attend the All Saints Parish, Berlin, Christmas musical called Twas the Night Before.
It takes place on Sunday, Dec. 21, at 3 p.m. at the Berlin High School Auditorium. All seats are reserved and tickets are $3.50.
All proceeds from the musical will be donated to the Berlin Food Pantry.
