A nice day. The storm has passed (actually, my corner in southern Michigan barely got nicked), and I have little to do today, except deal with the Seven, two of whom slept with me last night (Meg and Max--5 and 3) and trailed me to my study this morning. I've given them licorice and instructed them to play quietly. We'll see if I can finish this quickly.
It's the last day of ordinary time. Advent starts tomorrow. It's a penitential season, though I'm not entirely clear on this. It's not as penitential as Lent, and the OSV Catholic Encyclopedia says it's "a period of devout and joyful expectation." Penitential and joyous? On first glance, it strikes me as a paradoxical. Am I also supposed to be soberly drunk? But I can think of at least seven episodes in my life that were somber yet joy-awaiting: my wife's pregnancies. We were somber at the possibility that something could go wrong, she was somber with the gravity-intense struggles of last month, I was somber at her girth. But we were joyously expectant. It wasn't a time for parties, but it was a time for happiness. Maybe that's what the Advent season is supposed to be like. Given the event we're waiting to celebrate, the comparison seems apt.
We're kicking off Advent with a decidedly unpenitential act tonight: decorating the Christmas tree. It's a candy-filled and fun occasion. We often have a focus problem ("Dang it! Keep decorating before I shove your face in the needles!"), but other than that, I look forward to it.
Rich Leonardi has printed a great quote from Mencken about the RCC and its Mass. Mencken was too great to be an atheist, but he was. Yet even an atheist could see the greatness that was the old Latin Mass. I gotta believe he'd scoff at our hand-holding Glory and Praise liturgy today.
Well, there are now three little hyenas heckling at me. I gotta run. Enjoy the coming week.
