This weekend begins the season of Advent. A number of years ago, Bishop Joseph Maguire of Springfield, MA, wrote a pastoral letter to the people of his diocese entitled, Enduring Love, about the meaning of Advent as a time of preparation for Christmas. He asked them to pledge to spend the season of Advent in preparation for the birth of Christ and resist anything that tries to make the feast of Christ’s birth a secular, commercial holiday. I’d like to share with you a portion of his letter with the hope that you, too, might make this pledge.

It doesn’t seem possible we’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. One fundamental spiritual practice of our Catholic faith is by expressing gratitude to God. We offer thanks and praise to God every time we come to Mass! It is an acknowledgement that all is gift from Him from whom all good things come. In a culture that often looks for what we can get, our faith tradition focuses on what we can give, including thanks. It is in the spirit of Psalm 116:12, "How can I repay the Lord for all the good He has done for me?" that we instinctively seek to give back in some way, even if it’s a token of our gratitude.

In a world characterized by a growing prosperity of some and an increasing poverty of others, Catholic Social Teaching calls us to use a basic moral test to measure how we as individuals and as a society are treating our most vulnerable members. With the chasm between rich and poor widening in our country and in the world, we need to recall Jesus’ story of the Last Judgment (Mt 25:31-46), which clearly describes the accountability we must render before God regarding how we have put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first. This is what the Church refers to as the Preferential Option (Choice) for the Poor.

Do you remember hearing your mother say, “Be careful whom you make friends with!”

She knew associating with someone who would not be a good influence could cause you to do something you’d later regret; for example, you might get in with the wrong crowd. She may have also wanted to protect your little brother, who looks up to you, from being negatively influenced by the bad language or behavior exhibited by you and your friends.

In the month of October, the Church marked Respect Life Month. As we begin the month of November, the Church remembers all of the faithful departed, commonly known as the month of All Souls. It is a month when we pray in a special way for all of those who have died, and particularly for those who have need for purification before being united to the Lord in heaven, traditionally known as purgatory.