Things Protestants Don't Understand About the Church - Praying to Statues and Praying For the Dead

Today, we have a two for one sale.  We will discuss both "praying to statues" and praying for the dead. 

My mother, her name was Violet, passed away many years ago.  I still carry her memory in my heart and I carry a picture of her when she was in the full bloom of her youth in my wallet.  I sometimes will look at that picture and think of all the times she showed her love to me.  I remember her feeding me ice chips when I had my tonsils out at age seven.  I remember how when I was having a problem in school and felt downtrodden and the least of the least, she told me to hold my head up high and be proud of who I am.  I remember during her last sickness, I sat beside her as she lay in the hospital bed, just holding her hand, not saying a word.  The warmth of our hands together sharing the love of a mother to a son and a son to a mother.  All of these memories come flooding back to me because of a little scrap of paper with an image of a person on it.  It is almost a miracle. I bet you thought this paragraph was going to address praying for the dead, but no, this paragraph deals directly with the use of statues in the Catholic Church.  A statue is no more or less than that picture of my mother.  As a Catholic, when I look at a statue, I know I am looking at a piece of carved wood, or molded plaster, or maybe even a plastic Jesus on the dashboard of my car. (You remember the old song, "I don't care if it rains or freezes, as long as I got my plastic Jesus, Sitting on the dashboard of my car.)  As a Catholic Christian, I know that the image has no power to save me because as the Psalms tell us; "They have ears but do not hear. They have mouths but do not talk." (Psalm 115)  
I look at the statue and it brings to mind the story of the saint that is represented.  (See my previous post regarding the communion of saints.) I then pray to the saint asking him or her to pray to Jesus for me just as I might ask you or my pastor or another friend to pray for me. Are there Catholics that actually pray TO statues? I would imagine that there are but these unfortunates are not stable and may be feeble minded. In their case, I am sure God takes that into consideration. A Catholic grounded in his or her faith does not pray to a statue but addresses all prayers to God, sometimes asking the help of a person already enjoying the Beatific Vision. 

It is a fact of life that someday we will inhale our last breath and when we exhale we will next breath the air of eternity.  Of course, I mean this figuratively because a soul does not need to breathe.  So when we die we Catholics believe that we will enter one of three places.  First, we may enter heaven, or purgatory or we may choose hell.  If after death we enter heaven or if we choose hell there is no need for prayer for us.  Heaven, of course, is our ultimate goal, the place that was created for us where we can continue our friendship with God in His august presence.  Hell, is the place we will go to if we have rejected the love of God, preferring our own way to His way and declaring us to be His enemy.  Enter the gates of hell and you are outside the presence of God for all eternity just as you wanted.  No amount of prayer will do you any good because you do not want it, you hate God, and as bad as the suffering is you prefer to be without God.  

The second place is where many of us will choose to go, that is to Purgatory.  Is purgatory in the Bible?  Not by name but it is there all the same. It is for these Poor Souls that we on earth pray for.  We pray for them because they are unable to help themselves.  They need the prayers of the faithful on earth to help them get out of Purgatory.  In 2 Maccabees we find that certain dead soldiers were found to be wearing an idol under their tunics.  The living among them turned to prayer to God and beseeched Him to forgive the sins of those who died.  

But where do we find any teaching about purgatory in the New Testament? As I said the word "Purgatory" is not found in scripture but the principle behind it is clearly mentioned by Paul.  But is a purgatory really necessary or is it an invention to make the Catholic clergy rich?  

You have a friend, his name is Mark.  You and Mark spent your whole life being friends until one day you found out that Mark had stolen your pencil in second grade.  It was a wonderful pencil with red lead on one side and blue on the other.  You loved that pencil.  Sixty years after the event you confront Mark about the pencil.  He confesses to you that he indeed did take the pencil from you when you were not looking.  He asks for your forgiveness and you tell him that you will never forgive him and you walk away.  A few years later Mark dies. You do not go to his funeral, you do not comfort his widow, as a matter of fact, you are happy that the sneak thief is out of your life forever.  Mark for his part, confessed his sinfulness and spent the rest of his life working for the Kingdom of God and following the counsels of Jesus in that he fed the hungry, visited the sick and imprisoned, clothed the naked, and he prayed for you every day.  When he died he was turned completely to God and was welcomed into heaven by the angels and saints and was ushered into the very presence of Jesus.  

You too lived a worthy life, you did all that Jesus commanded just as your friend Mark did but on the day you died, you carried the resentment of the stolen pencil to the grave with you. You began to approach heaven and as you got closer you realized that you were not ready to enter heaven.  What would happen if you met Mark in heaven while you were carrying the resentment about the pencil with you?  You could not greet him as a fellow saint because you had this burden on your soul.  As you got closer and closer to God in heaven, the pain became too great and you knew that the sin on your soul would have to be removed before you could get close to God.  You turned yourself around and chose to enter Purgatory.  There you would remain until the imperfection was cleared away. 

The above is a nice story but isn't that all that it is, a story?   To be honest with you, it is not a story, it is a parable based on Biblical truth.  First of all, in Revelation we read that we must be perfectly holy to enter heaven because; "Nothing unclean shall enter it."  That is found in Revelations Chapter 21 Verse 27.  Saint Paul, himself, tells us in 1st Corinthians that "Each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done.  If any man's work is burned up he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only through fire."

So, now for the reason we Catholics pray for the dead.  Those in Purgatory cannot help themselves.  The time to repent and to make up for the evil we do is while we are on earth.  Once we die, our fate is set in stone.  Those in purgatory depend on our prayers and sacrifices for them so that they can be raised from their state to the state of sainthood in heaven. 

But then, what is the difference between Purgatory and hell if they are both places of suffering?  The difference is huge.  Those in purgatory, although suffering, are happier than anyone on earth can imagine because they know that they will see God.  The pain of purgatory is the pain of the soul longing for God and not being able to see Him.  The pain is temporary and the Poor Souls know this.   The souls in hell, on the other hand, suffer torments that are unimaginable and their separation from God is permanent and they are without any hope.

This subject is a complicated one and I would direct anyone who has questions to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It is available online for free and the specific cure for ignorance about the Catholic Church.  It is well written and Biblically based. 

Things Protestants Don't Understand About the Church - The Communion of Saints

The Communion of Saints

When Jesus Christ founded His Church, He founded it on the principle that it was a kingdom. A kingdom has a king.  In this case. of course, Jesus is the king. When we are born again in the cleansing waters of Baptism we become citizens of this kingdom.  Actually, we become more than that we become adopted sons and daughters of the King, in reality, we become princes and princesses in the household of God.  No one can take this identity from us but we are free to abandon it using our free will.  God for His part will stand and watch for us to come back. The merest whisper on our part and we will be welcomed back as the Prodigal Son was. Now, for the most part, my Protestant friends would be able to agree pretty much with all that said above, although they might take umbrage at my saying we can cast off our citizenship using our free will because of the scary and dangerous belief in once saved, always saved.  Be that as it may, let us continue. 

So, we go through life as an adopted son or daughter of God and then comes the day we are called home, we die, we are on this earth no more. What happens to us after we die?  Catholic belief is that life continues in a marvelous new form. If we die in the friendship of God and are fully committed to Him and His kingdom and we have demonstrated it by following the counsels of Jesus, we will be welcomed into heaven and forever enjoy the beauty of the beatific vision.  If we lived a righteous life but still have sins on our soul we ourselves when we recognize fully the holiness of God will choose to purge ourselves of those sins and attachments in Purgatory, (Stay with me Protestants, there will be another blog entry that specifically addresses Purgatory. For now, just think of it as what Catholics believe as this belief does not really affect the big picture I am trying to paint.)  We Catholics believe, therefore, that our membership in the Church continues after death.  We believe that the Church consists of the members on earth, the Church Militant, the members in Purgatory, the Church Penitent, and the members in heaven, the Church Triumphant.  All together these three groups form the Communion of Saints.  

Protestants find fault with Catholics praying to saints.  They seem to think that these prayers somehow infringe on the sovereignty of God in that all prayers should be directed to God alone.  I applaud the loyalty that this way of thinking shows to the Trinity and to Jesus in particular for the Bible tells us he is the mediator between God and man. Bravo!  Let me ask you a question.  Have you ever asked a friend or your pastor to pray for you?  Have you ever prayed for someone at their request?  Well, then you are acting as a mediator between God and man and taking the place of Jesus.  We know that this is not true because we are counseled in the Bible to pray for one another. So if we pray for one another in accordance with Holy Writ it cannot be wrong.  

This is where the communion of saints comes in.  For Christians, life is not ended but changed. With this in mind, it follows that we are allowed to pray for one another no matter what state we are in, alive on earth or alive in heaven and since we are all addressing the prayers to Jesus and asking for His intercession.  This is all well and good, but what if I address a prayer to St. Paul, the Apostle? Am I in danger of offending God?  Hardly! When a Catholic prays to a saint he or she is asking the saint to pray to God for us.  The prayer chain which began on earth where we are commanded to pray for each other continues in heaven.  

There is much more that I can write on this subject but there is a source that is much more erudite than I am and it lays down the real beliefs of the Catholic Church in well reasoned, scripturally based, writing.  This source is the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It is a free resource available online.  Many of the people that hate the Catholic Church do so out of sheer ignorance.  This Catechism is the cure for ignorance and I heartily recommend it.  Here is just one sentence culled from this magnificent gift to the people of God: 

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"We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always [attentive] to our prayers" (CCC 962) 

What The Protestants Don't Understand About The Catholic Church # 1 of a Series

Maybe the title of this post is just a bit too broad.  The truth be told there is a lot of things that the Protestants do not understand about the Catholic Church in general.   I don't want you to think that this post is going to serve as a general condemnation of those who are outside of the Catholic Church, far from it. Those entrapped in Protestant denominations are there because their parents were Protestants and their parents before them, going down a long line until we arrive in the 1500's when a Roman Catholic monk and priest tore asunder the unity of the Church and in doing so stepped outside of the will of God as expressed to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Martin Luther made a huge mistake when he decided to carve up God's kingdom on earth.  For 1500 years there was, as Jesus wanted, unity in the Church. There were no questions about the things that we were to believe because in the face of controversy there was an authority to bring these issues to for final determination.  That authority was the Pope.  But, Jesus never did create an office of Pope, that is not in the Bible!  Jesus did create a leader for His Church and that leader was Peter.  In later years we began to call the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.  It is a title that differentiates the Bishop of Rome from all of the other bishops. While he is a man and as a man is capable of sinning and of making mistakes, it is Catholic belief, backed up by scripture, that the Pope when teaching on faith or morals from the chair of Peter, that he is protected from teaching error.  For two thousand years, there has never been a pope that has taught error or heresy. And please note that I am including the bad popes, the ones who are most likely teaching religion to Judas and bin Laden in the deepest, hottest, and most forlorn regions of hell.  These bad popes had no time to bother about religion.  They spent their time engaging in pursuits of the flesh and making money and keeping their power and so they never taught heresy or error, they never taught anything. 

But why do we need a pope at all?  Martin Luther and other reformers taught that the Word of God could be understood by the simplest person with the help of the Holy Spirit. Well, when you have a lack of authority you have anarchy. The spirit of anarchy haunts the Protestant church to this day.  If you want proof, just look to history.  Martin Luther cut asunder the Church, which did need some reforms when he did so, there is no doubt about that. If after he did so there remained only the Catholic Church and Luther's creation, then maybe there would be a case for the reformation being decreed by God.  But that did not happen.  Not long after Luther left the Church, some of his fellow reformers found fault with some of his ideas and they broke away and formed another body of believers.  Soon, scripture was interpreted again and there were more splits.  Today, there is the Catholic Church and about forty-thousand denominations.  These denominations owe their birth to forty-thousand different interpretations of scripture. This presents us with a problem.  It is said that the Holy Spirit will help a person interpret scripture. So, my question is simple. Is the Holy Spirit psychotic? Does He keep changing His mind about what the scripture He inspired means?  If something in Scripture is true for the Lutherans, then why is it not true for the Baptists? 

The fact is Jesus knew that questions would come up. Remember that he was fully human, he knows how we think and act.  He was one of us and experienced life just as we do,  He was aware of our limitations.  In his final prayer to the Father, he made it a point to say that we should be one as He and the Father were one.  Earlier he provided us with His solution to the fact that humans would be running His Church.   He appointed Peter as the first leader and gave him the keys to the kingdom.  He was in fact made the prime minister of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.  Secondly, Jesus made it clear that Peter would be endowed with a special charism in that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church of Jesus.  Jesus created an earthly authority and protected that authority by placing it under the protection of the Holy Spirit. 

This authority is exercised by Peter and his successors.  The Bishop of Rome is where the buck stops.  In scripture, we see that when the Church had a problem, such as the discussion of circumcision for non-Jewish converts at the Council of Jerusalem, there was a lively discussion but it ended when Peter stood up and told them it was not right to put this burden on the Gentile converts.  Peter, the chief Apostle, the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, made the decision. The others accepted the decision because Peter was the authority.

So, Martin Luther got it wrong. He used an axe and cut the Church into pieces and that division continues today,  So, in conclusion, we humans are walking, talking ego's and we do not like to listen to others especially when it comes to religion.  But Jesus knew how important it would be to have an authority and so He decided to appoint a prime minister for His Kingdom.  He also would protect his minister from teaching error and thus keep his kingdom whole. 

There is much more to say on this subject, but the Church has a document that is much more erudite than I am that goes into greater detail.  It is called the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  It is available free online and it tells all of the beliefs of the Church along with the scriptural basis for the teachings.  The sad part of it is that many Protestants, especially "evangelicals"  would rather live in ignorance of what the Church really is about because to know the truth would challenge the basis of their faith. 

A Baby Boomers Nightmare - Again?

Not a Game Console 

  The device you see above is something that was never used for the reason it was manufactured for. This control panel is the launch control panel for a Titan missile that had on top of it a reentry vehicle that held three independently targeted nine-megaton nuclear bombs.  To call this a control panel is somewhat misleading.  In reality, there were only two things that were controlled by the officer who sat before this console.  First, in the upper left -hand corner there are three lights. Directly above the button that is glowing (target 2) is a key hole.  He could if ordered, change the target of his missile from target two to either target one or target three. To the commander, it was of little import because he did not know the destinations programmed for his missile.  The second thing he could do is to insert his key into the keyhole to the right next to that innocuous row of lights, hold it for five seconds, and launch his missile. Of course seven feet or so to his left was the deputy commander who had to insert and turn his key and hold it for five seconds as well.  Once started there was no turning back. There was no way to stop the missile from launching and there was no way to abort or destroy it.  Thirty to thirty-five minutes after the key was turned, target two, some six thousand miles away would be no more.  

I lived the majority of my life protected by missiles being manned 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, by dedicated professionals.  Today we are protected with the Minute Man III and Minute Man Peacekeeper missile system by men no less dedicated than the ones that tended the Titans and Atlas missiles before.   The payload, a euphemism for the bombs being carried on just one Minuteman surpasses the tonnage of bombs dropped in world war two including the two atomic bombs that were deployed.  

Why is this loon, I hear you asking, bringing up this nonsense on a blog that normally deals with religious thought?  Well, to be honest, I am afraid we are being played very skillfully by Vladimir Putin.  He is biding his time, playing Vlad the Magnanimous as opposed to Obama the Destroyer.  In the meantime, Vlad is pouring billions into refurbishing his nuclear arsenal, including a nineteen-eighties rail car silo system that constantly runs back and forth over the country.  This former head of the KGB is just waiting for the Donald to take office because then it is off to the races.  Vlad will use smoke and mirrors to distract Donald Trump while he builds unanswerable weapons systems and catches the United States with our pants down!  

The Cold War Mark II is on the way.  Unfortunately, we will have a man with a big ego in the highest office in the land.  Trump has already said that he is not interested in the daily intelligence briefing which indicates that he is going to rely on his gut feelings.  We've elected a man who will attempt to govern this country using the same methods that he used to govern his corporations.  The difference this time is that if he makes a mistake, the bankruptcy court cannot save him (or us.)  If Vladimir Putin can get the drop on us you can bet your life that the smiling, forgiving, uncle Vlad will turn into his namesake Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula. 

The Russians are in the stronger position right now because of the personalities involved.  The iron curtain may be rusty and falling into ruins but if it can be rebuilt, Vladimir Putin is the man that can do it.  

Pray for the United States of America.  Pray that we come together as a people, strong and united.  Pray that God spares us from the worst of the worst mistakes that Donald Trump will make and for heaven's sake, see if you can find those plans for a backyard fallout shelter.  You may need them.   

Silent Night No More

Christmas Eve is often memorialized by the song that every Christian loves, "Silent Night."  We romanticize the heck out of the birth of Jesus but let's be honest here, it was not a silent night.  It was not a night where all was calm and bright.  As a matter of fact, the world was in turmoil. People from all over the known world were on the move because the emperor had decided that he needed to make sure that everyone was paying their taxes.  There is nothing worse than to be a despot without having the money to throw wild parties or to send your army to conquer lands that are not yet in your control.  So everyone who did not happen to already be in the town their ancestors came from had to drop what they were doing and go there.  This caused a great deal of inconvenience to the people, not that the emperor cared.  So both Joseph and Mary found themselves on their way to Bethlehem to be counted.  Mary was ready to give birth, but that was not the emperor's problem either.  So the couple set out for  Bethlehem, the town of  David, the king.  Its name meant "House of Bread."   We know what happened next.  They arrived at the town and there was no room for them to stay at any of the places where traveler's rested.  They ended up in a stable, a cave really, and there Jesus was born.  The silence of the night was then broken and the world would never be the same again. 

In the fields there were shepherds watching their flocks of lambs at night, keeping them safe.  It was not cool to be a shepherd as your duties kept you from the temple and you were considered to be unclean.  So the silence of that Silent Night was broken by the sound of angels proclaiming that God had come to earth, that a savior had been born.  The good news was first revealed to those who had no say in the world, shepherds of all people.   They were a simple people, they believed what they had heard and went to see the Child.  

The silence was broken and the world was forever changed because of this Silent Night.  The old world would pass away and this birth of Jesus would usher in a New Way.  We would be taught by God Himself as to how we would live.  The old rules would soon no longer apply.  The silence of the olden days would be broken forever as God fulfilled His promise to send a savior.  

It would be thirty years before Jesus would begin to preach. This time he used to give us an example.  He worked beside his step-father, Joseph., and learned to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.  Here is another fact.  The job of a carpenter was also looked down upon because there was a lack of wood in Judea because it was a desert community.  So, Jesus worked humbly and quietly at his trade.  

Since the Saviour's birth, there can be no more silent nights.  We have to make a choice.  Either He is the Son of God as He says He is or he is a pious fake.  Some people say that he was not the son of God, but he was a good man and a good teacher.  This is not right. Jesus is who he says he is or he is an evil madman.  There can be no other choice.  

So, who do you say Jesus is?  Or will you remain silent?

The Christmas Truce - The Power of the Holy Name

The Christmas Truce 1914

In 1914 something happened along the western front in the no man's land between the British and German lines.  Peace or at least a temporary and very unofficial truce broke out on Christmas 1914. British and German soldiers wandered into that death zone and exchanged the joy of the season with each other.  They traded tobacco, Christmas carols were sung and a soccer (football) match broke out. (it is not recorded who won the game)  For a while, there was peace on the western front.  Such is the power of the events that took place in a little-regarded town in Judea almost two thousand years previously. The very thought that God came to earth was able to, at least temporarily stop the wheels of that terrible, bloody war that was fought using industrial methods that never were seen on the field of battle before.  The leadership of both sides in this war were attempting to fight the war using outmoded tactics suitable for the nineteenth century but not for this "War to End All Wars."  As a result of this outdated old fogey thinking from the field grade officers millions of men, Germans and Allies alike went to their deaths in a war where one side was trying to "bleed the other side white." 

Jesus is the Son of God.  The very thought of His birth that holy night stopped the bloodshed. What it took on both sides was simply a recognition that the other side was populated with people no different than those that were under arms on your side. Christmas Carols and a bit of bravery on both sides caused the slaughter to cease. 

Today we face an enemy that targets us because of our beliefs, one that has no respect for the Name that is above all other names.  As a matter of fact, they are targeting us because of the Name of Jesus. Their publications are calling for Christmas to become a celebration of blood.  They call for their followers to make their presence felt at our places of worship.  We know that they have no respect for Christian things and a basic "live and let live" policy is not part of their plan.  

What do we do?  Can there be a Christmas truce between them and us?  Unfortunately, no truce is possible for it is not within our power to create. The enemy has chosen to entrench themselves deeply in their beliefs that reward them for creating chaos and bloodshed.  So we cannot do anything on our own to cause a truce to happen.  

What we must do is to remember that the there is power in the name of Jesus.  We must trust in His name, we must trust in His power.  The name of Jesus is the antidote to hatred and discord.  We must call on the name and trust in his reply.  Our example in trusting in His name will baffle and confuse our enemies.  I have written about this example once before but it bears repeating in the present context.  Isis had lined up a group of Christians and one other non-Christian person, in order to execute them.  The Christians were on their knees and they kept praying and repeating the name of Jesus.  The non-Christian, also on his knees waiting for the knife, observed all of this.  His captors approached him and told him that if he declared himself to be Muslim that his life would be spared.  The man looked at the Christians, saw the joy on their faces and their brave countenance and he heard them repeating the Holy Name and he told his captors; "Their God is my God." 

That is how powerful the very name of Jesus is. Carry His Name in your heart, and have His words upon your lips and you will be safe in all circumstances because he will be at your side. 

A Christmas Story

I am sorry, it just could not be done, not even in a bastion of learning such as Saint Joseph and Saint Ann School in Chicago was back in the 1960's.  

How could a young boy or girl hope to master number lines, adding negative numbers or even diagramming sentences when Christmas was so near.  How could we be expected to remember the seven cardinal acts of mercy or the spiritual acts of mercy?  No, at this time of year the excitement of bright lights and wrapped packages and the looming Christmas break held every child’s attention.  While the good sisters taught us about the Advent season our eyes were focused on homemade cookies, tinsel, and those mysteriously wrapped packages now appearing underneath the Christmas tree.  And the tree itself filled the home with the rich scent of pine unless of course, your family had an aluminum tree because then you had to imagine the pine scent as the colored light changed and caused the tree to change color. No child, not even the teacher’s pets had much interest in reading, writing, or arithmetic as the nights grew longer and the time to Christmas came closer.  All of our eyes were turned to the sky not waiting for the Christmas Star, oh no, we were waiting for that mystical and magical ingredient of the season – called snow.  Because every kid had some way to propel themselves down a neighborhood hill.  For some it was a sled, for others, it might be the top of a garbage can, a hunk of cardboard or a plastic saucer.  It didn’t matter what vehicle you had or what hill you went to, you just wanted to experience the wind in your face as you slid down your favorite high spot. And who could concentrate on school work when in the afternoon you knew that the work would cease and that cupcake feast and present exchange called the Class Christmas party put all academic pursuits on hold until that time that seemed so far away called “after the New Year.”  Then finally the bell cheerfully chimes it permission to leave and donning scarves, coats, hats and boots we would leave the school, and soon the school would be silent and abandoned and as the echo of the kids excited voices faded the only thing that could be heard at SJSA was the sound of desks being moved so that the janitor could buff the floors to a lustrous shine to greet the returning revelers at the end of Christmas break.  .   Those days before Christmas at SJSA were very magical ones.  The sisters were released from their perpetual vow of not smiling and the crankiest among them adopted a Christmas countenance.  Meanwhile, in our homes things were made ready for visiting relatives. Children coming in from the slopes were warmed with hot cocoa and depending on their likes and dislikes perhaps a marshmallow or maybe some whipped cream would dot the surface of the chill chaser.    Yes, when we were young the Christmas season lasted a long time.  There was the anticipation of what was to come and that was for a child is what put the joy into the season. On Christmas eve, as the sky began to darken, excitement stirred in our hearts.  In our house there was ritual that was carefully followed every year. We would be allowed to open one of the beautifully wrapped packages before we went to bed. Every year we wondered what treasure would we behold once we opened that package.  Would it be the toy we had asked Santa Claus for?  No, no, it wouldn't.  Every year we would open that package and the contents would always be pajamas.  By the time I was eigh I got the idea but always hoped for something else.  Wearing our new pajamas we would cluster at the kitchen table where we were given hot chocolate made with real milk and whipped cream.  I suspect there may have been a sleeping pill in it too because no sooner would we be done with the treat than our eyes would start to feel very heavy and without being told, on this one day of the year, we went off to bed to dream of the treasures that would be ours the next day.  Chrismas Eve was a night filled with joy. It was the joy of innocence  Today I challenge each of you to become joyful as a child as you prepare yourself for Christmas. Let your heart anticipate the joy of Christmas day as we remember that the joy of giving to others will fill us with the same feeling for the Christmas season as we had when we were young.