Christmas, or the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord, as it is also called, is in fact the 1st day of Christmas. It is one of the twelve days that lead us right to the Feast of Epiphany. And contrary to what the secular world tells us, the twelve days of Christmas begin with Christmas, and not end with it. Tomorrow as the rest of the world departs from the ‘holiday season’…We Faithful Catholics, will still be reveling in it! This is an important week in the calendar of the Church. First, we have eight days separating the birth of Christ and the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is called the Christmas Octave. With great wisdom, the Church leads us right from the birth of Christ…and ends eight days later, pointing us to Mary and Her role in the redemption of mankind, as we celebrate the passing of one year into the next…The Solemnity of Mary is on January 1st…

So as the rest of the world is tossing out the trees, and throwing their ‘merriment’ to the curb by removing themselves out of the celebration and right back into the everyday, let us,  the faithful, remember that in fact we still have eleven days until the Epiphany…when the Magi arrived to pay their homage to the New Born King…and we still have this week, this Octave of Christmas that is filled with so many feast days to help us fulfill our end goal…that is to be alter Christus…in other words, to become another Christ...to those we come in contact with throughout our days. Merry Christmas…let’s make it a good and holy one.