Have Faith or No Faith at All.

Well, here we are, November 2012, not long before Christmas. Where I live and in commune with family and cultural customs and faith, it's soon going to be Christmas again. People of other faiths honour this time of year differently and in slightly different ways from the world's Christian community. Every culture in the world has it's own windows. Celebration or honouring belief and trusts of faith is not the soul property of us Christians. No, we happen to honour faith at this time of year by celebrating gift giving in praise of the three kings who brought gifts to baby Jesus, thought to be the son of God. Wow, now there's a big one, the son of God! Who's God? Much of what was adopted way back when, is a Christian calendar year. It brings order and peace among the races, so goes the beliefs. However, if you follow the Mayan calendar, the end of days is on December 21,2012!

http://news.discovery.com/history/maya-long-count-calendar-end-date-120629.html

Are you ready for that?

I'm not.

I love my family and I want to see them again, surely before I'm wiped of the face of the earth. For now, Christmas 2012 will do, if we get there.

When I was growing up in a small northern town, we had a big church to attend each Christmas. I was pulled kicking and screaming to church at midnight, of all hours. One year, I noticed a guy I knew well two pews behind me. I was smart enough to know, the man was Jewish. Not only, that he was the high profile Mayor of our town he was from a group who eventually saw to the death of Jesus himself. Since I'd had some indoctrination into the life of Jesus, I was surprised to see this man among us. In some way, it was as if his attendance was to celebrate Jesus without prejudice. Even then, I thought to myself, we Catholics had something going since this guy came to our church after all that happened in history. The songs by the choir were glorious. The sound of a full choir and the assembly of a full congregation had me at hello. I thought, why not? Midnight Mass wasn't so bad afterall. I loved the whole experience but I wasn't about to become a total bible thumper just yet, I still had sins to commit. The beauty of being Catholic is we can sin but confession would get us to heaven after all. Remind me, I have to go to church to confess before December 21st or I'm toast. What about the rest of you?

By Norm Richards