[sighs] That's some volume for the hair. I'll tell you that right now. Volume.
That doesn't come naturally. It comes by using [pauses] natural products that have not been tested on animals.
OK, here we go!
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So, some of our students were asking me the other day
and I think this is a question that people get when they start going to Mass on a more regular basis.
Like during the week and whatnot because we have these solemnities
and memorials and feasts and all these kinds of things. And they say,
"What's the difference between a solemnity, a memorial, a feast?" All those kinds of questions.
And I thought, "That's a great question."
OK, here's the distinction. There are solemnities; that's the highest, right?
Easter, Christmas, some of the big days: All Saints'.
Here in Advent we typically celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Here in the United States, that's a solemnity for us.
And you have -- one of the markers of that is you have the Gloria and the Creed recited.
So that's kind of the highest; it's like Sundays.
Not all of them are Holy Days of Obligation, but they're all big days, right?
The second one is: Feasts. That's the second highest.
And those are kind of marked by--I guess what you'd say--well you have the Gloria there at Mass.
So if you're wondering, "Is this a solemnity or a feast?" and there's a Gloria, but no Creed, then it's a feast. And it's a great day.
The next two are memorials. And there are the obligatory memorials, which if you're ever reading the book
there's a capital M. Usually these are saints' days or other kinds of big moments in the Church kind of thing.
And there are also optional memorials. And those are, as the word would indicate, optional.
Those are indicated by, usually, a lower-case m.
Now, you have solemnities, feasts, obligatory memorials, and optional memorials.
In Advent, or in any season in the Church year--in fact, we're coming into the Christmas season as well, right after Advent.
Then we have the Ordinary Time, then we have Lent, then we have--um, Easter!
The thing about this, I think, is the Church tells us at various days, various times, various seasons:
"OK this is a season for rejoicing." In fact, Advent is a season of devout and joyful preparation for the Lord's coming.
Christmas is a joyful celebration of the fact that Christ has come and He will come again.
There are these seasons where the Church says, "OK, this is the time to enter into penance."
"And this is the time to enter into joy."
It reminds me of Matthew chapter 11 where Jesus--people are complaining about Jesus.
Jesus says, "You're like children who will sing and say, 'You know we played the flute for you and you didn't dance.'
"'We sang a dirge for you and you didn't mourn.'" And He says, you know, John the Baptist came
fasting and not eating or drinking and you said that he's crazy.
Then the Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and you said he's a glutton and a drunkard.
But here's the interesting thing about this: as Catholics, the Church tells us
"OK, now is a time right now of mourning. This is a time to actually enter into--it's ok to have grief."
It's ok to have these times of deep sadness. So you get to grieve.
There are times that are like, "This is a time of joy." We need to celebrate. We need to have feasts.
We need to have these--the solemnities, feasts, and memorials thing.
That is--we have the Church who says there's a time for everything, right? [Ecclesiastes]
There's a season for everything. There's a time to mourn, a time to rejoice, a time to embrace, a time to refrain from embracing.
There's a time to dance; there's a time to not dance.
I think, too often, maybe not you, but I think myself, I say, "No, no, no. I just it's time to rejoice? No, I'm really busy. I can't rejoice."
"It's time to do penance? Time to really enter into depth? No, no, I can't enter into depth. I'm too busy with my own stuff."
That's why there's something so good about the Church's seasons.
The season of Advent, this season of preparation, immediate preparation for the celebration of the coming of Jesus Christ into the world.
And the Church says, "OK, it's a time to intentionally rejoice."
You don't have to be feeling great to rejoice. It's always a decision to rejoice.
It's a choice to rejoice, you might say.
Because joy, again--we talked about this before--joy is not just feeling great.
Joy is not just being happy. Joy is this pervasive sense of well-being. Abiding sense of well-being.
Because you know that God knows you.
Advent and Christmas is a time for us to enter into that season when the Church says:
"OK, this is a season of joy."
So, I know your life can be crashing down around your shoulders. I know that there are real things in your life
that are really weighing on you. Real loss. Real grief. Real tragedy.
But you can also in the middle of those have real joy.
That's why I just love, love the fact that we get to have our Mother, the Church.
You know that's kind of one of the ways Catholics have traditionally called the Church? The Church is our mother.
That our Mother the Church gets to say, "OK, here's a time, children, a time to dance. Let's dance!"
"Here's a time to sleep. OK, now it's time to go to sleep."
"Here's a time to rejoice! Here's a time to grieve."
I think, too often, I have the excuse, "No, no, no. *My* time. No, no, no, I can't do it right now."
But to imagine, what if I had the freedom--what if I had the freedom to when the Lord says, "Hey, rejoice now."
OK. Great.
I think a lot of us are--we hold ourselves back from real joy.
We don't let ourselves even experience happiness.
And I think some of us, we don't even let ourselves experience grief.
We avoid sorrow. We avoid difficult moments or difficult conversations.
And yet there are certain times in our lives when the Church says,
"Hmm. It is now time. Now time to enter into depth, to grief, to mourning."
Now is the time to enter into joy. This Advent and this Christmas.
The Church says no matter what's happening in your life, you can choose joy.
It's time to celebrate.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless.