Merry Christmas

Christmas is the time of the year where family gathers and friends reunite. It's also a time for rekindling some relationships, patching things up and forgiving someone who have done you wrong. 

Christmas is also time to just relax and enjoy the holidays. It's the time of the year when it's okay to just procrastinate. It's okay to pause for a few days. Not thinking about your job or anything that stresses you. 

Christmas is also a time to spend with God. He's the main reason for the season. But before we celebrate the most important day of the year, here in the Philippines we have this tradition called "Misa de Gallo" or "Simbang Gabi" in anticipation of the Christmas day. It is a mass celebrated for 9 evenings starting from December 15 until December 23. You can also opt to attend the dawn masses which start from December 16 and last until December 24. It is believed that those who will complete the nine days will have their wish granted. But of course, that shouldn't be the reason why you wanted to attend the mass. 

In those 9 days, I want to share to you my take-aways from the masses that I attended virtually.

Day 1. Day 1 was mostly about St. John The Baptist. How he testified about the Son of God, Jesus Christ. We should also be like him. We have to be a living testimony about His greatness, about the the immensity of His great works. We should boast about His wondrous creation and how powerful He is.

Day 2. It was about the genealogy of our Lord, Jesus Christ. On this second day, I realized how the priest couldn't be more true when he said that, "The biggest exchange gift happened on the very first Christmas Eve. When God sent His only son in exchange for our sins." This should remind us to never expect any gifts during Christmas. Or that we would be disappointed if we don't get any, or if we don't like what we receive. It's not the essence of Christmas. We shouldn't even demand for gifts in the first place cause we're not the one celebrating birthday. 

Day 3. This was about the meaning of the name Immanuel which is God with us. No matter how abandoned we might feel at times, we should never forget that God is always with us. Despite all the craziness and chaos in the world, God is with us. He will never leave us, nor forsake us. All we need to do is to lift everything up to Him. Without Him we won't be able to overcome all the challenges that we face. He's the reason why we made it through those difficult times and those moments that we thought we couldn't go on any longer. He is always there to catch us. He's the most reliable and most loyal confidante that we can have. He is always there to pick us everytime we fall.

Day 4. This was about St. Joseph. In following God, we should be like St. Joseph. He became obedient to God when He said that he shouldn't leave Mary. No matter how inconvenient the situation may feel at times, we should be able to endure it. Because it's all part of God's divine plan. We shouldn't only do what is easy, but we should do what is right even if it's not easy. We should always be obedient to Him towards His plans for us. It doesn't matter if our plans align with His. In the end, He is the one who knows what is right for us. 

Day 5. This is about the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just like St. Joseph, she also became obedient to God. Even though she was at a young age when she was told to bear Jesus Christ, she still surrendered to God. She let God took control of her life. She knew that her journey wouldn't be easy, but she also knew that God wouldn't leave her. She surrendered everything to God even though what lies ahead was uncertain. I think we should use it as an inspiration to be like her. We should always let God take control of our life. He has the full knowledge of how everything in our life is supposed to unfold. All we need is to fully entrust Him our life, and know that He will carry us through difficult situations.

Day 6. On this sixth day of Misa de Gallo, I learned that we shouldn't share our accomplishments to others to get praises from them, or to boast about it. Instead we share our good news because we want to share to everyone how great our God is. How He is truly the God of miracles. Only He can do great things in our life. Everything that happens in our life, be it good or bad, is all because of Him. Whatever it is that we accomplish in life is all because of Him. We cannot do anything if it weren't for Him. We should never think highly of ourselves or think that we are better that anyone once we succeed at something. We have to use our triumphs as a testimony of how powerful our God is, and how good He is to us. Most of the times we don't deserve His mercy and grace, but still he remains faithful and provide us with marvelous things. 

Day 7. Day 7 was all about happiness and joy. Happiness is what the world can give. On the other hand, joy is what God can give us. And we should know that joy and sorrow are related. We cannot always be joyful, and at the same time we won't be sorrowful forever. This life isn't perfect. It isn't always happy. We have our ups and downs. We go trials of different kinds. At times we experience sorrows that we think we can't carry on with our life anymore. But we should bear in mind that nothing lasts forever, not even our pains. We should remain hopeful and know that after everything that we've been through, God will always reward us with joy. We should experience sorrow to fully appreciate joy when it finally comes. There's no greater feeling than bouncing back again after the moment when we thought was already our dead end. 

Day 8. On this second to the last evening of Simbang Gabi, God showed how He can do extraordinary things out of the ordinary. The story of how Elizabeth bore a child at her old age. And that He chose the Blessed Virgin Mary to be Jesus Christ's mother. She was just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life, yet God chose her. God truly never fails to create great miracles. Just when we thought that our life was over, He gives us reasons to keep going. We just have to be faithful to Him and believe in His mighty power. He is the only one who can make the impossible possible. All of His children are equal in His eyes. He doesn't play favoritism. We are not worthy to receive His miracles, but He is our father who is merciful. We are blessed with good things not because we deserve them, but because He is a generous giver. 

Day 9. On this final day of the novena for our Blessed Virgin Mary is all about gratefulness. Whatever circumstances we face, we should always be thankful. Even if at times we can't find any reason to be thankful, still give Him thanks. You know what they say, "A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles." If we aren't grateful, we would always see what we lack instead of appreciating what we already have. We can never find happiness if we aren't grateful cause we always think that we're missing something. We should also be thankful for unanswered prayers. It's His way of saving us from the things that aren't meant for us and prepare us for the things that truly belong to us. He is above us, so He has a clearer view of what is in front of us. He's the one clearing our paths to ensure that our journey will be smooth sailing. 

This Christmas Day may we never forget who really it is about. It's not about gifts. It's not about us. It's not about godparents giving generous gifts to their godchildren. It's about celebrating the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. God sent Him to us so that we can have this life. Christmas is about God and His only begotten son. He is the meaning of Christmas, and that enough should make us feel joyful.

Merry Christmas to you. May you have a meaningful celebration. 

au revoir. 😊