• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Elizabeth Scalia
          • Michael R. Heinlein
          • Effie Caldarola
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Mark Viviano
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • Magazine Subscriptions
        • Archdiocesan Directory
  • CR Radio
        • CR Radio
        • Protagonistas de Fe
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe

Celebrate God, every day

December 27, 2020
By Father Joseph Breighner
Catholic Review
Filed Under: Christmas, Commentary, Wit & Wisdom

’Twas the day after Christmas, 
and all through the house,
Everybody was stirring, 
including the mouse.

Stockings by the chimney were 
nowhere to be found,
And ribbons and bows were 
but trash on the ground.

Christmas, it seems, 
like a phantom in flight,
Had stolen away some time
in the night.

Yet, in the far distance a baby yet cries,
And still coming to meet him
three men who are wise.
Christmas Day lasts its 24-hour span.

But Christmas lasts forever
in God who became man!

The world only gets one day for Christmas. The Christmas season for the secular world is the time before Christmas. I call this the “Store Christmas” or the “Selling Season.” An estimated 40 percent of all shopping for the year is done during this time. It’s an important one for the economy.

For the believer, the Christmas Season is the time after Christmas. We celebrate the “rest of the story.” We see Magi from the East coming to adore Christ. We watch the baby growing up. We see Jesus, raised as an observant Jew, being circumcised as a baby, and later as an adolescent, going to Jerusalem on pilgrimage with his parents.

To put it another way, we Christians celebrate three “comings” of Christ. We celebrate, obviously, Christ’s coming into history as an infant. Second, we await Christ’s coming in the future, to end history. And, finally, but equally important, we celebrate Christ’s coming each day in mystery.

As Catholics, we ritualize the daily coming of Christ in the Eucharist, in Christ’s Mass. We celebrate the Christ who comes to us as Word, and under the appearance of bread and wine. But, even more profoundly, the God who comes to us in mystery, comes to us, and through us, at every moment. God doesn’t just visit his people. God lives with and in his people.

Let me tell a story:

There was a shopkeeper who was told by God that he would visit him that night in his store. The owner was incredibly excited. He couldn’t wait for closing time. He put out the lights of the store, and sat in the darkness waiting for Christ.

As he waited there, he noticed a homeless person walking down the street. He ran out of the store and gave the man some money.

He went back to his store, when he spotted a woman walking past, shivering in the cold. He grabbed one of the coats off the rack, and went outside and gave it to the woman.

The shopkeeper returned to the store, and continued to wait for Christ in the darkness, when it began to rain. The shopkeeper noticed a man going past without an umbrella. He ran out to the man and gave him his umbrella.

He then went back into the store to wait for Christ. As the sun rose, the man was furious. He yelled at God saying: “You broke your promise. I waited for you all night, and you never came.” And Christ calmly replied: “Oh, I kept my promise. I came to you three times, and you responded to me every time. What you do to the least person, you do to me.”

On Christmas Day we celebrate the God who came into history as a human being. On another day, we will celebrate the God who comes to end history. But every day we can celebrate the God who comes to us in others, and in the events of life.

The poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “The earth is charged with the grandeur of God.” Each human being is “charged” with that divine grandeur. As Mother Teresa said, “God does indeed come to us in his most distressing disguises.” But beneath these ego disguises, the presence of God lives in every human being. When we recognize the God within, then every day we celebrate the birth of God in human form.

Also see

Polish Three Kings Parades break records with 2 million participants in Jubilee Year

Christ’s birth brings light to a troubled world, pope says

The most desired gift

Mother-daughter duo’s gingerbread replica of long-awaited new Catholic school ‘a labor of love’

Little highlanders from Poland win the internet with their midnight Mass caroling

Wrapped gifts sit under a Christmas tree

A Tale of Two Gifts

Copyright © 2020 Catholic Review Media

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Father Joseph Breighner

View all posts from this author

| Recent Commentary |

A loaf of sliced bread

We are part of the miracle

Question Corner: Do I need to attend my territorial parish?

The truth about transitions

A cry for unity

‘Public’ does not equal ‘state’ or ‘government’

| Recent Local News |

ordination 2025 baltimore

Excitement and pride abound at ordination of five priests for Archdiocese of Baltimore

Pilgrims walk in the footsteps of America’s first saint

Juneteenth

Juneteenth seen as day to reflect on freedom, ending racism and Black Catholics’ contributions

Deacon O’Donnell’s ‘normal’ faith life led to priestly vocation

St. Joseph Church in Fullerton

Fullerton church begins renovations

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • Pope leads Corpus Christi procession through streets of Rome
  • Excitement and pride abound at ordination of five priests for Archdiocese of Baltimore
  • ‘Slaughter of innocents’ in suicide bombing at Syrian church called ‘unspeakable evil’
  • Pilgrims walk in the footsteps of America’s first saint
  • Trump orders US attack on Iran nuclear sites, as Pope Leo, bishops plead for peace
  • We are part of the miracle
  • Visiting Upstate New York’s National Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs
  • Washington Roundup: Trump weighs options in Israel-Iran conflict, CLINIC condemns expanded ICE raids
  • Malta in the Jubilee Year: A quieter pilgrimage of hope

Search

Membership

Catholic Media Assocation

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2025 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED