Saint Joseph awoke from his dream. “He did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him.” Those words could very well describe much of his life. Joseph, though, was not blindly obedient.

Every Catholic church I’ve seen has two guaranteed statues: one of Mary, the other of Joseph. It’s such a commonplace that we often refer to the “Mary side” and the “Joseph side” of the sanctuary. These two people are so immense in our tradition that their historical obscurity surprises us.

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant.

What would Christmas be without light? We celebrate with lights on our homes, in our windows, on our trees, and each light is a small bit of praise to God. But we don’t have to wait until Christmas.

Brothers and sisters, let us acknowledge our sins, and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries.

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.