This is kind of a “down” week for most people. Schools are closed, traffic is less hectic, and most meetings are cancelled. We are recovering or preparing: recovering from Christmas or preparing for New Years. This is a week in the middle: between Christmas and New Years.

The way that the Church calendar looks at things, this is Christmas. Everything up to the Christmas Eve service is Advent and the days between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6) are the Christmas Season. The world sees it quite another way: everything from about September 15 to Christmas Eve is the Christmas Season and these days are just in the middle with no purpose other than to recover so we can celebrate again.

I hope you will find meaning in these days in the middle. Keep playing the Christmas Carols on your I Pods and CD players. Don’t take down all the decorations, just yet. The Christmas Season offers Christians a time to reflect on the significance of Christ’s birth without the hype. Jesus invaded our world to offer us meaning and purpose. This week in the middle that may be a “down” week for many of us, offers us the opportunity take to heart what it means that God would become human and how we see the vastness of God’s love in the mystery of Christ’s birth.

I pray that you will find meaning in the middle this week.