Today is the 7th day within the Octave of Christmas. An octave is kind of a cool thing–basically it’s an 8-day celebration, and what it means is–it’s still Christmas! See Celebrating the Octave of Christmas for more details.

Today is also an optional memorial for Saint Sylvester I. No, not *that* Sylvester; with all that stalking of Tweety Bird, do you really think he’d be a saint already? He’s working on it, like the rest of us. See Pope Sylvester I (Wikipedia) for details.

1 John 2:18-21, Psalm 96, John 1:1-18

Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared….They went out from us, but they were not really of our number; if they had been, the would have remained with us.

I find this quote telling in light of our recent encounter with protesters outside our parish.

Don’t miss today’s gospel, the prologue to the gospel of John, either. It’s one of my favorite readings.

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son,
full of grace and truth.