Medley Minute with Fr Sam: You love Christmas, but hate family tension? Yep, it’s great to see each other again, especially on a such joyful occasion, however these times also may be accompanied by family arguments, truculent teens, grouchy grandmas, upset uncles, or entangling in-laws. At such a time as Christmas I like to see these moments as just an invitation to remember what it’s really about - love. You can think of these tense moments like a shovel to dig deeper into the roots of Charity. Sometimes it’s just staggering how much love is required. Are you being forced to be patient, to forgive, to be gentle, show compassion? The only place patience comes from, the source and font of strength to look past a person’s weird woibles is Charity. You’re just being asked to love. You might not resolve an argument, get closure, or find reconciliation with certain family members and that’s ok as long as you can love them. We are only allowed a certain level of reconciliation with person as that relationship allows, but you MUST love them. You MUST forgive. If you don’t your heart will be poisoned, your attitude infected, and your vision clouded from what it’s all really about. Helpful hints: -Pray, ask God for a big old dose of his love to flood you -Vitamin D, distance, is sometimes the only way you might be able to get along with certain people# -Pray, ask Our Lady for help. She faced lots of family tension with a Messiah Son. She knows. -Do something constructive that allows you to bond without having to talk about unresolved/unresolvable issues like a game or movie or something humorous. -Pray -Say the things they really need to here, things that will actually and truly help them. -Pray -Recognize but don’t react to toxic behavior, wave the bull fighting flag to change the tone to one of concord from conceit, humility from huff, peace from perplexity. -Choose joy. Choose peace. Choose Charity