I want to thank all of you at the beginning of this homily for the kindness you have afforded the staff of our parish and me with your wonderful cards and gifts. Over the last few weeks, we have been decorating our offices with all of your cards to make our rectory look very festive. Your kindness is very much appreciated by all of us and I am humbled by the sincere generosity of this wonderful family parish.

That said, I also have run into a little dilemma every time I pass from the rectory into the church because of all of you. You see, over the last few weeks, a good number of you have gifted us at the parish with tin upon tin of homemade cookies and chocolates which have tempted me every time I pass our parish kitchen. Each time I go to Mass or visit the school, I have to pass by the kitchen and your foods have been calling me. I am certain that twenty more pounds from now I will have expended your kindness completely. I have decided that all of you must think I am the most sugar-depraved priest in the Joliet diocese. My bathroom scale thanks you for allowing me to be its constant companion.

I was thinking about all those cookies on our kitchen counter and I couldn’t help but think about my own mother, who also participated in this holiday cookie-sharing tradition with her family and members of the local community. Each year, my mother would make the traditional Italian desserts she learned from the old country in Italy, dressed up with the honey that we produced on the farm.

But here was my problem, something to which most rational people in my family would attest. My mother was the most caring, loving, giving person I ever knew and is first in line in the kingdom of heaven. My mother was also the worst cook on the face of the planet. Every cookie she ever made turned out with the consistency of a rock and those who ate her cookies were in for a painful experience.

This did not stop her from making those cookies, though, and I have become a better Christian for it. Because of my mother, I learned that this “passing on” of family and sacred traditions serves as a symbol of one’s presence in another person’s life and one’s desire to invest within the life of another. We just read at last weekend’s Masses about Joseph’s conscious choice to allow this woman and child into his life and invest himself in them. Today we honor the Blessed Mother and her investment in our lives.

So what exactly did she pass on to us in honor of her special day? The answer can be found in this nativity scene, a scene that is viewed in multiple fashions throughout a church throughout the year. This gift can be found in the tabernacle called her womb, which passes through the tabernacle of the low altar, then the tabernacle of the high altar, onto the tabernacle of our tongue or hand into the tabernacle of our bodies for some fifteen minutes or so when Christ is present physically within us. As could be said of St. Joseph could be said of our Blessed Mother today: Because of her we have him; because of him we have the possibility of eternal salvation.

And so we gather on this most holy day to give thanks to a woman who offers us this eternal Christmas present and for this we give thanks. For those of us who attend this Mass and understand this significance, we come here because those who have come before us have passed on this tradition of giving thanks to Mary for the gift of life she brought into the world. We pass on this present to the children of the next generation so that this gift of life may continue to be shared with those of faith.

Thus, as we celebrate this eighth day, this last day of the Christmas Octave, I ask that we all pass on the story of Mary’s Christmas gift to the world. The gift I offer on these Marian feast days is a special song that is very appropriate for this feast of Mary’s Solemnity. We priests and religious sing this song before we retire to bed at night; we sing this song at the funerals of dignitaries within the Church. I invite you to join me in the “Salve Regina,” the song that priests and religious pray throughout the world as a sign of devotion to our Blessed Mother. This is, as always, our prayer today…