This is a photo from our last coffee and doughnuts Sunday (the third Sunday of each month) and it shows the lively conversations and exchanges that go on each month. For too many Catholics, we “go to mass on Sunday” as an obligation, a requirement, overlooking Jesus’ command to be brothers and sisters to each other. To be family like that means to actually talk to each other and to get to know each other, not just sit beside someone in mutual isolation for an hour during mass. Other Christians are so much better at that than we are and we could learn a lot from them about what Jesus had in mind.
Then it further dawned on me: “Wait! This isn’t Sunday! And it is Christmas, but it’s a work day in Cambodia” where 94% of the population is Buddhist with zero interest in Christmas and the birth of Christ. As I saw this woman dusting off the wares in her little shop, I realized that this afternoon after mass I would be heading back to work at the Deaf Development Programme. “It’s Tuesday!”, just an ordinary Tuesday and an ordinary workday for all of Cambodia except for the few of us Catholics who had a service on Christmas morning.
Normally we have most of a week to take down the Advent decorations and replace them with Christmas trimmings, but this year the last Sunday of Advent was today and tomorrow, Christmas Eve, is the beginning of the Christmas season so we had to change the church environment today. 
At World Vision, we rent their hall and so have to set up for mass every week and decorate the room with banners, candles, etc. When Fr. Bob Wynne was here, he made sure that the seasons were kept distinct and arranged all the changes in colors, banners, etc. Now that he is gone, things sometimes go awry.
