Excerpt from Christmas at the Mission (Sula, parish cat): About Me and This Book

 

(photo by Stacy Gentry)

About Me and This Book

I love Christmas! Who doesn’t? Everyone I know loves Christmas, but then they are all people. I am a cat, but I enjoy celebrating Christmas with my people friends and with my Boss. 

Christmas is a special time for my Boss. He is the One and Only, you know, the One who brought His plan to life that first Christmas—except no one knew then it was Christmas. 

As for me, if you have read either of my other books (if not, please do), you know as much about me as it is possible to know. For those who have not read them yet, I can tell you my tale in a nutshell. It is pretty simple, partly because the beginning is rather cloudy, and I only know what the people at the Mission Gift Shop remember about me some 12 years ago. Yes, I am getting to be quite a big girl now with my own set of life experiences. 

It seems that I was always in San Juan Bautista, a beautiful Mission town in the Mexican tradition. Lots of Spanish spoken here, so I have had to learn to meow and respond in two languages. People say that they saw me at the cemetery (not much action there) and later at City Hall (a little more action there, but still rather boring and not appealing to me). Then, I heard the bells pealing at the Mission across from City Hall and I trotted over to see what was going on. Though still a kitten, I knew I had found my mission in life: to minister to those at the Mission with the help of God, (my Boss) and St. Francis. I became a “Catolic” immediately. The rest of the story—how I minister, how I survived two bouts of cancer, how I lost my ears, and how I made so many life-long friends at the Mission—is told in my first two books, Surviving Cancer, Healing People: One Cat’s Story and Tale of a Mission Cat. 

The purpose of this book is not to be an exhaustive catalogue of information about all aspects of Christmas or even about Catholic dogma about Christmas. For those who were hoping that I had put together such a catalogue, I apologize for any disappointment and have included for your reading delight a list of references at the end of this book that will take you to more authoritative and more exhaustive sources. 

The purpose of this book is to share the joy of my Christmas with you—what Christmas means to me as a Catholic cat—in pictures along with some descriptions of Catholic traditions seen in those pictures. Where I am aware of the origins of various customs, I mention them. Some do not come from where you think. Some, like feasting, having fun, giving gifts, and taking a rest from work, have parallels in pagan traditions—and that is okay. If whatever we do, we do for the glory of God, other parallels are merely parallels, nothing of significance but perhaps something of interest. 

I also include some suggested songs related to each custom. You will have to Google the whole song. Because most songs are copyrighted, I cannot include all the words—and all the words would take too much space, anyway. So, if you like the first line of the song, put it into your browser and find the rest of the song and the music that goes with it. It will be your special Christmas treasure hunt! Some of these songs are truly treasures! 

Oh, and one thing I do not include in this book because it is a year-round sacrament, not a Christmas tradition, is confession. That said, watching people who come to confession, I can tell that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is very important to them and brings them peace. During Advent, most churches offer large-scale confession opportunities. If anyone is willing to take advice from a cat, I say “go for it; don’t pass up any opportunity for reconciliation.” Every week I see the wonderful effect it has on the few people who show up. 

I do want to thank the elves who helped me prepare this book. Possibly the most important elf is Zhenya Yanovich, who drew all the pictures of me. Zhenya lives in Moscow, Russia, but when he is drawing me, it seems like he is right next door. 

The photography elves (back cover, clockwise) were Rick Edge, Jewell Gentry, Stacey Gentry, Betty Lou Leaver, and Kaleen Scargill. Let me tell you about the pictures they took here since I have no other place to talk about them. The picture at the top left is me sleeping in the nativity scene, taken by Rick Edge. In the upper right photograph, taken by Jewell Gentry, I am listening to the hymns at our Mission on Christmas Eve. In the lower left photograph, take by Kaleen Scargill, I am resting in the blessed rays of the sun drifting into the Mission through its upper windows during the Winter Solstice, and in the lower right, I am sleeping at the feet of Our Lady in the Mission chapel, a most comforting place to rest. My bio picture is a special gift of Stacey Gentry, my official photographer.

Read more posts about Sula, including more excerpts from her books HERE.