We have officially been back in ordinary time for a number of weeks. The Christmas season has come and gone and with it the mountain of sugary treats on our kitchen table. The hubby and I thoroughly enjoyed celebrating the nativity of Christ with an assortment of cookies, chocolates and other holiday goodies.
However, as we move through the liturgical calendar our hearts and belts are happy to check our sugar intake. We hope this will aid us in maintaining healthy habits as well as guide us to a deeper understanding of Christ through intentional and liturgical living. Therefore, during ordinary time we have resolved to live ordinarily, forgoing desserts and sweets except for feast days or special occasions with friends or family. This also means no afternoon hot cocoa for wifey on chilly winter days. I instead warm myself with a steaming cup of tea in a delightfully hobbit-like fashion. I’m traditionally a coffee drinker and while this is no replacement for that welcome morning beverage I’ve come to look forward to afternoon tea time.
My husband and I have already found our sugar cravings greatly diminished just in these first weeks. Undoubtedly we will be tempted at times to bend our new healthy habits, particularly as we look toward Lent when we will be instituting additional offerings. However, I’m happy to report that afternoon tea has become a welcome treat in its own right.
I think there is a common misconception today among Catholics and atheists alike that to be considered holy one must completely forsake sweets, alcohol, silly movies and in general, all things remotely humorous or pleasurable. This is simply not how God calls us to live. We are not to eat or drink to excess. We are not to dress or behave immodestly and we are not to tempt ourselves or others to sin by consuming lude or sacrilegious content. We Catholics believe in moderation, that most things can be beneficial in the proper doses. Contrary to popular belief, we are not a humorless bunch of prudish killjoys.
Cracking open a beer after a long day or relishing a whiskey on the rocks with friends is hardly verboten. Likewise, there is no ban on an after dinner slice of chocolate cake every once in a while. Breaking the ice in an intense game of cards with a few well timed, good natured jokes isn’t forbidden. On the contrary, mirth is entirely biblical. We are called to approach all of these things with kindness and joy and thanksgiving to God. Obviously, we Catholics are dedicated to avoiding the worship of false gods including addiction. It is only when these earthly pleasures become occasions of sin or temptation to sin that we must excuse ourselves from the fun.
Of course, during this season of Lent we are also called to heighten our efforts regarding fasting, almsgiving and prayer. This means that many of us are at least periodically or temporarily forgoing sweets or alcohol or a number of other enjoyable treats and habits in order to make room in our lives for increased faith and reflection. These are all ways in which we can maintain properly ordered lives which are centered around Christ. They are intended to bring us into a deeper relationship with God and haven’t been laid down by the Church simply to make us miserable for 40 days.
Although everyone on the planet has experienced suffering and hardship in some capacity and certainly will again, God did not create us for lives of pure drudgery. Every single human on earth has a cross to bear. How we choose to take them up is a reflection of our faith. When left to our own devices it’s easy for anyone to get bogged down by feelings of fear, exhaustion, or even rage at all the problems life likes to throw our way. We Catholics are not immune to these feelings but we also look to Christ as an example on those bad days and strive toward eternal salvation through every hurdle. Of course, we fall short just like everyone else but in the end we seek to continue to take up these crosses willingly and even with jubilation as we give these struggles up to God because we trust in Him.
Indeed, a Catholic life is one of constant service and sacrifice but also one of joy and mirth and love in equal measure. I pray for all those who have yet to experience the unparalleled bliss of submitting to God’s will.
This year was far from the Christmas that my husband and I had hoped for. I caught a nasty cold 3 days before the season was to begin and spent the majority of the holiday vacation coughing, sniffling and unable to sleep through the nights. We were also forced to plan around a bit of an odd work schedule as my husband was still on night shift at the time and working through Christmas Eve. Our combined schedule made it impossible to get back to Colorado to celebrate with my family in the mountains this year and the hubby was sleeping during the day. Thus I spent most of a rainy, dreary, snowless Christmas Eve alone. For all of these reasons the usual magic of Christmas was nowhere to be found and I wasted half the day mourning its absence. What a perfectly uncatholic way to welcome the coming of Christ.
However, though my beloved Christmas magic was far away, all this unpleasantness was ultimately transformed into my very own Christmas miracle all thanks to a phone call with one of the best Catholics I know, my mom. I’ve told her this many times before but after the events of this Christmas Eve, it bears repeating. The world needs more moms. She listened to my holiday woes with Mary-like patience and then imparted the following (perhaps divinely inspired) advice.
Bake something – Even in spite of feeling a bit under the weather, I was still perfectly able to buzz around my house a bit that day and make some kind of preparation for the coming of Christ. She sent me a breakfast casserole recipe which became our Christmas morning meal.
Listen to Handel’s Messiah – Growing up, a local group would always spend a weekend traveling to several churches in the valley to perform George Frederic Handel’s famous oratorio and this provided a small taste of childhood. It’s also an incredibly reverent work entirely dedicated to the beauty and joy of the Christmas season. There’s some speculation that it was even divinely inspired as Handel completed the work in a short 2 weeks.
Read the Gospel nativity passages – What better way to remember Christ’s humble beginnings than to return to the Gospel stories. It’s interesting to see the same language echoed across multiple Gospels, many of which make use of words like “behold” traditionally meant to announce royalty. Christ was not just a baby who became a prophet. He is our King.
Light the Advent candles – Due to drastically different work schedules we didn’t have many opportunities this year to sit in prayer over our lit Advent wreath. However, Christmas Eve, the last day of the season, was a perfect time to remedy this situation. They remained lit as I read the Gospel recounts of the nativity.
All this my mom offered as means to LIVE LITURGICALLY! In spite of minor, or even major hardship, in our lives we are called to embrace the spirit of the season especially during one of the holiest seasons on the liturgical calendar. Though it did take some motherly nudging, I found immense peace and joy this Christmas Eve as I went about these activities, embracing an attitude of service, gratitude and quiet reflection. It was yet another Christmas in which things did not go according to plan but one in which I truly and happily drew closer to Christ.
The days after December 25th are always a bit strange. We’ve been hearing carols blaring on the radio since Halloween and engaging in all sorts of special Advent service and preparation for the nativity for months. Despite all of the anticipation for the jolliest time of year, I can’t help feeling a tiny ping of sadness every year when I see the first Christmas tree stripped of its ornaments and tossed out by the curb with the rest of the garbage. On occasion I’ve seen this even before January 1st.
Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, long before my conversion to the faith. I admit that early on, and with a much more secular understanding of Christmas, I was often among those to partake in premature Christmas decoration and celebration. It was always the happiest time of year with my family and I strove to make it last as long as possible.
Since coming to the faith and marrying my deeply devout husband, I’ve also come to a new understanding of the Christmas season. Contrary to popular belief, it actually begins on December 25th when we celebrate the birth of Christ. In parishes and on front lawns across the world, scenes of the infant Christ in the manger with Mary and Joseph remind us of the humble beginnings of our own salvation. This season extended all the way to January 7th, the Solemnity of the Epiphany and the arrival of the magi to Bethlehem where they paid homage to Christ.
As previously mentioned I myself annually join in the premature Christmas merry making. My husband and I are working on taking a more liturgical approach to the Christmas season which means not setting the star atop our own tree until Christmas Eve. However, it also means fully embracing the joy of the season for the entirety of the season. We shouldn’t be cutting it short just because old Saint Nick has already come and gone. The Christmas season is first and foremost a devotion to Christ.
Many people, myself included, are enthusiastically getting into the Christmas spirit, decorating the tree, planning gift shopping and of course belting all the usual holiday tunes in the car. Amid the excitement it’s easy to forget that the Christmas season is in fact still several weeks away. Yesterday, December 3rd marked the beginning of the holy season of Advent, a time which is first and foremost dedicated to preparation for the nativity.
Although in countless households across the world, this preparation likely includes the baking of delicious Christmas cookies and the wrapping of toys and gadgets for family members, this should also be a time of preparation of our own hearts to receive our Lord, Jesus Christ. Our associate priest once aptly termed this time of the year as mini Lent. In addition to the jolly times and good cheer we enjoy with friends and family during the build up to Christmas, it’s also necessary to set aside time for quiet reflection and adoration of Christ. This is also a time of renewed service for many Christians, whether that be through bell ringing in front of the grocery store or by spending the weekends working at the local soup kitchen. Much like during Lent, we can all find ways to give of ourselves a little more this Advent season in a spirit of service toward our neighbors.
One of my favorite ways to embrace this spirit of giving is by helping to orchestrate the weekly Advent adoration and vespers services which have become a tradition at my home parish. The first time I witnessed one of these services I was still unbaptized and in my own process of discernment about the Catholic faith. The beauty and reverence of these evenings were instrumental in softening my heart to later receive Christ through baptism and first Eucharist. As such, I was determined to keep them as a regular Advent and Lent tradition at our church even after our former associate priest originally responsible for organizing the events was assigned elsewhere. These services were my first recognizable encounter with the Holy Spirit and the first time that I truly felt like a member of Christ’s Church. I pray that those in attendance now can receive similar graces this advent season as we all await the nativity of Christ.
I readily admit that Halloween is far from my favorite holiday. This is a distaste which I believe I inherited from my mom. Of course when my sister and I were little we went trick-or-treating through the neighborhood as a family, a ritual which any child eagerly looks forward to every year. Upon arriving home my parents always had my sister and I choose our favorite 10 pieces of candy. The rest they told us was for the candy fairy. In the morning our extra candy would be gone, replaced by a small gift much like something Santa might leave under the Christmas tree. It was family traditions like these which fueled the magic of our childhood and I’m so grateful to our parents for them.
However, as we outgrew trick-or-treating Halloween became more of a shared family annoyance than a beloved holiday. We always enjoyed passing out candy to the costumed kiddos but as the evening progressed our house would inevitably be visited by lazy or scantily clad teenagers expecting the same treatment, many of whom hadn’t bothered to don a costume at all. Later, Halloween as an adult with work friends was treated by my peers as little more than an excuse for drunkenness during which otherwise respectable young women would squeeze themselves into too tight, too short “costumes” lauding immodesty as the goal the entire time. This has also become a time when quaint family neighborhoods are regularly assaulted by demonic and excessively gory scenes sprawled across various front lawns.
For all of these reasons I’m not a fan of Halloween and wasn’t intending to honor the occasion with a full Monday post. However, I recently came across this post, Halloween and Hallowtide, from a fellow blogger which caused me to reconsider. She very eloquently reminds readers that, all demonic and scandalous behavior aside, Halloween was originally rooted in Catholic traditions. All Hallows Eve is part of a holy triduum in the Church. This is the vigil to All Saints’ Day which occurs on November 1st and is immediately followed by All Souls’ Day on November 2nd. During these three days we are to pray and feast in honor of our beloved dead. After reading this article, I can only echo her call to “sprinkle some Catholicism in your Halloween.” As Catholics we must always be careful to avoid participating in any activities which might lead ourselves and others deeper into sin but we also should attempt to live liturgically where possible by celebrating Catholic feasts like these.
Blessed in the Midwest 