A Road Well Traveled
My Personal Journey
My memories of the Christmas Season as I grew up are rich, warm, and deeply connected. My memories strongly feature Family, Friends, Acquaintances, and even strangers in short, Community. They were seasons of generosity, Hope, appreciation, gratitude, Faith, Love and reflection.
Looking back through my Childhood Eyes; through Advent, I see an exquisite wooden hand-carved Nativity Scene, set up in a homemade Stable. I see a homemade Advent Wreath constructed from green conifer branches collected out of the garden, decorated with purple ribbon and the appropriate coloured taper candles. I see a 1 metre tall artificial Christmas Tree (which the three of us children had bought from our pocket money one year) decorated with a diverse collection of baubles, tinsel, beads, lights, and an assortment of other figurines (start, icicle, birds, angels, etc) and a silver coloured Peak on top.
Then Christmas Eve arrives and I see a table set with the family’s good crockery, cups and saucers, cake plates, a pot of Coffee and other items. There is mum’s home baked Christmas Stollen, and Christmas Wreath (almond paste filled pastry) ready and waiting. I see us sitting in the Church at Midnight Mass as a family dressed in our finest we had.
Then on Christmas day, I remember Kris Kringle (Secret Santa), singing carols, games, music and the Christmas meal with Family and Friends (who were on their own). I remember Joy, laughter, Gratitude, appreciation and generosity, but above all other things I remember the deep sense of Love, of Faith and of HOPE.
“Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. ‘Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful’ (Heb. 10:23). ‘The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life’” (Titus 3:6–7; CCC 1817). — St. Maximilian Kolbe
This was the soil in which the seed of my deep love of the Christmas Season was sown. Since then through my life experiences, challenging and blessed, painful and joyful, this seed has germinated and has grown into a resilient tree. My Family Tree, and with it the Traditions and Heirlooms that binds together the fibres of the trunk, branches and twigs. With the seasons they transform to reflect the cycle of life, the cycle of time, and the cycle of change. From leaves, to flowers, to fruit and baren wood, each has their time, purpose and beauty.
Christmas for me personally has always been about HOPE. Not a hope based on an expectation or future eventuality, but based on a deep cherished love of a Promise Already Fulfilled. A promise that Humanity and indeed Creation is worthy of LIFE, both transient and eternal. This kind of Hope is the origin of REAL Forgiveness, Freedom, and importantly Agency. Christ mentioned “I am the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIGHT” these, if you notice, are the features of Hope which lead to Peace, Joy and Love.
Christmas celebrates the birth of HOPE, so let the season reflect this Theological Virtue throughout all your activities and traditions.
I am a New Zealand, Catholic mum with a young family, very happily married to a non-Catholic husband. I am also a Professed member of the Order of Secular Franciscans and part of the Focolare Movement.
