Reflecting during the Christmas Octave

Days two through four of the octave of Christmas are glorious feasts in and of themselves. First comes the Feast of Saint Stephen, followed by the Feast of Saint John the Evangelist, and then the Feast of the Holy Innocents. These days respectively are for deacons, priests, and altar servers. Following these days is the Memorial of Thomas Becket, which this year, falling on a Sunday, is superceded by the Feast of the Holy Family.

The liturgical year, too little understood, is such a great gift. It's sad when knowledge of the year fades and along with it the traditions that have developed. One example is near disappearance of Ember and Rogation Days. Hence, I think it is largely a good thing that many people, younger people, young couples raising families, are retrieving these concrete ways of living the Christian faith, receiving what has been handed on, developing it with the aim of, in turn, handing it down. Tradition doesn't develop by disappearing. It just disappears in the sea of secularization.

I am struck each year when reading A Christmas Carol by Scoorge's promise to the Ghost of Christmas Future to "live in the Past, the Present, and the Future." This is what means to live Tradition, which we too quickly only associate with the past. As Pope Saint John XXIII insisted when speaking about the Christian life, “We are not on earth to guard a museum, but to cultivate a flowering garden of life.” Cultivation, not brute force, is how Tradition and traditions develop- the word for this kind of development is organic.

Living the days and seasons of the liturgical year is one of the best ways of imparting the faith to children because their are fun activities and crafts that can be done together. This is a form of mystagogia. Rather than a didactic "lesson" or lecture, it's important to engage imagination and hands.

The Christmas octave is brought to its conclusion by the Church's celebration of the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin on 1 January, which is a holy day of obligation.

I love the octave because all the hussle and bustle that too often mark Advent is over. At least for me, it's usually a time of quiet and rest. This year it is for sure, something for which I am grateful.

While composing this today, I ran across this book review on The Gospel Coalition: "Post-Christianity Is an Opportunity for Real Christianity." It seems very relevant to understand our present moment in order to move into the future while not forgetting our past, maybe even retrieving our distant past.

There has never been what one might call a Christian society, "Christendom" not withstanding. "Christians need to learn (or re-learn"- this is how Christianity started and remained for its first several centuries- insists the reviewer of Post-Christian: A Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, "how to be creative and faithful minorities. The transition may be painful and difficult, but nostalgic attitudes toward a status quo somewhat marked by Christianity will not serve the cause of the gospel."

Happy Feast of Saint John the Evangelist. A special greeting to all my friends who are priests. Our traditio for today is my favorite Christmas hymn, "O Holy Night"-