Faith Connection at Home

Christmas is STILL here! Looking for a way to extend Christmas into the traditional 12 days, but in a reflective, sacred way? I stumbled across a webpage by Lacy Clark Ellman called A Sacred Journey, in which Lacy outlines each of the twelve days of Christmas with ideas to mark each day. Since we are already in the season of Christmastide, here are days 5-11. To read the article in its entirety, click the link above.

fifth day of Christmas – December 29: welcome    By now, it’s likely that many friends are returning home after family festivities. However, since Christmas lasts twelve days, we know it’s far from over! Practice hospitality by bringing your community together for a gathering filled with Christmas cheer without the pressure that Christmas Day brings.

sixth day of Christmas – December 30: savor    With New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day just around the corner it won’t be long before the kids have to go back to school and you have to get back to work (unless you’ve gone back already). Set aside this day to really savor your favorite parts of the season—warmth, wonder, togetherness—and make some cookies or have a holiday movie marathon while you’re at it. (Pajamas suggested.)

seventh day of Christmas – December 31: reflect    New Year’s Eve is more often associated with parties and countdowns, but it’s also a great day to reflect on the year that has passed, from sorrows to celebrations and everything in between. I like to make this time of reflection a special outing, and it has become a favorite ritual over the years. You can either do this alone through journaling or with family and friends by recounting the year month by month as you recall what happened in each person’s life.

eighth day of Christmas – January 1: name    In the Christian church, New Year’s Day is also the Feast of the Holy Name, commemorating the day Jesus was named in the temple. To name is to imbue with meaning, and this feast day and the holiday that accompanies it invites us to also name our hopes and desires for the year to come. My favorite way to do this is to have a word for the year. Many people choose a word themselves, which is a great way to name and set your intentions, but I’m a fan of Christine Valters Paintner’s method, which involves prayerfully “receiving” a word that will guide you in the year ahead. Read my past selections and go through the process yourself here.

ninth day of Christmas – January 2: renew   “Always we begin again,” St. Benedict so wisely states in his Rule. The arrival of Christ in human form is a new beginning, and each year offers a new beginning too. Traditionally,we’re prompted to set New Year’s Resolutions, but what if instead we committed to New Year Renewals, returning again to what we know brings us light and life? Led by your word for the year and inspired by the Incarnation, consider which commitments and practices you would like to renew in the new year, and invite those around you to do the same.

tenth day of Christmas – January 3: delight    While everyone might be heading back to their everyday routines by now, the Christmas season is still not over, instead inviting us to celebrate even in the midst of the most ordinary of days. One way to do this is to participate in something that brings you delight. Enthusiasm, after all, comes from entheos, which means “in God,” and so to celebrate our enthusiasm and delights is to name the ways God is in and with each one of us.

eleventh day of Christmas – January 4: listen   The Christmas season is filled with sounds—the singing of carols, the brightness of laughter, the ripping open of presents, the crackling of the fire—and yet the softest sound of all provides the greatest impact: the Incarnation, the Divine breaking into the world through the birth of Jesus in the most unexpected of places. As the twelve days of Christmas nears its end, set aside time to not only listen to your favorite holiday album or sounds of the season—listen to your life, to your community, and to the world. Where is the Incarnation happening now, at this moment? Where is the Divine breaking into the world in the most unexpected places? It is always there that you will find Christ, and, consequently, Life.