CHURCH SOCIAL TIPS
As a mainlander, the tradition of spending a week on Maui during Pearl Harbor Week has become a part of my Advent each year. My husband Brad Peirce, a former Rainbow Warrior volleyball player, is drawn to the islands to celebrate his Dec. 8 birthday. As a non-Catholic he doesn’t understand the significance of being born on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, but he dutifully attends Maria Lanakila Church in Lahaina with me on this holy day of obligation as a part of his birthday celebration.
Following Mass, we visit a local store in Lahaina to find an island-inspired Christmas ornament to place on our Christmas tree. When we return home it allows us to bring back a little bit of aloha with us each year. Over nearly two decades my tree is now filled with seashell angels.
My father’s side of the family hails from New Orleans and their culture embraces the idea that Christmas extends far beyond Dec. 25. Being raised in that tradition creates a decoration schedule that is never done before Dec. 15, usually coinciding with Gaudete Sunday.
There is such a sense of peace when I’m sitting in church at Christmas Mass. The feeling of frenzy is transformed into the joy of just adoring him! It is the glow that emanates from the creche that fills our hearts with the love of Christ. Reflecting on the incarnation of our Lord as the best gift we’ve ever received helps me to start my new year off with such hope for extraordinary possibilities.
So many Catholics take the tree down the next trash pick-up day following Christmas Day, even though our Catechism clearly teaches that the Christmas season ends, at a minimum, eight days after Dec. 25 in alignment with the Christmas octave and culminating on Epiphany. Others embrace celebrating one additional week through the Baptism or Presentation of the Lord.
On the feast of Epiphany I will take down my tree. For me, as I wrap my seashell angels and beach-inspired ornaments to store them away until next year, it reconnects me with the feelings of peace and reflection that I always enjoy in the islands.
Reflecting on the gifts we have received from Christ during the Christmas season allows us to share them in the little part of the world we live in. For as 1 Peter 4:10 says, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
During this holiday season of stewardship, it is also a great time to reflect on what we can give to God. I loved the stewardship prayer offered during the Prayers of the Faithful at Maria Lanakila:
Celebration Prayer for Stewardship and the Family Prayer
Lord Jesus, encourage me to be a faithful steward and renew my commitment of service, generosity and self-service.
I celebrate my devotion to you by freely giving of my time, my talent and my treasure.
We ask for abundant blessings upon all married couples. May they celebrate each other and seek pardon and counsel from Jesus Christ through the Church.
We pray for the value and beauty of families and ask the Holy Spirit to guide them to live together in true communion. Strengthen and protect the families who celebrate living in the light of Christ.
Almighty God and Father, renew your faithful community through the merits of prayer and the Most Precious Body and Blood of Your Son, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
E ho‘omana‘o mau i ka Kalikimaka (Remember Christmas Continues)
