CHRISTMAS TO CANDLEMAS IN A CATHOLIC HOME - BY HELEN MCLOUGHLINI have read this wonderful book so many times and each year get something new form it.
Here it is in it's online form but for a little taste so to speak here is the start of it for you to enjoy
THE SEASON OF GRACE AND JOY
Christmas is a liturgical season of great joy. It lasts forty
days, from December 25 to February 2, during which the birth of
Jesus Christ, our Savior, is celebrated as one continuous
festival. The finale comes with His presentation in the temple. A
season most dear to Christian hearts, Christmas is as distinct in
the liturgy as Advent, Lent, Easter, or Pentecost. Four weeks of
Advent are scarcely enough to "prepare the way of the Lord" for
His coming to us as King. However, if we have used that season as
a preparation, we are ready now to receive the Redeemer who will
deliver us from sin in answer to our requests. Christ's coming
must be, not a lovely idyll or a pastoral scene, but a reality
accomplished in our lives and our children's. Forty days of
rejoicing are not too long a celebration for so great an event.
The early Church selected December 25, the date of the winter
solstice when God the Creator gives the sun an increase of
natural light in northern hemispheres, as the day on which to
celebrate the birth of the Sun of Justice, Light of the world.
Radiating from the Divine Child are a galaxy of wonderful saints
whose lives afford a continuing interest in celebrating the feast
of His birth.
Micheas, who lived in the days of Isaias, prophesied the
birthplace of the Messiah: "Thou, Bethlehem, art a little one
among the thousands in Judah; out of thee shall He come forth
unto me that is to be the Ruler of Israel; and His going forth is
from the beginning, from the days of eternity." The name
Bethlehem signifies House of Bread. To it at Christmas comes the
Savior, who is the Bread of Life. By our participation in this
mystery the divine transformation takes place whereby He "re-
shapes the body of our lowliness after the body of His splendor."
Our forebears gave the name Christmas to the feast of our Lord's
birth because they kept the "Christ Mass" as the heart of their
celebrations. Following closely the liturgy of the Church, they
centered their customs and wrote their hymns and carols on her
practices of the season, adoration, love, joy, and gratitude.
Those practices also increased their admiration for His Virgin
Mother Mary who gave Almighty God His human form. He had created
heaven and earth by His Word, but His becoming Man depended on a
creature's FIAT, "Be it done unto me according to Thy Word." Mary
consented. Our forebears honored her in their great masterpieces
because she is God's Mother. For the same reason the world in our
day honors her as Queen of Heaven.
A CORRECT OUTLOOK
It is to our Lady that Christian families must look for help to
reestablish Christmas as a season of festivities marking Christ's
birth. Either we live the liturgical year with its varying
seasons of joy and sorrow, work and rest, or we follow the
pattern of the world. Nor is it an easy task to break with the
world and the powerful influence of advertising. Their season of
Christmas begins around Thanksgiving Day when stores display
wares for holiday gift-giving. It lasts until December 24.
Families, who would not dream of eating their Thanksgiving turkey
a week in advance or of having their 4th of July picnic in June,
give no thought to the fact that, when they awake on December 25,
there is not a shred of Christmas left. Every present has been
opened. Every carol has been sung. The tree has dried out.
Christmas is apt to be a dull day given to over-eating. There was
no fast in Advent, so it follows that there can be no feast.
It is difficult to keep one's home dark in Advent penance; to
keep a tree fresh outside the door; to refrain from singing
carols until Christmas eve. Our children see their friends' trees
shimmering with ornaments a week before Christmas. Their houses
are bedecked with lights. Television and radio blare carols. Not
only is it difficult to keep from celebrating beforehand, it is
even more difficult to begin forty days of the Christmas season
when all around people are concluding their festivities. How then
do families return to the spirit of the Church and begin the
season of joy and grace on Christmas eve?
The simplest way is by keeping Advent. Children love to
anticipate. When there are empty mangers to fill with straws of
small sacrifices, when the Mary-Candle is a daily reminder on the
dinner table, when Advent hymns are sung in the candlelight of a
graceful Advent wreath, children are not anxious to celebrate
Christmas before time. That would offend their sense of honor.
Older children who make Nativity sets, cut Old Testament symbols
to decorate a Jesse tree, or prepare costumes for a Christmas
play will find Advent all too short a time to prepare for the
coming of Christ the King.[1]
Celebrating Christmas in its season can be accomplished more
easily when several families try it together. Frequently there
are families who, if only for sentimental reasons, would like to
keep the joy and surprise of Christmas for the eve. Christians of
the Eastern rite wait until their particular feast of Christmas
comes in January. We should likewise begin ours on its proper
day. We also need time for our festivities. The Church gives us a
period of forty days for rejoicing.
As a child in the suburbs of Boston, my Christmas eve centered
around the parish house. On the half-hour groups of children with
trumpet accompaniment caroled around the giant tree on the lawn
or, when snow was too deep, sang on the rambling veranda. From
there they went to sing in the park, at the convent, and at homes
of aged parishioners. Back to the parish house, its hearths
aglow, children trooped to enjoy warm doughnuts and cider. Early
in the evening high school students caroled on the same circuit.
Now the parish house was bright with candles and firelight. The
night was blue and so frosty cold that the trumpets cut the air.
Their "Noel Noel" traveled far and clear. In reply myriads of
vigil lights, flickering against lace curtains in every house,
returned a bright "Merry Christmas." Carolers returned to the
parish house for refreshments.
Half-hourly the charming custom of caroling went on. By nine
o'clock the church choir arrived. When the last trolley car had
left the carbarns an hour later, a hush fell upon the city making
peace on earth a reality. By ten-thirty parents arrived to join
the singing and to free the choir for rehearsals.
I remember the breathtaking beauty of the upper church. Its
marble altar with golden decorations was resplendent with light.
The crib gave new joy each succeeding year. With the singing of
Midnight Mass our season of rejoicing began.
Afterwards families walked home together in the sharp cold
nights, parents a bit ahead, boys and girls lagging behind.
Everywhere vigil lights flickered in homes of the Irish emigrants
who began the custom in penal days when priests were being
hunted. Telling of the custom in "The Christmas Book,"[2] Father
Francis X. Weiser, S.J., writes: "The people had no churches.
Priests hid in forests and caves and secretly visited the farms
and homes to say Mass there during the night. When Christmas came
the faithful placed burning candles in the windows so that any
priest who happened to be in the vicinity would be guided to
their home through the dark night. Silently he entered and was
received by the devout with fervent prayers of gratitude that
their home was to become a church during the Holy Night. To
justify this practice in the eyes of the English soldiers, the
Irish people used to explain: 'We burn the candles that Jesus and
Mary looking for a place to stay will find their way to our
home.' The English authorities finding this superstition harmless
did not bother to suppress it."
A Gaelic name for Christmas eve is "Oidhche na ceapairi"--Night
of Cakes. I can still see the cakes through candlelight in
kitchens of my childhood. A spanking white cloth on the table set
off the two-foot candle bound in evergreens and rising from a
bowl of holly to symbolize the Light of the world arising from
the Root of Jesse. On the polished black stove were round loaves
of sweet buttery bread flecked with currants and candied peel
called Irish Christmas "cake." That bread spelled Christmas for
us.
After a feast day breakfast early in the morning, our tree was
stealthily brought indoors and set into its waiting stand. Balls
were hung, tinsel, popcorn, and cranberries festooned to its
spreading branches. Then it was time for Mass at dawn.
Blessings to you and your homes,
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