Dear Baba

We’ve made it through Nativity Lent and I’m at a loss. I watched friends and colleagues party like there was no tomorrow since Thanksgiving, I dabbled a bit but tried to avoid the festivities until Christmas. That left me feeling a strange mixture of bah humbug, guilty and ‘holier than thou’. Now it is the 12 days of Christmas and all signs of the feast are vanishing quickly all around me and it seems awkward to be trying to celebrate when everyone has packed up and put the tree out for the recycle truck. I feel like Scrooge.

My dear Ebenezer Scrooge; First of all let me greet you with a joyous “Christ is Born – Glorify Him.” Now, you must sit down and have a cup of strong, hot tea and some of these wonderful Christmas goodies I’ve been baking. We have so much to talk through. What you have experienced just goes to show there is so much more to Nativity Lent and preparing the cave within us than most of us realize. That also means there is so much more to celebrating the 12 days of the Nativity than we realize too.

In the US I think more so than other parts of the world, we attempt to prepare and celebrate simultaneously. We bake, we shop, we decorate at the same time we’re attending parties. It is like vacuuming, dusting and mopping at the same time we’re passing hors d’oeuvres to a house full of guests. No wonder people are exhausted and relieved to put the holidays behind them the moment the last package is opened. That sounds like a crazy way to do something doesn’t it? But I’m afraid we do that and then turn around and do the same thing the next year.

Since you likened yourself to Ebenezer Scrooge, I have to share with you that one of my favorite parts of the Christmas Carol, is when Ebenezer joyfully realizes on Christmas Day that he hasn’t missed the feast. And so you too have not missed the feast.

• Nativity Lent is harder than many of us realize. It is more than a nuisance to keep the brakes on the partying until December 25. Everything about it offers to draw us out of ourselves and closer to God. The gospel readings are so especially powerful during this time. But with all the glitz and over the top partying, it takes deliberate effort on our part to stay focused. Great Lent in preparation for Pascha seems so much more straightforward in comparison doesn’t it?

• Take a moment and ponder what all you were feeling during the Nativity fast. When we say we’re preparing the cave within us for the coming of the Christ child, we tend to think all the cave needs is a quick dusting and maybe a little ‘decluttering’. But we think of that in terms of us not being so busy and perhaps instead being curled up by a crackling fire quietly reading. It is always such a surprise to find all that we store up in that pesky cave of ours isn’t it? Talk with your spiritual father. He is there to help guide each of us. Nativity Lent reveals a lot more to us than we often pause to realize. How wonderful that you have indeed realized it. And you are not alone in this and I think we can all honestly say we all have gone through all of the feelings you describe and more. The question is what we do about it. This is our chance to not take duct tape and reattach it to the walls of the cave but truly ‘declutter’ the cave within us. You are quite an inspiration to me to do exactly that. Thank you.

• Now what to do during these glorious 12 days of Christmas. It may be a simple thing, but celebrate! Leave your tree up, lights on outside and be of good cheer. Use this time to catch up with friends. Invite people over and accept invitations. One of the beautiful things is that the craziness around us has taken a collective pause and our joy isn’t getting drowned out.

• We as a society have become so isolated. We hardly know our neighbors, fellow parishioners and have developed a fear of getting involved. And then we wonder why we feel so lonely. We really are a silly lot aren’t we? So take advantage of the 12 days and get to know people. I know a couple who one year made a concerted effort to invite people over from church during the 12 days that they hadn’t gotten to know before. Two of the people became Godparents to their children and many other lifelong friendships were born of that one year’s efforts. It didn’t have to be a big fancy party. In their case it was just tea and cookies…have some more tea dear?

• Sure you can promise to try that next year. But may I be so bold as to say we are only half way through the 12 days of Christmas. Pick up the phone today.

• Sing Christmas carols. In various Orthodox cultures, caroling is the highlight of the Nativity season. Play that Christmas music, sing along. There is something so wonderful about having the preparations done and being able to relish the glorious moments of the feast.

• Be in church. There is the feast of St. Stephen, St. Basil and other great saints during this time. The services still resound with the joy of the Nativity.

• The Greeks bake a Vasilopita – St. Basil’s bread – for his feast on January 1. They place a coin inside. The first piece goes to Christ, then the Theotokos, then the poor and then a piece is given to each person present. What fun to be the lucky recipient of the coin! And best of all, you don’t have to be Greek to do your own version of a Vasilopita.

Now, let’s have another cup of tea and another helping of these goodies. I’m sure you will find all sorts of simple and joyous ways to celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even being here with me and sharing this pot of tea has been such a delight for me. Thank you my friend. Christ is Born! Glorify Him!