Recently I learned about a beautiful family tradition practiced by dear Vietnamese friends. In their culture, an elder family member always delivers a meaningful spiritual reflection to family members and close friends on the occasion of great Christian feasts like Christmas.
How inspired I am to learn about this special tradition! Too often, secular temptations to be efficient and comfortable reduce the grandeur of God’s beauty streaming into our hearts and homes.
As a child I fondly recall our parents first requiring us to kneel as a family before the crib scene where they led us in prayer before we made our way to the tree and presents underneath it. Dad and mom knelt and we imitated them. Dad and mom prayed and we joined them. Later, dad and mom paused, made the sign of the cross and prayed at the dining room table before any food was allowed to tasted and we eagerly did the same.
Dare to celebrate Christmas intentionally and wholeheartedly. Make certain to pray before spirited gift-giving and delicious meals. Read aloud the Christmas story and ponder God’s inexhaustible love anew (Matthew 1:18-24; Luke 2:1-20).
Take a moment, too, to offer heartfelt petitions for those unable to be present and for those who are suffering and find this time especially difficult.
Lest we forget, the reason for Christmas is God’s promise having been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ who arrives for us and for our salvation! The evangelist John is inspired to declare this truth more poetically: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
