Who could have imagined at the beginning of 2020 that a global pandemic would take over many aspects of our lives? Mix in politics with social unrest and there is the perfect storm of frustration and anger. What will be our country’s reaction after the election today? How will your mood be affected tomorrow? As I write this message, I have no way of knowing who will win the election, or what people will be doing tomorrow. I know what I’ll be doing. I will be loving God and loving my neighbor, because those are the two things God told us to do. I will be serving to the best of my ability as a husband, a father and a priest, because those are the blessings God has granted to me. I don’t know how I’ll feel tomorrow. At some point I’ll feel hungry, at some point I’ll feel tired, at some point I’ll probably feel frustrated or stressed. Because these are feelings I have at some point each day. Here’s the thing about feelings—they ALL come and go. There are choices each of us has to make every day, regardless of how we feel. Love is a choice. We can choose to love no matter how we feel. And thankfulness is a choice. We can choose to be thankful no matter how we feel. As we enter into the final months of this season, I will choose to enter them with a thankful heart, which is going to be the subject of the Prayer Team for the next couple of months. You may not see the words Covid, pandemic, election, or politics in this unit. Because I want to focus on thankfulness, I want to choose thankfulness, and I invite you to make that choice as well. From Monday-Friday each week, we will reflect on “A Thankful Heart”. When there is a feastday, we will pause as always to reflect on that. Saturdays and Sundays will continue to reflect on the Epistle and Gospel of that Sunday.
November 15 marks the beginning of the Nativity Fast, a forty day period of preparation for the feast of the Nativity. In the Orthodox Church, we use “Nativity” or “the Incarnation” to describe the feast of Christmas, so in these writings you will see these terms, and only rare mentions of Christmas. “Advent” is also not an Orthodox word. The preferred term is “The Nativity Fast”, though Advent will also be used occasionally. Advent in the non-Orthodox Churches is the four Sunday period prior to the Nativity. It is always four Sundays in length, usually commencing around December 1. There is no fasting component to Advent in the other denominations. In the Orthodox Church, Advent in the Orthodox Church is a period of fasting, similar to Great Lent. It is meant to be a period of spiritual reflection and purposeful preparation in anticipation of the great feast of December 25. The feasting and the joy of the season come on the twelve days following the Nativity.
Unfortunately, for many, Christmas has become a stressful season. And most of the stress relates to gift-giving. What do I need to buy? For whom do I need to buy? How much is this going to cost? I can’t afford this! Why is there so much traffic at the mall? And how many days are left to get this all done? And as soon as the actual day of Christmas arrives, the season suddenly ends. Christmas music already fills the airwaves today, and it will abruptly stop after ONE day of the twelve days of Christmas.
The goal of this Prayer Team unit is to put our focus on “giving thanks.” In this season of “gift giving,” we must remember that the most important gifts are not things we can buy or material gifts we will receive. The greatest gifts we have ever received are God’s blessings, given to us in so many ways, large and small. In the period of the Nativity Fast, we prepare again to remember and relive the gift of the Incarnation. The greatest gift we can give to another person is to love our neighbor as God loves us.
Each of us has one heart. The heart is the most important part of the body, because without a heart, one has no life. The heart, then, sets the tone for the rest of the body. It also sets the tone for the spirit. If one has a stressful heart, the mind and the spirit are stressed as well. However, if the heart is joyful, then the mind and the spirit become joyful as well. And the key ingredient to joy is thanksgiving. Because thanksgiving includes both grace and joy, which lead us to God and to the kingdom of Heaven.
The Feast of the Nativity will be here before we know it. Ask yourself what kind of heart you will bring to the feast. Will it be a heart that is relieved the season is over? Will it be a heart that is stressed out? Will it be a heart that is angry? Or will it be a heart that is joyful, hopeful and thankful.
Our journey to the manger this year will focus on the thankful heart, offering practical ways to be more thankful and how to share gratitude with others. We will all come to the manger together on December 25—will we come empty-handed?
Many of us have already given some thought to the gifts we will buy for people this Christmas. We are already planning and stressing and wondering how we will get it all done. As we begin this journey to the Incarnation, I begin by asking an important question:
What gift will you offer to Christ this Christmas?
We will learn in this unit that thanksgiving, grace and joy are all intertwined. And we will seek to wrap our hearts with all three to present to the Lord at His Nativity.
Lord, thank You for bringing me to the start of another Nativity season. Watch over me and bless me as I begin this journey. As I prepare to celebrate Your Nativity, allow me to come before You with a thankful heart. Help me again to learn the meaning of the words thanksgiving, grace, and joy so that I may bring all three to the manger on the feast of Your Nativity. Amen.
Let’s each resolve to turn this season of stress into a season of joy by making it a season of thanksgiving. No matter the outcome of the election or the status of the pandemic, let’s choose to be thankful.
I wish each of you a blessed journey to the Nativity of Christ!
