Padre’s Corner: Are you Ready Aye Ready for the holidays?
By LCdr David Jackson,
Senior Fleet Chaplain, Canadian Fleet Atlantic
Are you Ready Aye ready for the holidays? Believe it or not, we’re only a few weeks away!
For many Canadians the holiday season is an important time of year. For those who celebrate Christmas or another festive holiday, it is a time when people get together with family and friends and celebrate their various traditions. Depending on the family, this can range from religious to secular observations. Perhaps it will involve attending a carol service, exchanging presents, or enjoying a turkey dinner or fresh baked goods. Regardless of your traditions, there is a great deal of preparation that must be undertaken ahead of time.
What preparations do you undertake to get ready for the holidays? Do you spend time purchasing presents, writing greeting cards, decorating the house, and making sure you have all the ingredients for the perfect dinner? Perhaps you are from away and you have already purchased plane tickets to fly home and cannot wait to see your family?
In the Christian Church, we call this time of preparation Advent. The word Advent comes from a Latin word meaning “coming”, because Advent is a time of waiting, a time of expectation, a time of anticipation. In the Christian tradition, it is the time of year when we look forward to the coming of Jesus, both as a baby in a manger 2000 years ago and also at the end of the age when all things will be made new. For this reason, as well as a time of anticipation and expectation, it is also a time of preparation and repentance, just like Lent, and for some it is also a time of fasting until the Feast of the Nativity.
In a consumer culture that starts to celebrate the holidays in October it can sometimes be hard to take time to prepare spiritually for the holidays. We need to remember those less fortunate than ourselves, and for people of faith it is important to come together to pray for the needs of the whole world and for peace and goodwill over all the earth.
For some, one way to take time out of the “busyness” can be to attend a carol service like the one that will be offered here at CFB Halifax on December 8. So, for those who are interested, the MARLANT Chaplain Team would like to warmly invite you and your families to join us for our Christmas Festival of Lessons & Carols, A Celtic Christmas to be held at St. Brendan’s Chapel, Stadacona on December 8 at 3 p.m.. This is a traditional Ecumenical Christian Christmas service composed of nine Scripture readings, traditional Christmas carols, and musical offerings from local musicians including the Stadacona Band Celtic Ensemble and the Canadian Military Wives Choir, Halifax. As well, a free-will offering will be collected to benefit the Halifax & Region Military Family Resource Centre’s Op Dasher intiative.
