Third Sunday of Advent, Posada, and Novena

We have made it through the second week of advent, and now the excitement is really growing! 

Tonight is the start of Las Posadas, a nine-day Mexican celebration that begins on December 16 each year. Posadas is Spanish for "lodging", and the nine days represent the nine months of Mary's pregnancy.

Tonight is also the start of the Christmas Novena in Italy. A Novena is a Catholic ritual, a prayer repeated daily for nine days. It can take place at any time of the year, but one of the most observed is the Christmas Novena, recited or sung during the 9 days leading up to Christmas day. Las Posadas comes from that same tradition.

Agenda:
1. Journal queries
2. Listen to novenas
3. Advent wreath ceremony
4. Plan activities for family fun
5. Have a Posadas Procession
6. Sign up to help at the Warming Center
7. Set out our crèche

1. Journal queries:
The excitement that grows at advent can cause high expectations, dissapointments, and frayed nerves. This is a good time to give extra attention to the importance of friends and family, and find ways to support and comfort each other.

Am I paying enough attention to each member of my family?
Am I including them in advent in ways that they enjoy?
How can I connect better to my friends this week?

2. Listen to novenas:
The most well-known Christmas Novena was written by Father Charles Vachetta, pastor of the Church of the Immaculate in Turin, Italy, in 1721. He wrote it as a gift to his parishioners, to help them to understand the intertwining of the Old and New Testaments- a prayer going deep into the spirit of Advent, to leave them inspired with joy. Listen to the traditional Christmas Novena, Day 1, sung by the Daughters of St. Paul Choir.

I was searching through traditional and alternate novenas and found this one at the WorldSSPS (Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit), called In Communion with the Victims of Violence.

Day 1 – Christmas Novena Prayer 

Lord God, you know the depth of the heart and the pains of many women in our patriarchal culture. Help us to overcome all these ills to be able to sing, with Mary: “He looked at the humiliation of his servant,” we pray, compassion reaches those who fear Him from one generation to another. 

Lord God, help us to overcome any individualism to enter the circle of solidarity, we pray, compassion reaches those who fear Him from one generation to another. 

Lord God, look at the immeasurable human suffering many times being caused by fratricide quarrels. Teach us the lesson of the Incarnation of your Son Jesus, of real love to overcome this human disintegration and of creation, we pray, compassion reaches those who fear Him from one generation to another.

If you go to the site, the novena includes a prayer, a recitation, and a personal story. Each day of the novena has a different theme- The environment, refugees and migrants, etc. Pretty cool practice!

3. Advent wreath ceremony:

Tonight (and every night this week) we will light three advent candles, and recite three prayers:

"We light the first candle for the earth, which sustains us. May we cherish and care for it."

"We light the second candle for all the people of the world. May we find unity and peace."

"We light the third candle for our family and the joy and love we bring each other."

4. Plan activities for family fun:

Christmas past

I remember many joyful moments with my family in advents past- shopping together, writing cards, making cookies, putting up the tree, making gifts, or watching Christmas shows. 

Now my kids are grown and have partners, so I need to coordinate activities with two other households; it can be tricky, but it's fun to work it all out.

I look at each activity and project, decide whether I want to do it alone, or if I can reasonably negotiate help from my family, or if I want to turn it over for them to do on their own: I am happy to let go of some traditions and let my children take the lead- for example, they are putting up Christmas trees, and we are not.

Things to do this week to open to joy and love:

• Take care of myself so I can be calm and present for the spontaneous joy when it arises.
• Take the time to consider what others- friends and family- want most this season. In other words, become less self-focused and more generous in all ways. 
• Be respectful, patient, and kind (no matter how stressed  I feel).

5. Have a Posadas Procession:
In Mexico, people gather tonight and carry candles and clay figures of Mary and Joseph from house to house, reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for a room at an inn. They are turned away again and again with a rude “No!” Finally, one house allows them to enter, and everyone celebrates with food and a piñata. The procession is repeated each night through Christmas Eve, ending with a party at a different house.

No room at the inn.

One year we had a procession at our Friends Meeting Christmas party! It was fun. I asked for volunteers to be Mary and Joseph and other pilgrims, and for several innkeepers. We walked around the building outside, in the ice, and knocked at all the doors- and were rejected and sent away (very politely). Finally someone said we could come in and sleep in the barn. Then we broke a piñata.

6. Sign up to help at the Warming Center:
I have always wished to live someplace where the Posadas procession is practiced. It reminds me of what it means to be a compassionate person and part of a compassionate community. It reminds me that the person at the door asking for help is always Jesus.

“...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Matthew 25:35-36.

The Egan Warming Center is a bunch of different sites in our town that activate whenever the temperatures drop to 30ºF. We just had a week-long cold streak and I volunteered one of those nights to make and serve food to about 50 homeless people, so they could have a warm meal and sleep on the floor indoors.

It's warmer now, but I'm ready to sign up when next we are activated.

7. Set out our crèche:
Traditionally, it was St. Francis of Assisi who made the first crèche, in honor of animals who shared the stable with the baby Jesus. 

We made Mary and Joseph with fabric and glue when my kids were very young. The donkey and bird (on the roof) are Fimo and the manger is balsa wood.

Today I set out just these figures, but leave the manger empty until Christmas morning.