Christmas Plans
I thought I would offer a few of my Christmas plans here. First, a few general notes. I will be off work from the 24th until January 11th. Throughout the holy season I am going to try to get to daily mass as often as I can, and pray as much of the office I can. We try to visit some of our local friends from church throughout the Christmas season. I think it is good for the kids to see other families celebrate the real Christmas season. They are becoming increasingly aware that most of their extended family considers Christmas to be over after the last present is unwrapped.
Christmas Eve: For practical reasons the Christmas decorations will probably all be up by Christmas Eve. But any finishing touches required will be finished on that day. We’ll try to get the house tidied up. I’ll keep the Christmas lights off until after first Vespers of Christmas. Then we will have a nice tree lighting including some prayers. Then we will put on the Christmas Carols and have our Christmas Eve dinner. I plan to observe the traditional vigil fast until midnight, but honestly the Christmas Eve dinner will probably fill me up for the night anyway. I will read some Christmas stories to the kids, and we might watch a Christmas movie.
Christmas Morning: We get each child three modest presents, a stocking with small items and toys (like stickers, crayons, little green army men, etc) and I like to fill the tree with candies and treats, especially candy canes (I do this after the kids go to bed on Christmas Eve). Sometimes I put a special hidden object in the tree and the one who finds it first wins an extra treat. After presents are done we have a nice Christmas breakfast. Then we enjoy the rest of the morning together before heading off to 11am High Mass.
Remainder of Christmas day: After we get back from mass we start getting the Christmas feast ready, and just try to enjoy the rest of the day. We might briefly stop over at nearby friends’ houses and share some Christmas desserts and fine drink.
Remainder of the Octave: We are normally visiting family during most, if not all, of the Octave of Christmas so we don’t really have the chance to develop many customs. It’s always a bit distressing because the children hear most of their family make comments like, “well now it’s all over,” or “all that preparation and it’s over just like that.” Especially sad is when we have to witness trees being unceremoniously taken down even before the Octave day. Fortunately this year, we will be back from visiting by the 29th, so that sort of thing should be minimal. In any case, I want to get a bottle of wine blessed for St. john’s day. There is special blessing for it in the Roman Ritual (or so I am told). If we were home, we might do some special decoration on the baby’s crib for the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Also on St. Stephan’s Day I like to tell the children the story of Good King Wenceslaus. We also set the Wise Men up away from the our Nativity scene and move them a little closer each day until they arrive on Epiphany.
Octave day of Christmas: We go to Mass of course, being a holy day of obligation. We basically have a repeat of our Christmas dinner. To make it easier we freeze some of the leftovers from Christmas Day. I also restock the tree with treats for the kids to find in the morning.
Twelfth Day of Christmas: On 12th night we have a little party with a “Kings Cake.” There is a little trinket in the cake and whoever finds it gets to be the Epiphany King (or Queen). The king gets to pick what the kids have for snacks, if we watch a movie he picks which one, and things like that. I think last year we even let them pick dinner for the Octave of Epiphany.
Epiphany: On Epiphany the children wake up to find one more present. This present is always a religious item of some sort. Again, we go to high mass, and try to have a nice meal.
Octave of Epiphany: This is the last day we light the tree. The next (practical) day it will be undecorated, and cut up for firewood for next year. Maybe I will read Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Fir Tree.”
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December 21st, 2009 @ 7:16 pm
I saw your comment on John Rotundi’s blog, and I was just wondering if I know you and your family from Mater Ecclesiae? I used to be there in college and sang for feast days.
December 23rd, 2009 @ 12:52 pm
Yes, I remember you, though I don’t think we were well acquainted. I’m Tony Mantoan, my wife is Kelly. You always did a very lovely job. I hope everything is going well for you!
January 8th, 2010 @ 7:14 pm
Hi,
I’ve enjoyed reading your postings… They have much insight. You seem to have a great love for God, the Saints, the Church and Tradition. Have you ever considered that the present visible so called Catholic Church, is simply not? That all you have seen is not Catholic, that even the person that calls himself Pope, is not? The Church cannot preach against itself in matters of Real Faith and Morals, yet, the so called Church of today is doing this, by stating that ALL pray to the same God. The fact is that we are experiencing a terrible apostasy and the sheep are being slaughtered by the wolves in sheeps clothing, and not just temporally…
I see that you enjoy Jacobus, we do also, and also Geranger(sp?), we read these books daily, pray daily the Rosary, and have tried to faithfully pray the Divine Office. We do not attend any Parish, as we do not know of any that are actually Catholic. It would be nice to see what you think about this, and how you still maintain that the visible Church is actually Catholic? Why is Benedict a Real Pope, whilst he maintains and promotes Heresy, publicly? Can a Pope that preaches against the Catholic Faith and against earlier solemnly proclaimed Church laws, still maintain His office? No. He automatically loses his office, it is written in the very contract a Pope signs when being sworn into the seat…
I look forward to hearing from you, May God open your eyes and convert you to His One Holy Apostolic Catholic Church, Paula
January 14th, 2010 @ 4:21 pm
Paula,
Sorry it took so long to approve your comment. I have not been online much lately and for some reason I don’t get email notices anymore when comments are in the queue.
I’ll give you my short answer, but first let me say a couple things. I am not interested in having a theological debate in a blog combox, it’s a poor medium for such things. Second, the various theological points are covered adequately elsewhere if you are interested. For example Athanasius’ blog has ongoing theological debate with a sedevacantist. No sense reinventing the wheel here.
As for my personal views, the bottom line is this:
A) I am unconvinced that recent popes formally taught any heresy. I find that sedevacantist complaints fall into three categories. 1 Things the pope did not formally teach. 2 Reading into the popes’ words things that are not there. 3 Matters of prudence rather than doctrine.
B) It seems to me that the sedevacantist position proposes a Church that is more or less a failure, and makes the promise of our Lord to St. Peter worthless in practical terms. You asked how I maintain that the visible Church is Catholic. Visibility is a fundamental characteristic of the Church. That is the traditional doctrine (see the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on visibility for example). There is no such thing as an obscure Catholic church, which is what sedevacantism proposes. To my mind that is a failed church. To be honest I find the claims of the Eastern Orthodox more credible than sedevacantism. Although if you think about it, the Orthodox are simply sedevacantists with a longer list heretic popes.
I hope none of this came across as uncharitable. I understand where you are coming from, surveying the devastation around us. I can even agree that “we are experiencing a terrible apostasy and the sheep are being slaughtered by the wolves in sheeps clothing”. It is a traumatic time to be a Catholic. But I don’t count the Pope among the wolves and I do not accept that the visible (and only) Church is an abject failure.