|
What a beautiful, 'hour and moment' of Christmas Eve Mass last night was! And we at least get 8 more nights of potent moments as part of the Christmas octave, and 12 if you're going by Christmastide! ;-) That 'hour and moment' is too much to take in, all in one night, for us mere mortals. I'm so very grateful for octaves, tides, and seasons in our liturgical year to give us time to unpack, diver deeper, and savor the mysteries of our beautiful redemption!
We relive that 'hour and moment' in every Mass! (You can literally think, 'Merry Christmas' every Mass!) It also beautifully ties in with the image of placing tender new shoots of Christmas Wheat near Jesus in our manger scenes. It's that poignant and sober reminder that our redemption was bought at a price, reflecting the length of Love's desire at hold nothing back, even being willing to be ground like wheat for us. So, for those of us who have a hard time letting go of praying this beautiful Novena prayer, you don't have to! I usually taper down with at least one a day during Christmastide, and think of it often at Mass or during Adoration, or when I'm outside late at night and admiring the beauty of a dark starry sky. All those moments are linked for me to the mystery of the Incarnation and are great occasions to recite this prayer. (I recently heard it was a favorite of Blessed Solanus Casey's too, and that he said it daily!) May we never tire of the wonderment and awe of that 'hour and moment'. May we even return there often in our prayer giving thanks to God our Father for His wondrous gift of Love in Jesus, through Mary. Merry Christmas!
While my Christmas Novena site starts winding down for the season until next Advent, to follow more of my work throughout the year on art and prayer, visit my new site FortheLoveofBeauty.com.
2 Comments
“Advent is the season of the seed” ~Caryll Houselander
One thing that always struck me as odd though, was seeing a patch of grass in a Croatian nativity scene. I never saw that in the regular American churches. After seeing it appear each year in our local Croatian church and realizing it wasn't an accident, but rather something intentional that someone meant to include as part of the crèche scene, and even placed very near the infant Jesus, I finally asked my mother what it was. She said very matter-of-factly "It's Christmas wheat, St. Lucy's Christmas wheat." I said, "But why? It doesn't fit." I have never seen it anywhere else. Matter-of-factly, like it was common knowledge, she said "it symbolizes Jesus, He is the "new wheat." I think I was breathless. I thought to myself, "how can I have gone this long and not have known about that?" My brain and heart were exploding. What a beautiful symbol that foreshadows both the Cross, in the crushing of the wheat to make bread, and Eucharistic bread for our spiritual food and His continued presence for us on earth. The Cross and Christ's Eucharistic Body, represented in tender, new, spring green, shoots of wheat grass, were so powerful to contemplate next to the infant Jesus as part of the Nativity scene. A scene that we display habitually each year to remind us of His birth, but perhaps without directly linking the fact He came to save us through dying on the cross, and was crushed, ground like wheat, for our inequities. The juxtaposition of tender, vulnerable baby Jesus, and tender, vulnerable crucified Christ is arresting, but kindly veiled in the form of tender spring wheat. It points us to the direction of Good Friday without directly taking us there just yet. We can also ponder that the wheat will be made into food for us, as a taste of heaven, through His Body in the Eucharist. It is fitting, as well, to note that Bethlehem, Christ's birthplace, actually means house of bread. The image of wheat is beautifully reinforced in the name of that 'little town'. So, why Saint Lucy? My mother explained (yes, very matter-of-factly), her feast day, Dec. 13th is about the two-week mark before Christmas and the seeds are planted then, so that the new shoots have enough time to grow to at least a few inches tall. I wondered if there could be more to it than that, but it was a practical enough reason at least. From then on I was hooked and committed to hunting down winter wheat seeds each year and growing them myself and placing them at every image of Jesus in my house. I also loved finding new people to introduce to this super sweet, but rich in meaning, Croatian cultural tradition. But it got better.
I was gut struck by the poverty of my humble gift, merely wheat. It would never be anything more than wheat -from my hands. Yet, he as a priest can take that wheat, and through the sacred words of Consecration, transform it into the very Body of Christ, that little baby we venerate in those nativity scenes. I gave a priest simple wheat, merely the symbol of Jesus and he gives me back the actual Body of Jesus, under the appearance of wheat in the Eucharist. What an uneven exchange! If the priest eats my wheat, nothing changes in him, yet the Bread of Life he gives me divinizes me. Is this not how we need to view the spiritual life and our relationship with Christ? I, in my own mere mortal self, have nothing, and can be nothing without Him. His very Spirit is keeping me in existence with every breath I take. Without His Life, I have no life. So, what can I possibly give Jesus as a gift? Just myself, as I am. I have no merit, really, that was not somehow His to begin with. He wants me to see myself as simple, limited wheat. Limited, which is my actual human nature, and then hand that limited nature back over to Him, so that He can make me divine. It's a daily miracle that I didn't merit, and yet, He freely gives it. And even more surprisingly, more divine grace is given to us the more we see ourselves as merely plain, limited wheat. It's our awareness of our limitation that creates the space for the grace. The greater the awareness, the greater the grace. As St. Paul says, "I boast in my weakness... for when I am weak, I am strong". [2 Cor 12:10] My takeaway from that Christmas day was: come as you are and be eager to surrender the poverty within you. There is no shame or weakness in acknowledging the poverty within me, it's actually what He wants from me. It is precisely why He came. He wants to take and transform our poverty. It's the very reason why we celebrate the nativity of Jesus. I don't need to prove myself worthy before I let myself come to Him, whether to the stable or to the Cross. I can never 'make myself' worthy. That's what He does. He came in that blessed 'hour and moment' so that He can take us one day into His very flesh, nice and secure, as He returns us to the Father. That's what I saw in the Christmas wheat. Like the boy with five loaves and two fish, it's a humbling, uneven exchange. *I have since learned that other European countries as well have a tradition of planting Christmas wheat with variations of meaning and interesting stories of miraculous events associated with it. If this was part of your Christmas tradition, please do share your stories!
Tips on How to Grow your own Christmas Wheat
Many blessings to you as you meditate on this special devotion! (*UPDATE* We have a WINNER for the Guadalupe inspired beads on Our Lady of Guadalupe! And a consolation bonus for the non winners. ;-) Just those who entered have been emailed. Check your inbox/spam folder. Winner needs to respond to email within 48 hours to claim prize. (And she has! ) Thank you to those participating in this year's giveaway and for the feedback provided! Happy feast day and Congratulations to the winner!
Even though St. Nicholas Day, Dec. 6th, falls on the 2nd Sunday of Advent this year, and we loose the the feast, we're still having our annual St. Nicholas - Our Lady of Guadalupe GIVEAWAY! It's now a tradition! These are the beads set that inspired it all! Read more about the meaning of this design! Here's how to enter! The Rules for St. Nicholas Day GIVEAWAY are:
**Optional, after entering the Giveaway via the form below, to increase your chances by one additional entry, state your favorite St. Andrew Christmas Novena prayer beads design from our shop in the comments either on this blog post or on the Giveaway post on the Facebook page. The names and emails would need to match the official entry form submission below in order to be counted twice. I would love to hear what your favorite prayer beads design is, especially as I plan to make new ones soon. (Want to know more about the inspiration behind the designs? See my explanations of the symbols I used for these prayer beads.) Good Luck and Happy St. Nicholas Day! Do share with your friends! Submissions for 2020 are now closed. Do come back next year! Subscribe to the newsletter below in the footer to be reminded of next year's GIVEAWAY and for the start of the 2021 Novena. By entering, I accept that I will be notified by Christmas Novena/For the Love of Beauty, LLC of my possible win and seasonal Saint Andrew Christmas Novena Prayer related reminders. Your address will NEVER be sold or shared.
|
Christmas Novena and Advent Updates Popular Post Topics
Meaning of the Saint Andrew Novena Meaning of the two Star Renditions St. Lucy's Christmas Wheat - Dec 13 St. John of the Cross - Dec 14 Symbolism for the Novena Beads Design Archives
November 2023
Categories
|
RSS Feed