Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

The Rev. Anne Williamson

Christmas Traditions—12th Day of Christmas

 Christmas is season and today is the Twelfth Day of Christmas – probably the highest profile day of the Christmas Season other than Christmas Day itself.  At one time, the festivities of the Eve of the Epiphany rivaled those of Mardi Gras which might have been a reason for Shakespeare naming his play of romantic mayhem and disorder  ‘Twelfth Night’. 

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, as the song goes, a gift of twelve drummers drumming was given.I have been collecting Christmas ornaments depicting ‘a partridge in a pear tree’ and all the other Twelve Days giftsover the years.One of my favorite sets of ornaments comes from Louisville Stoneware.

My very favorite set of Twelve Days ornaments came from the old Strawberry Banke shop which some years ago stood on the site of the restaurant Mombo.  I love these needlepoint ornaments and have great joy in bringing them out each year. 

The celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and the Feast of Epiphany are not as much a focus in the US as in some other countries and I am always a bit sad to see a Christmas tree out on the street on December 26.  But however you approach this season, it is what comes next that matters most.  In his book ‘The Mood of Christmas’, Howard Thurman offers a prayer that reminds us not to forget the reason for the season as we pack away our beloved Christmas treasures.  As this Christmas season draws to a close, I offer you The Work of Christmas  and encourage you to wonder with me how we might respond to this invitation.

The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled,

When the star in the sky is gone,

When the kings and princes are home,

When the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,

To heal the broken,

To feed the hungry,

To release the prisoner,

To rebuild the nations,

To bring peace among others,

To make music in the heart.

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Monday, January 4, 2021

Cathy Stevens Gustafson

11th Day of Christmas

Merry Christmas, St. John’s! I am connected to your wonderful community because my little brother is Fr. Rob Stevens. Living in Evanston, IL, I am a member of Immanuel Lutheran, Chicago and work as the Village Forester in a neighboring community. It has been one of the silver linings of the pandemic to be able to witness Rob’s work and thus feel more connected to him and your community.  Thank you for being a shining light!

 It is still Christmas! Even after the “big” day, after New Year’s, it is still Christmas and all the Christmas merchandise is on sale in the stores.  Rick & I used to go every New Years day to Marshall Field’s in downtown Chicago and be first in line to eat at the Walnut Room under the big Christmas tree. It was a great time to go because everything was still decorated & we had no problems getting a table. We would meet his Aunt for brunch/lunch and then afterwards we would shop. That was my favorite part! All of the Christmas stuff would be marked down to 75% off! I love getting a good deal. I often bought gifts for people for NEXT Christmas! It’s been a while since I’ve done that, but I still enjoy those memories and I still love getting a good deal!  

 Of course this year the Walnut Room is closed & I don't even know if they put up a tree. It has been a sad year and so hard for so many, but today it is still Christmas!  God has become one of us and there is hope. See below a wonderful adaptation of Psalm 110 by Nan C. Merrill from Psalms for Praying, An Invitation to Wholeness.  As you read and pray these words, please remember those whose reality is so different from yours and whose 2020 may have been so much worse.

  You, O Divine Breath, dwell within

our hears; with

unconditional Love, You assuage

our fears.

You call us to holiness, to justice,

and integrity,

to free those bound by oppression,

to bring light where ignorance

and darkness dwell.

Come! Drink from the streams of

Living Water.

Come! Feast on the Bread of Life.

I love you all! It is still Christmas!

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Saturday, January 2, 2021

The Rev. Dick Siener

Faith

In this time of our lives when there is no "normal life", I have been enormously inspired by Henry Nouwen, a spiritual writer and mentor to many. I share some of his insights from his book, Here and Now, Living in the Spirit. One of our "faithless fears and worldly anxieties" is to be overwhelmed by a fatalistic response to severe problems in our earthly lives. Nouwen offers us this response, "Fatalism is the attitude that makes us live as passive victims of exterior circumstance beyond our control. The opposite of fatalism is faith. Faith is the deep trust that God's love is stronger than all the anonymous powers of the world and can transform us from victims of darkness into servants of light. It is important to identify the many ways in which we think, speak, or act with fatalism and, step by step, to convert them into moments of faith. This movement from fatalism to faith is the movement that will remove the cold darkness from our hearts and transform us into people whose trust in the power of love can, indeed, make mountains move.

I invite us all to focus in our spiritual journey on our actions of love which reveal God's light amidst the darkness of our world. I pray that "God is light and in God there is no darkness at all". May we walk in the light as God is the light and together, may we minister supported by God's love to this broken world.

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Friday, December 31, 2020

Olin Johannessen

Christmas Traditions

There are so many wonderful Christmas traditions out there; as many families and individuals, so are the many traditions. I wish to share with you a couple of ours.

One: Christmas, as Rob likes to say, is a season! Let it be celebrated all 12 days! We typically get our tree in the 20’s of December, and you better believe we keep it up all twelve days (and admittedly, usually far longer)! This includes enjoying the myriad festive movies, our seemingly endless collection of Christmas-themed CD’s, and with our big blended family, the gift giving and receiving stretches on, too. The greatest gift of Christmas for us is indeed the basking in it and enjoying everything it has to offer us.

Two: The other tradition I wish to share with you is one you can make, and perhaps adopt yourselves: Sausage rolls! Not fancy, but certainly decadent! Here are the instructions:

1. Purchase one or two canisters of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls, and a roll of Jimmy Dean (the sausage guy, not the parish choir guy!) pre-ground breakfast sausage. Make sure you have some real maple syrup on hand.

2. When you’re ready to make them, be sure you’ve thawed the sausage, as it usually comes frozen.

3. Preheat oven to 350°.

4. On a baking sheet, unroll the crescent roll dough and lay flat. Using your fingers, scoop out some of the ground sausage and spread into a thin even layer atop the dough. Cover almost all of it (I leave a little thin patch at one end so that the end of the rolling-up process has only dough) and check for a nice even layer so it will cook evenly at the same rate.

5. Roll up the whole thing, slice into rounds, place them on their sides (You can leave the whole thing in a roll to bake, but it takes longer, and doesn’t allow each serving to have nice crispy edges), and pop those babies into the oven, center rack, for about 20 minutes or so. I never time it, but you can tell they’re done when the aroma is permeating your kitchen, the dough is golden brown, and the sausage is cooked and browned as well.

6. While the sausage rolls are baking, warm some real maple syrup - you will want it for dipping!

7. When the rolls appear browned and crisped, double check to make sure all sausage appears browned as well, and remove from the heat. (If you choose to bake the whole thing as one long roll and slice after, be sure to test with a meat thermometer, ground pork is done at 160°).

8. Rest for a few minutes, then enjoy!

We make these simple delicious treats every Christmas morning, and have been for as long as I can remember - it started with my mom and me. Now Ashley and I hope you’ll enjoy them, and perhaps adopt them into your family tradition, too. Merry Christmas to all!

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Dick Rozek

Christmas Traditions

“The theme is Christmas traditions,” Rob told me when he asked if I would write a brief personal reflection about it. “Yes, I can do that,” I told myself, and what follows is a glimpse into our family’s personal Christmases past. Rita, my wife and our family’s loving mom, was born into a French Canadian family in Barre, Vermont. My parents were Orthodox immigrants to America from a small Syrian village (pop. a few hundred). They settled in New Hampshire’s northernmost city, Berlin, back then a paper manufacturing colossus and the state’s fourth largest city.

Rita’s parents’ education, perhaps the equivalent of the 3 lowest grades, was in Canadian orphanages taught by Roman Catholic nuns. My dad’s father, whom I never knew, was the one village teacher back in Syria. My mother, born in America, was the eldest child and that automatically designated her as eligible to drop out of school to help raise her siblings.

Now that you know that much, I can reminisce a little about Christmas traditions for our own family and how that connects to what you’ve just learned. Christmas in our household was crammed with excitement and expectation and energy. Some years Christmas was spent here in the seacoast, in Portsmouth. Those years were filled with anticipation, hope, and joy, and of course, the beautiful St. John’s Christmas pageants with their wondrous story and the Christmas Eve mass. They began with the short trip to find and buy a tree for our living room. Then, the fun of decorating the tree with many lights, ribbons, ornaments, and silver tinsel, followed by the not-so-slow gathering of beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree. But, nothing compared to when the children were small and one of our sons awoke at 2am certain he heard Santa and the reindeer on our roof (it was me in the overhead crawl space trying disastrously to be discreetly quiet while Rita and I brought down pre-wrapped gifts to place under the tree)

Other years our family drove to Barre, VT or north to Berlin to enjoy the holiday with Rita’s or my family. Those, too, were filled with delightful excitement and glorious memories. Her parents were affectionately called Pepere and Memere). In Vermont we opened their gifts on Christmas morning and shared in delicious French-Canadian pork pies and mouth- watering home-baked raspberry pies. Always there was much singing, story-telling, Christmas meals, and visitations from Rita’s brothers and their families. Joyous is the expressive word.

Alternate years our family travelled north to Berlin where we enjoyed Christmas with my parents (Jido and Sito) and my brothers’ families. Christmas morn was filled with excitement, anticipation and laughter followed by delightfully delicious Syrian Christmas meals and pastries. Then, visits to cousins’ homes nearby and more reconnecting. Here again, there always was much singing and Syrian circle and line dancing (the DUP-kee) to music played on an old, but still working, Victrola (there’s a name out of the past!).

Yet, one thing more: in July we lost Rita to Parkinson’s Disease. We miss her daily and dearly and reflect often on her love for our family and our love for her. We see double rainbows and know that’s her telling us, “I’m here. I see you all and watch over you from here and I love you.” We love her back.  

Who could have guessed: a French-Canadian woman and a Syrian-American man produced a blended American Episcopal family in which everyone loves each other dearly. But. that’s what Christ – mas is about, isn’t it?

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Veronique Doherty

Christmas Traditions

Christmas Stockings come in all different styles, some are for babies some are for dogs some are for cats.  They come in all different colors red, green, camo and themes; Disney, snoopy, super hero’s and star wars. Inside these stockings you can find all kinds of surprises some costing more than many of the gifts under the tree.  But when I was a little girl we didn’t have stockings.  We had plain old brown paper bags the kind the give you at the grocery store when they say “paper or plastic”.  They were rolled down at the top so they would stay open.  They were always filled with the same thing, fruits, nuts and lots of candy.  Hard candy, soft candy, chocolate, yummy! So on Christmas morning we would have lots of gifts some wrap some not. But it was the plain old brown paper bag that I would go to first to make sure I had enough nourishment to open my gifts.  This memory warms my heart.  It was a simpler time.

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Monday, December 28, 2020

Sharon Musselman

Christmas Traditions

Just this past week, I watched my three and six year old grandchildren on facetime as they decorated Christmas cookies.  They excitedly told me that they were going to deliver their cookies to neighbors and friends, after, of course, sampling a few.  Last year, my 15 year old granddaughter and her friend took over my kitchen to make Christmas goodies which were wrapped with ribbons and bows and given as gifts to family and friends.  This year, 2020, there will not be a joint Christmas bake for the teenage girls, but the goodies will be made and delivered just the same.  These Christmas traditions can be as simple as bundling kids into the car for a ride or walk through neighborhoods to see light displays or watching a Christmas pageant on zoom (what a hoot!) instead of in church.  They do not have to be extravagant or expensive to make the magic of that first Christmas come alive.

My own adult children shared some of their Christmas memories that included putting lights up outside, attending Christmas Eve service at St. John’s, and making cinnamon buns for Christmas breakfast. 

All of these are simple traditions, passed on from generation to generation and this year, some have had to change in ways that seem different and strange.  But they are still the threads which connect us family to family to neighbors and friends. 

I’ll end by saying that I will hold tight to the traditions I treasure, but this year has taught me to be open to the new and different.  Merry Christmas to you and a Happy NEW Year. 

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Saturday, December 23, 2020

Sandra Pagel

Christmas Traditions

Traditions, the spirit of Christmas.

 In my childhood, Christmas was a blend of Western and Eastern Christianity. My father’s family came to this country from England via Canada bringing Anglicism. My maternal grandparents emigrated to NYC in the late 1880’s from Galicia, the northernmost part of Austria, and with them came their Russian Orthodox faith and calendar. Church services filled with carols and chants brought the message of this holy season. Christmas celebrations began on December 6th, honoring St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. On that morning, if good, we would find a small gift under our pillow. Family Christmas Day feasts on December 25th and January 7th (Orthodox) finished with singing and dancing. The tree was put up on the 24th and not taken down until mid-January, Epiphany (Orthodox). Food was constantly being prepared, be it kippers, tea cakes, stroganoff, pierogies, or festival cookies for our gatherings or to help fill the baskets at St. George’s Church for community giving.

 Married, my husband, Harry’s Swedish heritage combined with mine. St. Lucia Day on December 13th, a festival of lights, would be celebrated by my daughter serving saffron buns in the early morn by candle light. New decorations of straw or painted ornaments were added; Swedish meatballs, herring, lingonberries and vort limpa (sweet bread) would be on the table; and, the family feasts moved to our house in Connecticut.  Local events to serve others and to gather for the pageant, St. Nicholas tea and carol on the village green on Christmas Eve before services at St. Mark’s expanded traditions.

 Now, the tree goes up on December 6th, the Haitian carved crèche is in place on the buffet, the same carols and chant warm the soul, and daily reflections from all at St. John’s start the day. The sweet smells and tastes from the kitchen are prepared mostly for others. Our family comes together at my daughter’s Seacoast home with new treats including my son-in-law’s special coffees at dinner’s end.

 While new customs and rituals have been combined with the past, traditions, the spirit of Christmas, continue to bring instantaneous and lingering moments of comfort, joy and hope.

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Jessie Kent

Christmas Traditions

A note from Rob:

The story below was printed in the paper when Jessie was the Chairperson of the Eliot's Board of Selectmen. I had the distinct privilege of sharing this story at Jessie's funeral this past July. I miss both Jessie and Larry as I know many of you do...it's comforting to know that their wisdom, love and good humor are still shaping our community. Enjoy...

Some years ago, The Rev. Robert Dunn of St. John's Church Portsmouth, exchanged pulpits for a year with The Rev. W. Charles Hodgins of England.

Christmas Eve of that year, my husband Larry and I left to attend the midnight service. As we came up the hill to the church, we were met by our friend George Ward.

"No church tonight," he said, "We have things to do."

Before we knew what was happening, we were being whisked away in his station wagon.

At his house, we picked up a large Christmas tree that was coaxed into the wagon with hurried but careful hands. Then boxes of decorations were packed in, and we were off again.

Our destination this time was the rectory on Middle Street. Like the boldest of thieves we marched into the house, since by now the Hodgins were safely at St. Johns.

It took some doing but the tree was put up, the decorations put on, and secretly-collected gifts from parish members were placed under the tree.

By the time we returned to the church, the service was ending.

I know this was a special Christmas for the Hodgins and a special memory for all who knew about the secret tree.

And though I love the midnight service at Christmas, I'll always remember the one I missed.

Jessie Kent, Chairman of Eliot's Board of Selectmen

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Anne Corriveau

Christmas Traditions

I love traditions!  This year has had so many challenges and disruptions, which is why holding onto some semblance of our Christmas traditions seems more important than ever.  Traditions are a welcome routine, like a warm blanket that I reach for especially when the world seems unsettled, mysterious and difficult.  My holiday traditions involve a colorful mixture of my French Canadian heritage with a peppering of my mother’s English and Irish traditions.   Christmas Eve, for our family, is when the majority of the celebration happens – inviting friends and neighbors at our family home for an Open House where wine is flowing, Tourtiere is served and laughter is everywhere. 

We all know things will be different at the holidays this year.  What would have been a raucous Christmas Eve with my sister and family, dear friends and great-grandnephews and nieces has reverted to a coterie of two - consisting of my husband and me.  Still I’m filled with gratitude for so many blessings in my life, regardless of the omission of our Christmas Eve Tradition.

I heard a news story about Holiday “Shopping Mall Santas” who are now doing their work virtually.  Although the little ones can’t sit on Santa’s lap and hug him this year, one virtual Santa has an idea for satisfying that human need to connect.  He asks the children to look into the camera on zoom and reach out their arms toward the video screen while he also stretches his arms toward them.  He then asks them to close their eyes imagine the feeling of hugging.  I think that’s what I need to do this year.  Imagine the warm feeling of connecting in our traditional way – the love, kindness, joy, music  -  close my eyes, feel it and hold it in my heart.  And as we gather on zoom with my family during the holiday this year, I will heed that virtual Santa’s advice and fill my heart to the brim with feelings of love.

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Brad Lown

Christmas Traditions

In the 1870’s the Sanderson family of Littleton Massachusetts began gathering in mid December to sing Christmas carols.  It was, and still is, a way to pause during a busy time of year to celebrate the season with traditional music and to reconnect with each other.  My maternal great great grandmother was a Sanderson, and she was at the first caroling party.  As a child I went to the party every year and saw the Sanderson relatives, who arrived from all over New England. My aunt, Ellie Sanderson, has played the piano at the party ever since I can remember.  Every year we sing “We Three Kings” (“sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying, sealed in the stone-cold tomb”) and “Good King Wenceslaus” (“Bring me flesh and bring me wine!”) and someone is assigned a part to sing.  For many years my mother sang the part of the “Page” in Good King and at some point I was assigned a part and did my best to belt it out. I complied out of respect for tradition.  I played a small part in a very long tradition that connected me with my Sanderson relatives and about 150 years of unbroken annual carol singing. 

Sometimes young people don’t appreciate tradition, or don’t want to be burdened by it. Our daughter Franny didn’t appreciate the tradition of the Sanderson caroling party and announced in her early teen years that she would no longer attend. I managed to get her in the car and to the party, but she refused to get out of the car. My mother had to cajole her to come into the party, which eventually she did, and had to explain to everyone what she had been doing, sitting in the car by herself. I had the thought that someday she might appreciate it that I dragged her to the party, but I don’t think that day has yet arrived.

The party didn’t happen this year.  The virus is still in the air, and singing is a great way to spread it.  Group singing is prohibited in California.  But the party will go on next year, and I’ll be there, thinking about the farmers in the Sanderson family who got together in the 1870’s to start a tradition that connects us to them.  Like all traditions, it brings a sense of comfort, continuity and connection to the past. 

Daily Reflection | Connected in Christ

Monday, December 21, 2020

Karen Horton

Christmas Traditions

In 1980 my new husband Rob and I celebrated our first Christmas together.  He was a second lieutenant in the Air Force, we had moved from the Hudson Valley to Arizona, and I started studying engineering, hardly a traditional occupation for an officer’s wife.  I was struggling.  During Advent I tried to recreate the traditions of Christmas – the dinner, the tree, the gifts.  My extended family had “always” gone to my great-aunt Margie’s for Christmas dinner, then exchanged rounds of gifts under the tree.  But Christmas traditions of the heart are not fulfilled by the by the tree or the gifts when we are far from people we miss.  As much as I loved Rob, I missed my extended family.

However, we unknowingly started a new tradition that year.  Our young church organist would be alone on Christmas, so I invited her to come for Christmas dinner.  Ann became one of my sustaining friends while we lived in Phoenix.  During Rob’s military service we repeated this new holiday tradition and hosted friends and colleagues who were also far from family in Iceland, north Florida, and Germany.

Of course the cause of my Christmas angst with my new husband was nothing compared to being pregnant, riding for hours far from home on a donkey with a fiancé who was not the father of my child, then giving birth in a stable.  Was there even a midwife?  I bet on that first Christmas Mary missed her family way more than I did in 1980.  But she and Joseph also hosted some very memorable guests, and their experiences inspire our most-loved Christmas traditions.  Mine:  I can’t resist a Messiah sing-in, or a Christmas pageant, particularly if it involves children singing.

This year the Christmas tradition of the heart that I miss the most is singing in the choir in our Lessons and Carols, Advent, and Christmas Eve services.  I thank St. John’s for the beautiful service recordings, and I have bookmarked the YouTube channel.  But recording my hymn or choir part alone and sending it to Jennifer is a little like setting up the tree and getting the gifts but missing my family – and it makes me impatient to return to our choir’s in-person Christmas traditions!