Pastor’s Letter: December 29, 2024

Pastor’s Letter: December 29, 2024

27 Dec 2024 | Posted by: chadmin

Dear St. Philomena Parish Family,

Merry Christmas! May the peace and love of the newborn Christ be in your hearts this day! I’m so thankful we made it to Christmas! I pray that the refreshing joy of Jesus Christ brings you and your family comfort this Christmas. Since I know we could all use a good long celebration, I thought it might be nice to share an outline of the Christmas Season so we can all feel great about extending our celebration into 2025!

When (and how long) do we actually celebrate Christmas? Is it a day? Does it stretch from mid-October through December 26? If we just look at the lights and store decorations…or if we just look at how many Christmas trees are in the driveways the morning of December 26, it might be hard to know. If we look back to our history, we see that important Feasts often last quite a little while. As we discussed during Advent, the Jewish people would undergo a significant preparation (a number of weeks) for a Feast. Then when the Feast finally came, they would “live it up” for around the same number of weeks (or in some cases longer). Throughout Christian history, our ancestors in the Faith have followed a similar pattern, which leads us to ask… So how long does Christmas last anyway?

The main celebration of Christmas Day is actually EIGHT DAYS long! In Christian tradition we call this an “octave.” An octave is the Feast Day itself and the seven following days, on which we continue to celebrate with the same grandeur and solemnity. So, at Mass during these eight days, we use the special Christmas prayers such as a special “Christmas insert” for Eucharistic Prayer I. We also use the Gloria at every Mass during the octave. In terms of how the Mass is celebrated, it is like celebrating the Christmas Mass eight days in a row! Now, isn’t that more exciting than taking the tree down the next day?

Ok, Father, but isn’t the popular song called the “Twelve Days of Christmas?” True enough. If we look back in Christian history, we shouldn’t be surprised to find an origin for celebrating twelve days of Christmas. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Second Council of Tours proclaimed, in 566 or 567, the sanctity of the “twelve days”; from Christmas to Epiphany (traditionally celebrated on January 6, although in recent times it is moved to a Sunday to make it easier for people to celebrate—this 2025 year the traditional January 6 date falls on a Monday, so our celebration of Epiphany here at St. Philomena will be on Sunday, January 5).

How does that stretch out in terms of days to celebrate Christmas? Our source for the definitive answer is the Order of Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours and Celebration of the Eucharist. Often called “Ordo” for short, this is a book published every year that contains the plan of Masses and prayers for every day—it is a way for the priests to all be on the same page for what we are celebrating on any given day. For 2025, the Christmas season extends from the celebration of Christmas Eve until the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus, which is celebrated in 2025 on Sunday, January 12. This would make our celebration of Christmas this year a nice 20-day observance! So, you guessed it…the Christmas tree is fittingly kept until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. So, get that watering can out…it looks like our evergreen could be staying awhile!  =)

Know of my blessings and prayers for you all as we look ahead to this 2025 year!

In Christ,

Father Luke