What would make Christmas more meaningful to you?

WHAT WOULD MAKE CHRISTMAS MORE MEANINGFUL TO YOU THIS YEAR??

(This is a question we are circulating among our family members this year.  Here is one response.)

I think about this question and the first thought that comes is family. I love being together and sharing find myself treasuring each person in our family more than I already thought I could. I am grateful to family members who  bring us all together around the holidays especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, and at restaurants, resorts, etc. for whoever can make them; for initiating some get togethers during the year when we can share what’s happening in our lives (doesn’t always have to be about religion – or politics for that matter although I believe faith is important). I have had in my possession for years now many family albums with photos that go back a couple generations at least. I appreciate those of our family joined by commitment and marriage may also have family photos and memories of your families too.

Perhaps this is the year when these treasured mementos can be shared, mused, laughed, cried over and handed on in a respectful way (thought of scanning them onto discs? – soon hard photos may disappear). How to do this?? Any suggestions?? Maybe these photos remind me that those here now and those who have died are never really gone or lost. It saddens me to think children, grandchildren, great grandnieces and nephews may never see a photo of their grandpas, grandmas, great uncles, great aunts when they were younger and may never know the stories, personalities, behind some of our relatives made up our past. I admit when I was younger all of this never really interested me. Maybe I’m getting old and the history of our family tree intrigues me; who were our ancestors? Each one with their own stories just like us. Maybe the fact that I had missed so much family life by being in the convent in earlier yrs . . . As I write this I kind of smile – me – looking to the past – when I find myself focusing my life in the HERE and NOW !  So, with that awareness . . .maybe what would make Christmas meaningful to me this year is reveling, sharing, rejoicing, crying and giving thanks to God in the HERE and NOW, for the fact that we – not just our families but ALL families – are truly ONE, united with one another. I can’t wait to be together with family this Thanksgiving and Christmas and really SEE and BE with everyone! The photos after all may just be a springboard to recall our oneness and the love we have inherited and now share with one another and with others.
Sister Pat