REMAINING FAITHFUL MESSAGE FROM REVEREND MARY WHITE
Please join us for our Longest Night Worship Service
Tuesday December 21st from 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Good Afternoon and Blessings
Christmas is only days away and there are many who are alone during this time of year. For some reason, we are tempted to project our own values onto those who wish to be alone. I raise my hand as one of the guilty ones. Alice was ninety-six, the last of her family surviving and had not celebrated Christmas in several decades. I was her home support worker and took it upon myself to intrude into her life on Christmas Day.
I brought the tree with decorations, cooked the dinner, had Christmas dinner with her and gave her a gift. In retrospect, I believe I felt better about the occasion than she did.
Which begs the question, was all this effort for Alice or for me? This is a lesson in respecting others’ boundaries. When someone says, ‘no thank you’, believe them.
Stay safe. Stay connected.
Blessings and the strength of Love be with you.
Rev. Mary,
revmjwhite@hotmail.ca
Reading Excerpt from “Doing Christmas Differently”
Being Alone at Christmas – Rowena Edlin-White
Why is it so scary? I’ve clamoured to join in with modes of celebration I’ve hated or with people I don’t particularly like for the sake of not being alone. It’s only a day after all. Maybe it’s the big build-up – not just commercial but ‘Christian’. It’s all family family, cosy cosy, and if you lack a partner, family or home of your own you’re a failure. I wish I’d had more courage.
There’s a kind of general terror of being alone – or at least of not having the option to go somewhere. A fear of not being asked – even if you don’t want to go! Why? Some of us actually enjoy being alone, so why should we, or others, feel guilty?
Prayer
Living Spirit
Hear us, heal us, free us.
Give us space and silence
to hear the Word that sets us free.
And when we are ready to change,
from guilt to grace, from darkness to light,
pardon is pronounced, and blessings granted.
Thanks be to God.
Amen