Traditions, charity, foster Advent spirit

By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

MIAMI | Christopher Columbus High School just got a year-end makeover — not a building renovation or new computer lab, but a truckload of fresh poinsettias and “Keep Christ in Christmas” posters reminding students of Advent’s true purpose.

“Advent brings hope, peace, joy and love — often we have a lot of frustrations personally but we cannot lose our hope and joy,” said Marist Brother Eladio Gonzalez, a guidance counselor at the private boys’ high school in Miami and a third-degree member of the Knights of Columbus.

The Knights foster a Squires student membership program along with a “True Meaning of Christmas” campaign nationally, which Brother Gonzalez has adapted for any Columbus students interested in enriching their Advent experience.

The goal is to foster a more spiritual-focused Advent at the school. Students were invited to a reconciliation service, along with two days of volunteer service with needy children in the area. The students came together with youngsters from both St. James Parish in North Miami and St. John the Baptist Mission (part of Corpus Christi Parish) in Miami for gift giving, prayer, fun time and camaraderie.

“This season I am emphasizing (the concepts of) joy and enlightenment, which do not come from pleasure or success, but from internal peace and a personal conscience that is struggling but successful in our relationship with self, others and God,” Brother Gonzalez said, adding that some 80 students at Columbus are members of the Knights’ Squires.

From balmy Key West to the northernmost corners of Broward County, parishes and Catholic groups are busy with Advent rituals, gestures and spiritual preparation for welcoming Christ into their hearts and spreading “peace and good will.”

In Hallandale Beach, members of St. Matthew Parish are carrying on the work of Betty Dadio, a past member and volunteer who was a driving force behind the Adopt a Family program leading up to Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Dadio died five years ago, but parishioners still get together to share their material blessings and time with local families who register for free meals during the holidays. Even a vice-mayor of Hallandale regularly contributes turkeys to the program, according to Maria Collins, parishioner.

“This makes us reunited in one family with God. We are all doing something to help others in need so that they wake up and have something under their Christmas tree,” said Collins, who is also in charge of making sandwiches at the parish for the monthly Broward Outreach program. About 50 local families register for Adopt a Family meals each Thanksgiving and Christmas, she added.

St. Matthew also reintroduced a successful Christmas concert program in Spanish and English with vocalist Dora Cardona, parish director of music and a student of music at Florida Atlantic University.

“Christmas without music? That’s impossible,” said Cardona. “Music brings me closer to prayer, to that communion with God. It fosters that relationship and it is easier for people to make a connection spiritually with the help of music.”

Raised in a family of musicians in Colombia, Cardona said her family kept the Latin American tradition of Las Posadas, a nine-day celebration of singing hymns and praying in front of the nativity in private homes during the week leading up to Christmas.

At St. Matthew, Cardona and local tenor Franco Londono planned to offer a concert of popular Christmas medleys and sing-a-longs Dec. 19, with special emphasis on children, who will be admitted to the show for free. Cardona added that children ought to be exposed to good music at a young age.

“There is so much garbage and violent music out there that (children) need to know there is something else,” Cardona said.

Down in Key West, a place that might not conjure up images of Christmas for some, students and parishioners of the Basilica of St. Mary, Star of the Sea know differently: Nothing brings out the small-town holiday spirit like the Key West Christmas parade, according to Father John Baker, pastor.

The school’s students had a float in the Dec. 6 event, and the parish is renting out a high school hall for this year’s children’s Christmas pageant.

“We are also having a lot of faith formation programing, opportunities for reflection and a penance service. We are able to rid ourselves from those things that are impeding us from moving forward with joy and to move in freedom to experience the hospitality of the season,” Father Baker said.

With some 12 percent of the Keys population living below the poverty level, and several times as many just barely surviving financially, the parish supports a soup kitchen and a parish outreach, and takes part in “giving tree” toy program in conjunction with community agencies. Even the locally incarcerated will be remembered this holiday season with parishioner gift bags for the local jail.

“As opposed to major population centers, we don’t have the government social infrastructure that other places offer for people in need, so we understand we need to take care of each other,” Father Baker said. “That has always been the tradition here, and the week after Christmas is always wonderful in Key West, with concerts and performances leading up to New Year’s.”

For those who are far from home, including immigrants from Vietnam, Our Lady of La Vang Vietnamese Mission in Hallandale had a special reason to celebrate, with the formal dedication Dec. 13 of their new church space — previously known as St. Charles Borromeo Church.

Then, on Christmas Day, more than 1,500 people are expected for an afternoon Mass followed by a concert celebration with ethnic food and Vietnamese music, according to Father Joseph Long Nguyen, administrator of the mission.

“Christmas is very important for Vietnamese as we celebrate the birth of Jesus as Catholics,” Father Nguyen said, “but also it is a time for Vietnamese community here to gather together. After a year of working hard and coming to Sunday Mass, this is a time to come enjoy food and entertainment, and gather as people to enjoy the birth of Christ.”

Vietnamese music, the priest added, is important for immigrants to connect with: “When people listen to those songs they remember the past and some people are crying, some are joyful.”

Respect life ministries in the archdiocese got a boost when the parish women’s guild at St. John the Baptist in Fort Lauderdale gathered for their annual Christ Child Tea Dec. 10, a holiday event which members say has been an annual tradition for the guild since the 1960s.

More than 100 members and guests celebrate over breakfast at a private home during the event, which comes on the heels of the parish holiday bazaar and bake sale, another holiday fund raiser.

“This is one of our biggest events of the year, and every year we designate a recipient, which is the respect life program locally,” said Jane Czubay, chair of the event and vice president of the parish women’s guild. “We want them to have a good time. This is our means of providing the social aspect and with an element of a charity — a chance for a gathering and supporting respect life.”

In Coral Gables, the big nativity display in front of Church of the Little Flower is a life-size reminder of the real reason for the season. Helping the promotion is the fact that the historic church is a stop on one of the commercially-operated tourism tram tours through the neighborhood.

“Symbolism goes a long way in helping people rally around a parish identity,” said Father Michael Davis, pastor of Little Flower.

He referred to Pope Francis’ example of “going out” to meet the world, and not waiting for people to come to church.

“What about the folks that are the drive-bys who never come into church? Part of the challenge is to get people from the outside (to come) inside,” Father Davis said.

A Nativity is one of many “touches of religiosity” that can be put on public display, he added, to reach out to those on the peripheries, as the pope said, and invite them to come inside.