What is the reason for the holiday season?

I often wonder how the holiday season has somehow become synonymous with shopping, gift giving, over consumption, and the need to feel happy and jolly? I guess this is the result of living in a consumeristic society.

When I take a step back and contemplate why I celebrate this season, it always goes back to the same thing…my faith and my relationships.

My hope is for the people around me, may it be family, friends, clients, or strangers, to feel loved, important, and worthy; that they would feel these things deeply in their soul.

It reminds me of my favourite Christmas hymn, O Holy Night. Here’s a few lines in the song that never fails to get me,

O Holy Night!
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
Till he appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn!

Fall on your knees
Oh hear the angel voices
Oh night divine
Oh night when Christ was born

I wish for you this holiday season that your soul would feel its worth. That you would be filled with hope so your weary soul can rejoice.

Saint Thomas Moore says it best in his book, Care of the Soul. He writes, “I do nothing other than urge young and old to care not just for their persons and property but more so for the wellbeing of their souls”.

So my question to you (and me) during this holiday season is, how do you care for the wellbeing of the souls of those whom you love, who have been entrusted into your care—your people, your tribe?

May we get back to what is core to our human soul—love, connection, and worthiness.