Florida Catholic | Nurturing True Christmas Spirit

How are you nurturing the true spirit of Christmas?

YOUTHS: Teens find an ‘awesome gift’ in Christ and in each other.

LINDA REEVES | FLORIDA CATHOLIC PALM BEACH BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 10.26.07

WEST PALM BEACH | The Florida Catholic asked Catholic school teachers and youth ministers about their efforts to help children think about more than shopping, decorating, baking and parties in the season leading up to Christmas. Their comments might give parents and other teachers and youth ministers ideas for spiritual preparation during Advent, which begins Sunday, Dec. 1, this year.

Robert Sullivan, known as Sully by many, youth minister at Holy Name of Jesus in West Palm Beach, involves teens in a large outreach project.

“I conduct a major community service project each December,” he said. “In an effort to keep Christ in Christmas, we conduct our annual ‘Christmas Tree Project.’ We collect artificial trees, lights, and decorations for four to five families, then we collect gifts for all of the children of these families, specific to their sex and age.”

On a Saturday before Christmas, he said, they assemble the trees, package them with lights and decorations, wrap the gifts, load up their cars and pickup trucks, and head out to visit each home.

“Upon arrival, we sing Christmas carols outside the front door. We ring a bell,” Sullivan said. “Last year, the first house, a trailer, we visited had two live chickens running around the kitchen as we arrived. These were obviously not house pets, but eventually would be for food. The eye-opening experience that this is for my kids is incredible. This certainly puts Christ in Christmas for these kids.”

At All Saints School in Jupiter, teachers begin Advent and Christmas lessons and activities after Thanksgiving for more than 610 students

“Unfortunately, during Advent we are bombarded with Christmas carols and shopping and the rush of the holidays. But within the church, we hear no Christmas songs and only start to see decorations toward the end of the season,” said Beth Zanotelli, school music director. “Advent is a time to prepare our hearts for the birth of Jesus.”

All Saints staff and students erect a tall tree called a “Jesse Tree.”

“The Jesse Tree is named in Isaiah 11:1: ‘A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots.’ The tree gives us the opportunity to tell the story of God in the Old Testament and keep the faith,” Zanotelli said. “It also helps us remember that the coming of the Messiah was talked about and anticipated hundreds of years before it happened.”

As part of the tree project, students from different classes present Scripture of the day and place biblical symbols.

“It is a beautiful Bible study and a wonderful way to remember the roots of our faith rather than focus on the material things of today,” said Zanotelli.

Many schools and parishes combine the efforts of students, youth ministers, youngsters from religion-formation programs, parishioners, religious and music ministers to stage Christmas programs for the public.

Productions featuring actors and actresses of all ages traditionally focus on Christ’s birth. The scripts are a means of evangelizing, teaching lessons and reminding audiences that Jesus is the main reason for the season.

“St. Juliana Parish (in West Palm Beach) is preparing a massive and impressive Christmas pageant that is involving not only people of the Catholic Church, but other churches as well,” said Sister Vivian Gonzalez of the Religious of Mary Immaculate Claretian Missionary Sisters, who is a member of the parish and director of the diocesan Hispanic Ministry.

“It is very special,” she said about the program staged by Father Alfredo Hernandez, pastor, under the guidance of D.J. Hom, program director.

Nicole Aitken, a youth minister at St. Joseph Parish in Stuart, said, “Keeping Christ in Christmas is a personal priority that I like to share with our youths.”

This year, she is involving teens in a project focused on teaching the true Christmas message.

“Our Life Teen students plan to visit our confirmation class to discuss the true meaning of the season,” she said. “The older students often act as mentors for the mainly ninth-grade confirmation class. Our plans aren’t solid yet. I’ve grown tired of commercialized ‘Christmas’ icons and prefer sacred songs to Rudolph and Frosty — the Christmas-present rush and the precedence it takes over real celebration. What happened to the sanctity of the religious holiday?”

At the Cathedral of St. Ignatius Loyola Parish, youth minister Dee Aitken, and Nicole Aitken’s mother-in-law, points out that her parish’s yearlong youth programs, including Life Teen and Edge, continuously attempt to instill the message of Christ and “why he came.”

“We also take time to sing Christmas carols at nursing homes and to the homebound,” she said. “We collect blankets and toiletries for the homeless and distribute them. We also take time to celebrate the awesome gift we were given: Christ and each other.”

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How are you nurturing the true spirit of Christmas?

YOUTHS: Teens find an ‘awesome gift’ in Christ and in each other.

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