Holy Days beginning December

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When we get to the end of November and the beginning of this December we enter a particularly sacred time for me personally.

The church calendar presents with the series of holy days that over the years have had a particularly profound effect on my life.

Queen Lili'uokalani -- King Kamehameha & Queen Emma: Nov. 11, Nov. 28.

The first of these holy days have to do with Hawaiian royalty, and I didn't have any idea of a personal connection until 2001 when I responded to a call to do ministry there.

I have 3 daughters and each of their names is associated with Hawaiian queens or princesses. The last queen died on Nov. 11 and a petition is being circulated to get her placed on the calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts.

King Kamehameha and Queen Emma have been on the calendar for many decades. They brought the Anglican Church to the islands.

Dorothy Day: Nov. 29

Dorothy Day died on Nov. 29. Her case is being pursued for sainthood in the Catholic Church. Ever since learning about her, not long after her death, I have thought it was at least ironic that she started life as an Episcopalian. In many ways her life is the clearest model I know of for what I would have liked my life to be. I have fallen short, but she is a hero of mine.

Nicholas Ferrar -- Charles deFoucauld. Dec. 1

Dec. 1 is a very personal day for me and not because of an association with Advent or the upcoming Christmas season. Nicholas Ferrar was the primary figure who convinced me that it was ok to stake my future in the Episcopal Church. He is known for, among other things, the modified religious life he led at "Little Gidding" where "Prayer has been valid."

It is also associated with Charles de Foucauld. During some of the darkest moments of my life his "Prayer of abandonment" has sustained me and helped me to keep a focus God and not on my own pain. His selfless, yea self-sacrificial life, given for witness to Muslims of North Africa is for all of us a heroic example for our times.

St. Ambrose -- Pearl Harbor. Dec. 7

St. Ambrose is the saint on the calendar for Dec. 7. I first learned of him in a philosophy class as an under-graduate many years ago. But he really became personal to me only after I moved to Hawai'i because of the date of his feast. I experienced the tangible presence of God more clearly at the Arizona Memorial than just about any place I know of. It is the Vatican, Lourdes, and the National Cathedral all rolled into one. We always took visitors there above any other tourist destination.

Immaculate Conception -- Ordination. Dec. 8

As Episcopalians we don't celebrate the Immaculate Conception. But my whole adult life I have had a special place in my heart and in my prayers for Mary the Mother of the Lord. The relationship was only cemented in my life when Dec. 8 became the date of my ordination to the priesthood.

Finally, Dec. 9 is not in Lesser Feasts and Fasts. In 2012 it was the date of the Honolulu Marathon. It was also the day on which I married the love of my life. Mary Pat and I stood on a beach and exchanged our vows, and it has been one of the best things in my life.

Nostalgia as driver

One might argue that these holy days are significant to me because they inspire nostalgia. The memory of past events producing a feeling of comfort and the familiar.

It is that, to be sure. And nostalgia is a powerful motivator and source of comfort.

Increasingly, however, I am aware of how nostalgia is a very poor measure of quality control in the church. When decisions are made for nostalgia's sake, the deeper needs of the people of God are often shunted to back of the line.

In my own "end of the year Holy Days" I don't think nostalgia is what keeps them present to me. Each of the days has been a beacon of getting from the old to the new, from the beaten down to the lifted up, from discouraged to hopeful, from past to future.

These sacred times have been for me signs that we are not determined by our past. Our past is filled with brokenness. Our future is an over-turning of that brokenness. There is an old proverb that says that "God makes straight lines out of our crooked ones."

Courage & Faith as driver

These sacred times have given me courage and faith to walk into the future, often feeling inadequately prepared and woefully skilled at what is needed, but empowered by the Holy Spirit.

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