Days before Christmas may not appear to be essentially the most obvious time for a parish to plan a quiet evening reflecting on finding God within the midst of life’s darker moments. But even amid the last-minute shopping excursions and gatherings of families and friends, that is strictly what those gathered at Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chicago’s Loop neighborhood will do Wednesday evening. Coinciding with the winter solstice, the Longest Night is a prayer service aimed toward offering comfort to people whose experiences with loss, mental health and even just the vacation blues may cause them to struggle with the in-your-face, over-the-top joy sometimes demanded through the season.
December generally is a time when there’s “lots and a lot of expectation, which can even translate into a lot of disappointment,” Kate Williams, a member of the parish council who helped organize the parish’s first Longest Night service last yr, told America.
Ms. Williams said that coming out of the primary yr of the pandemic presented a chance to reflect on loss during last yr’s holiday season.
“There was just a lot loss and grief and unpacking that needed to be done due to what we had just been through collectively,” she said.
December generally is a time when there’s “lots and a lot of expectation, which can even translate into a lot of disappointment.”
Ms. Williams said she had found hope and support within the parish community for her own struggles with mental health and hoped a service dedicated to helping individuals who experience similar challenges may very well be comforting.
“A very powerful thing we will do for one another as a faith community is just practice that art of accompaniment,” Ms. Williams said. She said that while it is necessary “to be with people in all seasons of life,” Christmastime “can often feel like one of the vital out-of-sync seasons, especially for people who find themselves struggling.”
People right now of yr, Ms. Williams said, are “carrying plenty of burdens with them. And it feels almost like salt in a wound when the air around you in so many circles during which you’re present is loudly blasting the alternative form of message, about rejoicing and happiness and family and togetherness—and that is just not true for [you].”
Sometimes generally known as “Blue Christmas” services, they’ve been popular in some Protestant communities since at the very least the Nineteen Nineties, but there appears to be growing interest in Catholic spaces as well.
The Rev. Ronald Knott held his first Blue Christmas Mass in 2011, when he was a campus minister at Bellarmine University in Louisville, Ky.
Sometimes generally known as “Blue Christmas” services, they’ve been popular in some Protestant communities since at the very least the Nineteen Nineties, but there appears to be growing interest in Catholic spaces as well.
“I kept hearing people speak about how they hated to go to Mass on Christmas because they’d experienced a loss of kids or spouses or members of the family, from drug addiction to heart attacks to cancer, you name it,” Father Knott said.
“Loads of times at Christmas Masses, families are all laughing after they are available in, they usually’ve got the children and the grandkids they usually’re singing ‘Joy to the World’ with trumpets,” Father Knott said, “and it just grates on some individuals who have been through loss.”
“The last item they desired to do was to have joy shoved down their throats,” he added.
With space within the campus chapel and access to musicians, Father Knott decided that he would host a more somber Mass on Christmas Eve. The homily focused on the sometimes-overlooked trials of that first Christmas as a strategy to reveal that God understands challenges and grief.
“I kept hearing people speak about how they hated to go to Mass on Christmas because they’d experienced a loss of kids or spouses or members of the family.”
“The message was considered one of hope,” Father Knott said. “Mary and Joseph are away from home. They were in a crisis situation and so forth…. It wasn’t depressing. It was soothing.”
The primary yr, Father Knott expected that the chapel’s capability of about 175 people would offer good enough room for worshippers. But greater than 300 showed up. Eventually, he moved the service to a close-by parish, and he was struck by how many individuals traveled from across the archdiocese to attend the Mass. Father Knott hosted the service each Christmas through 2019, pausing due to Covid-19 for the last two years. He hopes to host one other Mass next Christmas.
“It’s a much greater need within the church than I believe plenty of persons are aware of,” Father Knott said. “They may know one or two persons are grieving, but they arrive out of the woodwork.”
While there just isn’t much evidence to suggest that depression necessarily increases through the holiday, some studies show that folks feel more anxious and stressed right now of yr. The Mayo Clinic suggests that folks acknowledge their feelings, reach out to a friend or member of the family in the event that they’re feeling isolated and step away from the demands of the vacation season to take a breather.
“It’s appropriate to take space and time to acknowledge that this is a component of our life, too, that it isn’t blissful and joyful on a regular basis.”
A likelihood to step away is what the organizers hope to supply in Chicago, especially for people who won’t at all times feel welcome at Mass.
“How can we construct bridges for people to come back who are sometimes missed and who need that connection to faith?” Brad Schoeberle, C.S.P., the pastor of the Paulist-run Old St. Mary’s, told America.
While Blue Christmas or Longest Night services vary community to community, they often share common elements, including silence, reflective music and prayer. At Old St. Mary’s, participants will give attention to the illuminated advent wreath, hear passages from Scripture and poems, and hearken to 4 transient reflections.
“The winter solstice is the time after we experience essentially the most darkness,” Ms. Williams said. “It’s appropriate to take space and time to acknowledge that this is a component of our life, too, that it isn’t blissful and joyful on a regular basis.”
“And even when the remainder of the world doesn’t appear to have capability for that, we all know that God does and so we attempt to acknowledge that together,” she said.
