A Mere 7 to GO!

Today's treat is a reflection written by Fr. Joachim Tyrtania, a good friend and writing partner. Father served as a missionary priest in Zambia, Africa for six years. The following excerpt is taken from our family Advent and Christmas Meditation series. I think it speaks beautifully to the importance of family together time, especially in an age when so much pulls us apart.

I first arrived at the Mambwe Mission late one November night in 1987. Upon my arrival, one of the resident priests started a generator to produce some electricity. That evening we had light for less than one hour. After the long flight from my home country of Poland, I was too tired to notice. The exciting trip and the new places and faces had exhausted me. I slept well in the pitch black of the African night.

I awoke the next morning to a world unlike any I had known before. The sights, sounds, and smells were as amazing as the stillness. I soon recognized this new kind of quiet came from the lack of electricity. There was no buzzing or humming around me! I soon learned electricity was scarce in the African bush. We owned a small generator at the mission. It was powered by fuel, and we ran it only an hour or two each evening. Once when our generator broke, we had no electricity for more than a year!

I soon discovered what I once would have thought of as a hardship was actually a great blessing. The lack of electricity forced us to turn our attention away from the distractions of the outside world and towards interactions with each other. We had unlimited and undisturbed conversations. We read, talked, listened, and prayed together. I noticed this same behavior in each of the villages I visited around the mission. Each evening after supper, all generations met around a common fire. They talked and shared stories passing tribal traditions from old to the young.

I imagine life in Jesus' time was very much the same. Families gathered together around a fire with everyone listening and learning from each other. This is the way Bible stories were told and retold. Family life was the center of the community, just as it was for those of us living in the Mambwe Mission.

The African people taught me so much. They understand the power of family ties. Our family members are our first teachers and our first friends. They tell us where we have been and who we are, and they help us find directions for who we will be. Family is the electricity that lights our path.

When I returned home from Africa, I made a commitment to frequently turn off the things that power my world and plug into the people who power my life.

                                                        excerpt from Let the Children Come, Cycle C 

How might you plug into your family during the remainder of this Advent season? What habits can you begin building to carry you and your loved ones into the new year?