Christmas is a holy time, a joyful time of remembering Christ’s life and mission and taking those blessings deep within. It is also a fun-filled, busy time for families, which can become frantic and harried, with all feelings of blessing and holiness lost in the hustle.

Over the years we have used many different traditions and activities in our home to keep the focus of our Christmases on spiritual blessings. At the Ananda Portland Temple and Teaching Center, we have also engaged the children in many fun activities to help teach them the meaning of Christmas.

This year at the temple we brought back the tradition of Advent. Advent is well known in Catholic churches, but not commonly practiced in the Protestant tradition or other faiths. Very simply, it is a wonderful way to repeatedly bring the focus back to spiritual blessings during the holy season.

If you look up the Advent tradition, you will find a variety of Bible readings and scripts that are used, but I’ll tell you how we adapted the idea for our Sunday Services.

An advent wreath has 4 candles placed around it, with a 5th candle in the center. Each week (starting 4 Sundays prior to Christmas eve), a candle is lit. On Christmas Eve all 4 are burning and the 5th one is lit to represent the Christ.

The wreath was set up on a table next to the altar. The children were happy to help light the candles and carry figures to add to the nativity scene. We assigned those duties prior to service, to avoid hurt feelings and save time.

The first candle represents the Promise of Christ’s birth and the eternal promise that divine light will always come into darkness. The three wisemen were brought up the first week, because they understood why Christ was coming and they followed the star (seen in the spiritual eye in deep meditation).

The second candle represents divine Love. Mary and Joseph and the empty manger were added because of the love they held in their hearts for God and for the Christ child.

The third candle represents divine Joy and the shepherds. The great joy the shepherds experienced at the news of Christ’s birth can be experienced by everyone who opens their heart to what God is offering.

The fourth candle represents divine Light, manifested by the angels. This is the last Sunday before Christmas Eve and the nativity, with the addition of the angel, was now in full splendor on the altar.

We also added a new service for families on Christmas Eve. Scheduled from 5pm – 6pm, it was accessible to all, but especially child friendly. During this service, we lit the last advent candle, placed the little baby Jesus safely in his manger, and “built” a live creche scene with costumed players of all ages.

The feelings of deep blessings, gratitude and awe were tangible that evening. Because of the focus on the Christmas story and the qualities of spiritual blessing each week, the Christmas Eve service felt like a sweet culmination of celebration, instead of a too-brief opportunity to take it all in at once.

Advent can be practiced at home and can become a deep and meaningful part of the Christmas season. Children can be engaged on many levels – they can choose stories and crafts that depict the quality focused on for the week. They can set up their nativity or decorate their room a little at a time. The advent wreath can be the centerpiece on the table and if Sunday is not a convenient time for family celebration, choose another day of the week to do your advent remembrance.

Paramhansa Yogananda taught that a long Christmas meditation was good practice for adults to balance the social aspects of Christmas with the inner opportunity for grace. For children, balance can be even harder to find. I am so grateful for the blessings shared during our Advent season, and the insights and joy experienced by adults and children together.

May the new year bring you ever closer to God,

In divine friendship, Lorna

As I went back into the community center to pick up the last of my things after the concert, I could tangibly feel the beauty that the students created with their music. I stood for a moment in the now empty hall, and tried to imprint the feeling and vibration of this beautiful evening into my memory.

Last Friday night, Dec 7th, was our annual Living Wisdom School Christmas Concert, presenting the entire K-12 classes in an hour long program. I am so blessed to be working with such a talented group of young singers and instrumentalists. We have around 50 students, with a few hours each week to rehearse, and it is remarkable what these kids can do! We have the 21 high schoolers singing 4 part songs, including Handel’s Halleluiah Chorus this year, which is quite an undertaking! They rose to the challenge beautifully, and have learned to sing not only beautifully, but from a deeper place of inspiration than ever before.

Here is an excerpt from one of the pieces they did by themselves, without me conducting, entitled “Ave Verum Corpus” by Mozart. See if you can feel how beautifully they can present the music not only with sound, but with their feeling and channeling of inspiration.

There were many many singers who wanted to do solos, but of course there aren’t enough places to fit them all in! Here is “The Christmas Mystery,” written by Swami Kriyananda, featuring Balarama’s 2 – 3 grade class singing the first verse, a quartet of High School boys singing the second, and Sam, a second grader, beginning the fourth. (I’ve edited the recording for these highlights).

The auditorium was packed to capacity, and many felt the great blessings that these incredible kids shone forth through their music that night. My job is to keep them busy with the most inspired songs I can possibly find, and challenge them to feel as deeply as they can the Divine Presence within each one.

This past Sunday, December 2nd, was the 24th World Brotherhood Day at The Expanding Light at Ananda Village. It is a day set aside at the beginning of the Christmas holiday season where we consciously stop and remember the beauty of this season.

World Brotherhood Day has been one of my favorite Ananda observances for years. I remember many years ago (yikes - almost 20 years ago) sending for the cassette tape so that I could listen to and then participate in the event from a distance.

The evening began and ends with the choir singing beautiful songs, including my favorite, Christmas Mystery. This song plus others from the Christ Lives Oratrio fill me with awe.

It has been our custom on this day to contribute a day’s wage to an aspect of the outreach ministry. We place this offering at the beautiful Christmas altar then recieve a blessing by Jyotish and Devi and a small gift. This year it was a copy of a profound article Swami Kriyananda recently wrote.

In the past we have given support for the Ananda groups in Russia. We created a fund in Assisi which they could use as scholarship money for Russians and eastern Europeans who wanted to come for training programs. We have also in the past dedicated our offerings to reprinting “spiritually precious” books written by Swamiji which had gone out of print. After 24 years, you can imagine that the benificiaries of this special day are many.

This year our donations will go toward sharing Master’s light in a coordinated effort to spread the word about Ananda Village’s 40th year and Swamiji’s 60th year of discipleship. 2008 will be a special year indeed.

The evening also featured brief talks by Jyotish and Devi, Catherine Van Houten and Tim and Corinne Hickey. Tim and Corinne will be in charge of pulling all the strings together and coordinating our efforts to share the news.

The dedicated Expanding Light cooking staff and Karma yogis prepared and served a delicious banquet after the program. It was so nice to see everyone dressed up and enjoying the delightful food and pretty decorations.

This weekend was special for another reason. As many of you know Swamiji had surgery last week and after a brief stay in ICU is now again at his home in Gurgaon, India. He has inspired all of us with his courage and amazing joy. Swamiji said at the close of a letter he wrote to everyone, “You all have my deep, heartfelt love. Thank you again and again for your loving (and blissful) prayers. And, yes, I tried to share my own bliss with all of you. Let us all work together to bring Master’s wonderful message to the whole world.”

So our World Brotherhood Day gift is dedicated to try and share Yogananda’s message of inner joy with the world.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve service at Ananda Village. Our dear friend Lila Devi, who was the mastermind of the evening, weaved the story of the birth of Jesus with stories, music and theatre. It was magical and very moving. The community center was filled with residents and many guests. The evening ended with offering of candles to the baby Jesus, while Victorian Singers serenaded us with traditional Christmas carols.