Christ Mass

If I get around to it, I'll write a few more posts this week with a more reflective, introspective tone. This post is to be free of a negative tone.

It was curious that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. Even though I do not follow any organized religion, the holiday of Christmas has greater significance to me than any other holiday. For me, it is an opportunity that is always reserved for family time--regardless of the time challenges our world presents. The break my job affords me during Christmas gives me time to reflect and plan for the upcoming year.

It's also fun to watch Christians celebrate this (for their religious canon) all-important holiday. It's enjoyable to watch the absolute joy involved for these folk to celebrate the birth of the keystone individual in their religious beliefs. This year's Christmas celebration seemed extra specials today is Sunday--often reserved as a day of worship for Christians. I attended the Christmas service at New Bridge Baptist Church in Cleveland, GA. My attendance was there not for the worship experience but for the family experience--several members of the maternal side of my family were in attendance.

The service was a traditional county baptist "preaching." I sang with the choir, which I always do when I visit. It was a fun experience. The folk singing aren't professional singers, but it's good folk enjoying music as a tool to enhance their experience. The service itself had a different kind of fervor for it was recanting the all important story of the birth of Christ on the day that the Mass is celebrated.

At the end of the service, the preacher always makes a call to the congregation to name folk the congregation needs to support by keeping them "in their prayers." Today's call was a bit different, for we were remembering folks who had been lost or were/are to be honored in the present/from the recent past. Rarely do I participate with this, for I feel a detachment with the worship aspect of this experience; however, today I did participate. I asked the folks to remember the family of Jerry Coleman. I explained that they likely didn't know who Jerry Coleman was and further explained that he was a former student of mine who perished earlier this week. I asked the congregation to keep their Coleman family in their thoughts while they cope with the tragedy of losing a child--especially during the week of Christmas, which (I didn't explain, for it goes without saying) is a holiday so focused on time with the family.

I hope, reader, this was a good day for you. Among all of the great family time today, the above event help make this day, the wonderful day I recall it being for many years and will hopefully contine to be for many years to come.