A Family Liturgical Cycle?

by Toni Rowland · Published January 16, 2018 · Updated January 15, 2018

Marfam’s 2018 theme, “Ubuntu: Families Do Matter”, builds on a deep-seated belief that “I am because we are”.

Christmas may be over, but before we know it, it’ll again be Advent and Christmas again. And then it will be good to remember that the 12 Days of Christmas are those after the feast of the Nativity, not before.

I’ve become interested in those days over the years. In part, it’s because I believe we shouldn’t stop singing Christmas carols on Christmas day which really is just the start of the Christmas season.

For some years I have offered a “Carols Galore” session at my place, mainly for those of us who sing in choirs and do carol services on request but seldom get to choose what we would like to sing. At those sessions we can enjoy many favourites and our own traditional national carols, too.

12 Days of Christmas – A Catechism Lesson

At my carol sing-a-long we do sing the carol “The 12 Days of Christmas” when “my true love gave to me” all those lords a-leaping and ladies dancing and the partridge in a pear tree, none of which appear to make much sense.

I have discovered that this is in fact a catechism lesson dating to the 17th century, the days of the persecutions of Catholics in England. The partridge is Jesus, the 12 lords a-leaping are the 12 articles in the apostle’s creed and so on — and the whole thing becomes a game.

So we played around with the “Carols Galore” sessions, but the idea of inviting people to sing carols after Christmas Day fell rather flat. Even grandchildren decided they wanted to go and spend their Christmas money.

How does one provide an opportunity to be in line with the liturgy and reflect on the events as they are written?

In the pre-Christmas “Carols by Candlelight” services little notice is taken of the order of events. “We Three Kings” is right for the Epiphany but that is two weeks after Christmas Day. Quite a few of the popular carols tell the whole story, such as “The First Nowell”. In a way, “What Child Is This” can also be considered appropriate for the feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28 — and even the Presentation on February 2

What Tells the Holy Family Story?

But what is most appropriate for the feast of the Holy Family, on December 31? What family hymns are there really for us to choose from?

My point is that many carols and hymns at other times, such as Easter are time-hallowed and traditional and when they were composed they might have told a whole story, and didn’t take too much notice of the exact order of events. This is in any case quite difficult to reconcile chronologically as Matthew and Luke told different Nativity stories.

The gospels from time to time during the liturgical year seem to jump the gun chronologically. So from a family catechetical perspective, I believe that the liturgy should definitely be a guideline but, as happens, if after 12 days a family has long forgotten Christmas it is sad not to have introduced them to the beautiful reflections in some of the carols.

Besides, don’t we tend to sing hymns without really thinking about the words? Is it really true that, as has been said, “singing is praying twice”? I do wonder.

But faith is lived in daily life, in the home — and what happens there? Do we sing hymns or any other kind of songs at all these days? How many families pray together, or do a little faith-sharing on scripture and life?

I am Because We Are

Marfam’s 2018 theme, “Ubuntu: Families Do Matter”, builds on a deep-seated belief that “I am because we are”.

Families — the first communities — in their different forms do matter, not just on 12 days to remind us of Christ and Christmas but for 12 months of the year, the liturgical year and the family’s own liturgical cycle too.

Available materials, technology, family blessings and just ordinary traditional and cultural practices can be used. We are coming to realise that this is a new view but also an old form of catechesis—family catechesis as the first responsibility of a family.

Marfam promotes this as a way of developing family spirituality, which need not — and at times cannot — be strictly liturgically correct when it takes into account the life events of a family.

To highlight the role of parish and of family in a parish dedication or commissioning of new office-bearers at the beginning of a new 12 months, parents and families could be commissioned too as educators and catechists.

Why not? That is really taking the Church home, building the little domestic church of the home and putting the point across to the wider community too.