Advent Traditions: Word of the Year

As Christmas day gets closer and closer, I have been thinking about my favorite Christmas traditions. One that came up was when my mom would tell me to go to sleep early on Christmas Eve so that I could make it through midnight Mass. She would wake me up and then I was allowed to open one designated Christmas present, which was always my new dress to wear to Mass. After Mass, which I would just barely stay awake for, we would return home for the traditional Christmas ham. To be honest, I usually skipped the ham and went straight to opening more presents!

I remember going to the Philippines for Christmas recently and being in awe of the Nativity scenes and parols. The traditional decorations remind me of the faith of the Filipinos, and celebrating Christ in Christmas was a breath of fresh air in a world that has commercialized a solemnity into a money-making venture. Over the years, I started to participate in my own traditions, from lighting an Advent wreath, epic cookie exchanges, and selecting a word of the year!

Back in 2019, I chose the word Fearless as inspired by Taylor Swift's song. For 2020, I got sucked in by Jennifer Fulwiler's Word Generator and used the word "community" for my word of the year. Looking back, that particular word has both irony and truth in it, considering the restrictions COVID has put on us and the joy I have experienced living in community this past year. When I chose (or rather, received) that word, I never knew that I would experience it the way I have. I have documented both here on this blog and also in emails and journal entries that community life has been such a beautiful gift to me. I have been growing in ways I never thought possible and finding the blessings hidden in the crosses that come with encountering a diverse group of people day by day. On the other hand, because of the pandemic, I have also seen the breakdown of community, the broken hearts caused by lack of community, and the stresses imposed on community. And yet, in that same breakdown as brutal as it has been, I have seen the gift of truth. I have seen the reality of fear, the yearning, the aching, the emotional roller coaster that comes with us realizing that "it is not good for man to be alone."

That brings me to my 2021 word of the year. After several rounds of the Jennifer Fulwiler Word Generator, I decided not to leave this tradition up to chance. Instead, I decided to ask the Holy Spirit for inspiration. The word I received was "Present." Part of the charism of Regnum Christi is accompanying people on their walk towards Jesus. In order to accompany people, you must be present. And in order to accompany people well, you must live in the present. As someone who likes to plan for the future and tends to dwell on the past, I can already foresee the challenges I will encounter in 2021 using the word "present" to remind myself of how I want to live in my walk with Christ and my journey with other people. But I choose to embrace it. And indeed, I receive it as a "present."