CHARLOTTE — Tryon Street glowed with Christmas lights Thursday night as people bundled in coats merrily rushed past St. Peter Church. Some people, however, stopped and went inside the historic church, seeking something different.
They left behind the hustle and bustle of the final days before Christmas to experience a moment of quiet worship punctuated by acoustic song and candlelight. The special event, an Advent Mass of Peace and Solace, offered an opportunity to spend time with the Lord away from society’s expectation of Christmas festivity.
Some were dealing with grief, others with job loss, illness, financial issues or simply trying to find quiet moment with their thoughts and memories. The annual Mass at St. Peter gave them a chance to find peace and comfort while dealing with difficult emotions.
The evening featured songs that spoke of God’s gentle grace and of hope. Meditations about the Advent season and its challenges were read as the Advent wreath candles were lit. The comforting carol “Silent Night” was sung while people sat bathed in candlelight.
In his homily Jesuit Father Tim Stephens, St. Peter’s pastor, focused on how hard it can be to handle grief and challenging emotions during this season when an increasingly secular culture bombards people with images of manufactured festivity. It’s also difficult to crave simplicity and find the true meaning of the season when there is such a focus on commercial excess, he said.
Parishioner Mary Claire Wall lights a candle on the Advent wreath while prayers are said during an Advent Mass of Peace and Solace at St. Peter Church Dec. 19. (At top) A couple sings the carol “Silent Night” together during the special liturgy.
Father Stephens told the story of the first Christmas Eve he could remember, when as a child he saw his grandmother, “this woman who never ever seemed to stop working, lying on her bed waiting for the ambulance to come.” He described his memory of looking at Christmas lights through the car windows on his ride home, finding it hard to reconcile that festive holiday image outside with the knowledge of his grandmother’s serious illness.
“It’s hard to juxtapose the Christmas that seems to be part of the atmosphere and what you might be feeling,” Father Stephens said. “There are probably deep feelings of loss, sadness and depression that can stem from something in life that doesn’t quite fit what we or society think Christmas should be about…Sometimes we come at Christmas with too many unrealistic expectations.”
He reminded the congregation that feelings of grief or anxiety are not something to be ashamed of or to hide.
“It’s important to be reminded they are particularly natural, normal feelings, and we need to own them and acknowledge them, to continue to honor the memory of people who are no longer physically present,” he said.
Father Stephens suggested that when their emotions well up, people focus on the humble stable where Christ was born.
“We need to allow God the opportunity to draw us into the simplicity of the true meaning of Christ, recognizing that what that stable represents is a lot truer when we see it in its simplicity,” he said. “God born as one of us in the most radically simple circumstances is really intended to lift us up. By God wanting to be with us, He lifts us all up. We need to ask God to transform our grief, our sorrow, our emptiness…those feelings are not the limit of what God wants for us. Even in the midst of our sorrow, He wants to give us peace.”
Mary Claire Wall, a member of St. Peter, brought her friend Gay Boswell to the Mass. Both women used the time to think about people they have lost over the years and found the evening to be a chance for reflection and comfort.
“It was so special to be in this lovely, humble place with regular people singing in the candlelight,” Boswell said. “My heart was warmed by being here. All of us have lost someone, and this was a chance to think about them and feel God’s grace.”
— Christina Lee Knauss