No. 45 Christmas

Facilitator______________
Date___________________

Group Session Plan from FUSN (developed by Dorothy Ellis)

Chalice/Candle Lighting

Opening Words:

On this day of expectations sweetly met—and ever unfulfilled—of present joy and wistful memories, of the eternal hope for peace on a warring earth, the spirit seeks the quiet core of Christmas.
That connection to the center runs on what can feel like frayed wiring in this wild season, when meeting obligations overrides the need to find calm and wholeness.

-excerpt from The Boston Globe, Editorial, December 25, 2002

Check-in/Sharing

Topic/Activity:
Many experience Christmas as a difficult time of the year, rather than a time they feel at one with the world. What about you? How have you coped with Christmas expectations? Which traditions are most important to you, which just more pressure? Have you or are you thinking of changing anything or of adding anything? Address one of these questions or simply describe your most enjoyable Christmas, a Christmas when you got to the center of things, the true spirit of Christmas, or felt unadulterated joy, or simply the absurdity of it all.

Select the topic and location for the next meeting

Check-out / Likes and Wishes

Closing Words:

In the quiet of the late afternoon, as the light fades into a Christmas evening, a person might take a winter walk and feel gloriously alive yet relaxed. The rush will be warmer than brandy and sting the eyes with tears as a person believes for one exquisitely crystalline moment that the human race can and will embrace the good that is in us all.

-excerpt from The Boston Globe, Editorial, December 25, 2002