When I was a child I had very simple ideas of what religion meant. Mostly it was attending church on Sundays and also during the summer holidays when the nuns would hold summer catechism classes that started with a mass at seven thirty in the morning, breakfast of hot chocolate and buns with butter and jam in the church hall and classes with the nuns looking severe in brown habits grazing the floor and headpieces tightly pinching faces until a red border was visible from forehead to chin.

They must have been sweltering in that clothing in the summer heat no wonder they always looked cross and slap rulers hard on desks as they moved around the room.

In the fifties and sixties there were a lot of children in our parish and so this was a busy time for the nuns. It’s where my siblings and I learned about God and Jesus. I also learned that Catholics were just a little bit different than the United Church kids or even the Anglicans next door.

At age 13 I joined Canadian Girls in Training, a group that met in the United Church basement. I recall some of the older ladies being aghast at this as it was frowned upon to be involved with other denominations. Its credit to how progressive my father was that he allowed his daughter to be involved with these girls although the fact that the leader was a respected Catholic woman must have helped tremendously.

So there I was making seashell jewelry and attending Vespers without being dammed to hell as I’m sure a lot of Dad’s friends must have been thinking.

My father always said I was “high spirited”, a kind word for being a bit of a rebel I think. And that carried to my intrigue of other denominations while still holding strong Catholic roots. I wanted to know what went on behind other church doors, I wanted to understand what the differences were between my church and the others. When I got older I went to bible studies with the Baptist church and attended many services from various others as well as befriending their ministers.

Since then I have realized how very similar most Christian churches are and how alike in many ways people of different faiths are. And most of all I have learned the difference between religion and faith. There was a time when religion had a deep hold on individuals and so the churches were full on Sundays.

Growing up in Fernie, my church would have every pew full on Sundays and masses during the week were also well attended. Now on Sundays sitting in the same pew that I have sat in for nearly six decades I find myself looking down towards the altar remembering the many people, that I was in such awe of, now gone and their seats empty. I remember the grand ladies in their fur coats, the men in nice suits, and the priest going up into the pulpit and preaching for what seemed hours.

Sunday November 27 is the first Sunday of Advent, this means it’s the start of a new liturgical year and the beginning of the Christmas season. In the church it’s a preparation for Christmas. A time for reflection and prayer, fasting and repentance it’s also a way to start over, sort of a way to rub the slate clean and begin again. To quote Father Richard Rohr from the Center for Action and Contemplation, “There is no meaningful separation between sacred and secular, physical and psychic, human and divine. They are two sides of one coin. There is within every being an inherent longing for and capacity to experience this union. Everything really does “belong” because all things are finally connected to the same Creator and thus to one another. We bear a family resemblance, as it were! Why then are humans so prone to excluding and separating? Why do we spend so much time deciding who does not belong in our religious, political, and personal worlds? How can we get everything to belong in our own heads and hearts? Let’s first understand this: Humans have a deep and legitimate need for an identity inside of this huge cosmos. To develop a healthy ego, we must differentiate and individuate; we must know we’re special and find a place where we are loved and where we belong without needing to prove ourselves. This is our launch pad.“

I have read the above passage several times to get the full meaning of what he is stating, each time understanding just a bit more of the information contained in it.

When we accept how we are all connected, how we all have a need to feel special and important, how we need to be loved then we will understand what real peace is, what Faith is. Religion provides us rituals and traditions to assist in this discovery, but all we need to understand is that everything and everyone belongs on this earth and beyond to eternity. Happy Advent everyone!