Advent Visions

December 13:  St. Lucia

This morning I got up early to walk our two small dogs.  They don't seem to mind the cold too much.   But in these shortest days of the year here in Connecticut, it is dark at 6 a.m.    The older of the pair, Bug, only has one eye as a result of an infection a few years ago.   That eye is now starting to cloud over with a cataract, so she depends on her nose--and me--to help her find her way in the dark.   

Today is the feast day of St. Lucia, a third century saint and martyr who is venerated in the far northern countries of Scandinavia even though she lived in Italy.  Legends say that as a young woman of faith, she carried food to Christians hiding  in the catacombs.    The story goes that because her hands were full, she lit her way along the dark and twisting tunnels of the catacombs by putting candles in a wreath, which she wore on her head.    And so Lucia has come to represent the triumph of light over darkness.  In Sweden, her festival is kept each year on Dec. 13.  In many homes, a young woman, dressed in white and wearing a candled wreath on her head, carries cardamom-infused buns to the members of the household early in the morning.    I remember fondly my Great Aunt Anna, who was of German descent, hosting a feast of Swedish foods (including pickled herring, lutefisk, and Lucia buns) because her husband, my Great Uncle Daniel, came from Sweden.  She always served rice pudding with an almond hidden in one dish, promising wealth in the coming year to the person who got the almond.     I never was the lucky one as a child, and so I was never rich.  But I still remember to pause on Dec. 13 to think about St. Lucia, my Aunt Anna, and the light they both brought into the world.   

There is darkness in every life.  Some of it is very dark, deep as the deathly catacombs of ancient Rome.    When we are there, we may feel like we will never find our way out.    St. Lucia's message is that we should always  follow the light, no matter how small it is.   And if there is no light at all, my little one-eyed dog reminds me, find someone who can see and go with them.


St. Lucia's Day

Lady in white,
awaken us 
who slumber in darkness
with your sweet song.
Stir us to rise
with some tiny hope
that beyond the candles
and heaven's stars,
there is a light
more true, more home
than any night.