Michael De Sapio
To anyone who feels beaten down by the bleakness of the world around us, my advice is this: seek to rise above the soundbites and thought-clichés of journalism, politics, and academia. Instead, inquire about the truth from the great tradition. Keep the sabbath, cultivate the soul and the mind, study nature. Maintain that flame of inner joy that no one can take from you.
In modern times, “the holiday season” has developed into a complex of time spanning Halloween in late October to New Year’s as December turns to January. This two-month span takes us from the anticipation of death to the birth of the Son of God, and finally to the freshness and new beginnings—in the midst of bleak midwinter. In secular life it is something of an extravaganza, a feeding and buying frenzy. And in truth, our celebrations of the holidays have in many cases fallen into a lot of habitual falderol, a song-and-dance routine devoid of inner meaning.
We IC’s (imaginative conservatives) can act as lights to the world through our connection to the great tradition. We can recognize that, despite having become highly secularized, this suite of holidays still retains its religious core. The fact that is this chunk of time bears numerous spiritual associations, and retains a kind of grand liturgical structure that shines through all the secularism.
At the core of this suite of holidays, as observed in the United States, is the feast of Thanksgiving, in which we reflect on the blessings we have received from God. In a way this recollection launches us into Advent, the Church’s New Year, in which we reflect on Christ’s coming in historical time, his arrival in our hearts in the present, and his eventual return at the end of time. The giving of gifts during this season symbolizes our gratitude for God’s gifts in creation, » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2025/01/launching-new-year-hope-faith-michael-de-sapio.html