Deacon Matthew Newsome and pilgrims from Charlotte are pictured in Rome with the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in the background. What you pack – and choose to leave behind – can help shape your faith journeys, both physically and spiritually. (Photo provided by Deacon Matthew Newsome) I wrote this just a few short days before I led a Jubilee Year pilgrimage to Rome and other shrines in Italy. That meant I had some packing to do. So naturally, I opted to write about packing as a means of procrastination.
My habit when I fly is to limit myself to one carry-on. This propensity to travel light grew out of my first experience backpacking. When I was newly out of college, a friend invited me to join him on a multi-day excursion in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was my first time undertaking such an endeavor, and not knowing what to expect, I took the Boy Scout motto to heart: “Always be prepared.”
The problem was, I was no Boy Scout. Had I been, I would have known that being prepared has more to do with physical and mental readiness than strapping an entire general store to your back.
All those “just in case” items I carried through the mountains only weighed me down and wore me out. Rather than helping me along the way, they made the journey more difficult. Ever since then, I have been more judicious about what I take with me.
What do you need?
Packing lightly forces me to be more discerning about what is and isn’t necessary. Do I need a different outfit for every day of my trip, for example? The answer is no. Some things, like medications, are a must, but many other items are luxuries. I find it a useful challenge to see how much I can do without, especially when it’s only a matter of days.
Jesus imposed rather strict baggage limits for His missionary disciples: “Take nothing with you for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics” (Lk 9:3). The classic interpretation of this text is that Christ was teaching His apostles to rely on God, trusting that He would provide for them through the hospitality of others.
Later He instructs them, “Do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!” (Lk 12:22-24).
He imparts this wisdom after telling the parable of a rich man who builds larger and larger barns to store his surplus crops, thinking he would “eat, drink and be merry,” until God says to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” (Lk 12:16-20). Jesus provides the moral of this parable up front: “Beware of covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Lk 12:15).
As Job so poignantly observed, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return” (Jb 1:21). We all enter this world with nothing, and so shall we leave it. The wise Christian ought therefore to have a sense of detachment from the goods of this world, most of which cannot fit in an overhead compartment.
Learning to travel with only the bare necessities can help us not only learn to rely on God’s providence, but also teach us to receive His blessings with greater gratitude. Not being weighed down by either physical or spiritual baggage allows our hearts to soar more freely to the heights.
Most of our baggage isn’t material
As the Church reminds us in this Jubilee Year of Hope, our time on earth is meant to be a pilgrimage to heaven. Most of the baggage we carry on life’s journey isn’t material.
We carry around things like grudges, anger, hurt feelings, resentment, a sense of entitlement or self-righteousness. These are heavy burdens that only serve to weigh us down. Why do we cling to them so dearly?
We can grow so accustomed to carrying our personal baggage around with us that we forget who we are without it. The prospect of letting go can be frightening, but learning to do so is a vital part of our pilgrimage.
My earliest memories of packing are of preparing for weekend trips to my grandparents’ house. Mom and Dad would make sure we had the necessities, such as toothbrushes and clean clothes, while we children focused on packing toys and other diversions. Afraid of being bored, we wanted to bring as many playthings with us as we could. Of course, we were never bored at Grandma’s house. There were always cousins to play with, backyard adventures to be had and story books to read on Grandaddy’s lap. More often than not, we would forget all about our toys, leaving them packed away in our bags, untouched. All the things we thought we couldn’t live without proved to be unimportant once we reached our destination.
In the Father’s house, all our needs will be met. We needn’t worry about lacking a thing. Therefore, as we travel along our earthly pilgrimage, let us travel lightly, letting go of our burdens so that our hands and hearts may be open to receive all the blessings our Lord can give us. Godspeed to each of you along the journey.
Deacon Matthew Newsome is the Catholic campus minister at Western Carolina University and the author of “The Devout Life: A Modern Guide to Practical Holiness with St. Francis de Sales,” available from Sophia Institute Press.
The Sacred Music for Advent and Christmas was held at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte on Dec. 3. Watch full video of the concert: https://youtu.be/6wZdP22IF0Q (Photo by James Sarkis)WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Christmas carol "O Holy Night" ranked first in a list of hymns most played in December at Christian churches in the United States.
"O Come All Ye Faithful" and "Silent Night" ranked second and third, respectively.
The list was compiled by Pushpay, which offers electronic giving options for churches and their congregants.
It asked its 15,000 subscribing churches last December what hymns they used that month, and released the results this Dec. 1. A Pushpay spokeswoman, Katie Griffin, could not supply a breakdown of Catholic parishes among those churches.
The top-10 list is filled with carols familiar to Catholics. Following the top three choices are, in order, "The First Noel," "Joy To The World" and "Angels We Have Heard On High."
Following those are two songs featured more in the repertoire of non-Catholic churches.
"Glorious Day," which ranked seventh overall, was recorded by the contemporary Christian group Passion, featuring Kristian Stanfill on vocals. It is more of a salvation narrative without any lyrics taking note of the birth or infancy of Jesus. Still, the song's official music and lyrics video has received 6.6 million views on YouTube.
There are several versions of the eighth-ranked song, "Goodness of God." One video of the song has climbed up to 7 million YouTube views. The song is another in the Christian contemporary genre which focuses more on a first-person-singular, personal relationship with Jesus than a first-person plural voice found more often in Catholic hymnody.
Ninth is the gospel melody "Go Tell It On the Mountain," which has found a home in many Catholic hymnals and parishes.
And, to prove that the list took into account all of December and not just the week beginning Dec. 25, winding up in the 10th spot was "O Come O Come Emmanuel," an Advent song based on a chant melody familiar to Catholics not only in the United States but throughout the world.
Griffin told Catholic News Service it's conducting the poll again this December. The top five songs from the 2020 poll were, in order, "Joy To The World," "O Come All Ye Faithful," "Silent Night," "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and "O Holy Night."
— Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service