The Gift Holiday Service
This video features the Sunday “talk” only. Watch the full service on our Facebook page.
DESCRIPTION
Ready to celebrate the holidays? Join us for our Holiday Service “The Gift” on December 22nd and stay after to kick off the holidays with a concert by our amazing Cityside Music Team. As our talented musicians regale us with some holiday tunes, we will share some holiday treats and celebrate together. Please bring your favorite holiday snacks or sweets to share.
SUMMARY
- The most profound gifts are not material, but are born of the heart and spirit – love, peace, joy, and kindness.
- The story of “The Gift of the Magi” is retold, which demonstrates that the greatest gift is selfless love.
- The community is invited to reflect on spiritual qualities they are being called to receive and give during this time.
- The service emphasizes that our thoughts, words, and actions are gifts we send to the universe, and encourages uplifting and inspiring gifts.
- A prayer is offered, inviting listeners to embody their spiritual nature and receive and give the gifts they are called to during the holiday season.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Aimee Daniels (00:00):
Welcome to our holiday service. We’re so glad to have you here and online and to our community members. We have a lot of people traveling already to see loved ones. Our service today is called The Gift, and we’re going to explore how the most profound gifts are not wrapped in ribbons or placed under the tree, but they’re born of the heart and the spirit love, peace, joy, and kindness. Let’s open ourselves to receive.
Donna Pitz (00:39):
Good morning everybody. My name is Donna Pitz and I’m a licensed spiritual practitioner here, and I use the pronouns of she and her. Today’s reading is by Alberto Rios Rios, and it’s a poem called When Giving is All We Have. One River gives its journey to the next. We give because somebody gave to us, we give because nobody gave to us. We give because giving has changed us. We give because giving could have changed us. We have been better for it. We have been wounded by it. Giving has many faces. It is loud and quiet big. Those small diamond in wood nails, its story is old. The plot worn and the pages
(05:10):
Say yes to this knowing this truth. And I speak a blessing right here and right now, knowing that life is for us, that this is a time of giving and receiving. This is a time of just being the truth of who we are. That we are all gifts, as is each and every person. I just speak a blessing on this space as set aside, knowing it as love, knowing it as acceptance, knowing it as peace and joy. Speak a blessing on this service, knowing it is always aligned to this truth. I just say yes to this. I call it done. And together we say, and so it is.
Musicians (06:08):
Maybe this Christmas will mean something more ….
Connie Houdek (08:40):
An adaptation of the Gift of the Magi. By O Henry, also known as William Sidney Porter.
Hunter Tallman (08:49):
It was Christmas Eve and all through the small apartment there was an air of quiet desperation. Della sat by the window staring at the meager coins in her hand,
Connie Houdek (09:01):
$1 and 87 cents. That’s all I have. After months of scrimping and saving, how can I buy Jim a Christmas gift? With this,
Hunter Tallman (09:12):
Jim was her husband, her pride and her joy. Together, they lived a simple life filled not with wealth, but with love. Yet this Christmas, Della wanted to give him something special, something worthy of him. She glanced at herself in the mirror, her eyes landing on her long, luxurious hair.
Connie Houdek (09:32):
Oh, if only there was another way. No, no, I can’t. Yes, I will, I will for Jim.
Hunter Tallman (09:41):
And with that thought deli grabbed her coat and hurried to a nearby shop, a place with a sign that read Madam Sore hair goods of all kinds. Inside Madam Soffee greeted her with a business-like smile. What can I do for you? Miss
Connie Houdek (09:59):
My hair? Would you buy it? How much could you give me for it?
Hunter Tallman (10:04):
Let me see it. $20, $20. It was enough without hesitation. Della agreed. Soon her cascading locks were gone, replaced by a neat cap of short hair. She hurried from the shop, clutching her money, her heart pounding with excitement. She spent the afternoon searching for the perfect gift. And at last she found it A simple, yet elegant platinum chain for Jim’s prize possession, his gold pocket watch.
Connie Houdek (10:35):
It’s perfect. He’ll love it. Meanwhile, Jim had his own plan at work. He had been eyeing a pair of combs in a shop window, Combs made of tortoise shell with jewel tips, the perfect gift for della’s beautiful hair, but they were far beyond his modest means. Jim made his decision. He sold his gold. Watch the watch that had been passed down by his grandfather to buy the combs.
Hunter Tallman (11:08):
It’s worth it. Della deserves the best.
Connie Houdek (11:12):
That evening, the two met at home, each carrying a secret, each glowing with love. Della was the first to speak her hands trembling, and she held out the gift. Jim, I couldn’t wait. I wanted you to have this merry Christmas.
Hunter Tallman (11:30):
Jim opened the box and stared at the platinum chain. His face was unreadable, Della, it’s beautiful. But I sold the watch to buy your gift,
Connie Houdek (11:41):
Della Gasp. But before she could respond, Jim handed her a small package.
Hunter Tallman (11:48):
Merry Christmas, Stella.
Connie Houdek (11:51):
She tore open the package and found the combs she had admired for so long. She held them close tears streaming down her face. Oh, Jim, my hair will go back, but your watch,
Hunter Tallman (12:06):
It doesn’t matter, Della, we have each other and that’s all that counts. And so they sat together laughing at their predicament and marveling at the love that had driven their sacrifices. These two so wise in their folly were the magi. They had given each other the greatest gift of all selfless love.
Musicians (13:05):
Give me love. Give me love. Give me peace on earth, give me life…
Rev. Aimee Daniels (16:25):
I feel a little choked up after that story and the song. So in the story of the Gift of the Magi, we were reminded that the greatest gifts are not measured by their material value, but by the love and selflessness from which they’re given. And their willingness to give deeply from their hearts reminds us that true giving flows from within us, from a place of intention, a place of love, and a place of our spirit itself. It is our spirit. So we’re going to do a little reflective practice together to explore the gifts that life is offering to us and also the gifts that we’re called to share with the world. Each of us has something to offer the world around us. And sometimes life asks us to pull something greater out of ourselves to express in the world. So that’s our invitation. What is the deeper expression of your spirit?
(17:24):
Ernest Holmes said, the gift of life is a choice. And the way we use it is our gift back to life. Let us give freely from the heart knowing that the love we share returns to us multiplied. So I’m going to invite Hunter and Connie to come help for a second. And we are going to pass a basket around which has ornaments with spiritual qualities on them. And we’re going to ask you to choose two of them. The first one will be something that you are being called to receive this holiday season. And the second one will be something that you’re called to offer. And for those online, sorry, we don’t have a way to teleport ornaments to you yet, but Jonathan is going to type the qualities in the chat so that you can just choose what resonates with you if you see the words in the chat. So we’re just going to pass these around, and then we’re going to move into a little process. So if you have your ornaments or if you’re online, if you have your qualities, I just invite you to settle into yourself. I’m just going to give it another minute for the baskets to go around in the room.
(20:27):
And so I invite you to take the first quality that you chose, the gift that life is offering you right now. And I invite you to just sit in reflection of that gift for a moment. What might life be asking you to nurture in yourself right now? What does this quality reflect that you are being called to nurture in yourself? We’re just going to sit with this for a moment. And now I invite you to consider the second quality that you chose. This is the gift you’re being called to share with others. So how might you embody that quality more fully? And is there someone in your life or in your community that might need this gift from you? Just invite you to sit with that for a moment. And I just invite you now just to create an intention in your mind about what you might do with these gifts, the one that you are receiving and the one that you are giving.
(23:29):
Because these gifts are a reflection of who you really are. They’re your spirit expressing through you. Louise Hay said, every thought, we think every word we speak and every action we take is a gift we send to the universe. So choose gifts that uplift and inspire, and let’s take this into a little prayer. So I just invite you in your mind’s eye to speak your own prayer while I speak this prayer. For all of us, we begin with gratitude. Gratitude that this love, this spirit, this life, this eternal goodness is the truth. It’s the infinite truth. It is peace, it is love, it is grace. It is faith. It is all the qualities of spirit that we speak of. And I know that I am one with all of these qualities, faith, peace, love, joy. All of these qualities are the truth of who I am. And all of these qualities are the truth of all of us. We are all grace, peace, love, hope, faith, joy.
(25:10):
And so from this place of oneness, I just speak a word for all of us. May our hearts embody this spiritual nature this holiday season. What may we be called from a deeper place within ourselves, both to receive the gifts that life is offering, and also to give the gifts that life is calling us to share. And I just want to add, if there’s any place in our lives or in any of our relationships that need healing this Christmas, I’m calling that forth to, I just know that the love has this, spirit has this, and I just claim and declare miracles and breakthroughs are happening now. This is what I say yes to for all of us, and I’m so grateful for it. And together we say, and so it is.