Well, here we are. It’s the longest night of the year. And we turn our faces toward this last week of Advent with a focus on love, love, love.
There is a fabulous tradition that is celebrated today, December 21, about the embodiment of love. It was once known across Europe as St. Thomas’s Day. In England, it was the day of Thomasing—when the poor, especially widows, went door-to-door asking for food, firewood, or coins. Neighbors gave gladly, because it was understood: on the longest night of the year, no one should be left cold or hungry.
This tradition, humble as it seems, has left its fingerprints all over Christmas. Think of stockings filled with fruit and nuts. Or food drives and toy collections that begin in December. Or the Salvation Army bells ringing in the cold outside grocery stores. Or even the way we swap plates of cookies with neighbors we barely know. At its heart, Thomasing taught us that Christmas is impossible without generosity. Love is not an ornament to the season—it is its very shape.
Advent love looks like this: embodied, practical, inconvenient. It isn’t just a warm feeling; it’s bread for the hungry, firewood for the shivering, presence for the lonely. And each act of giving becomes an arrow pointing straight toward Bethlehem, where Love Himself will be born into the cold night of a weary world.
So tonight, on the longest night, we light the fourth candle of Advent and remember: the darkness is real, but so is the light of embodied love.
Blessed are we who knock on each other’s doors,
bearing bread, warmth, kindness.
Blessed are we who learn to love as Christ loves—
until the longest night glimmers with His light.
Practice Thomasing in your own way today. Give something concrete: groceries to a food pantry, cookies to a neighbor, a blanket to someone who is cold. Or go make a donation (of any size! It can be tiny, it’s fine!) Make your love tangible, and trust that in the giving, Christ Himself is near.
It is better to give than receive. Agree or disagree?
Please remember to continue supporting your local food bank throughout the dark days of January and February. The need is still there but donations dwindle as people count the cost of Christmas. If you don't want to donate food most food banks welcome monetary donations. This enables them to fill specific needs such as baby formula, specific dietary requirements. Contact your local food bank and ask for their bank account details then set up a standing order. Even a small amount helps, it doesn't have to be a fortune. Just think of the difference it would make if 50 people donated £5 a month.
Giving's better than receiving
a lesson from the bare-knuckle ring,
but jokes aside, I live believing
that when compassion spreads bright wing
though our own heart and our own hand
to give the world a fragrant essence,
we can begin to understand
God's immanent and holy presence
in this world so badly broken
that the poor are used as pawns;
if we're truly God's bespoken
we must progress past giving alms
to meet the lowly on our knees,
an homage to the least of these.