CHARLOTTE — For many Catholics, it’s easy to remember the days when the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was simply considered “Advent.” After gathering around the table to give thanks for our many blessings, we began to prepare our hearts for the birth of our Savior. It was a time of expectation, preparation, and waiting. But our modern society is not good at waiting.
Today, the primary function of Thanksgiving seems to be that shotgun start to holiday shopping – the spectacle of consumption and consumer debt we call Black Friday. And, as if the excess of Black Friday weren’t enough, retailers dubbed the Monday after Thanksgiving Cyber Monday to prompt a surge of online holiday shopping.
In hopes of combating the commercialization and consumerism that has attempted to overtake the true meaning of Christmas, the United Nations Foundation designated the Tuesday after Thanksgiving as “Giving Tuesday” in 2012. The foundation hoped that a National Day of Giving would encourage consumers to support their charity of choice and get as excited about charitable giving as they would about big-screen TVs at a bargain prices. Consumers donated more than $10 million on the first Giving Tuesday, and last year it raised more than $1 billion.
#iGiveCatholic is a movement started in 2015 by the Archdiocese of New Orleans to encourage supporting Catholic organizations specifically on Giving Tuesday. Last year, the campaign raised more than $5.6 million, nearly half of the $11.4 million raised on #GivingTuesday for all religion-related causes.
For the first time ever, St. Joseph College Seminary is excited to participate in #iGiveCatholic on #GivingTuesday. This year’s event takes place Dec. 3. Funds raised by the seminary on #GivingTuesday will be used to commission a statue of St. Joseph for the entrance to the college seminary. The seminary’s four classes – the Alphas, Bravos, Charlies and Deltas – have started a friendly competition to see which class can raise the most funds for the statue.
So far, the Charlie Class, the third class of seminarians at St. Joseph, has taken an early lead in the “advance giving” period that began Nov. 18.
Father Matthew Kauth, rector of St. Joseph College Seminary, thinks it’s fitting to fund this project during the Advent season. “Advent is a time of waiting,” he said. “We are all eagerly awaiting the completion of our college seminary, which is guided by the patronage of St. Joseph.”
To donate, go online to www.nationalministries.igivecatholic.org/organizations/st-joseph-college-seminary.
— Mel Ullrich