Many Religious of the Sacred Heart cherish and wish to share in a generative spirit, our experience of Christmas Eve in our communities with a common practice we refer to with the French word: Veillée.
Like many family traditions and practices around the holidays, it is somewhat difficult to trace the history and understand what it meant to those early companions of the young Society. There are references in the “house journals” in the early 19th century recounting the joy and celebration.
For many of us, the remembrance of joy, spontaneity and celebration has been influenced by the candlelight quiet of the liturgy at midnight and has taken on new characteristics. For nearly all of those who assisted in this process, Veillée is a time of gathering to remember, to celebrate and to believe. It is our invitation to gather together to welcome the birth of new hope.
