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ASKING THE CLERGY: What are you most likely to overindulge in this season?

December 6, 2008

Rabbi Elliot Skiddell, Reconstructionist Congregation Beth Emeth, Hewlett:

We in the Jewish community recently completed our High Holidays, with many wonderful and delicious meals shared with family and friends. Now, the winter holiday season looms on the horizon with more tempting delicacies and traditional meals to share.

Every year, of course, I say that I'm going to take it easy and watch those calories and every year that vow gets broken almost as soon as it gets made. Sound familiar? We are all, after all, only human. But, there is something that we can overindulge in without feeling guilty: the joy that comes from spending time celebrating the holidays with friends and family. So, my vow for this holiday season is to spend as much time as possible with family and friends. And if a good meal is involved, I'll take the consequences.

The Rev. Patrick Longalong,

Our Lady of the Snows Church, Floral Park:

Food. It is the season for food. One big food holiday right after the other. I just keep going back to chocolates. That's my weakness. I get all these Rocher Chocolates as gifts. I think people who might beat themselves up about these little indulgences, should just relax. If you're really worried about it, pray about it or ask for guidance from a spiritual friend. But if it is a fairly harmless indulgence, just relax.

Sometimes we're too hard on ourselves and forget to enjoy ourselves. As with chocolate, enjoy the piece you eat when you eat it. Savor it. There are people, especially at this time of year, who are too engrossed with preparation, for example, that they don't enjoy the things they prepare. If you're too engrossed with preparing the meal, you miss out on the enjoyment of the company. People came to enjoy your company. Worry about cleaning up later.

The Rev. Walter Logan, editor for Daily Mann

"Mind of God" and

congregant, Calvary Baptist Church, Port Jefferson Station:

I'm indulging in Jesus Christ. It is that time of year. Let's keep Christ in focus. Some people decorate with Christmas trees and lawn decorations. I'd like to see more Nativity scenes on lawns. We should remember what the season really is about. It is all about God the father who so loved the world that he sent us Jesus here to grant us eternal salvation. We as a people have been leaving Christ out of Christmas for too long. This year, especially, we should be thankful and indulge in Christ. The man that we elected president this year should encourage us all to believe this season. I feel strongly that God himself wanted Barack Obama in that position. I shall indulge everyday in praying for him and encourage all that I may meet to do the same. Pray that [Obama] puts on the armor of God ... daily.

Pastor Enrique Carbajal, Zion

Ministries, Riverhead:

As a pastor, my family and I do a lot of visiting with people, and have a lot of company in the house. As pastors, we try to build up other people, but may forget our own families. Many people have been through difficult times, difficult situations. They need someone to listen to them, to care. Especially at Christmas, many Hispanic people don't have their families here. Maybe they don't have work during the holidays. We try to go out and speak with them, try to provide for them in some way.

For me, my extended family is in Mexico. My real family is the church, but my brother and mother and father and in-laws are in Mexico. We don't overspend for the holidays. Maybe in January or February, we will go on a vacation away from the winter blues. One way to avoid the personal indulgences is to give to others. It reminds you that God is in charge of everything.

Thomas Carey, senior pastor, Word of Jesus Worship Center, Holbrook:

Overindulgence is giving ourselves permission to exceed reasonable boundaries in any area of our lives. For example, our creator designed us so that we would need to eat to live. But, many of us would rather live to eat. This is true of many of our appetites and attitudes. Allowing these excesses causes us to lose both focus and balance and have their origin in what the Bible calls "missing the mark."

The holidays, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas are opportunities for us to recognize the intervention of a sovereign God in the affairs of man and should be a celebration of just that. If we are not careful, we find ourselves running to the extremes so strongly and with such fever that we run right past our objectives.

I have been blessed with a wonderful wife, seven children, 11 grandchildren and countless other family and friends, all of whom are gifts from God. This holiday season I hope to overindulge in thanking God for his unsearchable riches toward us and in embracing more closely his gifts to us of family and friends and life itself.

Send faith questions you'd like us to pose to: Sylvia King-Cohen, Newsday, 235 Pinelawn Rd., Melville, NY 11747-4250, or sylvia.king-cohen@ newsday.com.