Advent is a season of preparation, waiting and expectation, but society all around us says otherwise. Christmas has been sprawled out in supermarkets and department stores since mid-October, manger scenes spread across suburban lawns and the music, oh the music that is jingle belling and deck the halling…
I can’t stand it. Yes, maybe I am sinister, perhaps I am a Grinch, but Advent is a time for preparation. I just want to scream, “IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS YET!!! Please, just please, don’t take my favorite liturgical season away from me. It’s not that long and it has so much meaning and we need it.”
Yes, our hearts need Advent. But that’s our culture, isn’t it? The drive through fast food joints, instant coffee, Instant Messaging culture. It makes it difficult to get into the idea of fasting, while there is so much feasting around us. But we do not need to conform to this world, God is calling us to greater things. So let’s step it up and embrace the liturgical season of Advent.
What is Advent?
Advent. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important
2. Advent
a. The liturgical period preceding Christmas, beginning in Western churches on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and in Eastern churches in mid-November, and observed by many Christians as a season of prayer, fasting, and penitence. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/advent
It’s a time to prepare ourselves to welcome the Christ Child into our hearts.
Five Ways to Prepare for the Christ Child:
1. Prayer: Take some extra time for prayer this season. Read Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaduium. Pray the rosary. Pray the Angelus.
2. Fasting: ‘What did you give up for Lent this year?’, is a common question asked around the Lenten season, and not just among Catholics. But have you ever heard someone ask, ‘What did you give up for Advent this year?’ Be a hipster and bring it up in your next conversation.
3. Penance: Attend a penance service at your church. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is filled with God’s grace. He is there waiting for you! Forgive others who have trespassed against you.
4. Acts of Charity: Listen while another is speaking, taking interest in what they are saying, help a neighbor shovel his walk, visit the homebound, run an errand for someone (and do all without complaining!).
5. Fill in the Blank: It’s your turn, what is another way to prepare for the Christ Child?
Let us not forgo the season which the Church has given to us to prepare for the Christ Child, but rather embrace it with our prayer and fasting. Advent is here! Advent is now!
How will you be preparing for Christmas this year?
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