Advent Themes for Focusing Prayer Part 4: Love

This year, the fourth week of Advent was very short, but it wasn’t as short as it could have been.  There are years when the fourth Sunday of Advent is also Christmas Eve, so the fourth week of Advent ends up being only a few short hours long.  Nevertheless, the fourth week of Advent has its own special theme for focusing our prayer:  Love.  And how appropriate is it that in the last hours or days before Christmas, we focus on the virtue that Jesus Christ embodies as fully human and fully divine?

Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is love incarnate, love made flesh.  He is the fulfillment of God the Father’s love for humankind.  The oft-referenced verse, John 3:16, tells us “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (NABRE translation).

Jesus shows us how to love more perfectly.  He teaches us that we are to love those around us (our “neighbors”) and he gives us a model of how to love them.  At Christmas, we recall Jesus’ first coming at his birth in Bethlehem.  Now, invite him to come again, into your heart to perfect how you love others, and ask him to help you love more perfectly.

Advent Themes for Focusing Prayer Part 3 of 4: Joy

Rejoice!  The Lord is coming!  Our theme for the third week of Advent is joy.  We take a break from the violet, more subdued theme of the rest of the season, and celebrate in rose, by lighting the rose candle and, if the parish has them, by the priest wearing rose vestments.  We are rapidly approaching Christmas.  It’s time to get excited!

I liken this time of year to the feeling of anticipation I get when arriving at a final destination or coming home after a long road trip.  For many, many years, my family made yearly road trips to Southern California to visit family members there.  I recall the feeling of joyful impatience when we would reach the city limits and I could start counting down the exits until we would be at my grandmother’s house.  And, when we returned home after a long time away, it was a similar feeling when we got closer to home.  I just wanted to get there already!

It is, of course, important to take journeys, whether actual or figurative, in our lives.  The process of getting somewhere gives us an opportunity to grow.  But, imagine if we took absolutely no pleasure in the act of getting from point A to point B.  What would our lives be like then?  It would be a nearly unbearable slog from one thing or place to another.

So, this week, reflect on the things in your life that bring you joy.  What are you looking forward to in the not so distant future?  What do you have to be grateful for?  Thank God for this opportunity to wait joyfully for the good things to come.

Advent Themes for Focusing Prayer Part 2 of 4: Peace

This week, the daily readings tell us of the peace that is to come when the Messiah is born for us.  Even on Monday, when we celebrated the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we heard themes of peace and harmony in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.  And Gabriel bid Mary “Do not be afraid.”  In other words, let your mind be at peace.  In Wednesday’s Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus tells the crowds, and so tells us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Be peaceful and rest in God’s presence.  In Saturday’s first reading from the book of Sirach, the author says of Elijah, “You were destined, it is written, in time to come to put an end to wrath before the day of the LORD, To turn back the hearts of fathers toward their sons, and to re-establish the tribes of Jacob.”  He was destined to restore a broken world to the harmony it once had.

The angel Gabriel, Jesus, and the author of Sirach are all giving us the same message in a sense:  Trust in God, in His all-knowing wisdom, and in His plan for our lives.  He knows what is best for us, and He will not lead us astray.  Be at peace, and trust that all will be well.

It may seem difficult to pray for peace at times like these when the world is divided by conflict and disagreement, but we must continue to trust that God has a plan, and ultimately, better days lie ahead.  Nevertheless, we must continue to pray for peace, in our hearts, in our families, in our country, and in our world.  God wants us to ask for things, even though He knows all that we need.  It is in turning to Him, in placing our trust in Him that we can find true inner peace.

Theme for Next Week:  Joy

Advent Themes for Focusing Prayer Part 1 of 4: Hope

Happy Advent!  In his homily last Sunday, Fr. Erik talked about being prepared to celebrate the mysteries of our faith in the coming of our Lord at Christmas, but also at the second coming at the end of time.  This is a predominant theme in our readings for daily Mass this week.  One way to prepare is to focus our prayer in different “directions” during Advent.

Try focusing on the following themes during the four weeks of Advent.  During the first week, focus on hope, during the second, on peace, during the third, on joy, and during the fourth, on love.  Try to relate these themes to how you are preparing to welcome Jesus at Christmas.

With hope as the theme for this first week of Advent, think about what you hope for during this Advent and Christmas season.  Jesus’ coming at his birth in Bethlehem gave the shepherds hope as the angels announced to them that a savior had been born for them, “who is Christ the Lord” (Luke  2:11).  The shepherds would have recognized this to mean that this child who had been born was to be the savior of the world.

We can also see hope in the Mass readings during this week.  The first readings come from the book of the prophet Isaiah, describing the good things to come and the wonderful things that are to happen in the future when God the Father will provide for Israel.  As we read these passages today, we can think about the fact that, just as good things were promised to the early Israelites if they kept their faith alive and strong, if we strive to remain faithful as well, we do so in the sure and certain hope that we will one day share in eternal life with God.

How will you incorporate and develop hope during the rest of this first week of Advent?

Next week, the theme to focus on is Peace.  Stay tuned to our Facebook page for an Advent prayer for peace, which will be posted next Monday.

Seriously Celebrating

Advent, by its nature, is a season of anticipation.  This makes it a more solemn season in the course of the Church year.  The word solemn need not mean “sad” or “somber,” especially in the context of Advent, during which we are preparing for the joyous event of Christmas and Jesus’ birth.  Indeed, in this context, it means “serious.”  We have feast days during the Church year that are celebrated as Solemnities.  For instance, for our parish, the feast of St. Ambrose on December 7^th may be celebrated as a Solemnity because he is our patron saint.  This means we get to celebrate a little more than usual.  We can take the day more seriously.

During this season of anticipation, we have one Sunday during which we celebrate a little more:  Gaudete Sunday, which is the Third Sunday of Advent.  We celebrate because we are halfway (or a little more than halfway) to the celebration of Christmas.  We light the rose-colored candle.  We allow ourselves to be a little more joyful.

The word gaudete is Latin for rejoice.  It is a command to us.  The reason we call the Third Sunday of Advent Gaudete Sunday is because the entrance antiphon in the Roman Missal for this Sunday is taken from St. Paul’s letter to the Phillipians, in which he tells the new Christian community to “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Philipians 4:4).  We are to rejoice because the Lord is coming.  Indeed, He is near.

As Christmas approaches, and with it, our commemoration of the first coming of Jesus, the anticipation grows as well.  Yesterday, I overheard one of the little ones in EDP asking, “Mommy, is it Christmas?”  The mom responded, “Not yet, soon.”  The excitement was evident in the child’s voice.

As we get older, we tend to become more serious, somber, and solemn.  We lose our childlike joy as we become jaded by life experience.  Starting today, try to indulge your inner child.  Try to find the joy you may have felt growing up when the first signs of Christmas appeared in your surroundings.  Rediscover the awe and wonder of one of the best things that has happened to you, because Christmas is just that:  one of the best things that has ever happened for humankind.

How will you rediscover your childlike joy this Advent and Christmas season? 

Advent Calendars and Christmas Count-Downs

Secular culture hears the phrase “Advent calendar,” and what comes to mind almost immediately are the cardboard boxes with the pictures of Santa Claus or a winter scene with the little doors.  Open a door, get a little piece of chocolate, rinse and repeat each day until Christmas.  These commercial “Advent” calendars usually start on December 1^st and go until December 25^th, with no regard for what the liturgical season of Advent actually is.

Typical commercial “Advent” calendar

Of course, there is nothing wrong with using one of these commercial calendars with your family, so long as there is also a focus on the liturgical season of Advent.  However, it is my personal opinion that such calendars should be thought of as Christmas count-downs rather than Advent calendars.

I am lucky to have and use an Advent calendar that my family made for me when I was young.  It consists of a wooden Christmas tree with ornaments to place on it each day of Advent.  There are enough ornaments for each day of Advent, regardless of whether it starts the last week of November, or the first week of December.  My brother’s is a similar concept – a felt Christmas tree with felt ornaments that one can attach to the tree with Velcro each day of Advent.  Both of our calendar ornaments contain religious symbols, as well as more secular symbols of winter.

An Advent Calendar similar to my own

An Advent Calendar similar to my brother’s

These calendars enhanced our experience of Advent growing up, when the commercial calendars were far less prevalent, because they opened the door for conversation about why we were celebrating during the run up to Christmas.  It gave our mother the chance to get us ready:  mind, body, and soul.

What kinds of Advent calendars do you use with your families?  How do they help you get ready for Christmas, and “Prepare the way of the Lord”?

Spiritual House Cleaning

December starts tomorrow.  While winter officially starts on December 21^st, we’ve already had snow, and it has definitely become colder outside.  Depending on how you look at it, we are either really lucky or unlucky that we live in an area which experiences four seasons.

The liturgical year, too, has seasons:  Advent, Christmas, a first period of Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter, and a second period of Ordinary Time.

(image source)

Advent starts this Sunday, December 2^nd.  During this time, we wait in joyful hope for the coming of Jesus at Christmas, but He is already with us.  Christmas is our time to remember Jesus’ first coming, but He comes to us at each Mass we attend, and His earthly dwelling is in each of our hearts.  So, let us make our hearts into a dwelling fit for Jesus, who is God in the person of the Son.  

Join us for our parish Penance Service on Monday at 6:30 pm.  We will have a liturgy of the word followed by an examination of conscience, and an opportunity for individual confession.  Take advantage of this opportunity to do some pre-holiday cleaning, and take care of Jesus’ home as well as your own.