The First Sunday in Advent

Happy New Year!

As we begin our Church year, we are reminded to prepare the way of the Lord. The season of Advent is a time for joyful anticipation - we await the birth of our Savior just as the prophets of old, we also await the coming of Christ at Parousia, and at the same time await the coming of Christ into our daily lives through participation in the Eucharist and through our acts of charity.

It is a good time to reflect on how Christ centered our lives are - do we turn to Him first? What needs to change, what can we add, what could we improve? By the end of the long period of ordinary time, I tend to be just coasting along, so Advent reminds me to turn off the cruise control and think about where I am and where we are as a family ;-)

As a mother, my heart often aches for my children. I pray that I sufficiently prepare them to weather the storms of life and ultimately must face the realization that people have free will which seriously impedes my control! Advent is a time of hope - like the prophets I can live with the assurance that God's plan is good and all will be well.

The photo shows our Advent wreath on the prayer area (with pumpkins still in the background.) I've pulled out a book of Advent reflections from JPII for myself and the older teens. Tonight we'll bless the wreath using the prayer found at the USCCB's site.  Their Advent calendar has click-able text for each day, offering suggestions and activities. We plan on lighting the wreath at dinner each evening that we are home and praying the "stir up" prayer for the week. Another site we've used in the past is The Advent Workshop. We've gone there primarily for the Jesse tree activity and the O'Antiphons. I've literally spent hours at Praying Advent, which has some nice reflections for adults. I like the One Prayer a Day page.

This year we won't do the Jesse tree as we will spend an entire week away from home at the beginning of Advent. I've tried catching up before and it rather took away from the meditative spirit of things ;-) However, delving into the Old Testament stories for the genealogy of Christ is definitely worth it if you have the time.

Instead, we are resurrecting "Mary's Star Walk." Each day of Advent Mary and Joseph will move a bit closer to Bethlehem and another star is added to the sky. As the time draws closer we also add a bit more scenery. Eventually they will see the stable in the distance. It's a lovely and simple way to count the days until Christmas.

I think this idea was inspired by a Waldorf type book, but I'll have to look for the title some other time.

Even though I've shared many links, it's important to remember to keep things simple and doable! In the past I've tried to implement every activity that happened to catch my eye and in the end none of them received the attentions they deserved!

May the peace of the Good Shepherd be with you and your family ~

Beate

 "Advent is concerned with that very connection between memory and hope which is so necessary to man. Advent’s intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory so that it can discern the star of hope.…It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope." ~ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger 1986