My apologies for the lack of posting over the past couple of months. I have a good excuse. I promise! And I’ll give that excuse soon. I promise again.

But first it’s time to prepare to prepare.

In my own preparations this year I’ve been meditating on the readings for the first Sunday of Advent. Particularly the second reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans and the Gospel reading from St. Matthew.

“WAKE UP!” both readings tell us. Now is not the time to be lazy in our spiritual lives. Now is not the time to “make provisions for the flesh”. Now is the time to “be prepared. For at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

Just as we prepare to celebrate Christmas in our homes by cleaning, decorating, gifting, baking and making, we must make those preparations that matter even more. We must prepare our hearts and souls to welcome the holy child. And in doing so, prepare for Christ’s coming again!

Heard it before, right? Every year. It’s almost trite by now, I’m sure. But really, it’s very important.

I remember last year I got pretty stressed out thinking of all the activities I’d wanted to do with the kids before Christmas came. I’d wanted to decorate cookies, make a gingerbread house, do one of those bucket lists (you know, drive around looking at lights one day, snuggle up with hot cocoa and book one day, visit a nursing home, etc.). Then a good friend reminded me of something so obvious I’d overlooked it. She said, “There’s no reason you have to do all those Christmas things before Christmas. Once the preparation is done for Christmas, you can enjoy Christmas by doing all those things!”
And guess what! We made a gingerbread house after Christmas day. And it was still Christmas. And it was probably more enjoyable.

How freeing! How freeing it was to focus on the soul. It was a focus on preparing a place in my heat for the child to dwell anew that Christmas. To strive to be like Mary, Christ-bearer. To clear away the “me”, my pride, my sins, my focus on the material and do the work of love and sacrifice.

In this way Advent becomes the “kinder, gentler Lent” a dear Schoenstatt Sister always describes it as. It’s not quite the sackcloth and ashes leading up to Easter, where we search our souls and repent, remembering the from-and-to-dust of our existence, our need for a savior. Advent is that waking up, time to get busy, prepare your souls for the birth of a savior! It’s accepting God’s incarnation as a gift, a necessary and wonderful part of our salvation story.

Don’t be caught up in the “provisions of the flesh”: the material, the vice, the sloth. Or in “Holiday Season” terms: the baking and making, the gifting and decorating. Those are important and part of the preparation, yes. But really, looking forward to Christ’s coming again and reflection of his coming at first, we must be ready! Take part in the fun and holiday prep, yes, just keep it all in perspective.

For us,instead of worrying and fretting about all the things we have to do before Christmas, this year we’re focusing on preparing for the important part. We’ll do things we do every year, but this time it’ll be more purposeful.

In part two of the Preparation for Advent post, I’ll share with you the nitty gritty of what that looks like both for the family whole and for myself.