Preparing Your Home Spiritually & Practically for Advent
Advent is a season of preparation, of waiting, of penance, and of repentance. For much of the United States, Advent is just the opposite. In fact, it is not Advent at all. It has become a season filled with parties, Christmas decorations, sweets, treats, and a frenzy of activity. In the weeks building up to the Birth of Christ, it is easy to become consumed in those activities the rest of our culture is practicing.
Instead, as faithful Christians devoted to Tradition, how do we make Advent a time to quiet our hearts in reflection, to prepare our homes, and to wait in anticipation of the coming Savior?
The Church teaches us: “[W]hen the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating [John the Baptist’s] birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: He must increase, but I must decrease” (Catechism, no. 524; original emphasis).
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