This time of year is very busy! Most of that busy-ness, however, is because we are chasing after temporal things. It is so easy to get caught up in the various seasonal activities—parties, shopping, gift buying, planning, baking, decorating, year-end reports, decorating the house, and various preparations. For many of us, these consume so much of our time and energy that we have little time to do other things, and we see other pulls on our time as a burden.
I fear that what gets pushed aside and neglected (perhaps not purposefully) is the true preparation for Our Lord’s coming—the preparation of prayer, repentance and fasting. What makes this preparation especially difficult is the need to curtail or say “No” to some of the activities that are part of the world’s Christmas.
Certainly, it’s important to connect with others and to show them a token of affection with a gift. But most important is that we connect with Our Lord, and God, and Savior. And it’s important to remember that all the things that we stress over today are small compared to the true celebration of Our Lord’s desire to gift us with Himself and His Triune “family.”
Remember that the Church’s Christ Mass is much deeper and more profound than the presents, parties and decorating that have us scurrying about, and that really tend to obscure the true meaning of Christmas. So, for your own soul’s sake, make the spiritual preparation for Christ Mass a priority during the days of Advent. For if you keep your focus, then you will be able more joyfully to celebrates the mystery that the God you worship and adore determined to become like you to save you, and to convert your heart to yearn for the things of heaven.