We could be forgiven this Advent for slipping into a mindset of “waiting” for Christmas—for counting down to the Big Day. After all, this year has felt like one long wait: for shelves to be restocked, for schools and offices to reopen, for a vaccine…and a return to “normal.”
And if we did adopt this kind of impatient, let’s-get-on-with-it already mindset, we would be dead wrong.
“This isn’t a time of just waiting for your wedding day,” a priest and dear friend, Fr. Francis Martin, told me a few days after I got engaged. “Your novitiate has begun. Prepare well.” And by the unforgettable expression on his face, he wasn’t kidding around.
“Waiting” in Advent is much closer to the kind of waiting Fr. Martin was talking about. Or it resembles the wait for the birth of your firstborn, or the lead-up to day one of your first job. At some level, we get what Fr. Martin is saying. We know that it would be foolish—even an injustice to our future spouse, newborn, or employer—to merely “wait out” or “countdown” the days leading up to our wedding, firstborn, or new job.
Three months before the arrival of our firstborn, most of the plumbing in the fixer-upper house we had just bought wasn’t even functional. A dumpster occupied our front yard and permits covered our front windows. I think back to that caliber of “waiting” for my daughter’s birth. I’ve never worked so hard, and work—in preparation for my beautiful little girl—was never so effortless. At some level it wasn’t about work: it was about rejoicing in the time I had to prepare for this radical transformation.
Your wedding day. Your child’s due date. Can we ever imagine squandering the weeks leading up to these big days by just counting them down and losing ourselves in food, drink, and shopping?
These weeks are so much more. The days of our novitiate are filled with expectant work, setbacks, discoveries. The hours—even the minutes—are pregnant with meaning, signs, hope. After all, we know that we will soon begin a new way of life. On one day, soon, we will wake up, and the door leading back to our novitiate—the “normal” we now know—will forever be closed. We are choosing new life.
“The greatest folly with the season of Advent is that we reduce it to a page-a-day (chocolate-a-day?) countdown calendar to Christmas,” a friend, Mark Voorheis, told me recently. “So our entire focus is on the end, and not on where we are in the moment.”
And no wonder. In this unkindest of years, we may admittedly feel a strong tug to forego our Advent “novitiate” and instead choose the chocolate-a-day, fast-track focus on the secularized “end” of Christmas: a sensory-overloaded debauch. But we are invited to so much more.
“If we can just realize that we are currently ‘in’ the day the Lord has made,” Mark continued, “then we will be where God intended us to be this Advent: getting ready for the Lord’s coming today. Not tomorrow. Now. Preparing for the Lord, today.”
Amen. Like an engagement, pregnancy, or lead-up to a new job, this Advent is fundamentally not about waiting or countdowns. This Advent is about rejoicing in the time we have now to prepare for the radical new life which will be ours when the Son of God joins us in our humanity.
In this austere Advent, we get to decide how we will spend our last days before our new life begins. Will we choose the chocolate-a-day countdown—or actually show up to our own novitiate? Will we squander the hours—or prepare in joyful hope? Will we choose normal—or lean toward the new life which awaits? Will we foul the days with yet more sin—or seek mercy in the confessional? Will the newborn Jesus arrive on that holy day with a dumpster still occupying our front yard, and permits covering our windows?
Awake! The true light is coming into the world. The glory of the Word made flesh. Our novitiate has begun. May we prepare well!
(This article will be part of the forthcoming issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald. And in case you missed it, we recorded two brief videos today—one from out front of Trinity House Cafe—as we begin our year-end appeal. Check them out here. Thanks to your generosity, we’re already over halfway toward our Giving Tuesday goal.)
Heaven in Your Home Toolkit
If you live in the Diocese of Arlington, have you considered joining the Just One Yes (JOY) Advent campaign? Make your one “yes” count — and join over 32,000 others who have already stepped forward! In “Getting to ‘Yes’ this Advent” last year, Soren suggested 7 “yeses” to make the most of this Advent.
“This year, as you decorate, focus on making your home a place of prayerful preparation and celebration. In the event of limited access to churches, it is more important than ever to consider our homes as sanctuaries for souls,” writes Elizabeth Foss in “Don’t Give Up Christmas” (Arlington Catholic Herald).
David Wallace offers sound and practical guidance: “Prepare for Christmas during Advent by family prayer and works of mercy, thinking first of Jesus’ second coming, knowing that as often as we are merciful to the least of his brethren, we are merciful to him.” His “Advent During a Pandemic” is in the Arlington Catholic Herald.
Print up these Advent Reflections from the Women Doctors of the Church (OSV News) as an inspiring Advent resource.
Around the Corner…
Today is Giving Tuesday, the first day we invite you to partner with us in our 2020 year-end appeal to support the life-changing ministry of Trinity House Community. We have bold plans for reaching more families in 2021. Will you prayerfully consider making a one-time gift or monthly commitment today?
Keep Trinity House Café in mind as you do your Advent and Christmas shopping. The Café’s Market features artisan-made gifts, stationery, original art, iconography, new children’s books, and used books. From stocking-stuffers to sacramentals, come see what we have in store!
Trinity House Cafe will play a special part in the Fifth Annual Leesburg Nativity Tour, an ideal Christmas activity for the whole family during the continued caution for large crowds due to Covid. Take a leisurely stroll through historic Leesburg visiting shops and restaurants displaying the Nativity Tour Poster. Sometimes the nativity will be displayed in a front window, other times venture into the store to search for it. Pick up up the promotion card and get it stamped at featured merchants. Fill up your card and get a free drink at Trinity House Cafe.
Testimonial
“I am very happy to promote and endorse the work and ministry promoted by the Trinity House Community! In these challenging times it is encouraging to see and experience people who are working to promote the Faith and help individuals and families to strengthen their ties and relationship to the Lord; and to seek his help as they strive to live out their vocation of following the Lord each day.” – Fr. Kevin Larsen, Pastor, St. John the Apostle Catholic Church, Leesburg, VA
Please Join Us In Prayer
That we might begin the holy season of Advent in joyful hope, anticipating the coming of Our Lord;
For safety and healing for all those impacted by the current surge in COVID-19, and for all medical personnel;
For those struggling with despair, depression, anxiety, and mental illness, that we might seek to love and encourage them;
For the ministry of Trinity House Community, including the staff of Trinity House Cafe, and all individuals and families who are seeking to reflect the life of the Trinity in their homes.
And if we did adopt this kind of impatient, let’s-get-on-with-it already mindset, we would be dead wrong.
“This isn’t a time of just waiting for your wedding day,” a priest and dear friend, Fr. Francis Martin, told me a few days after I got engaged. “Your novitiate has begun. Prepare well.” And by the unforgettable expression on his face, he wasn’t kidding around.
“Waiting” in Advent is much closer to the kind of waiting Fr. Martin was talking about. Or it resembles the wait for the birth of your firstborn, or the lead-up to day one of your first job. At some level, we get what Fr. Martin is saying. We know that it would be foolish—even an injustice to our future spouse, newborn, or employer—to merely “wait out” or “countdown” the days leading up to our wedding, firstborn, or new job.
Three months before the arrival of our firstborn, most of the plumbing in the fixer-upper house we had just bought wasn’t even functional. A dumpster occupied our front yard and permits covered our front windows. I think back to that caliber of “waiting” for my daughter’s birth. I’ve never worked so hard, and work—in preparation for my beautiful little girl—was never so effortless. At some level it wasn’t about work: it was about rejoicing in the time I had to prepare for this radical transformation.
Your wedding day. Your child’s due date. Can we ever imagine squandering the weeks leading up to these big days by just counting them down and losing ourselves in food, drink, and shopping?
These weeks are so much more. The days of our novitiate are filled with expectant work, setbacks, discoveries. The hours—even the minutes—are pregnant with meaning, signs, hope. After all, we know that we will soon begin a new way of life. On one day, soon, we will wake up, and the door leading back to our novitiate—the “normal” we now know—will forever be closed. We are choosing new life.
“The greatest folly with the season of Advent is that we reduce it to a page-a-day (chocolate-a-day?) countdown calendar to Christmas,” a friend, Mark Voorheis, told me recently. “So our entire focus is on the end, and not on where we are in the moment.”
And no wonder. In this unkindest of years, we may admittedly feel a strong tug to forego our Advent “novitiate” and instead choose the chocolate-a-day, fast-track focus on the secularized “end” of Christmas: a sensory-overloaded debauch. But we are invited to so much more.
“If we can just realize that we are currently ‘in’ the day the Lord has made,” Mark continued, “then we will be where God intended us to be this Advent: getting ready for the Lord’s coming today. Not tomorrow. Now. Preparing for the Lord, today.”
Amen. Like an engagement, pregnancy, or lead-up to a new job, this Advent is fundamentally not about waiting or countdowns. This Advent is about rejoicing in the time we have now to prepare for the radical new life which will be ours when the Son of God joins us in our humanity.
In this austere Advent, we get to decide how we will spend our last days before our new life begins. Will we choose the chocolate-a-day countdown—or actually show up to our own novitiate? Will we squander the hours—or prepare in joyful hope? Will we choose normal—or lean toward the new life which awaits? Will we foul the days with yet more sin—or seek mercy in the confessional? Will the newborn Jesus arrive on that holy day with a dumpster still occupying our front yard, and permits covering our windows?
Awake! The true light is coming into the world. The glory of the Word made flesh. Our novitiate has begun. May we prepare well!
(This article will be part of the forthcoming issue of the Arlington Catholic Herald. And in case you missed it, we recorded two brief videos today—one from out front of Trinity House Cafe—as we begin our year-end appeal. Check them out here. Thanks to your generosity, we’re already over halfway toward our Giving Tuesday goal.)
Heaven in Your Home Toolkit
If you live in the Diocese of Arlington, have you considered joining the Just One Yes (JOY) Advent campaign? Make your one “yes” count — and join over 32,000 others who have already stepped forward! In “Getting to ‘Yes’ this Advent” last year, Soren suggested 7 “yeses” to make the most of this Advent.
“This year, as you decorate, focus on making your home a place of prayerful preparation and celebration. In the event of limited access to churches, it is more important than ever to consider our homes as sanctuaries for souls,” writes Elizabeth Foss in “Don’t Give Up Christmas” (Arlington Catholic Herald).
David Wallace offers sound and practical guidance: “Prepare for Christmas during Advent by family prayer and works of mercy, thinking first of Jesus’ second coming, knowing that as often as we are merciful to the least of his brethren, we are merciful to him.” His “Advent During a Pandemic” is in the Arlington Catholic Herald.
Print up these Advent Reflections from the Women Doctors of the Church (OSV News) as an inspiring Advent resource.
Around the Corner…
Today is Giving Tuesday, the first day we invite you to partner with us in our 2020 year-end appeal to support the life-changing ministry of Trinity House Community. We have bold plans for reaching more families in 2021. Will you prayerfully consider making a one-time gift or monthly commitment today?
Keep Trinity House Café in mind as you do your Advent and Christmas shopping. The Café’s Market features artisan-made gifts, stationery, original art, iconography, new children’s books, and used books. From stocking-stuffers to sacramentals, come see what we have in store!
Trinity House Cafe will play a special part in the Fifth Annual Leesburg Nativity Tour, an ideal Christmas activity for the whole family during the continued caution for large crowds due to Covid. Take a leisurely stroll through historic Leesburg visiting shops and restaurants displaying the Nativity Tour Poster. Sometimes the nativity will be displayed in a front window, other times venture into the store to search for it. Pick up up the promotion card and get it stamped at featured merchants. Fill up your card and get a free drink at Trinity House Cafe.
Testimonial
“I am very happy to promote and endorse the work and ministry promoted by the Trinity House Community! In these challenging times it is encouraging to see and experience people who are working to promote the Faith and help individuals and families to strengthen their ties and relationship to the Lord; and to seek his help as they strive to live out their vocation of following the Lord each day.” – Fr. Kevin Larsen, Pastor, St. John the Apostle Catholic Church, Leesburg, VA
Please Join Us In Prayer
That we might begin the holy season of Advent in joyful hope, anticipating the coming of Our Lord;
For safety and healing for all those impacted by the current surge in COVID-19, and for all medical personnel;
For those struggling with despair, depression, anxiety, and mental illness, that we might seek to love and encourage them;
For the ministry of Trinity House Community, including the staff of Trinity House Cafe, and all individuals and families who are seeking to reflect the life of the Trinity in their homes.
In Christ,
Soren & Ever Johnson
Founders & Directors
Trinity House Community
Making Home a Little Taste of Heaven
