“Make straight the way of the Lord!” 

These words of St. John the Baptist (and before him, Isaiah) may as well be the motto for Advent. As we journey closer to the birth of our Savior, we can’t help but want to make things right.

To better understand what’s going on in these holy days, just think of the hours leading up to hosting guests in your home (post-Covid, of course!). We dust and vacuum, clean windows and scrub floors. When that knock comes, we hope our guests will appreciate how we’ve straightened and tidied everything. We hope they’ll enjoy the beauty and comfort of our home, and that they won’t see cobwebs or trip over piles of stuff. 

But if we’re honest, we know that sparkling windows and glowing tabletops are only the first step of hosting. Our guests, after all, will see us at a deeper level when we sit down and share our lives with one another. Not to be overly dramatic, but they’ll look into our eyes and glimpse our souls. If we’ve been arguing with our spouse or kids, we hazard to say—speaking theoretically, of course—our guests will pick up on that and be uncomfortable. They’ll see that while the home is lovely, something more important is amiss.

As your family—your domestic church and Trinity House—approaches the birth of our Lord, you’re probably like us in that you’ve begun to “make straight” your home by decorating, putting up the tree, and brightening up the windows and tabletops. Last Saturday, we made a cozy fire and decluttered a few closets and cupboards as our kids made their first batch of Christmas cookies.   

That’s all fine and good. But especially in Advent, we are invited to go deeper than surface decluttering and decorating. We need to use these precious days to “make straight” our relationships (Level 2 of your Trinity House, and our focus in the 2nd week of the month)—first with our Lord through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but then with one another in our families, friend circles, neighborhoods, and workplaces.

Have we begun the true work of spiritual decluttering? When the infant Jesus encounters our families in just 17 days, willl our guest find not only a pretty home with gifts, lights and food—but also that we have forgiven, reconciled, surrendered our resentments, and prepared our communion of persons to receive Him in love?

How easy it is to get caught up in all the good feelings of a home with surfaces gleaming for Christmas! But in the days remaining, let’s not stop there. Let’s lift our eyes to what is possible: the opportunity to welcome the Prince of Peace into a home that is gleaming with the faces of those who know and experience true love’s forgiveness and communion.

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. May the Immaculate Mother help us to ask for and offer forgiveness for sins! “We may be able to deceive people, but not God,” Pope Francis said in his homily today. “He knows our hearts better than we ourselves do. Let us take advantage of the present moment!” As reported by Crux, the Pope “urged the faithful to ‘seize the day’ by saying ‘no’ to evil and ‘yes’ to God” and ‘to once and for all stop thinking of ourselves, dragging ourselves into hypocrisy and to face our own reality as we are.'”

“The logic of love is always the logic of freedom, and Joseph knew how to love with extraordinary freedom,” writes Pope Francis in an apostolic letter on Saint Joseph released just today. We are looking forward to reading this letter in the days ahead.

“Forgiveness Fundamentals” by Maureen and James Otremba at the USCCB’s For Your Marriage outlines helpful fundamentals for married couples. 

“Sin damages or even breaks fraternal communion,” the Catechism instructs us in these excerpts on forgiveness which focus us on what’s at stake in our unhealed relationships. “The sacrament of Penance repairs or restores it. In this sense it does not simply heal the one restored to ecclesial communion, but has also a revitalizing effect on the life of the Church which suffered from the sin of one of her members. Re-established or strengthened in the communion of saints, the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the living members of the Body of Christ, whether still on pilgrimage or already in the heavenly homeland.” 

“Four Words to Guide Your Advent” by Fr. Robert McTeigue at Aleteia offers a helpful set of images to carry with us in these weeks. 

From carols and lessons to video reflections and more, the USCCB Advent resources page is a helpful tool. 

It’s not too late to join over 55,000 others in the “Just One Yes” Advent campaign of the Diocese of Arlington. 

“We are a newly married couple, and Trinity House has really inspired us to build our relationship.“