As we journey into such a special season for our families—Thanksgiving, followed quickly by the first Sunday of Advent—we have been thinking about how counterintuitive and paradoxical this time is, and just how challenging it is to truly enter into Advent:   

• As our tables are spread with delicious holiday foods, the Church invites us to hunger, thirst, and yearn for the coming of the Christ Child.

• As our culture attempts to persuade us that the Christmas season is already here, the air around us pulsating with holiday music and ads about sales, discounts, and the best things to buy, the Church invites us into a penitential season to patiently and expectantly prepare our hearts for Christ’s second coming.

• As our culture (yes, aided by our own vanity) pushes us to create a flashy domestic beauty during “the holidays,” the Church invites us to instead create a deeper and more hidden beauty … of prayer, repentance, and preparation.

• As our family schedules get packed with practices, concerts, gatherings, and events, the Church invites us to slow down to the “pace of grace,” which we can imagine as a slow journey with the Holy Family from Nazareth to Bethlehem.

There’s an exquisite little chapel in the heart of our town, built in 1878. It’s the former main sanctuary of our parish, and it’s set back just ten feet from King Street, the main street in town. Now that our parish numbers some 10,000 members, we’ve long outgrown it and we worship across the street at our newer, spacious “big church.”

But thankfully, we have Eucharistic Adoration in the chapel weekly from Tuesday through Friday. To stop in and be with our Lord is to enter into a quiet, intimate oasis, punctuated only by the creaking of the old pews and kneelers, the dull whir of traffic, and often, the birds in the boxwoods just outside the stained-glass windows.  

Advent is—or can be—like this chapel. It can be a time to pull off the rat-race of your King Street—the lines, the noise, the schedules, the constant traffic—and step into the beauty of God’s presence:

• to enter into silence

• to commit to the journey from the comforts of your own Nazareth to what God has prepared for you in Bethlehem

• to repent, to encounter Christ anew in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as you prepare to welcome him anew

• to reflect on the liturgical readings as a family at dinner or family prayer

• to enjoy some Advent traditions, like the Advent wreath, calendar, and the Jesse tree, focusing your family away from the street noise and towards the greater reality within this humble little chapel.

Yes, the days ahead will be full. They will be busy. They will be noisy and chaotic, so full—we pray—of homes and families that resound with the voices of love, togetherness, and your own family’s unique blend of gifts. But amidst all of this, let’s not inadvertently allow our culture’s bland script for this season to slip into our hands. Instead, may we hew to the plan the Church has given us, as we hunger and yearn for his coming: Come, Lord Jesus!