It is Advent, and we must let Advent be Advent. It is a time of spiritual preparing for receiving the Lord, who comes now and will come to us in many ways. In fact, it is a time of spiritual warfare, as St. Paul reminded us yesterday during Holy Mass in the traditional Roman Rite, which Catholics heard year in and out for so many centuries:
“Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. … put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
We are warriors on the march toward the Lord who is also coming to us.
That said, we all have a lot to do before Christmas, so that the last days before Christmas aren’t a mere frenzy of material concerns. Doing your planning and shopping now can help you save money and precious time, especially as time narrows toward the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord.
Make your lists of things to do and get to work so that you have as little to do at the end as possible.
To save you some time, remember that you can always order Mystic Monk Coffee and Z-Swag and, pretty please, remember to use my Amazon search box on the side bar for online shopping.
We have to balance our desires to observe Christmas with both spiritual and material concerns. Getting to it now will help you relax later and, after letting Advent be Advent, letting Christmas be Christmas.
And, above all…
GO TO CONFESSION!
Make that a top priority on your To Do List.
“Let us therefore lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. … put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
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I have both been to Confession AND done my Christmas shopping. All of it.
Now to relax and enjoy Advent and be super-holy, plus also spend a long time paying down the ol’ credit card bill.
I am watching Peter Pan Live (ugh) and wasn’t paying much attention during commercial break. I was surpised to think I glanced a woman going to confession out of the corner of my eye. I was shocked to realize that, in fact, my diocese (Syracuse, NY) has made a TV commercial advertising…confession! It kind of echoed your sentiments here.
OK, so it’s a little bit cheesy, but WOW! A confession commercial during prime time? This is the first year I have donated to the diocesan fundraising campaign, and I am thrilled to think my money is helping with something like this. Here’s a link: http://youtu.be/DtCbSEYvO0E