Coming to Christ during Advent
By Macie Weaver
Advent comes from "ad-venire" in Latin, meaning, "to come to." Advent is the season to “come to” Christ in celebration of His birth, and to open our hearts for Christ to “come to” us. Advent is also a reminder of Jesus' actual Second Coming.
One great way to prepare ourselves for welcoming Jesus into our hearts during this season is by going to confession. Participating in the common practice of lighting the Advent candles each week leading up to Jesus' birth and reading the Scripture each night that comes from the Advent calendar are other great ways to prepare. I also go to Adoration often, and on Fridays during Advent, I pray the Memorare in devotion to our Mother Mary. I listen to the “Jesus Jams” pretty much all the time, but during Advent I make an effort to truly listen to the words and to understand and reflect on the meaning of the songs.
Even though I do all of this, once Black Friday comes around and people start shopping a lot for Christmas presents and start to forget the true meaning of Christmas, it can be hard to stay focused. Personally, I try not to think about the secular version of Christmas all the time, so I pray more and work on remembering to keep "Christ" in "Christmas". Doing things that help me reflect on the true meaning of Christmas (like helping others), and surrounding myself with positive people, also helps me to prepare myself. One of the things I love to do is to open up the Bible to a random scripture verse and to see how it relates to my life. I do that a lot and it's amazing to see God’s message for me when I open up to a verse that many times becomes the perfect thing I need to hear at that exact time.
God’s Christmas gift to us is His Son, so our gift to Him is to find simple ways to make room for Him in our lives.
One great way to prepare ourselves for welcoming Jesus into our hearts during this season is by going to confession. Participating in the common practice of lighting the Advent candles each week leading up to Jesus' birth and reading the Scripture each night that comes from the Advent calendar are other great ways to prepare. I also go to Adoration often, and on Fridays during Advent, I pray the Memorare in devotion to our Mother Mary. I listen to the “Jesus Jams” pretty much all the time, but during Advent I make an effort to truly listen to the words and to understand and reflect on the meaning of the songs.
Even though I do all of this, once Black Friday comes around and people start shopping a lot for Christmas presents and start to forget the true meaning of Christmas, it can be hard to stay focused. Personally, I try not to think about the secular version of Christmas all the time, so I pray more and work on remembering to keep "Christ" in "Christmas". Doing things that help me reflect on the true meaning of Christmas (like helping others), and surrounding myself with positive people, also helps me to prepare myself. One of the things I love to do is to open up the Bible to a random scripture verse and to see how it relates to my life. I do that a lot and it's amazing to see God’s message for me when I open up to a verse that many times becomes the perfect thing I need to hear at that exact time.
God’s Christmas gift to us is His Son, so our gift to Him is to find simple ways to make room for Him in our lives.
