The Simplicity of Advent

By Jennifer Gregory Miller ( bio - articles - email ) | Nov 22, 2024 | In The Liturgical Year

The Advent season begins in less than two weeks. For most parents the coming of Advent signals a busy time, filled with many activities. There are Christmas pageants, concerts, parties and gatherings, baking, shopping and gift giving, card mailing, photos and so much more.

To add to the pressure, we are hit with so much commercialism. We don’t even recognize how we are daily influenced by marketing and materialism. Even Catholic sources (you reading this post) are trying to find a way of compelling you to direct your attention and money towards their latest, greatest or best idea. Holy or not, it’s still marketing.

How can we provide for ourselves and our families a peaceful and spiritual Advent without adding more to our to-do list? I have two ideas, and both are super simple:

1. Silent Night. All is Calm.


I have found that the times in my life when I felt completely overwhelmed were exactly the times I needed to make time to slow down. Can we be intentional this Advent? Can we carve out some quality intentional time for self and family? Can we just slow down, just for 30 minutes or an hour a day?

I’m not suggesting to plug in that time with a variety of Catholic Advent activities and/or traditions. Rather, I’m thinking of the quiet contemplation that Mary and Joseph had preparing for Jesus’ birth. And when Jesus was born, that night in the stable was silent and calm. How can we model to our children to slow down exteriorly and interiorly? How about:

• Sit down for a family dinner. If schedules aren’t allowing every single night, make it happen more than half the week. No phones, no TV. If conversation doesn’t flow easily, come up with some questions to answer every night, such as each person sharing highs and lows of the day, what they are grateful, etc.
• Read together. Especially with younger children, nightly read-aloud can be treasured times. There are so many great Christmas picture books that you could have a different one each night. Or choose a longer book and read a chapter together.
• Pray together. This can also be combined at the dinner table. Set up the Advent wreath and light the wreath and pray before dinner. But alongside vocal prayer, how about also considering some unstructured prayer? Can family prayer time include some Scripture reading and silence? Spontaneous prayer from the heart? In the family gathering time, can there be some times of silence? Invite everyone to place themselves mentally in the different scenes of the Infancy Narratives. We are modeling quiet personal prayer.

2. Build your Family Story

I want to recommend this podcast interview of Gertrud Mueller Nelson on The Good Shepherd and the Child podcast. Gertrud is the daughter of Therese Mueller, who was a one of the influential woman leaders in the Liturgical Movement. Catholic Culture has some quotes from her writings, and I have her booklets on my personal blog.

Gertrud shares her ideas for Advent like a Pied Piper. I was so drawn in to her description of how darkness and light are strong themes. I was struck on how she is only sharing from her experiences or what her mother shared with her. She has a personal story and connection on how she suggests an approach to Advent.

I think we have lost that kind of narrative voice. I think some of the promotion of Liturgical Year living has become competitive, commercialized and depersonalized. Can we put together our own family story when we live the Liturgical Year?

• There shouldn’t be a competition on being the “most Catholic” in all the Liturgical Year traditions. We don’t need to have a social media blitz on our family living.
• We don’t always need to buy items for liturgical living. Some of those items can be cluttering up our lives.
• Every family is unique and writes their own story.

The reason why earlier books on living the Liturgical Year (such as Cooking for Christ by Florence Berger or Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Trapp and booklets by Helen McLoughlin and Therese Mueller) were so enticing is that the authors wrote and shared out of their own family story. The women were giving a little window into their family life, but it wasn’t all encompassing nor did they think their way was the only way.

I think we should spend a little time and just recognize our own family story. And focus on enriching that family story this Advent.

I’m not offering any new ideas for this Advent, but just a reminder that keeping things essential and intentional may be the greatest gift for your family.