Advent Begins: Creating a Faith-Filled Advent Calendar

Advent is a special time of year, a season of waiting and preparation for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the world around us rushes headlong into the Christmas season, it's important that we take the time to slow down, reflect, and truly get our hearts ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Catholic Advent Calendar

One wonderful way to do this is by creating a Catholic Advent calendar for your family. Advent calendars are a great way to keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas and help children (and adults!) stay engaged in the spiritual aspects of the season.

There are many different ways to make an Advent calendar, but the key is to include a mix of prayers, Scripture readings, and simple acts of kindness. For example, you could have a small piece of chocolate or a religious sticker for each day, along with a brief reflection or a suggestion for a good deed to do.

Here are some examples of activities for your Catholic Advent calendar:

• Praying a decade of the Rosary
• Reading a short passage from the Bible
• Performing a random act of kindness for a family member or neighbor
• Donating a non-perishable food item to a local food bank
• Writing a letter to a loved one

The key is to make the calendar interactive and engaging, so that each day your family is reminded of the true meaning of the season.

Family Jesse Tree

Another popular Advent tradition is the Jesse Tree. The Jesse Tree helps us trace the lineage of Jesus and events leading to His birth. There is an image and a bible story or verse for each day of December leading up to Christmas. There are many ways to involve children in the Jesse Tree devotion. For example; you can hang an ornament on a tree or branch, put a sticker on a chart, color in a space on a calendar, make a small craft symbolizing the story or person each day, or you can find coloring pages for each day's reading. Following the Jesse Tree is a wonderful way to teach children about the rich heritage of our faith.

Hopeful Waiting

As you prepare your Advent calendar and Jesse Tree, don't forget to involve the whole family. Get the kids excited about the season by letting them help decorate, choose the daily reflections, or come up with ideas for acts of kindness. This is a great opportunity to bond as a family and instill a love for the liturgical year in the hearts of your children.

Advent is a precious time, a season of waiting in hope and anticipation. This waiting is not passive, but rather an active preparation of our hearts and minds. It's a time to reflect on the significance of the Incarnation, to pray more fervently, and to do acts of charity and kindness in anticipation of welcoming the newborn King.

“It is fitting, my brethren, that we should celebrate this season of Advent with all possible devotion, rejoicing in so great a consolation, marveling at so great a condescension, inflamed with love by so great a manifestation of charity. But let us not think of that advent only whereby the Son of man has ‘come to seek and to save that which was lost,’ but also of that other by which He will come again and will take us to Himself. Would to God you kept these two advents constantly in your thoughts, revolving them in assiduous meditation, pondering in your hearts how much we have received by the first, how much we are promised at the second!” - St. Bernard of Clairvaux