Ah, Advent. Candlelit evenings curled up with a good book. Long vigils in darkened chapels. Darkness and silence and sweet anticipation as you prepare for the Lord’s coming.
Right?
Not this century. Here it’s shopping and wrapping and baking and driving and endless Christmas programs and parties and no time for anticipation because there are too many Pinterest projects to perfect! These days we jump into Christmas before we’ve finished our Halloween candy and nobody’s got a second to prepare for anything but a frenzy of expensive presents we don’t need. And maybe you’re praying more this Advent or reading some great book, but do you feel like it’s Advent? Not without silence and stillness and really slowing down. And that doesn’t happen unless you fight for it.
1. Delete (or hide) social media apps from your phone.
I’ve been doing this for 3 days and I’m loving it! All I did was remove the icons from my home screen and decide that I’m only going to open Facebook and the like when I’ve got 20 minutes to devote to it. This means that I don’t scroll through my news feed when waiting in line. Or while playing with kids. Or the second I get into my car. Or whatever. Yesterday was a fairly empty day and I went 12 hours without checking Facebook–which left me with a lot of time just to be. It’s amazing how different life is when you’re not using every spare second to distract yourself.
2. Don’t give Christmas presents.
Well, that’s not exactly what I mean. Obviously I’m in favor of Christmas presents. But what if you gave them for Epiphany instead? What if instead of spending Advent dashing desperately through the mall before settling on junk that nobody needs, you spent Advent preparing for Jesus and went shopping after Christmas, when you’ve got time off work and everything’s on sale?
3. Turn off the radio.
I’ve got nothing against Christmas music in Advent,1 but silence is a much better preparation for the coming of the King than Jingle Bell Rock. Turn off the radio this month–all the time or for some specified period daily–and just be.
4. Check out an audio book.
Instead of watching TV, try listening to a book when you’re sitting around in the evenings–or baking/crocheting/wrapping. It’s a slower pace and much less stimulating, so you’ll find yourself more relaxed. It’s also easier to step away from, which might increase the amount of sleep you get. Plus, you can try to find something worthwhile, which is hard to do on Netflix. Check out LibriVox for free books in the public domain. The Other Wise Man or The Gift of the Magi would be good seasonal selections from the classics, and they’ve also got collections of short Christmas-themed stories. Or swing by your library (physically or electronically) for a newer selection.
5. Start your day differently.
If you’re anything like me, your default is to grab your phone and check notifications just as soon as you’ve turned off the alarm. That way you hit the ground running–and with nary a moment to be recollected. Try starting instead with some focused prayer or reflection:
- Pray morning prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours.
- Pick one verse of Scripture to read first thing and come back to it throughout the day–at every meal, perhaps, or every time you get in the car. Then before bed, jot down what you learned from that Scripture.
- Read the Gospel for the day.
- Once December 17th hits, try reading my reflections on the O Antiphons from a few years ago.
6. Pray the St. Andrew Novena.
This novena should have started on November 30th, but it’s also way longer than 9 days, so we’ll call it good if you want to start today. The idea is that you pray this prayer 15 times a day. It sounds like a lot, but it’s so short and I’ve found that if I space it out throughout the day, it makes a beautiful rhythm of sudden stillness throughout my day.
I’ve got this set as my only goal for my new app (Habit Bull) whose icon has replaced my Facebook icon on my phone’s home screen. Then when I have a second and automatically pull out my phone, I find myself once again at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. And it’s my lock screen, just in case I was tempted to forget that it’s Advent. Save this image and do the same!
7. Swing by the chapel.
Adding something else to your schedule won’t actually make you less busy, of course. But stopping by each day for ten minutes of silence (or once a week for an hour if it’s too far out of your way to pull off daily) will slow down your racing mind and focus your heart back on him. And that is the whole purpose of Advent.
- For you, that is. I won’t touch the stuff. [↩]