In 2015, as my family raced through the fall, my then first grader and three-year-old were already talking about Christmas. Barely past his 7th birthday in October, my son had moved onto Christmas. One day he asked, “Why can’t we just skip to Christmas? Advent is so boring!”
The 8 foot tree stands in the living room of our tiny, messy apartment and we step carefully around it to get into the bedrooms.
On the first Sunday of Advent after church, I get to go home and do one of my most favorite things. No, it is not decorate a Christmas tree—we will wait until the week of Christmas to do that. On the first Sunday of Advent, in my family, we set up our nativities.
How do we observe Advent?
For the past six years, #AdventWord has given the opportunity to participate in a global advent calendar with visual and written meditations. Each day, a short reflection, word, and image arrives in email inboxes and on social media to help focus on the preparatory season during the 24 busy days of Advent.
My uncle Angelo died a year ago on the Feast of All Saints. He was a young 70, and even though he had some health issues and accidents over the years, it was still very unexpected.
What is a saint? The root of the word “saint” is holy. A saint is one who is holy. When Paul uses the word, he is referring to all those who follow Jesus.
A few months ago Victoria Hoppes invited me to join the Faith @ Home community by writing short reflections on lectionary texts to help adults teach the stories to young children.
Ever since I returned to the church in my twenties, I have been inspired by the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Our daughter lost her first tooth a few weeks ago. As I stared into that gaping hole in her mouth, I did the thing where you internally tear up and think, ‘where did my little baby go?’ in that wistful, nostalgic way. ‘It was only yesterday that I was holding her in my arms!’
