Things Are Going To Be Different For The Next Few Weeks

You know how advent calendars have lots of chocolates?

Do you know how do you lift a very heavy Advent calendar?
With a candy crane!

This was the joke that started out the homily at the 5:00 PM mass on the evening vigil for the first Sunday of Advent. Kristin and I had just returned from seeing my family for our late Thanksgiving family get together.

The homily that followed was really worth listening to, so I tracked the deacon down after mass and asked for a copy so I could use it for The Catholic Bard.

When I was young, my saintly father taught me the rosary. My father was known as The Man Who Went to Church and my mother was the woman who was your bus driver. As the head usher he held the keys to open the doors and could come in and out at will.  He brought his young son to Rosary Night prayer group at 7:00 PM. I even got to lead a decade of one of the mysteries. I think it might have been a Monday – Friday thing.

When Deacon Gregory P. Albanese of Holy Apostles Church in Cranston R.I. was a young lad going to Catholic school between 1977-1982, twice per year in May and October, Sister Mary Martina declared to the kids

*”Things are going to be different around here for the next few weeks”

What were these changes young Greg and the other kids wondered?

• extra recess
• raffles
• shorter classes,
• relaxed rules?

Answer: None of the above

No, instead of the joy of recess every school day, the joy of praying the rosary every day at recess would be said instead.

WHAT!?

The only 25 minutes of fun in the day now was now replaced by prayer sitting at their desks!

Of course at the time,  to the young saints in training it seemed awful, horrible, and unreasonable. It reminds me of when Kristin and I taught catechism, we tried to engage the kids to see how much they knew in terms of knowing their prayers. “Does anyone know the Glory Be?”  Blank stares and ‘I don’t know’, from around the room. Then one kid named Will who was a home schooled kid piped up. “I can say the Glory Be in latin.” He then began to recite it, in Latin, making the other kids stare in amazement.

In the present Deacon Greg looking back says  “I am glad I did it because it certainly helped to nurture my relationship with God.”

He goes on to say…

“Just like Sister Martina, I am saying to all of you today–”Things are going to be different around here for the next few weeks”.

A new church year and the season of Advent is upon us, as well as a Jubilee year that is starting on December 24, 2024 with the opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica.

During the jubilee year Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati will both be designated Saints. Examples of how faith can be active and alive in young people.

Now, some of the changes around the church in this season are the arrival of the advent wreath and the liturgical color purple in the vestments the clergy wears on the altar.

But Advent calls for another type of change–an interior change within each one of us so that we are ready to welcome the birth of Jesus in our hearts once again in four weeks at Christmas on December 25.

The Church in Her wisdom gives us a guide, a help, and a roadmap to assist us in this process of change.  The Advent wreath has 4 candles that are lit as we go through the 4 weeks of this season, and each candle represents a different virtue and attitude which we can work on to help strengthen us in our relationship with God.

Week 1:  Today–the first candle represents hope.  In my life, I certainly struggle with maintaining hope each day.  For me, the enemy of hope is worry.  Concerns in life are often overwhelming, and some days I am just not sure I can rise to the occasion to meet the challenges in front of me or sometimes I feel that the monthly bills, the negativity and the drama around me might win.  How about you?  Are there circumstances or even people in your life who are threatening to lead you to despair and will rob you of hope if you let them? How can we maintain a spirit of hope?

Week 2:  Next week we will light the candle that represents peace.   In our world today, violence is the arch enemy of peace.  In my life, I certainly feel frustration, anger and feelings of revenge toward those who have offended or wronged me. Violence is everywhere–in Ukraine, in Gaza, in the checkout lines of the supermarket and on the roads we travel every day.  Do we find ourselves getting sucked into the nonsense and hurting others with our words or deeds?  How can we be the peacemakers that Jesus has asked us to be?

Week 3:  We will light the rose colored candle in two weeks, and the third candle of Advent is the candle of joy.  For me, the enemy of joy is envy.  I am always jealous of other people’s quality of life, and this envy robs me of being joyful for the wonderful life that God has given me.  What about you?  What takes away the joy in your life and leads you to not welcome each day that God has given you with gratitude?  How can we be more joyful, positive and grateful?

Week 4:  On December 21/22 on the fourth Sunday of Advent we will light the candle of love.  The enemy of love in our world is selfishness.  Like most people, I would rather do what benefits ME NOW.  The lack of charity and sacrificial love in our world today tempts us to think of ourselves and no one else.  Do you find yourself slipping into the mode of selfishness and me first and failing to  love or serve others because of it?  How can we become more selfLESS and charitable?

Clearly we have some work to do in each of our lives if we are going to learn to be more hopeful, peaceful, joyful and loving.  But the good news is that we have four weeks to work on ourselves before Christmas.  If you and I are exactly the same people sitting here on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, we have done something wrong.  My advice and my hope and my prayer for all of us is that we will pray more, read devotional materials like the Advent books we passed out at masses last weekend, attend mass not only on Sundays but during the week if we can, go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, strive to be attached to the real meaning of Christmas instead of the greed and commercialism, and whatever else we can do to recommit our lives to God and make Advent 2024 a time of real change in our lives.

Remember, things are going to be different around here for the next few weeks.  Let’s all pledge to be part of the positive changes that can happen.  And, oh by the way, feel free to give up recess and recite the rosary once in a while! Maybe even go to a rosary group and bring your kid.

Here is a resource for Advent.

And another one.