Advent-Devotions and Ideas for You!

Celebrate the Season of Waiting!

The following Advent-Devotions and Ideas are some of our own

family favorites and others have been suggested to us by

friends and visitors to our website! It matters not so much

HOW you celebrate Advent, only that you make a concentrated

effort to find time for quiet reflection and thoughtful

anticipation of the coming celebration of Christ's birth as a

family...slow down, quiet down, and enter in to a true spirit

of "listening" and "sharing" and "preparing" for the coming

of the King!

Some Favorite Traditions:

Kris Kringles

Around Thanksgiving time, or just before the First Sunday of

Advent (there are four weeks total) place the names of your

family members on slips of paper and set them in a basket.

Allow each person to draw a name, but KEEP IT SECRET!

(Littles who can't yet read, can be helped by Mom or Dad)

The person whose name you've chosen becomes your "Kris Kringle"

for your season of Advent-devotions. (Did you know that "Kris Kringle" means

"Christ Child"?!?)

The idea is to keep your "Kris Kringle" a secret and to do your

best to make an effort to serve that person in a special way

throughout the weeks of waiting...good deeds, kindness, extra

help, etc. Also start work on making a homemade gift for your

"Kris Kringle" which you will present to him or her on

Christmas Day, thus revealing your identity!

Purchase "A Year With God"



Virtues of the Season

Also from CHC's book, and adapted a bit to suit our own preferences

are these Advent-devotions involving symbols and virtues that we hope to develop in our hearts during the weeks ahead.

Print out cards (or make your own) creating one for each day of the week. Some people use small figurines as opposed to cardswith images on them.

Each day of the week, display one card (or figure) with a corresponding message for your family to reflect upon and try to put into practice during your daily family life. As Advent progresses, you continue to change the cards every day ~ rotatingthrough all seven for each of the four weeks.

Following are the symbols and messages to be displayed on cards:

Sunday ~ An Angel: "Messenger of God bringing good news to all"...use your words for kindness.

Monday ~ Saint Joseph: "During daily prayer, have a ready and willing heart toward God's will"

Tuesday ~ Mary, The Virgin: "Be more aware of His presence as you go about your duties and seek the grace to do God's will in every moment."

Wednesday ~ Shepherd: "Do your duties faithfully and lovingly as the shepherds do with their sheep".

Thursday ~ OX: "Be obedient to God's Word and cheerfully accept each task assigned to you".

Friday ~ Lamb: "Follow the Good Shepherd wherever He leads you".

Saturday ~ Donkey: "Lighten the burden of others in charity by going out of your way to help them".

You can add to these Advent-devotions and activities by reading Scripture verses that you have bookmarked ahead of time and which are pertinent to the virtue of the day.




ADVENT WREATH

Using three purple candles (symbolic of penance, waiting, and royalty) and one pink (for the third Sunday of Advent; also known as Gaudete Sunday; or Sunday of JOY), use some fresh pines or cones and other greenery to create a wreath for your family's Advent-Devotions.

This can be as plain and simple, or fancy and elaborate as you sochoose (In olden times they hung HUGE ones from the chandeliers and ceilings that would be lowered when the time came for lighting!)

Each week, light one purple candle (and the pink one on the third week to signify JOY in the fact that there's only one more week of waiting to come!) and gather the family 'round of prayer, singing, or Scripture-reading. You can use your wreath every day if you like, but only light one candle per week.

Preparing Our Hearts

"Advent" means the coming or arrival of something important that has been awaited.

Thus, it is a season where families can prepare their hearts forthe coming or arrival of the Infant Savior, Jesus!

Some families choose not to decorate for Christmas until AFTERAdvent-devotions are over.

Others decorate in small amounts, using mostly purples and greenery, but leaving things "simple", "plain", and "unadorned".

Still, some people enjoy decorating their home and tree with purple chain links, white lights, purple balls and bows.

There are even those who add a little to their tree and decor every week, symbolizing that Christmas is drawing nearer and nearer each week.

However YOU choose to celebrate is up to you to decide.

The point is, to inculcate a spirit of "waiting" in yourfamily's hearts and to create an atmosphere of joyful anticipation in the home; spending lots of time in prayer andthanksgiving and preparation for the coming of Christmas.

Shopping, gifts, parties, and feasts are all well and good but they shouldn't be so rushed and so abundant BEFORE Christmas that you end up feeling stressed, burned out, or overwhelmedby the time it gets here!

These tips can help your family remained focused and honor the spirit of the Advent Season:

* pray often as a family

*listen to music that lights the fire of yearning for Christ in your heart

* spend some time in silence

* ask forgiveness, go to Confession, and seek to make amendswhere needed so as to approach the Infant Jesus with a clean and pure heart

* spend time TOGETHER as a family: bake, decorate, send out cards, whatever you like...but do it TOGETHER

For more Advent-devotions and Ideas, subscribe to our FREEnewsletter, The Homeschool Faith and Family Life Gazette, and order the December, 2009 back issue to find other ways that you and your family can enjoy a spirit-filled and fruitful season ofWAITING!