Your Personal Preparation Plan For Advent

Most everyone is familiar with John Lennon's popular Christmas song, Happy Christmas, War Is Over and it's always been one of my secular Christmas favorites. The title may not ring a bell, but once you hear Lennon's voice and the choir of children voices behind his, I'm sure you'll recognize it. I know I'll be hearing it incessantly this month even though it isn't Christmas time, yet.

It's Advent, people. If you're Catholic, no doubt you know this already, but the consumerism pushed by TV ads, billboards, stores and newspapers is so loud, our beloved season of Advent gets drowned out and pushed to the wayside. So, I was thinking it might be a little fun and irresistably counter-cultural if I took a few lines of that song and replaced the word "Christmas" with "Advent." It might possibly provoke some good food for thought as we launch into this holy season. This is how one verse of the song would sound (go ahead, you can sing along with it in your head):

So, this is Advent and what have you done?

Another year over, a new one just begun.

And so this is Advent for weak and for strong,

The rich and the poor ones, the road is so long.

Yes, it does provoke some food for thought.

So, this is Advent and what have you done? Another year over, a new one just begun.

The Feast of Christ the King, which we celebrated just one week ago marks the beginning of a new year in the Church, and just as people tend to make new year's resolutions on January 1st as a new calendar year rings in, Advent is an extremely appropriate time to make some spiritual resolutions for the year to come. So it makes sense that as we prepare for the birth of our Savior, we can take a look back at the prior year and take note of what we've done, spiritually speaking. What progress have you made spiritually this last year?

And so this is Advent for weak and for strong,The rich and the poor ones, the road is so long.

I love the sound of this, frankly, because Advent—just like Lent—is an equal opportunity occasion for all of us to come closer to Christ no matter who you are or what your state in life is. Weak, strong, rich, poor, married, single, happy, sad... no matter what our lives look like today, we should take the time to reflect on the past year and see how we can improve. After all, we know that being lukewarm will not get us into heaven (Revelation 3:16). We must be either as cold as ice, in which case we can be certain God will be persuing us and revealing His love to us in different ways, or we must be on fire with love for Him which means we will consistently be making choices and decisions that lead to eternal life with Him in heaven. If we are complacent, stagnant, or merely sitting idly on the fence... we need to change.

Here are a few reflection questions I'd like to offer as we move into Advent:

1. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being best, how would you rate your level of satisfaction in regard to where you are personally right now? Why is that and what would you change to upgrade your level of satisfaction?

2. Are you at peace? Are you struggling with certain things that take away your peace? If so, what are they? Why is this happening? What concrete steps can you take to change this?

3. How would you rate your relationship with God? Do you believe you are important to Him? Why or why not?

I could make a long list of questions to help you reflect and prepare for Advent, and in fact, I have already done so. You are more than welcome to download my Advent Personal Prep-Sheet for free and use it to help you prepare for Christmas if you'd like. But whether you use it or not, I encourage you to take some time in the next few days to review your year in a spiritual sense, take note of your triumphs and achievements just as much as your downfalls or failures and then, make a little plan for Advent, one that helps you prepare in a meaningful way for the birth of Jesus. I encourage you to write it down, too, and look at it as often as possible to keep yourself on track. All this, in hopes that next Advent, you will look back on this year and feel good about the progress you've made.

I welcome your feedback at asklisa@catholicmatch.com and you don't forget, you can download the Advent Personal Prep-Sheet at LisaDuffy.com. Just look on the menu for "Free Downloads."