As Father Fred said today, "Our God is a God of surprises." Catholics can get pretty use to having four weeks of Advent to prepare for Christmas, but this year God said "Surprise! You now have just 48 hours for which you must cram in a whole week of Advent." So now what?
Personally, I tend to hang on to the hope that "it'll all come together and work out" and I keep cramming in gift-wrapping, card-sending, events, work, cleaning, etc. etc. I prioritize everything which really means I prioritized nothing. It seems to all fit; everything gets done, right? But, what I often forget is that what I really should be cramming into this short week of a few hours is prayer, hope, love, joy, silence, listening, peace... If you feel like these are diametrically opposed, you are probably correct because I don't think they can possibly coexist together without us actively striving to incorporate them. It's just not going to happen. So do we (especially us Warriors of the Last-Minute Table) have to drop the Christmas preparations, cancel the online purchases, and admit our houses just don't look like a Taste of Home magazine cover all the time? Not quite, though maybe partially. Jason Evert says we should make our outer appearances match our inner spiritual appearances.
Yes, in past years it feels like everything got done, the food is made, the house is clean, and so on, but often my inner self is a forgotten little dust bowl that is about as dry spiritually as a bone, and cluttered with thousands of unread and unheard messages from God that I never took the time or made the quiet moment to listen to. So this year I'm taking the practical advise of Fr. Augustine Donegan and applying it to Christmas and hopefully to infinity and beyond: "Pray 15 minutes every day. Lengthen it if you can, shorten it if you must, but never omit it."
