Advent often comes in on “little cat feet,” a description by the poet Carl Sandburg of a fog coming in quietly but all-encompassing. Unlike a fog that covers up, Advent settles in to reveal the greatest Truth of all. We actively yearn for God, who slips into our lives gently, quietly, in the night. We’re primed for bells and whistles, and he comes wrapped in swaddling clothes, vulnerable and exposed.
We know that Advent heralds the new liturgical year, filled with the hope of new beginnings. But nestled between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the culture would have us forget this important season as we race from food coma to overdrive with shopping lists and social obligations that fill our calendars. The consumer noise and push to create the perfect Christmas is nothing more than a well-crafted marketing act, and yet many of us succumb to it even with the best of intentions when we begin Advent. When exhaustion finally kicks in, we crave quiet and serenity.
Finding Serenity in the Chaos
I often feel the pressure of Christmas preparations for my family. Some years it comes with financial concerns, other years with the pain of loss, and more often than not accompanied by the beautiful chaos of family life. I imagine it’s the same for everyone, regardless of their station in life. Mother Thecla wisely exhorts us to prepare ourselves well for Christmas, to aim for serenity, but how do we find serenity in the chaos?
We are all in the proverbial tug-of-war between the noise and the quiet space we want to hold for Christ. It is overwhelm and dedication. Restlessness and resolve. It’s a familiar feeling to be caught in this tension of waiting. Waiting, after all, frames the human condition, and yet, it is in the waiting that God prepares something in us even as we yearn for him to fill us.
This isn’t a challenge in multi-tasking; it is a call to surrender. What greater model for this surrender than the Blessed Virgin Mary? She surrendered her life to God in that moment of her fiat, and yet, every moment after was a new yes, a new commitment and recommitment for the next thing, whether it was Joseph’s response to her news, finding a place to give birth, finding Jesus in the temple, or waiting for him to be brought down off the cross.
In all our spiritual and material needs, let us turn to Mary, our Mother, Teacher, and Queen. She brings us Jesus. Ask of her the grace to know and love our Divine Master more. ~Mother Thecla Merlo
We cannot hold the Incarnation independent of the Crucifixion, and perhaps that is the true tension we find in Advent. We know that the joy of Christ’s birth leads to the sacrifice of his Crucifixion. It is all of a piece and where we find peace, because we also know the hope in the Resurrection.
Hope is, after all, not optimism or wishful thinking but rather, trust in God. The tension in the Advent waiting prepares our souls to trust what we cannot see. And soon, and very soon, we celebrate this miracle of miracles, that God loves us so much he sent his only Son, to show us what trust, what hope, what love looks like. At Christmas, it looks like a small and vulnerable child to be welcomed and loved into the world.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother
The Blessed Mother knew all of this, and more. Mary lived through the very first Advent! She waited with trust and brought Christ into the world for us, teaching us that the waiting is about surrendering to God’s timing. Where everything may have seemed uncertain, she brought joy. Where there may have been fear, she brought faith. In a world that celebrates oversharing and carefully curated lives of fiction, we see in Mary that the most important things happen quietly, faithfully, and with grace.
As we move through the rest of Advent and into the celebration of Christmas, let us follow Mother Thecla’s advice to turn to Mary, not only as a model but as our mother, who knows us and loves and will give us the graces we need to grow in faith and love:
Have great confidence in the personal love the Blessed Virgin has for each one of us. Recommend all our needs and confide our problems to her. May she be our counselor, our support, our defense, our consolation in every suffering, our help in every need. Let’s be like small children in the arms of their mother. She will carry us to Jesus.
May Christ’s peace carry us through this Advent season and herald a joyous Christmas season with the knowledge He is already here.
Featured Image: Frames Cristianos; Cathopic
Maria Morera Johnson is in formation as a Pauline Cooperator, lay collaborators associated closely with the Daughters of St. Paul in the U.S. and Canada, advancing the mission of evangelization through social communication.