Getting Ready for Advent & Christmas 2016 Week 1

PUT JESUS FIRST: WEEK ONE


This first weekend, November 4-6, is for planning.

Set aside some time to pull all the things you need to get organized into one place. Make it a family event: bake some cookies, fill your mugs with hot chocolate or tea, and gather round the table or living room.

Make sure that you take care of yourself this season: Promise yourself that you will go to Mass every Sunday during Advent. At your parish church you won’t see glittery decorations, you won’t hear jolly jingles about snowmen and sleigh bells. Instead, you will see a wreath with candles. You will hear words like waiting, watching, and yearning, and you will listen to plaintive music that expresses a deep longing for the coming of the Lord.

What to do this week:

1. Travel: Decide this weekend whether you’re going to travel for Christmas. If you are, make the necessary arrangements and reservations now. 2. Visitors: Maybe rather than traveling you have friends and family coming to stay with you. Make sure that you have everything that you’ll need on hand and that you know their schedules. Will you need to purchase anything before they come? Do special cleaning? This is the weekend to make sure that you’re on top of everything their visit will entail. 3. Holiday budget: There’s a lot of pressure at this time of year to spend, and a lot of stress around money. Relieve that stress by working out your budget now. How much can you reasonably spend on gifts? On entertaining? Be realistic, and put real figures into your planning. And don’t forget that part of the stress attached to holidays is around money: don’t wear out your credit cards, or you’ll just be creating more stress for January when you need to start paying them off. 4. Christmas gifts: If you haven’t already started one, create your gift list this weekend. You know that putting off decisions around “what to get for whom” won’t get any easier as time goes by, so discipline yourself to make the list now.
© 2016 Daughters of St. Paul – Find us online at www.pauline.org 4
5. Christmas cards: Whether you’re mailing or emailing, select your cards now so that you can get just the right design. If you’re going to send them via regular mail, then buy enough stamps now to send them all out, so you won’t have to wait in line later. 6. Advent wreaths and calendars: This is the time to make sure you have candles ready for your family Advent wreath, and to pick out an Advent calendar.


Prayer for the week Blessed Lord, you are the center of my life and my world. Help me to keep that perspective as the demands of the season press in on me.  Grant me patience and perseverance to cut through the hype and stay calm, recollected, and thoughtful. Amen.

Reading for the week The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah. In those days, in that time, I will raise up for David a just shoot: he shall do what is right and just in the land. (Jeremiah 33:14,15)

~ The Daughters of St. Paul