Getting Ready for Advent & Christmas 2016 Week 2

PUT JESUS FIRST: WEEK TWO

Two weeks to Advent! November 11-13: This is the weekend to get organized.

What do you want Advent to look like in your home? How can you and your family best live out this time of expectation?

Remembering that activities are what children (and adults!) remember most, choose a project that will make this Advent meaningful for you and your family. Here are some possible Advent projects for you to prayerfully take on:

 Visit a local farm and step inside the stables, then discuss with your children what it may have felt like for Mary and Joseph to take refuge in a place like that.  Shop together for four toys (one for each week of Advent) that you can wrap and donate to organizations offering toys to families in need.  Once a week, take 15 minutes to write Christmas cards to troops stationed overseas.  Pay anonymously for the Santa pictures of the person in back of you in line.  Fast from one meal each week, and donate the cost of that meal to your parish or an organization providing food to needy families and individuals. Talk with your children about how hunger feels.  Institute daily family prayer time. Read an Advent-oriented Scripture passage together and talk about its meaning, then pray the Our Father and the Hail Mary. Light the week’s candle on your Advent wreath together.  Set up a nativity set with the manger empty and the wise men at the other end of the room or house. Throughout the Advent season the wise men move closer to the manager, and of course on Christmas morning the Baby Jesus appears in the manger. (If you order a set from worldnativity.com, your children will be reminded that Jesus came for everyone in the world, since their sets come from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and 100% of the proceeds go to charitable causes in developing countries. Another option is YonderStar.com, where 10% goes to Food for the Poor and the Nature Conservancy.)


© 2016 Daughters of St. Paul – Find us online at www.pauline.org 6

What to do this week:

1. Decide what Advent project(s) would make sense for your family to take on, and talk about the one(s) you choose. Who is going to make them happen? This should take up most of your time and thought, because this is the Advent you focus on a meaningful family project.

2. Order or purchase a nativity set if you don’t already have one.

3. Stock up on Christmas movies, if your family likes them, or note the times that they’ll be broadcast on television on your calendar. And don’t forget the Grinch! Make sure that you can watch at least a few of them together.

Prayer for the week Holy Father, help us to keep calm and connected throughout this Advent as we wait in hope and love for the coming of our Savior. The greatest Christmas gift of all is ours; help us to be aware of that at every moment of this busy season of preparation. Amen. Our Father…

Reading for the week Who has gone up to heaven and come down again? Who has cupped the wind in his hands? Who has bound up the waters in a clock? Who has marked out all the ends of the earth? What is his name, what is his son’s name, if you know it?  (Proverbs 30:4)