3 Reasons I Love Advent

I'm linking up with Micaela today, over at California to Korea (and Back Again).  She does a monthly blog link-up called "3 Reasons I Love Catholicism," and this month's 3 Reasons are specifically devoted to the season of Advent.

I love Advent.  I love the joyful anticipation of the birth of Our Savior.  I love getting the house ready, putting up the decorations (and don't judge me, they go up as soon after Thanksgiving as humanly possible--and because my husband was going to be working a lot during the holidays, I must meekly admit that they went up before Turkey Day this year).  I love the shopping for or the hand-making of gifts, the wrapping.  I even love the trips to the post office to ship out gifts to far-flung family members.  (It helps that we have the most cheerful crew of postal workers in our town that you ever did see.  In our local post office, there's nary an even mildly disgruntled employee, ever, no matter how long the line is.)

Anyway, here they are--3 reasons I love Advent.

1: The Advent Wreath

I love that Advent is filled with family traditions, like the lighting of the candles on our Advent wreath every Sunday.

Our oversized wreath has tall 7-day candles that stay lit throughout the week, until it's time to light another one the following Sunday.  We have back-up candles ready to replace the burned-out ones, until eventually we have all four lit up at the same time.  This wreath was a DIY project that my husband and I worked on together in preparing for the 1999 Christmas season; he cut a large, donut-shaped wooden frame in his workshop, and I painted it green and glued on the faux pine boughs and other embellishments.  I found the Baby Jesus doll that rests in the center some years later in one of our all-time favorite Catholic gift catalogs, Leafet Missal.

When we first started using this Advent wreath, I was worried about leaving the candles burning while we were either sleeping or away from the house; but those pillar candles encased in glass that we order from another favorite catalog called Mother of Our Savior Catholic Goods are like the ones they use at church, and they are very safe.  I got used to the idea of keeping them lit 24/7 pretty much immediately, and I've always loved walking by the living room any time of the day or night and seeing the soft glow of those candles.

We start our yearly Advent Wreath Ceremony by reciting the following prayer:

O God, by whose word all things are sanctified, pour forth by blessing upon this wreath and grant that we who use it may prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ and may receive from Thee abundant graces. Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

On the first Sunday, my husband (or one of our sons) lights the first candle, and we pray:

O Lord, stir up Thy might, we beg Thee, and come, that by Thy protection we may deserve to be rescued from the threatening dangers of our sins and saved by Thy deliverance. Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Then each successive Sunday, we light a new candle and say another special prayer, until all four candles are burning round the clock. 

There wasn't an Advent Wreath in our home when I was growing up, at least that I can remember, and this is a tradition we started with our boys that is very special to us.

2: Nativity Sets

The same year we made that huge Advent wreath, we invested in a huge (church-sized) Nativity set, with figures made of painted plaster.  We decided that as far as the Advent wreath and the Nativity set--those important reminders of the real reason for the season--were concerned, we were going to go big or go home.

I absolutely love Nativity sets.  My family had a very simple little one growing up, with a small cardboard stable and poorly painted plaster figurines; but I remember sitting and staring at it in wonder when I was a little girl.  My mother always had Baby Jesus and the 3 kings in place from the start, and that's how we set ours up as well.  I think the idea of waiting to put the Christ Child in the manger until Christmas morning is wonderful, as is waiting until Epiphany to add the kings; but I just can't seem to do it that way, because I like to see the whole story being told at once.  That was the tradition in my husband's house as well, so that's the way we do it.

We bought the 19-piece set of plaster figurines first, the tallest of which is about 18".  After a couple of years went by, my husband fashioned a large stable out of scrap wood we had in our basement, I stained and varnished it, and our Nativity set was complete.

Setting up this beautiful crèche is absolutely my favorite part of decorating the house for Christmas.

My boys know how much I love Nativities.  A couple of years ago, sons #3 and #4 pitched in to get me this incredible Willow Tree set as a Christmas gift.  (It's a big one--St. Joseph is about 15" tall.)  It's so lovely that I keep it out all year long.

I have other sets, too.  Like this small set my mom gave me one year, one that was made in Mexico.

Apparently, I cannot have enough Nativity sets!

3: Joyful Anticipation

This really IS "the most wonderful time of the year," as the song says.  There is so much happiness to anticipate, and it's truly not about the gifts.  It's about celebrating the coming of God's Beloved Son, who was sent as a Savior for the whole world.  It's about anticipating that glorious birth, because without Christmas, where would we be?

For my husband and me, it's also anticipating the joy of being together as a family again.

Our Advents used to be filled with little boys in white oxford button-downs and gray slacks (that beloved Catholic school uniform--not!), counting down the days in anticipation of school break and Santa Claus.  Nowadays, it's Mom and Dad who are counting down the days until college breaks and work vacations, anxious to see those grown-up boys (and now their girls!) who are traveling back home for the holidays...it's Mom and Dad who are filled with the anticipation of the season.  And because of that, this will always be my very favorite time of year.

From the Christmas 2012 photo shoot.  (Preciosa, now our daughter-in-law, was the photographer here.)

I'm sure there are a lot of bloggers who are more eloquent when expressing why Advent is a season to love; head on over to Micaela's to see what they have to say.

3 Reasons I Love Catholicism: Marriage, Marriage, Marriage!

(And 3 Reasons I Love CatholicMatch.com, Too)

I haven't joined Micaela for this link-up in a while.  But due to some recent happy developments in our family, I wanted to join in today to share one reason--one out of so, so many reasons--that I love my Faith.  And while I'm at it, I'll show you 3 young Catholic couples who most definitely love their Faith, too.

One of my favorite things about the Catholic Faith is the importance it puts on marriage.  The Catechism teaches that "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish themselves a partnership of the whole life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."  It also says that "On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign--at his mother's request--during a wedding feast.  The Church attaches great importance to Jesus' presence at the wedding at Cana.  She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's presence."  It was obviously not an accident that Christ's first public miracle was performed at a wedding feast.

My husband and I feel very blessed.  Our boys grew up so grounded in their Catholic Faith that it was their goal to find wives who shared that Faith and would insist on passing it on to their children.  None of them, at least so far, has felt the call to the priesthood, which would have been wonderful if that was God's will for them; but each feels called to Christian marriage and fatherhood, and in this crazy world of ours, where traditional families seem to be (sadly) disappearing, this is indeed a vital and noble vocation.

The best place to meet a future wife, of course, is probably during one's student years.  My husband and I met in high school (which I realize rarely leads to lifelong commitment, but luckily for us it did).  A couple of my husband's brothers met their wives while they were undergrads at Notre Dame and the gals were students at its sister school, St. Mary's.  If ever there was an available pool of lovely and intelligent Catholic young ladies to meet, it was out in South Bend, where all of our sons spent part of their lives (and where the youngest is currently in his junior year).  But for whatever reason, God did not put our older boys' soul mates in their paths out there; He had other plans for them.  (The jury is still out on son #5, however.  Wink, wink.)

Once they got out into the working world, it became a lot more difficult for our boys to meet available and suitable young women.  Their workplaces weren't exactly filled with them, and they weren't all that interested in meeting them in bars.  (I do know of several successful marriages that are the fruits of such meetings, so I'm not here to judge!)

Our oldest son, who was stationed down South in the Army and not having any luck meeting the kind of girl he was looking for, decided to try CatholicMatch.com when he was 24.  When we first heard about that, we were a little unsettled.  On-line dating?!  It seemed like a strange way to meet someone, and not all that safe either.  But our son told us that before you even start thinking about contacting someone you meet on the site, you can check and see how they answered 7 important questions concerning their adherence to the beliefs of the Catholic Faith.  Each member is asked whether or not he/she accepts the Church's teachings on these 7 matters of Church doctrine:

1. Eucharist

2. Contraception

3. Sanctity of life

4. Papal infallibility

5. Premarital sex

6. Immaculate Conception

7. Holy Orders

My son said that he was looking for a "7 out of 7"--but that many of the Catholics on the site have a problem with two of these items: #2 and #5 (perhaps you would have guessed that those were the problem areas for many young people these days without my telling you).

But in November of 2007, he "met" a sweet Midwesterner, a darling 7 out of 7, and they began talking on-line and then on the phone.  In January of 2008, they made plans to meet in person for the first time in NYC, where she was working for the year.  (They first saw each other when they met by the big clock in Grand Central Station--it's a great story!)  In February, after a second visit with her, our son was already so in love that he hinted he might have to start saving for a ring.  In July of 2008, they were engaged.  That October, he left for a year-long deployment to Iraq, and our daughter-in-law planned the wedding.  He got back in October of 2009 and they were married that December.  They are now the proud parents of three adorable girls under the age of two-and-a-half (including identical twins).  You can read more about them in this article that was published on the CatholicMatch.com website.

Son #4, encouraged by the luck his brother had had, joined CatholicMatch.com, too, and in October of 2011, he "met" a sweet girl (with a similar slightly skewed sense of humor), another 7 out of 7 who was teaching English to schoolchildren in South Korea.  They had an all-Skype relationship and "saw" each other exclusively for about 6 months, talking on-line for 3-4 hours at a pop.   She returned to the States in May of 2012, when they finally met in person for the first time.  Since then, they've only gotten more sure of their future together, and when our son had to go to Afghanistan for a 6-month deployment last April, they had to return to their epic Skype sessions to deal with the separation.  But--huzzah!--last Friday (October 25), shortly after he returned to the States for good, he proposed, and they are planning a 2014 wedding.

Encouraged by the success his brothers were having, our #3 son joined CatholicMatch.com in April of 2012.  When he called to tell me he had news by saying he'd gone on the "family website," for a moment I didn't get what he was talking about.  Oh, right--he'd gone on CatholicMatch!  He'd met someone!  How did I not guess that?  He was luckier than either of his brothers--because the wonderful girl with whom he'd connected lived only two hours away from him, so they were able to meet in person almost immediately.  They hit it off and were dating exclusively from the get-go, and their mutual love of college football cemented their relationship.  Before I could even ask, my son assured me, "Don't worry, Mom.  She's a 7 out of 7."  (By that time, I was an old hand at the whole CatholicMatch thing.)   By Christmas of last year, he told us that he was ring shopping and planning an April engagement.  By April of 2013, they were engaged...and they are getting married in just over a month!  (Can't wait!)  They, too, appeared in an article on the CatholicMatch.com website, if you'd like to check that out.

Once, when we were homeschooling our youngest son (something we hadn't done with the others), our #2 son was asked by a friend if his baby brother was a "little weird."  That's the unfortunate stereotype about homeschooling with some people, I guess; it's probably also the stereotype with some people about on-line dating.  Lest you think my sons or their gals were too socially awkward, unattractive, or strange to meet members of the opposite sex the traditional way, here are 3 pictures that show why I love Catholicism, which is the very thing that brought these beautiful couples together in the first place.

-1-



Son #1 and his wife, married December 2009.

-2-

Son #3 and his fiancée, getting married December 2013.

-3-

Son #4 and his fiancée, newly engaged and planning a 2014 wedding.

Don't you think these 3 happy, good-looking couples would make a great advertisement for CatholicMatch.com?  (I agree.)



For more reasons why Catholicism is just the greatest, head on over to Micaela's blog.  You're sure to find lots and lots of good reasons (some you've thought of yourself, and some that will make you exclaim, "Yes--and I never thought of that one!").  It will fill your heart with warmth and hope!

3 Reasons I Love Catholicism, Volume 2

I just love Micaela Darr's new link-up on her blog "California to Korea."

It gives Catholics a place to "rant" (as one follower put it in the "Comments" section after last month's first ever "3 Reasons I Love Catholicism" link-up) about their deep love of the Faith which was founded by Christ Himself.  With all the anti-God/anti-religion ranting that goes on in this day and age, this is the kind of ranting I'd like to see more of!

I'm not only crazy about the subject matter, but I also appreciate the lengthy window of opportunity Micaela gives fellow bloggers to add their posts to hers.  I desperately want to do justice to the beauty of the Catholic Faith, and because I worry I won't be able to, I've been experiencing writer's block this time around.  After all, there are SO MANY reasons to love Catholicism, and so many linkers have already stated a slew of them--and done so in a far more eloquent way than I ever could.  But this link-up is one I feel strongly about supporting, and I've got to stop procrastinating; so here goes.

1. Catholicism is the only religion that recognizes Mary's essential role in salvation history.  It is the only religion that recognizes Her vitally important role as Mediatrix--for through Her, we can grow closer to Our Lord Jesus.  She has the power to intercede for us to Her Son.  He wants us to love Her as He does, and to think of Her as our mother, too. People of other faiths sometimes misunderstand Catholics' relationship with Mary, thinking that we worship Her in the same way that we worship God.  We don't worship Mary; we venerate Her, we are devoted to Her, we love Her; we believe that we are Her beloved children, and that She listens to our prayers.

There is nothing more touching to me than seeing little ones showing their love for the Blessed Virgin Mary.  My oldest son and his wife are teaching their two-year-old twin daughters all about Her.  When they put the twins to bed at night, they remind them to talk to Mary or their guardian angels if they get scared.  When we were out west visiting with them recently, the girls stopped by to say hi to Her on their way out of the church after Mass.

We should all be like small children, who seem to have an instinctive love for the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Back in the early days of my blog, I wrote about our neighbor's little boy, who couldn't pass our garden statue of Mary without stopping to kiss "the Lady."  Although his family was Catholic, they were non-practicing--yet he was inexplicably drawn to that image of the Mother of Our Lord.  (You can read that short post here.)

To me, Marian devotion is one of the most beautiful aspects of Catholicism.  Which leads me to...

2. The Rosary!  My husband and I are convinced of the power of this devotion.  We began to say a daily family Rosary about eighteen years ago, when our oldest son was 11 and our youngest was 2.  At that time, sons #2 and #3 (10 and 9) were going through a phase where they just couldn't seem to get along.  They knew just how to push each other's buttons, and their spats often ended with a punch or a shove.  I had begun to worry that they were never going to get along, and it was very distressing for me--because even though I had five sons and people probably think that means there was one big wrestling match going on at all times, that really wasn't the case.  Considering all the testosterone around here, we had a pretty peaceful house.  I'm like the timid dinosaur in the Disney movie Toy Story--I don't like confrontation!--and I couldn't bear to think that these two boys weren't going to grow up to be friends.

Well, we started praying the Rosary, beginning our special petitions each time by saying "For peace and harmony in our household"; we also put photos of the dueling brothers under our statue of Our Lady of Grace--a practice adopted from my mother-in-law, who would do so when one or the other of her eight children needed special prayers.  Within about three weeks of starting the daily Rosary, my husband and I suddenly realized that our two fighters had stopped fighting.  It seemed nothing short of miraculous to us.  They were acting like best buddies and have been extremely close ever since!

For many years, we were able to keep up this practice--all seven of us, sitting in the living room together.  We would often have what came to be known as our "pre-Rosary talks," where we would sit down to pray and start talking about this 'n that, laughing and storytelling, and then realize that an hour had gone by and we'd better get down to business.  Those talks are the basis of some of my fondest memories of family life--not to mention those Rosaries.  Having all those deep male voices joined together in praying the Rosary was like listening to soothing Gregorian chant...and because it was so comforting and lulling, I often slept through the last few decades (letting the angels finish my Rosary for me).  Once the older boys got into high school and everyone's school and sports schedules became so crazy, it got harder to get the whole crew together at the same time; and unfortunately, the practice of saying the Rosary as a family fell off.  My husband and I still say one together every day, however, and we firmly believe that our family has received many blessings through the intercession of Our Lady.

I just love all the sacramentals associated with Mary: Rosaries, statues, holy cards and pictures, the Miraculous Medal (which I wear always, trusting in the graces Mary promised to those who wear it with confidence).

Beautiful religious imagery always touches me so, and that's why one of the reasons I love Catholicism is--

3. The churches.   There is nothing that lifts my soul as much as entering a beautiful Catholic church, where no expense has been spared to glorify God, the Blessed Mother, and the saints through artwork, statuary, and stained glass.  As far as I'm concerned, the more ornately decorated the church is, the better.  Where better to showcase man's God-given artistic talents than in God's house?

I've been in some churches that actually make tears come to my eyes, they are so breathtaking.  Entering them feels like entering the gates of Heaven.  The Basilica of the Sacred Heart on the campus of the University of Notre Dame is one of those tear-inducing churches.  The church where my husband and I were married, in 1980 in Upstate NY, is another.  How blessed we were to be joined in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony in such a magnificent Catholic church!

Now head on over to see the reasons Micaela and the rest love Catholicism.  There's so much to love--so much to rant about!

3 Reasons I Love Catholicism, Volume 1

I've just found a brand new blogging link-up (so many link-ups, so little time!).  This one, called 3 REASONS I LOVE CATHOLICISM, is hosted by Micaela over at her blog "California to Korea," and I loved the idea of it so much, I just had to get involved.

This is one of those "How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways" situations, and it's tough to narrow it down to just three reasons.  But three is such a perfect symbolic number. There's the Trinity, of course--three Persons in one God.  Three kings visited the Baby Jesus after His birth, bearing gifts.  Three is the number of hours Our Savior spent on the Cross before He died for our sins, and then He rose from the dead on the third day...

You know what?   Three reasons sounds just about perfect.

1.

I love Catholicism because of the Eucharist.  Christ promised all mankind that He would always be with us, and HE IS!  He is present in the Tabernacle at Church, present in the host the priest consecrates at Mass.  And we can unite ourselves with Him every Sunday when we receive Communion--indeed, we can do it every single day, if we attend daily Mass.  How amazing is that?  Ghandi once said that if he believed what we Catholics do about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, he would crawl on his hands and knees to receive it.  The Eucharist is an awesome gift (and I'm finally using the overused term "awesome" for something that is truly worthy of the adjective!). 

  

2.

I love Catholicism because it makes sense out of seemingly senseless human suffering--for our religion teaches that our suffering, when joined with that of Jesus' Passion and death on the Cross, has Redemptive powers and can be an aid to Salvation.

No one wants to suffer, or to see others suffer; but when Catholics experience suffering, they know that they can pick up their crosses and carry them--they can bear their heavy loads and die to self, putting everything in God's hands and joining their own pain with the agony Our Savior endured on their account--and in doing so, grow ever closer to God.

There is a moving passage in Graham Greene's novel The End of the Affair, in which the beautiful protagonist, who is a recent convert (and because of her conversion, has had to make choices that lead to much personal unhappiness), speaks to God in this way after she kisses the cheek of a man with a hideous facial deformity who loves her, although the feeling is unrequited: "...I thought I am kissing pain and pain belongs to You as happiness never does.  I love You in Your pain.  I could almost taste metal and salt in the skin, and I thought, How good You are.  You might have killed us with happiness, but You let us be with You in pain...I couldn't tell him I envied him, carrying the mark of pain around with him like that, seeing You in the glass every day instead of this dull human thing we call beauty." These words remind me to be profoundly grateful for my Faith, which gives meaning to even the heaviest burdens and the most unbearable tragedies in this life.

3.  

I love Catholicism because it promises--as St. Therese of Lisieux taught through her "Little Way to Spiritual Childhood"--that  even the littlest and humblest among us can hope to become  saints.  One  need not be perfect to be a Catholic (thank goodness!); as a matter of fact, part of  being a Catholic is realizing that we are all sinners, all weak and in need of God's grace and mercy...but  knowing, too, how much He loves all of us--His children--and forgives us every transgression through the Sacramental grace of Confession.

St. Therese  of Lisieux, the "Little Flower."

Wait a minute: did I say three was the perfect number of reasons?  I want to give four!  I want to tell you how much I love the way Catholics venerate Our Blessed Mother--who Our Lord, as He hung on the Cross, gave to all of us when He said to His beloved apostle, "John, behold your mother." My oldest son wrote an absolutely beautiful tribute to Mary on his wife's blog a couple days ago, if you'd like to read it here.

Time to go now, before I come up with so many other reasons.  But please head on over to California to Korea to see what other Catholic bloggers (who are much more creative and eloquent than I) love about their Faith!