Advent – The Dress Rehearsal
One example of something different between men and women are dress rehearsals. Men hate them, but women love them and whether you like it or not, we have a very special dress rehearsal coming up. It’s called Advent.
When we have important company coming over what do we do? We clean house and spruce up the place. For everyday guests we might make the place clean and orderly but for special guests we go further. For them, we don’t just put clutter away, we actually sort it and throw it out (Ladies, think when your future mother-in-law is coming to visit). But what about those once-in-a-lifetime, really special guests? What if it were (insert name here… the Pope, the Queen, the President, etc.) who was coming? Someone who would be followed by the press and their own entourage? Now we’re talking about a formal dress rehearsal.
Well, guess what? In about a month, Jesus is coming. Are you ready?
I’m not. In fact, I’ll probably never truly be ready to meet Him (at least not as ready as I want to be). I know full well that He accepts me as I am but is that good enough? Its natural to want to put our best foot forward when anticipating such an event and this should be no different. Did you know that even God the father prepared just such an welcome for his own son? Listen to THIS clip from a podcast by Fr. Carlos Martins as he talks about that first Advent in the Desert when Jesus was born and how God created actual living beings just for this event. I found that to be fascinating. So how can we prepare? It’s a simple two step process.
Prayer
There are so many ways to pray and if prayer is something you struggle with my advice is simple: try something different.
- Pray the rosary – It’s not just for Catholics and I know of non-Catholics who pray it daily because it is a Biblically based prayer.
- Find a source for meditation (search the internet for Advent meditation)
- Listen to a directed meditation (search the Internet).
- Look up the readings for the day – every day – during Advent and read them.
- Read a book on prayer (there are plenty of them but may I recommend one HERE).
Fasting
I don’t pretend to know exactly how fasting works, but I know it does. There have been several occasions where I have fasted before a big event (such as a healing service) and things went extremely well and there have been other occasions where I did not fast and they did not go as well. To God, fasting is a beautiful sign that we are willing to give up something that sustains our very lives for Him. On the other hand, to the evil one fasting makes us absolutely repulsive to the demons and they can’t stand to be around us. But fasting does not have to be about food. We can fast from technology, from drinking coffee, from entertainment, from comfort, etc.. Anything that draws us closer to God is a good thing!
The truth is there is no shortage of ways to pray and the goal is to use this time to draw closer to Christ before His birthday!