The Family-Centered Life

Happy New Year!

Today we begin Advent and a new liturgical year. Just as the earth cycles through its seasons, so too the Church cycles through seasons with a beautiful and purposeful rhythm. It is a rhythm with deep and profound meaning, meant to draw our hearts and minds towards God. The liturgical year is the life of Christ lived out again in liturgical time –in the time and in the memory of the Church. More than just remembering these events, we are reliving them and they in turn continue to give us grace.

Pope Benedict XVI, while he was yet Joseph Ratzinger, writes in Seek That Which is Above, that “The purpose of the Church’s year is continually to run through her great history of memories, to awaken the heart’s memory, so that it can discern the star of hope. These events, of such great significance for mankind, which are preserved and opened up by faith’s calendar, are intended to become personal memories of our own life’s history through the celebration of holy seasons by means of liturgy and custom.”

Indeed, Advent is the season of hope and it is by no coincidence that the Holy Father has given us a new encyclical on hope - Spe Salvi (Saved by Hope). I am planning to read this encyclical and meditate on it these next three weeks as our family prepares for the Savior’s birth.

This time of year can be fraught with difficulties. What is meant to be joyful and reverent preparation can often end up being stressful and unhappy. At this busy time of the year all of us run the risk of feeling overwhelmed and Catholic parents perhaps even more so as we try to incorporate the feasts of the Church, of which there are many this time of year.

But we must remember why we do this. We must remember that living the liturgical year is not something we add on to our lives but it needs to be the central theme of our lives, the very way we live –the path we follow with Christ as we travel through this life waiting in joyful hope . . .

As parents one of the best ways we can insulate our children against though who wish them to lose their faith is to make it dear to them. Touch them emotionally and tie it to feelings of love, joy and hope. They need memories - lots of them. Memories of happiness and good times of how living the liturgical year meant living the faith and how living the faith means joy and happiness.

I know this can be easier said than done and I am sure the enemy tries hard to trip us up and distract us from our focus as we attempt to live this out. But I intend, with our Lord’s most merciful help, to try my hardest to keep my focus and live in joy. And I will be praying for you - please pray for me too.

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