The Delicate Juggling Act of Praying as a Family

Picture courtesy of Catholic Culture

In this time of Advent, it feels appropriate to review the various ways in which we can prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus Christ. What is it exactly that we can do and how can we do it? This is quite a special time of the year and there's got to be more to it than frantic shopping and endless food-feasts with family and friends and co-workers, right? We all need to go on a diet anyhow and
this constant marching music of "Buy this! Buy that! Buy NOW!" is rather deafening. It is exactly in this month of December that the difference between the spirit of the season in the secular and consumer world and the Spirit of this Advent liturgical season in the Church are definitively taking different paths... and I think that the two of them are growing more and more apart as the
years go by. Lucky for us, we have the Mass and the readings of Scripture and the homilies (and our conscience!) to constantly call us to another level, to redirect us to the proper level of relationships vs. the level of things, because it is all about love, the love of God and the love of neighbor, and there is more to love than a wrapped box with pretty paper and lovely ribbons. Of course, a material gift can be the way we express our love but it's definitively not the first way and it looks to me like nowadays, in 2006, in our wonderful and wealthy and free democracies of the West, the voice of the Church is the only one to constantly challenge us to go beyond ourselves and beyond
what we see and hear and feel. Thank God for that challenge!

Please click title above for the entire article which includes suggestions for praying as a family.