Pregnant with Hope: Expecting Christmas, While Expecting

Laura Steiner reflects on the embodied experience of anticipating the birth of Christ while expecting her third child.

Our worship as Catholics is fundamentally an embodied experience. The ritual gestures and postures, incense, liturgical books, sacred music, as well as the art and architecture of our liturgical spaces affect all of our physical senses, and profoundly impact how we interact bodily in our corporate worship. The liturgical seasons of the year have their own distinct characters, which determines how we design our personal and communal approach to them.

The season of Advent we are in right now is characterized by a more solemn and penitential tone. We don’t sing the festive Gloria during these four weeks, except on Gaudete Sunday and major feasts like the great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, for example. The Church guides us to exercise musical restraint, silence, and simplicity in liturgical decoration, as this is a scriptural, ascetic, and eschatological season of preparation for Christmas.   

Our whole life should be an ‘advent’ in vigilant expectation of Christ’s final coming … Advent is then a period of intense training that directs us decisively to the One who has already come, who will come, and who continuously comes. (Pope John Paul II, General Audience, December 18, 2002)  

Another period of intense training that directs us to one who will come is … the experience of pregnancy. In much of my reading on embodied worship, I have not yet come across any that include the perspective of a pregnant woman at prayer. But I have come across multiple devotionals that encourage mothers to grow closer to our Blessed Mother during the season of Advent, especially if they find themselves pregnant in the weeks leading up to the great Feast of the Nativity.   

Advent is a season of quiet anticipation, reflection on the past, and joyful hope for the future. So, too, is the season of expectant motherhood. I find that being pregnant with a baby boy myself during this season of Advent has invited me into a deeper identification with the Virgin Mary’s own season of waiting to bear the Messiah, and there is so much we can learn from her witness.   

Overcoming Fear through Mary’s Fiat 

Mary was a young, unwed mother, and faced many unknowns — perhaps even some fear and trepidation, particularly when the angel Gabriel was sent to announce the birth of Jesus to her (Luke 1: 26-38).   

Connecting Mary’s experience 2,000 years ago to that of modern-day pregnancy, I pray for the health of my baby and dutifully attend my OB appointments and bear with all the extra monitoring that comes with being of “advanced maternal age.” Even though I’m not a first-time mother like Mary and am more than twice the age she was at the Annunciation, I still find myself caught between anxious vigilance and complete surrender.

As Christians we believe that God knows us from the moment of our conception, though, and I take so much comfort in this. Mary’s own peace stems from the same confidence. By placing myself in Mary’s position this Advent, I have come to a deeper sense of reverence for her courageous fiat and the waiting for Christmas. I am learning to say yes again, and again.   

Yet Mary’s trust does not turn inward. It radiates out beyond herself, most strikingly to her relative Elizabeth.   

The Communal Dimension of Expectation  

Reading onward in the Gospel of Luke, we learn that Mary does not remain isolated in her waiting. Rather, she seeks out Elizabeth, another woman experiencing the vulnerability of pregnancy, and does so “in haste” (Luke 1:39). The urgency with which Mary traveled to visit Elizabeth compels us to reassess our temptation to focus only on our own experience during intense seasons like pregnancy. Mary is a model of spiritual sisterhood for us as she goes to care for her fellow expectant mother.   

I invite you to consider: Do you have any friends, family members, or coworkers who are expecting or newly postpartum? Who might be silently overwhelmed? How can you show up for them? There are many practical acts of charity you can practice this Advent, such as participating in meal trains, checking in on new mothers without nearby family, and offering your time and presence in solidarity with these women.   

The flame of our Advent hope is sustained not in isolation, but in community. Waiting with Mary during Advent is not passive; it is active and embodied, especially if you happen to find yourself expecting a baby during this season as well. Mary waited, trusted in God, and showed up for her loved ones. Let us carry this posture into the joyful celebration of Christmas.    

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Copyright 2025 Laura Taylor Steiner
Images: (top, bottom) Canva; (center) iStockPhoto.com, licensed for use by Holy Cross Family Ministries