Waiting in Stillness

Liesl Schiavone recognizes the call to stillness this Advent and the obstacles that stand in her way. 

In recent years, we’ve grown accustomed to a busy autumn. In 2021 we had a baby, in 2022 we lost my mom, and in 2023 we welcomed another baby. These past few years the fall season has been chaotic and emotionally exhausting, and Advent always seems to sneak up on me. I’m starting to wonder if that’s the point. 

There is so much I love to do in those weeks leading up to Christmas. I love decorating and baking and celebrating all the fun feast days in early December. I love planning to see Santa, matching pajamas, and getting Christmas outfits ready. I love the mounting excitement from the kids as they diligently work to create the most special gifts for their siblings and my husband and me. As a church musician, I’m getting my choir and children’s choir ready for Christmas Mass, while our kids are preparing for their school Christmas programs.  

We prioritize our fun traditions, new and old, like tree lightings and gingerbread-making day and the girls’ Christmas tea. We rush and rush to fit in all the wonderful things that fill the season in joyful anticipation and celebration of the birth of the Savior. 

These things are all good and I try to keep them in the spirit of “preparation.” We prepare for the day just as we prepare for any great celebration. We plan the food and buy the gifts and make sure we’re not forgetting any detail. But our worldly preparations are missing a key element, one that if observed properly would surely sneak up on us in its simplicity. 

The Church’s instruction 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) describes our Advent observance in this way:

When the church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor’s birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire. "He must increase, but I must decrease." (CCC 594) 

In contrast to the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, the Church’s call is sobering. It’s one of repentance, self-reflection, and stillness. She calls us to remember the exceedingly long wait of the Jewish people for their Messiah and to reopen our hearts to our own desire for the Kingdom. Are we willing to take up our cross and follow him? Are we ready for Him to come? Are we willing to be still? 

Saint Paul reminds us,  

Brothers, you have no need for anything to be written to you. For you yourselves know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night. (1 Thessalonians 5:1b-2) 

An opportunity and a challenge 

Advent offers us an opportunity to prepare our hearts, yes, for the baby Jesus, but also for the King of Glory, who will open the gates of heaven to us. The same King who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and carried his cross to Calvary. Can we approach the mangled body of Jesus in the crucifixion with the same zeal that we greet the sweet baby Jesus in the manger? Can we encounter the cross at Golgotha the way we encounter the star over Bethlehem? 

This Advent, set aside time for stillness. 

It won’t be easy. If you’re like me, you’ll be easily distracted when reflecting on your own readiness to know Jesus in His second coming. For, even when I do make some progress in my prayerful contemplation, it is quickly interrupted by an urgent reminder. Usually something practical, like to tend to the laundry, or the dishes and my thoughts are scattered. How cunning the devil is in twisting the good work of our vocation into a distraction from prayer and worship and how loud the enemy can be when silence is our goal. 

So you’ll need a plan, a schedule, and a lot of grace. 

We cannot enter this time of preparation without a strategy to defend our stillness and prepare our hearts for battle. We must prioritize the virtues of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love that mark the four weeks of the Advent Season. We must make time for a good confession, read Scripture, and give the Lord our first fruits in daily prayer. We must contemplate our final destination and remember how deeply we yearn to spend eternity with Him. 

We must take time to be still. 

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Copyright 2024 Liesl Schiavone
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