Brother Francis Blog — Advent

By Anne Metz

Teaching CCD for the past few years, I’ve encountered more than a few young children who had no idea that Christmas is Jesus’ birthday. It’s easy to see how this can happen. So much of what they are exposed to focuses on just the secular aspects of Christmas: the presents, the tree, the movies, commercials, and Elf on the Shelf, just to name a few.

If that is all they are seeing and hearing about Christmas, of course that will be their understanding of it. None of those things are inherently bad, but they don’t teach kids that Jesus is the reason for the season. So it’s up to us as parents to make that clear to them.

The good news is, this is not as difficult as you may think. In fact, you can keep on doing what you normally do for Christmas while highlighting Jesus’ birth. Here’s how:

By Colleen Pressprich 

Maybe you’ve never celebrated Advent before. Maybe you used to, but you’re in survival mode and you don’t think you’ll manage to make it look like it did before. Maybe you’re curious, but dang those Pinterest boards and Instagram accounts are intimidating. If you fit into any of those categories, this post is for you.

I’m here to tell you that it’s never too late to start Advent traditions, and not only that, it’s easy to do.  

By Lindsay Schlegel

It goes without saying that this year has been different (and weirder) than any most of us have experienced. As my kids’ school suddenly transitioned from in-person to virtual, one thing that has helped me stay hopeful is spending some time carefully selecting Christmas gifts for them.

By Colleen Pressprich

Advent is one of my favorite liturgical seasons. It’s a season of hopeful anticipation, and one that always provides our family with the opportunity to recenter ourselves in faith, recommitting ourselves to family prayer and living within the rhythms of the Church’s year.