I have always loved Advent, but this one has been very different for me. It was not at all what I planned on or expected, but God still brought something good out of it.
On Nov. 20, a little over a week before Advent started, I fell and broke four ribs. People say broken ribs are about as painful as it gets. I can’t know for sure if that’s true or not, but it was the most pain I’ve ever felt – much more than past surgeries.
I spent two weeks in the hospital but am home now, and getting better each day. I still use a walker temporarily for extra stability, and I am about to come off the oxygen I have been on to help with breathing. Everything is going in the right direction, and I am really looking forward to Christmas.
You’re probably wondering what good came out of that. The answer is that I was forced to be still and slow down much more than I would have otherwise. I did an awful lot of waiting – and reflecting.
That’s what Advent should be – though I would have preferred it without the broken ribs. Even so, lying in a hospital bed, resting, and being still meant quiet time for prayer, reflecting on God’s love and his many blessings, and simply getting to know God better.
I think God’s message to me was: “Slow down. Ponder these things in your heart like Mary. Listen. Hear me speaking to you in the silence, and even in the pain.”
A month later, I would now say: “Jesus, I got the message. And thank you.”
I hope you also were able to slow down this Advent, to hear Jesus speaking to you in the quiet of your heart and to grow closer to the God who became one of us.
In my forced downtime, I also thought about our young people. I came across articles about how many are going back to Church, and I see the same thing in my own experiences. At St. John’s High School, where I am chaplain, we have 30 young people preparing for the next steps in their journeys – Baptism, Eucharist, or Confirmation. They are impressive and inspiring young people who want to be closer to God.
The University of Maryland has also seen a huge jump in students coming into the Church. I think the “Catholic Terps” are up to about 45 or 50 people taking the next steps in their journeys toward God. The same thing is happening in other schools and parishes as well. There’s an influx of young people actively trying to grow their faith.
We longtime Catholics should think about how we can do the same. So here’s a simple question for you in these remaining days of Advent: Could you spend a little more time in prayer each day?
I’m not talking about making huge changes in your schedule. Whether you’re starting from zero minutes or a holy hour each day, can you set aside five, 10, or 15 more minutes to grow in your relationship with the Lord?
Amid the busyness of life, I have found how important it is to make a daily appointment with God – time to devote to God and give to him every day as best you can. It may be five minutes in the morning and five minutes at night. The key is making that commitment.
Schedule that appointment with God and set a reasonable amount of time for prayer each day. If you do that every day as we wrap up Advent and celebrate Christmas, I promise you will be closer to God by the end of January. What greater gift could there be?
St. John of the Cross said that silence is God’s first language. May we all work hard to create that silence to hear Jesus speak in our hearts, to know and love him more, and to thank God for loving us so much that he sent his Son to open the gates of Heaven so we can spend eternity with him.
Merry Christmas!
(Msgr. John Enzler serves as the mission advocate of Catholic Charities of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and is a chaplain at his alma mater, St. John’s College High School in Washington. He writes the Faith in Action column for the archdiocese’s Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers and websites.)
