It is Advent again. Let me just share with you how much I adore Advent! The beautiful Advent when we await the coming of the Lord as an infant in a stable in Bethlehem. The season of Advent also contains some of my favorite feast days: the Immaculate Conception on December 8th, Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th, Saint Lucy on December 13th (Did you know she’s my Confirmation saint?), and the Holy Innocents on December 28th.

Advent is beautiful to me because it is preparation, in particular preparation for the birth of the Lord Jesus. This is the season when the Church puts up more decorations, when people clean up their houses and put up lights. But it isn’t just the physical preparations for the Nativity of the Lord but also the spiritual. During the season of Advent I turn more towards prayer, especially daily prayer. As it was said in the homily today, it is during Advent when we remember that we can always come before the Lord, He is always waiting for us. It does not matter what time or place we pray for we can talk to our God anywhere, at any time.

It is during Advent when, children in particular, open Advent calendars. As a child I always had those ones with the fake-tasting chocolate in them. Now, I try to visit xt3’s virtual Advent calendar every day. As a child I wanted the chocolate. I’m sure I didn’t think that much about how the Advent calendar could inspire daily prayer. Now, however, that is exactly what I do.

Advent, as the Church’s New Year, is a great time to remember all that God has provided us with and to pray daily. Prayer doesn’t have to be long and tedious. It just has to be real, to really mean something. God is our Father and He wants us to speak to him. Let us all try to remember to speak to God daily this advent.

As a footnote: I have been recovering from being sick for the past almost two weeks, therefore, NaNoWriMo had no possible way to be finished and life has seemed super stressful. Now, in Advent, I hope things will slow down so I can just be.