Vespers

Peace Be With You

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Photo by Irina Anastasiu

The holy season of Advent has begun once again! Amid the secular hustle and bustle of holiday decorating and shopping this should also be a time of spiritual reflection and prayer. Thanks to a rockstar hubby and our parish annual Advent Vespers series, this new mommy was able to participate in both. While my husband put the little one to bed I headed to church for evening prayer. 

I hadn’t realized how truly full and busy our days had become until I sat silently in that candlelit sanctuary. This is by no means a complaint. Our daughter has filled our lives with more joy than we knew we were capable of and we continue to fall more in love with her every day. With her lighting up our world with adorable baby babble, there simply aren’t many moments to pause for quiet reflection. This was an opportunity for which I am immensely grateful to my husband. It was a blessed night out in which I was able to sit with Christ and pray for two of the people I love the very most without distraction. 

We expend so much time and energy maintaining our relationships with our loved ones. However, we often forget to love Christ in a similar fashion. These Vespers services are among my favorite events put on at our parish as their main purpose is to do just that. During that hour spent surrounded by fellow parishioners while lost in my own silent prayers I felt the presence of the holy spirit in the room. I felt a deeper connection with God than I have in months and was overwhelmed with a sense of peace. I pray everyone is able to grow in their relationship with Christ this season. 

Preparation of Advent

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Photo by Ronaldo R&K

Many people, myself included, are enthusiastically getting into the Christmas spirit, decorating the tree, planning gift shopping and of course belting all the usual holiday tunes in the car. Amid the excitement it’s easy to forget that the Christmas season is in fact still several weeks away. Yesterday, December 3rd marked the beginning of the holy season of Advent, a time which is first and foremost dedicated to preparation for the nativity. 

Although in countless households across the world, this preparation likely includes the baking of delicious Christmas cookies and the wrapping of toys and gadgets for family members, this should also be a time of preparation of our own hearts to receive our Lord, Jesus Christ. Our associate priest once aptly termed this time of the year as mini Lent. In addition to the jolly times and good cheer we enjoy with friends and family during the build up to Christmas, it’s also necessary to set aside time for quiet reflection and adoration of Christ. This is also a time of renewed service for many Christians, whether that be through bell ringing in front of the grocery store or by spending the weekends working at the local soup kitchen. Much like during Lent, we can all find ways to give of ourselves a little more this Advent season in a spirit of service toward our neighbors.

One of my favorite ways to embrace this spirit of giving is by helping to orchestrate the weekly Advent adoration and vespers services which have become a tradition at my home parish. The first time I witnessed one of these services I was still unbaptized and in my own process of discernment about the Catholic faith. The beauty and reverence of these evenings were instrumental in softening my heart to later receive Christ through baptism and first Eucharist. As such, I was determined to keep them as a regular Advent and Lent tradition at our church even after our former associate priest originally responsible for organizing the events was assigned elsewhere. These services were my first recognizable encounter with the Holy Spirit and the first time that I truly felt like a member of Christ’s Church. I pray that those in attendance now can receive similar graces this advent season as we all await the nativity of Christ.

Starved for Holiness, Not Pop Culture

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Photo by David Dibert

In every parish I visit there seems to be a huge emphasis on attracting new young Catholics to the faith. It’s no surprise. They are the future of the church and are desperately needed. However, nearly every appeal to these young people that I’ve witnessed has been a play on modern pop culture and precisely the opposite of what drew me to the faith as a 21 year old fresh out of college.

It wasn’t the rocking drums and electric bass from our parish Life Teen band that I found so enticing. Although those musicians are certainly talented and their music is something that I still enjoy in the car on my way to work, it is at odds with the quiet, reverent beauty to be found inside a Catholic church. I wasn’t starved for pop culture. I was desperate for holiness, peace and Christ in my life, even before I consciously accepted that fact. 

The moments which ignited my faith were all moments of quiet reflection. The first of these came during an advent vespers service led by our former associate priest. It was an eye-opening experience which I will never forget. The sanctuary was completely dark except for the altar which was ablaze with the warm flickering glow of dozens of candles. The entire service was conducted in a reverent silence broken only by the sweet tenor of the associate priest as he guided the assembly in musical hymns at the beginning of the service.After group prayer was finished there was a time of silent prayer for parishioners to light candles in front of the altar for their own prayer intentions. 

In that darkened, quiet sanctuary I finally felt the presence of God. I consciously accepted Catholic teachings very early in my faith journey but it took a bit longer for my heart to catch up. I understood these teachings to be true months before emotionally investing in them. This advent vespers service was the first time that I truly felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

Everyone is so quick to fill the silence these days. There seems to be a persistent assumption that we can’t possibly focus in absolute quiet and that we must fill every waking moment with noise, in particular, the hip guitar music that all those young folks are so fond of but if we are constantly surrounded by all of this noise and activity, how then will we hear the voice of God when he speaks to us? We need peace in our lives, the kind of peace that only silent and sincere prayer can bring. We grow up learning how to clap in time to our favorite tunes. What we need now is to learn to stop and listen. Church isn’t where we come to be moved by the music. It’s where we come to be moved by Christ.