If you know Ever, you know that decorating our home is a big deal. But holiday decorating has nothing on her; she thinks about making our home more beautiful and cozier every day of the year. Meanwhile, Soren is a sucker for family tradition. And he grew up in a family that decorated early in Advent, so…

With all this in mind, our kids know Mom and Dad are easy targets for their attempts to get the Christmas decorations up ASAP. They have lists of atmospheric holiday activities they want to engage in – a lot of it revolves around chilly hikes to gather greenery, playing Christmas music, and cooking and baking tasty holiday meals and treats. And all of that works better when we’ve put out at least some Christmas decorations.

Despite our weaknesses, we try our best to resist them with talk of waiting to celebrate with lights and decorations and festive events until the liturgical Christmas season is at least much closer. But beyond the traditional “to decorate or not to decorate” conversation, there’s a deeper conversation about Advent waiting that we need to have. It’s the “what – exactly – are we waiting for?” conversation.

Are we waiting for the Christ Child to come into our world? For God incarnate to enter the darkness of the human condition and bring his light to bear on our brokenness? Are we waiting for Christmas Day, when we can fully experience the joy that “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light?” Yes, all that!

But a truly enriching experience of Advent anticipation needs to be so much more personal. Many try to think with gratitude about all the blessings they’ve been given and devote some of the season’s time and resources to making sure the needy enjoy the Christmas season too. How right and how beautiful! But there is yet another way to deepen our experience of Advent.

In short, it’s this. Advent is the perfect time to hold up our own and our loved ones’ darkest burdens in prayer. And wait for Jesus to shine his light on them, on the very particular suffering in our hearts and in our families. After all, Jesus comes at Christmas, not to save us collectively, but as individuals and families, with particular sorrows and struggles.

How do we incorporate this kind of personally meaningful waiting into Advent? Enter the St. Andrew novena, a powerful prayer that has a way of jolting us into the kind of waiting we all need to experience: “Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold. At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.”
 
Just after “desires,” the 25-day novena invites us to “mention your petition here,” before concluding, “Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother” and “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The prayer is meant to be prayed 15 times a day between the Feast of St. Andrew on Nov. 30th and Christmas Eve.  
 
We are waiting for something extraordinarily personal. How easy it is to forget this! We are swept up into a vague and sometimes vacuous “Christmas spirit,” and we lose sight of the stunning reality of what is about to happen: Jesus Christ is coming to save us and our families from that particular struggle, sorrow, sin, or knot of issues. Maybe that’s why the St. Andrew Novena’s emphasis on repetition is so helpful. Without that focus, we tend to get distracted by the season’s external trappings.
 
The St. Andrew novena began on Nov. 30th, but it’s not too late to start weaving this prayer of waiting into your family’s Advent: perhaps a few times in the morning, and then around dinner, evening prayer, or tuck-in. Because Jesus Christ is coming for a very particular reason, he is coming to save you and your family from “mention your intention here,” and to lead you into the light of his freedom. Come, Lord Jesus!