A Spirit of Recollection at Work During Advent
Last week we focused on the penitential nature of Advent. For the rest of this Holy Season, we'll find ways to keep us recollected during the work day. We want to be recollected in an authentic Advent spirit.
To understand how challenging this can be, consider:
At work, many of us face year-end deadlines. And this second week of Advent may find us in the vice grip of holiday crunch time. We must hit that sales goal, finish that project, file next year's business plan, and so on. At the same time, we're approaching a kind of point of no return. The closer we get to that Christmas-New Year's break so many of us take, the harder its becomes to get people's attention. So if you've got an important deal to close or project to complete, you need to get people's attention like NOW. My rule of thumb: If it's not done by December 15th, your chances of getting it done drop like a stone. So get on it.
"Holiday" parties bring their own challenge. I've always had mixed feelings about these. On a positive note (assuming the party isn't an excuse to get drunk or make inappropriate advances on a member of the opposite sex), you've got a chance to mix with co-workers in a friendly, more relaxed way than everyday work allows. Or maybe you rub elbows with important customers. But even when I've attended decent get-togethers, I've felt a little uncomfortable being too celebratory during Advent. Typically, I've attempted to limit my indulgence in food and drink.
Add to all this the fact that most of the world has completely forgotten or forsaken any vestige of the spirit of Advent. Most of us start celebrating Christmas some time around Thanksgiving. Those of us who'd like to keep things under wraps until Christmas Eve - at least to some degree - are an anomaly. Try to share your reticence with others and you're borderline Grinch. Oh well.
So how do we keep ourselves appropriately recollected during Advent? Being Catholic, we naturally turn to the Holy Family: Mary, our Mother, St. Joseph, and Our Lord Himself. Think of them and they will accompany us during Advent as we prepare for His Birth and for His Second Coming.
We begin by recalling that, in a very real sense, May is the Mother of Advent. Her Advent - the first Advent - was lived, in the words of Father Faber, in the awful intimacy of God. In the presence of the angel Gabriel, during her Visitation with her cousin Elizabeth, on the arduous journey with St. Joseph to Bethlehem, she bore within her womb the Son of God. No matter her surroundings or circumstances, Mary remained recollected, fully aware that Our Lord dwelt within her.
Can we do the same during Advent?
Recalling her Immaculate Conception (which we just celebrated), and the fact that she never lacked for the graces she needed, it seems like a bit more than most of us can chew, doesn't it? As S.L. Emery explains in The Inner Life of the Soul:
"...our Blessed Lord had in His Mother all the intimacy and perfection He had wished from from the whole human race and of which our sin had disappointed him."
But despite the fact that none of us was born sinless, we can look to Mary and Joseph and, of course Jesus, and pray for the grace to be so bold as to imitate her example.
Again, from The Inner Life of the Soul:
"The Scripture tells us an amazing thing about God, - that His delights are to be with the children of men. Put this thought with that other astonishing one, the intimacy of God, and add to them the third consideration that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are given to us as our perfect examples, and then see what conclusion follows. Is it not that we with our selfish, indifferent hearts, are not only dear to God, but yearned after as His delights; and that it is possible for us - even us - to enter into intimacy with Him?"
Do you get this: that in spite of ourselves, God yearns for us. And because He does, it is possible to "enter into intimacy with Him"? It's astounding, isn't it?
This transforms Advent from a Season we "observe" in some formal sense into a time of anticipation and yearning. Knowing that God yearns after us, can we possibly not yearn for Him with all our hearts?
I hope this has helped infuse a spirit of recollection into this work day. We'll keep at this throughout Advent.
To understand how challenging this can be, consider:
At work, many of us face year-end deadlines. And this second week of Advent may find us in the vice grip of holiday crunch time. We must hit that sales goal, finish that project, file next year's business plan, and so on. At the same time, we're approaching a kind of point of no return. The closer we get to that Christmas-New Year's break so many of us take, the harder its becomes to get people's attention. So if you've got an important deal to close or project to complete, you need to get people's attention like NOW. My rule of thumb: If it's not done by December 15th, your chances of getting it done drop like a stone. So get on it.
"Holiday" parties bring their own challenge. I've always had mixed feelings about these. On a positive note (assuming the party isn't an excuse to get drunk or make inappropriate advances on a member of the opposite sex), you've got a chance to mix with co-workers in a friendly, more relaxed way than everyday work allows. Or maybe you rub elbows with important customers. But even when I've attended decent get-togethers, I've felt a little uncomfortable being too celebratory during Advent. Typically, I've attempted to limit my indulgence in food and drink.
Add to all this the fact that most of the world has completely forgotten or forsaken any vestige of the spirit of Advent. Most of us start celebrating Christmas some time around Thanksgiving. Those of us who'd like to keep things under wraps until Christmas Eve - at least to some degree - are an anomaly. Try to share your reticence with others and you're borderline Grinch. Oh well.
So how do we keep ourselves appropriately recollected during Advent? Being Catholic, we naturally turn to the Holy Family: Mary, our Mother, St. Joseph, and Our Lord Himself. Think of them and they will accompany us during Advent as we prepare for His Birth and for His Second Coming.
We begin by recalling that, in a very real sense, May is the Mother of Advent. Her Advent - the first Advent - was lived, in the words of Father Faber, in the awful intimacy of God. In the presence of the angel Gabriel, during her Visitation with her cousin Elizabeth, on the arduous journey with St. Joseph to Bethlehem, she bore within her womb the Son of God. No matter her surroundings or circumstances, Mary remained recollected, fully aware that Our Lord dwelt within her.
Can we do the same during Advent?
Recalling her Immaculate Conception (which we just celebrated), and the fact that she never lacked for the graces she needed, it seems like a bit more than most of us can chew, doesn't it? As S.L. Emery explains in The Inner Life of the Soul:
"...our Blessed Lord had in His Mother all the intimacy and perfection He had wished from from the whole human race and of which our sin had disappointed him."
But despite the fact that none of us was born sinless, we can look to Mary and Joseph and, of course Jesus, and pray for the grace to be so bold as to imitate her example.
Again, from The Inner Life of the Soul:
"The Scripture tells us an amazing thing about God, - that His delights are to be with the children of men. Put this thought with that other astonishing one, the intimacy of God, and add to them the third consideration that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are given to us as our perfect examples, and then see what conclusion follows. Is it not that we with our selfish, indifferent hearts, are not only dear to God, but yearned after as His delights; and that it is possible for us - even us - to enter into intimacy with Him?"
Do you get this: that in spite of ourselves, God yearns for us. And because He does, it is possible to "enter into intimacy with Him"? It's astounding, isn't it?
This transforms Advent from a Season we "observe" in some formal sense into a time of anticipation and yearning. Knowing that God yearns after us, can we possibly not yearn for Him with all our hearts?
I hope this has helped infuse a spirit of recollection into this work day. We'll keep at this throughout Advent.
Divine Infant of Bethlehem, come and take birth in our hearts!
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