A reflection by Mary Lou Edgar for December 1, 2024.
Advent has always seemed like a complicated time of year.
The season is so beautiful with the Advent wreath with 3 blue, 1 pink and 1 white candles. Strange though it may sound, as children, we always looked forward to the pink candle being lit.
Advent means that it is four weeks until Christmas – for adults that is frantic; for children, it feels like forever.
Advent is the beginning of the new year for the Church, so it is a time to consider what we might want to change, or to add to our list of things to do and not to do.
It is a time to prepare ourselves inwardly in our hearts, and outwardly through meaningful liturgies, wreaths, and stories.
But we would be kidding ourselves if we didn’t realize that Christmas means gifts, great meals, and fun with family and friends.
Advent is also a special time for children.
When I was a child, our family attended a novena to the Infant Jesus of Prague for nine days before Christmas Eve. I’m not even sure I remember what we were praying for, but it was short and then families visited with one another. I don’t remember any of us being angry or resentful that we had to go (and we were not big fans of church), since it was another way to prepare for Christmas. Even as young as we were, we could make the connection between Christmas and the birth of Jesus.
One of the children in our group wrote the following poem for Advent during a liturgy. I have kept it for years as I thought it was so special.
On this glorious Christmas morn,
Do we ever think of who was born.
Do we ever think of the one who did say
I will save you by being born upon the hay.
Do we ever think of the way we were lost,
Before Jesus was born and died on the cross?
Next time you wonder, just think of the ways
Christ saved us by being born on Christmas Day.
And, while you are thinking on this beautiful morn
Of how Christ saved us by being born,
Think of the other things that he did too,
Think of the things that he did just for you.
Think of the rivers, the rivers so deep,
And how he kept count of his poor little sheep
Now you know how lucky you are,
Christ came to you from Heaven afar.
The child who wrote this was eight years old.
Notice there was no title. When I think about it, I realize we don’t give children enough credit for what they have learned and what they know. Last Sunday, the kids in Children’s Chapel were discussing Advent. Father Patrick walked past, and they yelled that they wanted to light the Advent candles. It was amazing to me that they remembered this from last Christmas.
The first week of Advent is about hope. When I see this child’s poem and I think of our children at SsAM, I see a great deal of hope. In a simple manner, we are reminded that we all – young and old – must hope for the world.
It has been a difficult year for us all. However, if we think about what this child is trying to say, we see that hope is always with us. Even when we consider that we are living in quite a bit of chaos, our Lord and Savior brings us so much. We should feel such gratitude for all we have, even when life is hard. We must also remember those who don’t have as much as we do.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Let us all be thankful to God for our many blessings.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mary Lou Edgar, MSS, is a clinical social worker who founded A Better Chance for Our Children, an adoption and foster care agency that works to find permanent homes for children in the foster care system. Mary Lou was the Executive Director of ABCFOC, but she is now retired. She graduated from Neumann University and Bryn Mawr School of Social Work and Social Research. She and her husband joined SsAM in 2021.
