Peace Out
Finding peace this fourth week of Advent
Posted by Lisa Hendey
in Faith
on Monday, December 19, 2011 9:46 AM
Yesterday, I was in my typical Sunday morning frenzy. Rushing to get ready for Mass, a list a mile long rattled around in my head. So much to do, and so little time…
Off we went to 9:30 Mass, Greg and I. Every other Sunday, we attend Mass both at 9:30 and at 6:00, since Greg plays music in the morning, and Greg and Adam play at the nighttime Mass. For the past several weeks, one of my Sunday morning “to do” items has been to capture a photo of our lovely Advent wreath. The wreath is lovingly decorated by one of our little Portuguese Sisters—she’s the crafty nun who has a way with making our sanctuary look lovely in any season. In the quiet space before the Church began to fill, I captured this photo.
I’m not going to lie. The sight of that fourth purple candle lit sent a chill through me as I fretted over all of the things on my Christmas list that still remain undone. Christmas cards, gifts to be purchased, friends to entertain, and mostly prayers to be said to ready my heart… That fourth flame rang in my head like an alarm clock going off. Wrong.
And then I found my place in the pew and looked at the photo I’d just taken. While my eye had been on the wreath, I’d completely missed the humongous gold letters Sister Flor and her team had placed up behind our altar—PEACE, they proclaimed. How could I have missed them, so lovingly arrayed below one of my favorite images of Jesus in our church?
PEACE, I told myself, hitting my knees for some quiet prayer. PEACE, Lord, please—and hurry! My pre-Mass prayers became a quest to find that elusive peace, in Him and through Him. My heart was filled with a desire to spend this last week not fretting, but rather lovingly, peacefully anticipating…
After Mass, with Sister Flor’s PEACE sign still burning in my head, I took an axe to my to-do list. Christmas cards… not going to happen this year… Gifts, we already have the bulk of them and how many more do our boys really need? With a bit of a fresh perspective, I was able to reorder things on that list and in my mind, with a greater priority on what really matters this Fourth week of Advent.
How about you—have you been able to find some PEACE in your life this Advent? What one item could you drop from the “should do” list you’re carrying around that might bring you a bit more serenity and time for prayer this week? What traditions and customs have you let go of in the hopes of celebrating what is most important about Advent and Christmas?
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