Advent

Advent wreath

Browse the collection of Advent articles for catechists from the contributors at Catechist’s Journey. Highlights include:

For even more Advent ideas, including the e-mail series Reimagining Advent with the Examen, visit Advent Resources from Loyola Press.

Living the Liturgical Seasons at Home - Advent - children at Advent wreath
Advent

Six Ways to Celebrate Advent at Home

Joyce Donahue

Advent offers unique and beautiful opportunities to make family memories in the home. The traditions of this season allow Catholics to practice our faith more deeply and with greater attention and intent. Here are some simple ideas to celebrate a faith-filled Advent. 1. Savor the darkness. During Advent, the days are short and the nights are long. Just as we long for the warm and sunny days of summer, we long for the light of […]

Sacred Advent from Loyola Press
Advent

Advent: Getting the Help We All Need

Joe Paprocki

Perhaps more than any other liturgical season, the season of Advent reminds us that we need help! It is a season that reminds us that we are in need of an intervention—a savior—someone who enters into our reality and lifts us up and out of the “muck” that we find ourselves trapped in. The “muck,” of course, is sin, and our Savior, of course, is Jesus Christ. In order for us to overcome the effects […]

family looking at photos
Advent

Family2Family Advent Connections

Kathy Henry

Several years ago the faith community within which I ministered adopted the Advent theme “Taking Hope to Others” for our seasonal focus. The idea was to encourage members to find ways of living out the hope the Christ Child brings in real and practical ways. I pondered what this might look like for my religious education families and how busy suburban families could possibly find ways to “take hope to others.” I struggled, as many […]

Advent bookmarks to color
Advent

Advent Bookmarks

Joe Paprocki

We know that the excitement of Christmas is top of mind for children in December, even as we try to teach them the patience of waiting in Advent. This year, help young children remember the gift of Jesus at Christmas with our Advent bookmarks coloring sheets, available in English and Spanish. The bookmarks are from Finding God Kindergarten. Invite children to use the bookmarks in their textbooks or hang them on the family fridge as […]

10 Ways to Celebrate Advent with Your Class - candles
Advent

10 Ways to Celebrate Advent with Your Class—Without Rushing to Christmas

Denise Gorss

Editor’s note: We’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of Catechist’s Journey this week by sharing catechetical top-10 lists each day and giving away Loyola Press prize packages. Enter for your chance to win the Dear Pope Francis Family Kit today; details below. With stores decorating for Christmas as early as Halloween, movie channels already showing holiday flicks, and restaurants playing Christmas music in November, it’s easy for the young people we serve to want to jump […]

mother and daughter with Advent wreath at home - Warling Studios. © Loyola Press. All rights reserved.
Advent

Celebrating Advent by Making Wreaths with Your Families

Kathy MacKenzie

As our young families gathered on the first Sunday of Advent, the buzz of excitement was undeniable. Our parish hall was transformed into an Advent workshop where they created their very own Advent wreaths. Before me lay a sea of long tables at which the families worked, chatted, collaborated, and prayed. Christmas music harmonized with the hum of warm and friendly conversation; the atmosphere was most certainly alive with joy. Together, our families wove the […]

Advent wreath
Advent

When and How to Introduce Advent

Denise Gorss

The first week of Advent begins on the Sunday following Thanksgiving. While that is usual, it forces me to make a choice in how to introduce Advent: Do I talk about the season early, before Thanksgiving? Or do I wait until after the holiday break, when the season has already started? I’ve alternated my approach through the years, but I usually like to at least introduce Advent before the holiday, inviting the young people to […]

Magi or Three Kings
Advent

The “Three Comings of the Lord”: Finding Jesus Christ During Advent

Joyce Donahue

Advent is a season of waiting. But who are we waiting for? Baby Jesus seems like the obvious and most popular choice. But if we listen closely to the Collect prayer at Mass the First Sunday in Advent—which asks the Father to make us ready to “run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming”—it sounds like we’re waiting for Christ’s second coming at the end of time. That’s true, too. But […]

Sacred Advent from Loyola Press
Advent

Creating Sacred Space for Advent

Joe Paprocki

What does it mean to call something “sacred?” According to the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (InterVarsity Press), “a sacred space is a place where God is encountered in a special or direct way by virtue of which the very place becomes holy and set apart from ordinary space.” This Advent, embrace the season as a sacred space and do so from the ease of your e-mail inbox. Sacred Advent is a daily e-mail prayer break during […]

Advent - letters on steps
Advent

Get in Touch with Hope for Advent

Joyce Donahue

Advent often seems like just a busy “home stretch” before Christmas “break.” Normally, there is little opportunity for parish leaders and catechists to prepare themselves for the season. We who serve others often think of ourselves last. However, if we do not develop a personal spirituality for Advent, we are not really in a position to teach others its significance. As has often been said, “You can’t give what you don’t have.” Authentic spirituality for […]