“I smell a need for perfection in you,” he said without hesitation. “Don’t set yourself up for failure.”
This being said from my new spiritual advisor, Fr. Michael Earthman who is at the same St. Mary’s Seminary as my past spiritual director, Msgr. Charles Elmer. In fact, Msgr. Elmer directed Fr. Earthman as well, so we have that in common. I knew I was called to this holy gentleman when he came to our parish on last minute notice to offer mass and reconciliation on our ARISE night. I sat in reconciliation with him and through his guidance I had this distinct feeling I had finally found the one that could help continue to guide me on my crazy journey. 😉
Yesterday was our first meeting and as I briefly went through who I am, what I have been called to do and the state of ‘waiting’ I’m in now, he asked me the question I knew to prepare for – “How have you been preparing this Advent season?”
Every Christian denomination recognizes Advent (the coming of Christ into the world). The Catholic church focus’ quite a bit on the actual (Christmas)Advent season and we take this time to prepare our spirits and hearts for the coming of Christ into our own lives. Even though He is with us daily it is more an act of renewal of our ‘YES!’ to accepting Christ into our life. It wasn’t until I was an adult that it became clearer to me that this ‘Christmas season’ wasn’t just the time to rush to the stores, bump people aside and be stuck in traffic to get THE gift. That part of Christmas is what the ‘world’ has made it to be.
Christmas (Advent) is a time to reflect on where we are on our journey now and where is it that we need to let Christ welcomed more into our lives. During Advent we get to prepare for this and rejoice on Christmas Day when we celebrate Christ’s birth and receive him at the door he has been knocking on all year.
So when Fr. Michael asked me this question I cringed because though I wanted to act like I didn’t know how I needed to prepare I knew that I was also transparent and couldn’t hide. When I told him about the strong ‘call’ to do the Just Show Up 365 day challenge again, that I knew I needed to focus personally on where God was in every day once again…that is when he said, “Don’t set yourself up for failure.”
“I can already imagine one day you’ll fail to write a post, or something will happen and you can’t get to it till the following day and instead of focusing on the blessing that you are trying to deliver in the message you’ll be internally beating yourself up because you didn’t stick to the ‘challenge’.”
In 45 minutes he already knew me so well. 😉
“I think it is a great idea and I want you to do it, but go into it knowing that you will have those days and that’s okay,” he advised.
Already I felt a sense of relief. The past challenge was difficult and there were a few days I missed but I did it and it was a major daily blessing. And I know that by doing it again for me it is how I need to keep focused in 2013. I can see Msgr. Elmer patting me on the head as he used to do and saying, “Don’t be so hard on yourself.” And here, his successor saying essentially the same thing.
My ‘homework’ before I left was to focus on the O’Antiphons (the seven prayers of calling forth our Lord, ie: O Come Emanuel) but again he set me up for success and not failure. “You enjoy the New Year, the very first day of a new beginning. So let that day be your personal Christmas day. Prepare yourself, focus on the O’Antiphons and as you begin this 365 day challenge know that you have set yourself up to receive the Lord in a new way, opening up the door to receive his blessing.”
I’m really going to like this man! 🙂
So how have you ‘prepared’ this Advent season? Are you ready for your ‘Christmas day’? 🙂
Here is a cute YouTube video of the Holy Hero kids from a few years back explaining the O’Antiphons.
Blessings
Shannon