'Tis the Season to be Waiting: Advent and the Catholic School"

'Tis the Season to be Waiting: 

Advent and the Catholic School

As we enter the second week of Advent, I've been thinking about just how important this season is for us in Catholic education. It is an incredible opportunity to share the Good News, and to witness to the coming of the Lord into our history, into our lives, and into our destiny.

 So what should Advent look like in a Catholic school?

This?

 

Or This?

Now,  perhaps you think that I might be the Grinch. Perhaps I am. I would very much like to steal Christmas, only to release it on the night of December 24th!!

As Catholic Christian educators, one of our primary responsibilities is to be faithful to Christ and to his Church. One of the ways we do this is by living and breathing the life of the Church. We do this through the liturgical calendar. In her wisdom, the Church has times which are "ordinary", times of feasting, times of fasting, and times of waiting. "To everything there is a season..."

For us, now and until Christmas eve, we wait.

 We wait for the Lord. We wait as Mary waited. In peace. In prayer. In service to each other.

 Waiting in peace. 

It is so hard for us to quiet ourselves during media blitzes urging us to spend (The Source's campaign "I want that" makes me weep). How many of us attend five or six "Christmas" parties, without so much as single Christmas carol sung? And don't get me started on radio stations attempting to put us "in the spirit" in the second week of November.

Do our Catholic schools reflect peaceful waiting? Or do classroom parties, Christmas concerts, and droning "holiday music" in the hallways mimic the mayhem outside the school doors? Take time in your classroom for quiet reflection. Ask the tough questions about consumerism, about "want" vs "need", and about media manipulation. Help students, ( and staff) pause and take a breath!

Waiting in prayer. 

One of the best ways to express the peaceful waiting of Advent is through prayer. To this end, every classroom should have an Advent wreath that is used every day and not just on the day that Father comes in to have them blessed. School administrators, this is the time for you to do your "classroom walk through's" and pray with your staff and students. And let's stop using intercom prayer. Teachers should be leading prayer in their classrooms, face to face, period.

One of the best practices that I've encountered during Advent is the "Joy Box" or "Joy Bag". This is a mini advent wreath that goes home, so the family can pray, do activities, and have a treat. Here is one example: http://nextgencoatesy.blogspot.ca/2012/12/the-advent-joy-box.html

Traditionally, Catholic schools will celebrate Mass during the week before the Christmas break.  Here's where I get really Grinch-y.

Masses during Advent do not celebrate Christmas. I have many a discussion, often heated, with well meaning teachers who say, "but for most of the children, this is the only time they will get to celebrate a Christmas Mass." This is simply overstepping our role. Catholics schools are an arm of the Church, but they cannot and must not replace the life of the local parish. And we do harm to both seasons. Let's be authentic in the way we pray as Church. (Singing Christmas carols at an Advent Mass is not very authentic either). If we want our kids to attend a Christmas Mass, advertise the parish celebrations over and over again!

This is also a traditional time for celebrations of Reconciliation. The Catholic school should do its best to communicate when the local parish(es) are having these evening celebrations. I've also been to schools where the priest makes himself available for confessions on one day during Advent. The response from the students is overwhelming.

Waiting in Service

Advent is a wonderful time to show our love for others through thoughtful acts of service. And there are countless ways that we do this. Giving Trees. Santas Anonymous. Food Bank Drives.

All are excellent. And all are done by our public school counterparts as well.

So what distinguishes our giving? It is certainly not "better". 

But it is different.

It is different because it is a non-negotiable of our life in Christ.

When we encounter the poor, we encounter Christ.

So we need to teach our students that while it is important to do charity, it is more important to work for justice. 

Serving the poor is a way to wait for the Lord. And actual serving is the best way. There is a huge difference between donating to the Food Bank and working there.

Even the youngest of our students can go visit the sick or seniors in a home. These are the best of field trips, and simple ways to show children the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

Continue to have a beautiful Advent. And let me end with this refrain from the Taize community:

Wait on the Lord

His day is near

Wait on the Lord

Be strong, Take heart.