Animate Youth Ministry

Preparing for all that a new year brings

Taking time to stop and think can do you the power of good, writes Father Simon Gore of Animate Youth Ministries.

By the time you read this, Christmas will be a distant memory and the new year will have begun. But as I type this, it is still early in the Advent season and we are thinking about the last retreats of the year and looking ahead to a whole school mission in the week before the holiday begins. It promises to be quite a hectic lead-in to Christmas.

In among all we have planned, and all we have to do before we finish for Christmas, I think there will be a tendency in the next few weeks to tick off the jobs we have on the ‘to-do’ list and almost count down the days until we finish for the Christmas break. I know the temptation is there for me currently – and I guess you may have had that same temptation a few weeks ago too … making sure the food is bought, the presents wrapped, the cards written, and all the other little jobs that we all know we have to do. Yet as much as I know the temptation will be there, I hope that I can avoid it and take some time to reflect more on what makes Advent such a special season. Perhaps it is just me, although I doubt it, but we seem to jump from poppies at the Cenotaph in November straight into Christmas without stopping to catch our breath. As we know, that is what Advent should be all about. But we all live in the world and it can be so easy to get caught up with what is happening around us.

I know, though, that if I do manage to take some time to think about what Advent means, it will help me celebrate Christmas in a far more meaningful way. The day will mean a lot more – and if I miss out a few things from my ‘to-do’ list in order to find that time then maybe it will be worth it to have that more meaningful a Christmas.

I think anyone reading this will know it already, of course – and if you have continued to read up to this point you may well now be asking, ‘Why is he writing about Advent and Christmas when he knows very well this will be read in January?’. Well, I think that sense of peace we might hope to find in Advent can set us up for the new year, for where we are when this will be read in January. The early weeks of January can be a little like ‘after the lord mayor’s show’. Homes seem emptier without the decorations, the weather is cold and there are no Christmas markets to lighten the mood. The year stretches ahead of us.

And if we have not had that time that the Church offers us in Advent, it can seem like we are back on the treadmill of life. I do hope that this is not the case for you. And I hope that you did take some time in Advent to take stock, breathe and remind yourself of your own relationship with God. That it was a time of renewal.

If you did, I am sure that this new year will be something to be faced with the confidence of knowing that the Lord is there with us; that no matter what may happen in this year ahead, we will know that we are never alone – the Lord will share all of our joys and sorrows. I think we would all say that Advent is a season of preparation. But it can be more than a season of preparation for Christmas and could be seen as a preparation for the year ahead as well. But what if you did fall into those temptations I mentioned earlier? What if Advent was not a season of preparation and reflection and the new year has started and you are back on the treadmill?

Well, it is not for me to tell anyone what to do but maybe you could try to carve out a mini-Advent in the new year? There may be no chocolate calendars around – no wreath, no trees, no tinsel – but some time with the Lord is never a wasted time. A little bit of preparation for the new year, even in this new year, might be just the way to face all that 2023 will bring. God bless.