An Advent Pillow for Jesus

Advent, “ad-venir” or “to come to” in Latin, marks the beginning of the liturgical year within the Catholic Church. This season encompasses the four Sundays leading up to Christmas and is a time when we prepare for the coming of Christ. Advent is a season where we allow ourselves to prepare our hearts and minds for our Savior’s coming, both by preparing for his second coming and reflecting on his Incarnation. Much like Lent, Advent is a time to settle down, reflect, and rechart our course so that we may be ready to receive our Lord. It is a beautiful time to give of ourselves to God, but also to our families, friends, and neighbors. Advent gives us time to reflect on our past and to look forward to the future while reminding us to cherish each moment that we have on this Earth to do the work God sent each one of us to do. A long Catholic tradition during this season is the Advent Wreath.

The Advent wreath reminds us to keep Christ in the center of our lives and to focus on his coming. Each candle represents one of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas and symbolizes the hope of our Lord coming into the world. Traditionally, the candles represent hope, peace, joy, and love with three candles being purple to symbolize the penance, preparation, and sacrifice which is made during Advent. One of the candles is pink, which represents joy, and is lit on the third Sunday of Advent or Gaudete Sunday, meaning “rejoice.” This is a common practice within the Catholic Church, but I have seen many people use different colors such as white or red merely out of preference. I personally prefer the look of white candles but for some, the visuals of the penitential purple and pink candles help remind them of the necessary preparation for our Lord's coming. But I am not really here to talk about the Church’s history of Advent and the origins of the Advent Wreath. I am here to share the story about my family’s Advent Wreath tradition and hope to inspire you to start a new tradition in your home this Advent season. I hope that by sharing this story I can inspire others to prepare for Christmas in a way that truly keeps Christ in Christmas.

Growing up, we would gather in the living room around the Advent Wreath and continue a tradition that millions of Catholics have done for centuries. Like so many, we would light the candles and sit as my father would read the daily readings and gospel each Advent Sunday. Something we did in my family, a custom that my parents acquired from some friends, was to make a resolution each Advent Sunday for the following week. The idea of this was to help us prepare for Christmas by making resolutions that motivated us to practice good habits, perform good deeds for others, break bad habits, or overcome a personal struggle. Once we completed the readings, we would each go around and share our resolution for the week. For some it was to be kinder to our siblings or help Mom clean the kitchen, others would choose to make time to go to confession or offer up studying for a big test. Regardless of what it was, the purpose was that each resolution needed to be something that would obviously help us grow interiorly.

The following Sunday we would all go around and share how we did on our resolution. For some, this could have been a triumph and for others a complete struggle. Then we would go around and share a new resolution for the next week. Some of us would keep our old one if we felt like we could have done better, while others would come up with a new one altogether. Occasionally, there would be a few overachievers who would keep their old resolution while adding a new one to their mix. And this is what we would do every Advent Sunday straight through Christmas Eve. But there was one very special thing we did that really helped us stay true to the meaning of Advent, one tradition that truly helped us prepare for the birth of Christ. With each resolution, there was a pillow for Jesus.

You see, for young children the concept of a resolution can be hard to grasp, but my mother had a wonderful way of helping us visualize it. To help the younger children out my mother would say that we needed to imagine that each resolution was like a pillow and that when we completed it we could place that pillow in Baby Jesus’ crib to prepare his warm and comfortable bed for his arrival on Christmas. But a child's imagination can also only go so far, for some the imaginary pillow was not enough and the smaller children wanted to place a real pillow in his crib. So my mother turned an idea into a reality and used her sewing skills she made plush little white pillows trimmed with lace ribbon and gold tread. A little wooden crib was made as well with little pieces of sticks found outside so delicately assembled, and each Advent Sunday we would fill the crib with pillows, one pillow for one completed resolution. This was not just a huge hit for the little ones in the family, but the adults as well, and as the Advent season grew closer to Christmas the little wooden crib would transform from a bare little crate to a warm and cozy crib fit for a king.

On Christmas Eve we would gather again around the Advent Wreath and once again share how we did with our resolutions, reflecting back on the whole Advent season and how we each prepared for the coming of our Lord. We would then share what our resolution would be for the New Year, with the idea of taking most of the previous resolutions and practices set during Advent with us into the New Year. Once we completed sharing our resolutions, my mother would bring out a small, and lifelike Baby Jesus figurine. Holding it so gently in her hands she would bring him up to each one of us so that we may kiss his feet and after the last kiss was shared she would lay him in his fully made crib. And there together as a family, we would sit around while singing the Christmas songs my parents had taught us and gaze upon the new child that now lay there so peacefully sleeping in the manger our family had prepared those four weeks of Advent. And so, as you prepare for this Advent season, may you and your family prepare for the Saviors coming and together unite in keeping Christmas centered on Christ.