Any tips for a meaningful Advent?

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Hi. I’m searching for some tips to live a meaningful Advent season that ends up bringing me closer to God. I probably won’t be able to attend Mass until February.

Any idea is welcome. Thank you!
 
Pray the Rosary with this formula:
Substitute “fruit” with the Mystery or the Fruit & “sins,” “trespasses,” and “sinners” with “lack of [Fruit]”

Example:
Hail Mary, full of Grace
The Lord is with thee
Blessed art thou amongst women
And blessed is the Annunciation of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God
Pray for us who lack joy in humility
Now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Mysteries and Fruits
Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope and Love
Joyful Mysteries:
  1. Annunciation/Humility
  2. Visitation/Love of Neighbor
  3. Nativity/Poverty
  4. Presentation/Obedience
  5. Youthful Preaching/Piety
    Luminous Mysteries/Light:
  6. Baptism/Openness to the Holy Spirit
  7. Miracles/Trust in Mary’s intercession
  8. Proclamation of the Kingdom/Repentance
  9. Transfiguration/Desire for Holiness
  10. Institution of the Eucharist/Active Participation at Mass
    And so on…
 
kikiki32 said:
Hi. I’m searching for some tips to live a meaningful Advent season that ends up bringing me closer to God. I probably won’t be able to attend Mass until February.

Any idea is welcome. Thank you!
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You can ask your Holy Guardian Angel to help you have a meaningful and holy Advent. Ask your Angel to help you understand the beautiful mysteries of the Holy Infant God and His Holy Mother, Our Lady.
 
@jochoa I’m already praying the Rosary, so this is something easy to incorporate. I’ll try it! Thank you.

@GioG12 I’ll definitely do as you say. My Guardian Angel has helped me before when I’ve asked Him for spiritual help. Thank you.
 
I suggest to do as the Church does in its Liturgy. Moan for our current state of sin and long ardently for the Messiah.

The Collect of the First Sunday of Advent is very telling (Traditional Calendar, Saint Dominic Translation - first edition 1959)
Stir up Your might, we beseech You 0 Lord, and come; that from the threatening dangers of our sins we may be rescued by Your protection, and saved by Your deliverance
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Advent is a rememberance of the First Coming and a figure of the Second Coming
 
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Dear kikiki32,

You’ve been given some good suggestions, and I’m about to suggest another way to begin Advent. I will be posting after I finish this reply, a new post on “True Devotion to Jesus through Mary” during Advent.

If you are unfamiliar with St. Louis de Montfort’s 33 Day preparation to consecrate oneself totally to Jesus through Mary, you may want to read today’s post and those which will follow, God willing, all through Advent.

Our Mother Mary was the first to experience the Coming of Jesus in the Flesh when He was conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. Who better than Mary can help us to prepare to receive Him?

I’ve been posting from St. Louis de Montfort’s treatise on True Devotion, (you can read the online version of his little book HERE) but since CAF ends this Dec. 31, I’m going to use the time left to post on the preparation and make the date for renewal or consecration for the first time on Dec. 31 which is not only New Year’s Eve but the vigil of the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary.

Perhaps you will find in this Preparation and Consecration not only a way to have a “meaningful Advent” but a more meaningful way to grow in holiness. Please let us pray for one another, for the Church and for all those in most need of God’s Mercy.
 
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Dear UpUpAndAway,

Thanks so much for your “heart”! Hopefully you have either made your Total Consecration and want to renew it or have never done so and are beginning to see it as a “meaningful way to grow in holiness”. I hope many will begin this 33 Day journey, I have found it very similar to the path taken by saints other than De Montfort like St. Bernard and St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine of Siena.

In a book entitled “The Ordinary Path to Holiness” the author shows this. There is an article at this link that may help you and anyone else reading this thread:
The Ordinary Path to Holiness | Renew The Church! - website and Blog
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Please let us pray for one another, for the Church and for all those in most need of God’s Mercy!
 
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Here are the Mysteries and Fruits I use altogether:
Joy
  • Annunciation/Humility
  • Visitation/Love of Neighbor
  • Nativity/Poverty
  • Presentation/Obedience
  • Youthful Preaching/Piety
Light
  • Baptism/Openness to the Holy Spirit
  • Miracle/Trust in Mary’s (Your) Intercession
  • Proclamation of the Kingdom/Repentance
  • Transfiguration/Desire for Holiness
  • Institution of the Eucharist/Active Participation at Mass
Sorrow for Sins
  • Agony/Contrition
  • Scourging/Mortification & Purity
  • Crowning with Thorns/Moral Courage
  • Carrying of the Cross/Patience
  • Crucifixion/Sacrifice & Salvation
Glory
  • Resurrection/Faith
  • Ascension/Desire for Heaven
  • Descent of the Holy Spirit/Wisdom
  • Assumption of the Mother/Eternal Happiness
  • Crowning of the Mother/Devotion to Mary
For praying a smoother decade, I pray Hail Mary’s in pairs, where I reverse the Mystery and Fruit:
“… blessed is the [Mystery] of thy womb, Jesus… pray for us, who lack [Fruit]…
… blessed is the [Fruit] of thy womb, Jesus… pray for us, who lack [Mystery].”
 
Thank you everyone!

@MariaChristi I followed that preparation to consecration 3 or 4 years ago, ending on the day of the Immaculate Conception. I didn’t really give it much importance, and started to lose interest on it, praying late and fast. I was almost on the verge of quitting … until in the middle of the second week I started to get intrusive thoughts blasphemed against Mary and directly threatened me. I realized I had to finish it. That doing such a thing was good for me, but failing to do so would probably put me at the mercy of evil. I continued to get those strange thoughts… until I finished it on 8th December.

Since then, I’ve continued being weak and mediocre in my spiritual life, but I’m definitely closer to God than when I decided to start my own personal consecration. I repeat each 8th December the consecration prayer. And, although I’m still quite far from where I should be, I must say it’s been one of the best spiritual decisions I’ve ever made.
 
Dear kikiki,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me and others on the Forum, Concerning St. Louis de Montfort’s “True Devotion.”. Why not renew your Consecration to Jesus through Mary now during Advent? We are only at the beginning of the 12 day period of seeking to “empty ourselves of the spirit of the world which is opposed to the Spirit of Jesus.” I am continuing to date each new thread so you can follow and go back to read what you missed if you wish.

Many people become discouraged when they begin the preparation and it may be because they have been following some books that advise more prayers, and readings and spiritual exercises than St. Louis suggests in writing his Preparation for Total Consecration.

I try to stay with what St. Louis de Montfort either “suggests” or “requires” and add sometimes short parts of Scripture that may help others as they have helped me. I hope you will join us on this 33 day journey to renew your Consecration either on Dec. 31 the vigil of Mary’s Feast or on Jan. 1 on the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. It is a beautiful way for me (and I hope also for others) to spend Advent and to begin our new year of 2021!

Mary our Mother is so neglected these days, even by some Catholics. Let us draw closer to her and thus closer to Jesus this Advent and every day of our lives! Thanks again for your reply, dear kikiki . 🙂
 
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