How to Prepare for Advent: 3 Simple Practices

This year, we invite you to take a fresh look at Advent as the quiet beginning of a new liturgical year. Rather than a season of pressure or perfection, Advent is God’s gentle invitation to begin again, enter more deeply into the story of Christ’s coming, and make room in our hearts for His presence.

How to Prepare for Advent

In an episode of Brews With Bruno, OMV priests Fr. Paul Kallal and Fr. Jorge Sanchez, discuss how to prepare for Advent and the coming of Christ with three simple but powerful Advent practices. Watch the full episode to break down the essential ways you can enter this season with intention, peace, and deeper faith.

Whether Advent always sneaks up on you or you’re looking for a spiritual reset before Christmas, these three tips will help you slow down, pray more intentionally, and truly enter the mystery of the Incarnation.

Begin Again: A New Year of Grace

For many of us, New Year’s Day brings slogans like “New year, new you” and a flurry of resolutions that fade by February. The Church offers something very different. With Advent, the new year begins not with noise and self-improvement plans, but with silence, promise, and grace.

While the new year in our world starts Jan 1st, the new year of the Church begins on the first day of Advent. New Year resolutions for Catholics begin with the start of Advent, the perfect time to prepare your heart to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Drawing on the spirituality of Venerable Bruno Lanteri, the founder of the Oblates of the Virgin Mary, Fathers Paul and Jorge reflect on the simple but powerful motto, “Nunc coepi – now I begin.” Even if we have fallen a thousand times, in Advent the Lord invites us to begin again a thousand times, right where we are.

Instead of worrying about how perfectly we have lived the past or how we will manage the future, Advent calls us to receive grace in the present moment. We can leave the past to God’s mercy, entrust the future to His providence, and focus on one concrete step of faith today.

Put Yourself Into the Advent Story

Advent is not meant to be a yearly reenactment that we watch from a distance. God does not want an audience; He wants participants. The Scriptures of this season invite us to enter the scenes around Christ’s coming and let the Holy Spirit speak personally to our hearts.

We encourage you to pray with the infancy narratives in the Gospels and to “step into the room” through imaginative prayer. We might stand beside Mary at the Annunciation, listening to the angel’s words and noticing how she receives them. We might be with Joseph as he wrestles with confusion and fear, then hears the Lord say, “Do not be afraid.” We might even recognize ourselves in the shepherds, startled by God’s glory and sent out to share what they have seen.

By placing ourselves in these scenes, we discover where we are in our relationship with God right now: hesitant like Joseph, eager like Mary, searching like the shepherds, or even feeling like the humble donkey that simply carries Jesus and Mary where they need to go. 

Advent becomes personal when we let God show us our place in His story.

Make Room: Emptiness as Readiness

The third invitation is to make some space for Christ by embracing a holy kind of emptiness. Our culture often fears emptiness and rushes to fill every quiet moment with noise, entertainment, or distraction. Christian emptiness, however, is not a meaningless void. It is readiness for God.

Drawing on Caryll Houselander’s classic book “The Reed of God,” there are several images of fruitful emptiness:

• The reed that becomes music when breath passes through it
• The bird’s nest that receives new life
• The chalice that receives the Precious Blood

In the same way, our hearts are meant to be open spaces where the Lord can dwell and work through us for others.

Practically, this might mean choosing one small way to “empty out” our days: getting out of bed instead of hitting the snooze button and giving those minutes to prayer, turning off the radio during a commute to sit in silence with the Lord, stepping away from gossip at work, or putting down the phone to open the Scriptures. 

The question is simple: What is one thing I can let go of so that Christ can fill that space?

Living Advent With Hope

Advent is a short season, but it can reshape our whole year. Fathers Paul and Jorge encourage us to look ahead to Christmas and ask: Where do I desire to be spiritually when I kneel before the manger? From there, we can choose one daily way to begin again, one way to enter the Gospel more personally, and one way to make room for Christ.

As Sons of Mary, the Oblates of the Virgin Mary walk with you in this time of preparation, entrusting you to Mary’s maternal care and to the mercy of her Son. May this Advent be a season of quiet hope, deeper participation in God’s story, and a heart made ready to receive Jesus anew at Christmas.