Prepare the Way (by guest blogger Diane Gallagher)

A girlfriend recently texted me to ask for ideas for family prayer as she felt her routine with her kids had become stale and humdrum.  My reply was “what family prayer?”  As we giggled about my response the next time I saw her, I admitted that I was not kidding.  We pray before meals, when we hear an ambulance (thanks to my 3 year old’s reminders) and before bed with the little ones as we tuck them in, but we have lost our commitment to designated family prayer time beyond these moments.  Oh, the aspirations and ideas I used to have! I could have compiled a book with all of my creative concoctions for celebrating the saints or acknowledging important feast days in the Church.  Unfortunately, I put very few into action.  Life gets so busy.  The evenings are chock full of homework, lessons, practices, dinner, baths, and packing lunches.  Prayers are muttered here and there, but often are sadly not prioritized.  There are two times of the year that we actually do a decent job of special family prayer:  Advent and Lent.  We just bought a beautiful new Advent wreath (50% off at Michael’s!) that I was excited to set up in the center of our kitchen table last weekend.  One of our favorite Advent traditions (thanks, Steph!) is to put an empty manger in the middle of our wreath.  Every night after we light our candles and sing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” each child shares a good deed they performed that day and puts a piece of yarn or cotton into the crib to make it more comfortable for Jesus after He is born.  I have toyed with the idea of removing a piece for every bad deed they do but decided that Advent is a good time to stay positive.  Sometimes my kids are excited to highlight a plethora of good deeds that they have done that day -- or even better, that they witnessed their siblings doing.  Other times, they struggle to even identify one.  “Did you help anyone today?” “No.” Have a good attitude?” “No.” “Share with anyone?” “No.” “Ok, did you have a nice thought about someone?”  Once in a while, they simply do not get to add to the “mattress pad” for Jesus.  I felt badly on Sunday when one of my children would not contribute a good deed because he did not feel he had done anything worthy of it.  I also was glad to see that he had a conscience and took it seriously.  Fortunately, they all usually have something to add or this exercise would get a little depressing.  Needless to say, it has become a helpful daily reminder for all of us. In fact, it is really something we should be doing all year.  It might even be beneficial if we only identified good deeds done with a positive attitude.  I admit, I don’t usually have a shortage of good deeds.  That is what most of my day consists of – doing acts of service for my family.  But I often don’t perform them with a cheerful heart.  This year, as we await the celebration of the birth of Emmanuel, hopefully we can fill our manger with an abundance of comfy cotton.  Even better?  That as the Christmas season fades into Ordinary Time, we keep that Advent Spirit alive – good deeds, focused prayer time and all.