Ask God to increase the longing in your heart to look forward to Christmas.
Sometimes we may not look forward to Christmas Day. It could be on account of family strife, or a history of unhappy failures. Whatever it is, we don’t feel excited when Christmas rolls around.
Despite having such feelings, we need to step back and remember the “reason for the season.” Advent is meant to be a time of longing, where our hearts ache for the coming of the Savior. We should not only feel a desire to celebrate Christ’s birth, but more importantly we should desire to receive Jesus into our hearts.
Below is an adapted prayer from The Catholic’s Vade Mecum that when prayed with faith, can help stir within us a deeper longing for Jesus’ coming.
O most sweet infant Jesus, who for nine months enclosed in the womb waited for the time of your birth, and inflamed the heart of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph with most ardent longings, have mercy on us and stir within us a greater longing and desire for you, so that, inflamed with your love, we may look with expectation toward your coming into our heart. Amen.
And today we celebrate...
