This little poem about a big reality was written by a Franciscan 400 years ago. But it's still true today.

When a baby is about to be born, you get your house ready. You decorate the baby’s room, get all the cute little clothes cleaned, lay in a supply of diapers and wipes. And you get your heart ready. You savor your growing relationship with the baby hidden in its mother's womb; you look and feel for the signs the baby gives (“Yay! I felt him kick!”) as you look forward to finally being able to look into the baby's eyes and hold him in your arms; to the moment that this wonderful new little person will visibly enter your home and your life.

Every Christmas we remember and celebrate the birth of the most wonderful baby ever born. But although it’s a remembering of Jesus’ birthday, it’s not just a remembering. A big point of Christmas is to welcome Christ more completely into our own hearts – to have Him be “born” in our hearts – in your heart, in my heart – in a fuller and deeper way.

So we have a season which is dedicated to getting our hearts ready to welcome Jesus when he arrives. It takes its name, Advent, from the Latin word meaning “arriving.” In a way, Advent is all about making your heart into a new cradle for Jesus. Making it a place where He can rest, thrive, and grow within you. That means that Advent should be especially a time of prayer, because really only God can help us get our hearts ready to receive Him.

It’s hard to prepare if you forget the baby’s about to arrive. And you don't want get to the day the baby's born and discover that you are totally unprepared, don't have any clothes, diapers, or even a place for the baby to sleep. So, during Advent, many lovely traditions have grown up to help us focus on and prepare for the mystery of Jesus’s birth. 

One of the most traditional ways of marking Advent is by having an Advent wreath. Evergreens are traditional because they symbolize eternity, but any leaves will do. Each time a candle is lit, an Advent song (like O Come, O Come, Emmanuel) might be sung or a little Advent prayer said. Our family does this at dinner time, and we keep the candles lit during the meal.

We also have a slightly different version of the Advent wreath over our fireplace. Since that’s where we gather to say night prayers, we have Advent colored candles over the mantelpiece and light them the same way as on the wreath. The different colors of the candles, the way they are lit one at time, with the light growing and growing, the wreath – they all function as reminders: “Jesus is about to arrive! The Light of the World is coming! Get ready!” At various times in the day a glance at the Advent wreath might prompt a quick prayer, “Lord Jesus, prepare me for Your arrival.” 

The Jesse tree is a sort of family tree for Jesus, named after His ancestor (according to His human nature) Jesse, who was the father of King David. It’s called a Jesse Tree in reference to the Old Testament prophecy that “a shoot shall spring from the stump of Jesse”; that shoot, that new growth full of life, is Jesus.

There are many ways to do a Jesse tree. My family draws a tree (a different kind of tree each year) on a big sheet of poster board and puts it on the wall; we make a different paper ornament each day which we tape on (or, sometimes we fall behind and make several in one day to catch up.) Each ornament stands for something in salvation history— starting with the creation of the world, you move all through the history of how God prepared the world for the infinite and all-powerful God becoming a little weak human being like us in order to save us. A Jesse Tree can also be made out of a branch or a little potted tree upon which to hang ornaments.

There’s a lot of options online for either buying pre-made Jesse tree ornaments, or templates for making your own. Reading Scripture, where that part of history is told, can bring the activity to life and perhaps an Advent carol might be sung.

Speaking of Advent carols – there are many wonderful songs specially meant for this time of Advent preparation. Learning a new one can be a great Advent project. Some of our favorites: O Come, O Come Emmanuel; Ye Clouds of Heaven, Open Wide; People, Look East; Rorate Caeli; Maria Walks Amid the Thorn; See How the Virgin Waits for Him.

There are also some special Advent prayers to power up preparation for welcoming Christ. The Christmas preparation novena is sometimes called the St. Andrew’s novena because it starts on his feast on Nov 30, but it’s really an Advent prayer leading up to Christmas. Some pray it during night prayers, or put a copy of it over the sink to pray during handwashing. It’s good to say it even once, but traditionally it’s said fifteen times each day, and that has a special meditative aspect.

This is the prayer:

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, through the merits of Our Savior Jesus Christ and of His Blessed Mother.

There is a parallel prayer, by the way, for the Christmas season, from Dec. 25 until Feb. 2. It's said three times a day in honor of the members of the Holy Family:

Lord Jesus Christ, grant that we may hold You in our hearts with that same joy with which Mary and Joseph held you in their arms, the newborn King of all, the eternal and infinite God made man for our salvation. 

Another, even older Advent form of prayer that leads up to Christmas is the O Antiphons. They’re called that because they all begin with “O”, calling out insistently to Jesus under different beautiful poetic titles to express our longing for His arrival – “O Wisdom, O Dawn in the East, O Key of David, O King of Nations, O Emmanuel...” It’s great to pray them, as is traditional, on the days right before Christmas; it can also be a great Advent project to memorize them. Memorization helps you get some of that mystery “inside you”, and makes it easy to pray those prayers on their special days.

There’s an old tradition of setting up the nativity scene on Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, as a way to travel with Mary through Advent. And it’s a lovely tradition to wait to put the baby Jesus out until Christmas Eve. The absence of the figure that’s the main focus of the whole scene reminds us powerfully to long for and prepare for His arrival.

The Incarnation has called great moments of poetry out of so many poets. I specially love the Christmas poetry collection O Holy Night edited by Johann Moser. Here also is a sampling of some of my favorite individual poems, easily available with an online search: A Christmas Hymn by Richard Wilbur; The House of Christmas, A Christmas Rhyme and A Christmas Carol by G.K. Chesterton; Christmas by John Betjeman; This Little Babe by St. Robert Southwell; Journey of the Magi by T.S. Eliot.

Advent is such a rich time that in a way it’s humanly impossible to observe it the way it should be observed. But as the Angel Gabriel said, nothing is impossible for God, and our generous Father loves to be asked for spiritual gifts. We can ask Him to help us observe this Advent in a way that brings us and those around us more deeply into the mystery that God became man, and wants to be born more deeply in our hearts now so that we can be happy with Him forever in Heaven. May He make each one of our hearts into a cradle where He can be born anew, from which His presence and salvation can spread to the world.

O, like a tiny cradle
Could thy heart become
God would again be born
On earth an infant Son.

*

Wendy-Irene Zepeda is a homeschooling mother of six, writer, and musician. She holds a Masters in Theology with a specialization in Marriage and the Family.