Let November Be November
As November 1 arrived, so did an onslaught of Christmas decorations available in stores, festive music in small shops around town, and many, many Instagram influencers in my feed showing me how they are nearly decorated for the upcoming holiday. I promise I’m not Scrooge or the Grinch, but I still felt really overwhelmed by the overnight change to the world around me having suddenly shifted into the Christmas season.
It seems like many have seemed to skipped over the 8 week period that was meant to prepare us for the Christmas season: Advent and pre-Advent (AKA November in the Catholic Church). It seems like it’s the perfect time to make the resolution to let November be November. What does that look like, you ask?
ONE. Embrace the solemnities and feasts that are proper to the month.
November starts with a bang between the Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls). Right from the start, we’re asked to contemplate the glories to come in heaven, saints who have achieved that most wonderful end, and those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. November is the perfect month to ramp up our prayers for the dead, visit cemeteries, and to spend time in prayer considering our own journey to sainthood.
TWO. Enter into the end time readings.
Things get intense if we’re paying attention to the words read from the scriptures at Mass during the weeks leading into Advent. Once every three years leading into Advent, we hear the reading from 2 Maccabees about the martyrdom of the Maccabean mother and her seven sons. Their witness was bold and courageous and inspiring; when I spend time with that chapter, it really challenges me to consider how I would endure similar sufferings. On the last Sunday of November this year, right before we turn the page to a new year in the Church calendar, we meditate on the great teaching found in Matthew 25, regarding how we will be separated in the end. It is a great call to consider how closely we are following the Lord and if we are invested in the works of mercy. Make some more time for silence and open up the scriptures to those end time oriented readings to help you contemplate, while you try to let November be November in your heart.
THREE. Consider your place in the kingdom.
The last Sunday of the liturgical year is the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. By baptism we are made children of God and co-heirs of the kingdom. November is a perfect month to contemplate our relationship with the King and how we are living and participating as members of the kingdom on earth, in anticipation of the kingdom to come in heaven. Do we intimately know the King? Do we spend time with the King in prayer? Are we docile to the King’s plans for our life?
I’m not telling you that you absolutely must turn off your Christmas music if you already dusted off your Bing Crosby albums, but I am telling you that creating some space and silence in your life to contemplate the feasts and readings of this pre-Advent time will probably set you up well to contemplate the mysteries that are to come in a few weeks at Christmas. Let November be November!
