I put off getting a smartphone for years. I don’t think I was the last one in my class in the seminary to buckle to the inexorable advance of technology, but I know I was close. I have seen many changes in the way I operate now that I have fallen to the modern golden calf that is the iPhone, and not all of them have been bad.
It’s terribly convenient to have a digital version of my breviary with me at all times, so if I forget my prayer book, I can still pray my office. Staying in touch with my friends has certainly been easier. But one major downside has been the complete and total destruction of my memory for my own calendar of events.

There was time when I had at least a working knowledge of what I was doing most days. I had a sketch in my mind of when I had to be where, and even if I missed an event or two, I had a grasp on the state of affairs. Now, I find that no man has ever been more dependent on anything than I am on my calendar app. You can ask my staff to confirm this, but it is not uncommon for someone to say to me “see you tonight,” and I have absolutely no idea what they’re talking about. If my phone were to stop beeping at me half an hour before I was supposed to go do something, the parishes might never see me again.
 
I bring this up as we enter into Advent because it is a season of expectation and preparation, and much of that has been taken out of our hands, or at least my hands. Jesus warns His disciples to watch, “for at an hour they do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

As the speed of life accelerates to the point that we are just shuffling from one event to the next, we run the risk of missing the most important lessons in our lives. Jesus is warning His disciples about the Second Coming, but even if we are
willing to roll the dice and assume that Jesus won’t be coming back in our lifetimes (which Jesus explicitly doesn’t recommend), it is still important to slow down and take stock of God’s presence in our lives.
 
People’s calendar apps will be full to bursting with all the things that have to get done in order to celebrate Christmas. To be sure, it’s important to welcome family and friends together to celebrate the Nativity of Our Lord. But Christmas runs the risk of coming and going from our lives without any spiritual benefit unless we also
undertake the spiritual preparations necessary. No one wants to get behind the eight ball on material preparations for Christmas like food, cleaning, or presents. But those things have to be balanced with preparing our hearts to receive Jesus in His Incarnation. Pray with your family. Visit a manger scene with them. Go to confession. Do charitable service with them. Find some way to refocus your schedule, your work, and your hearts around the coming of the Lord. And perhaps most of all, let us work with one another to hold ourselves to that standard. Parishes exist in part because people can help one another to grow holy. Let’s focus on that, and if you guys are really on top of it, I might not even have to put it in my calendar.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC