Advent and Christmas: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens

By Katie Prejean McGrady and Tommy McGrady

Following the success of their bestselling devotional Lent: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens, youth ministry experts Katie Prejean McGrady and Tommy McGrady offer devotions for Advent and Christmas that help teens make sense of the things that matter most in their lives such as relationships, their future, and coping with stress.

Realistic and easy to use, each daily devotion starts with a brief Bible quote that connects with a topic important to teens such as insecurity, pressure, trust, fitting in, finding hope, and choosing joy. A brief reflection helps teens consider the day’s topic through their faith.

The McGradys sometimes offer comfort, hope, or reasons for joy in these reflections, while on other days they issue a challenge or two. Unlike many other seasonal prayer books, each day offers exercises and activities such as naming areas of teen’s lives where they want to be more hopeful or to trust God more. The result is a closer relationship with God.

Each single-page, weekday devotion can be as brief as five minutes or as long as thirty if a teen chooses to do a bit extra with a feature called “Feel Ambitious?” This activity invites them to read, reflect, and respond to a longer scripture passage that connects to the day’s theme. Saturdays and Sundays offer additional challenges to reflect on the previous week and to look ahead to the next.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ave Maria Press
• Release date: Aug 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646800025

Katie Prejean McGrady

Katie Prejean McGrady is the host of the Ave Explores podcast and The Katie McGrady Show on Sirius XM’s The Catholic Channel. She is an international speaker, the author of Room 24 and Follow, and the coauthor of Lent: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens and Advent and Christmas: One Day at a Time for Catholic Teens. Prejean McGrady also serves as the host of the Like a Mother podcast and contributes Family Mass Prep on the Hallow app. Her work appears in LaCroix International, Blessed Is She, Our Sunday Visitor, and Aleteia. She also is a commentator on Catholic issues for CNN and NewsNation. Prejean McGrady speaks at a variety of events including NCYC, Steubenville Youth Conferences, the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, and in dioceses and parishes throughout the world. Prejean McGrady earned a theology degree from the University of Dallas. She lives in Louisiana with her family.

Book preview

Introduction

Rejoice, rejoice, O Israel

To you shall come Emmanuel!

—O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

We walked into Target, pushing a cart as our toddler strolled beside us, distracted by everything she saw. We had a list and a plan: buy diapers, get tortilla chips, and find a birthday card. Lofty goal—making a Target list and trying to stick to it.

As we hurried through the store, intent on not stopping to browse, we rounded the corner and there it was: the seasonal display of Christmas items. Trees and ornaments; stockings and stocking stuffers; icicle lights for outside and twinkly lights for inside; and obnoxious, blow-up Santa Clauses with round tummies and perfect smiles.

Rose, the toddler, took off running, stopped short of nearly barreling into a wreath display, turned around, pointed at all the stuff, and screamed, Momma, Dadda, Christmas! I didn’t think she even knew the word. Thanks, Sesame Street. Rose’s face gleamed with joy as she stared at all the items on display, her toddler jibber jabber loud and unstoppable. We just stood there and laughed, watching her soak in all the glitter and glitz of a Target-made Christmas.

Oh, the joy! The glowing joy of Christmas! Even at two years old, Rose knew it. We all do. We can feel it. We just know this is a special time, a time set apart when the world stops to gather as families, celebrate with friends, give gifts we’ve thoughtfully selected, and sing songs we belt for only a brief time during the darkest days of each year.

And all that joy and excitement, whether we are two or ninety-two, is because of one thing, no matter how commercialized and secular the celebration of Christmas has become. We sing and celebrate, clean and decorate, wrap and give gifts, go to Midnight Mass and spend Christmas Day with loved ones eating too much delicious food, all because of one thing: the arrival of Emmanuel, God with us. We’re joyful and happy, peaceful and excited, because of Jesus.

All this festive celebrating begs a question. If we’re so joyful and excited about the arrival of Jesus, then what have we done to prepare our souls for his birth? Have we readied our hearts, prepared our homes, and opened our minds? Or, like Target, do we jump straight from Halloween to Christmas, with a quick nod to poor old Thanksgiving? Do we rush into Christmas, a full two months early, because we’re anxious to put up the lights and decorate the tree? Why do we start so early singing the carols we’ll be tired of come mid-December and start our Christmas parties while Advent is just beginning? Does the growing darkness and the cold of winter settling in cause us to leapfrog into the festivities of Christmas without truly preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ?

The Church doesn’t let us just arrive at Christmas, jumping into the season with our eyes closed and our hands open. We have up to four weeks to get ready, to contemplate the mystery of Jesus’ arrival and figure out for ourselves why his coming into the world matters to each one of us in a uniquely personal way. Advent, the season that kicks off the entire liturgical year, is the time to slow down, to resist rushing headlong into Christmas just as soon as Halloween or even Thanksgiving is over. Advent is our time to reflect and pray in quiet and stillness, and to wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior.

We want to help you prepare spiritually for Christmas, and then we’d like to help you celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas and the Feast of Epiphany. By walking through Advent day by day, we will explore the mystery of Jesus Christ and his coming into the world as an infant long ago, today in our words and actions, and in the perfection of the kingdom yet to come.

How to Use This Booklet

First things first: You’ll want to keep a Bible and a notepad or journal nearby when using this booklet. All the scripture quotations in this booklet are taken from the New American Bible, Revised Edition.

Weekly Themes

Each Sunday, we introduce a theme for the week to help