family prayer | Family Fun | how to pray the rosary | Advent | Advent calendar
During the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, prayer tends to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Our to-do lists seem endless, and we feel the pinch of the shortness of time even more during the Advent and Christmas seasons.
Families rush the Advent season to hasten in Christmas long before our calendars reach the 24th of December. Advent and Christmas, like the season of Lent, are profound moments in our Liturgical Calendar where the first movement of our hearts should be toward our Lord, especially when we encounter Him through prayer.
Advent is a time to prepare to welcome Jesus into our hearts and homes by contemplating the power of one yes that can change the world. Mary’s one yes opened the door to the birth of our Savior and changed the course of humanity. The succession of powerful yesses that glorify God—Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the Apostles, and saints who have gone before us doing God’s will — give witness to the ways in which God wants to act in us and through us to bring his plans for us to life. We live in the light of God’s yes to us, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Even with Christmas day quickly approaching, there is still time to take a breath, fix our gaze upon heaven, and move Jesus back to the top of our holiday preparations. Here are a few ways some of our Family Rosary friends incorporate prayer into their Advent and Christmas seasons.
David and Mercedes Rizzo
Our family incorporates prayer during Advent by focusing on visual and experiential aspects of the season. This method is important for us as a way to include our adult daughter, who has autism. However, this approach is excellent for younger children and people of all ages. We utilize prayer around our Advent wreaths and creche. We also visit a living nativity to remind us of the true meaning of this season. These prayer options present the birth of Jesus in an immediate, visual, and concrete way.
David and Mercedes Rizzo are the authors of Praying for Your Special Needs Child, Spiritually Able, and The Adaptive First Eucharist Preparation Kit.
Ivonne and Rick Hernandez 
We have set up around our home constant reminders to lift our hearts and minds to God, images, statues, rosaries, and a crucifix on the wall. This is our reality… that we need Him to accompany us in our daily living, in the big and the small. During Advent, we add one more reminder: a small Advent wreath on our coffee table. Some years, we remember to light it often; others, we do not. Yet its presence, connecting us to the larger wreath at our parish, reminds us we belong to a Church that is always praying with us.
Ivonne and Rick Hernandez have been married for thirty years and have three sons. They live in Florida and are cofounders of Elisheba House.
Allison Gingras
My husband and I have prayed the St. Andrew Christmas Novena for years. The prayer is recited 15 times daily, either all at once or throughout the day, from November 30th through Christmas Eve. Although married for over thirty years, praying together can be a struggle. We both find it difficult to shake our Rosary routines—he likes to recite it on his morning commute, and I enjoy praying it while walking or at Adoration. Discovering devotions, like this novena, provides an opportunity to incorporate family prayer into our home. Our prayer intentions are offered as a special gift for our children.
Allison Gingras is a Catholic author and speaker, as well as the Director of Digital Evangelization for Family Rosary and Catholic Mom.
Emily Jaminet
During Advent, we live out the liturgical season at church and in our home. I believe in the importance of family prayer, gathering at the end of the day to talk and pray, and placing religious items around our house, such as our manger scene. We include our children in praying for and serving others and being involved in works of mercy in our parish. This year, I've seen great benefits in fasting from things that might distract me from God; as I'm offering up extra sweets or a snack, I can see great value in that tiny little sacrifice.
Emily Jaminet is the Executive Director of Sacred Heart Enthronement Network—WelcomeHisHeart.com, a podcast host and radio personality, and author of many books. You can read more of Emily’s work at EmilyJaminet.com and InspireTheFaith.com.
Lorelei Savaryn
I am very excited to use Colleen Pressprich's new Jesse Tree for Families book with our family this Advent!
We have tried to do a Jesse Tree a few times over the past few years, but it’s been difficult to find something that is accessible to all four of our kids at their different ages and stages. The Jesse Tree for Families by Colleen Pressprich was written intentionally to be a perfect fit for even the youngest family members while also having enough substance to nurture older kids (and parents as well!).
Lorelei Savaryn lives outside Chicago with her husband, four children, and a dog named Saint. She writes about her faith and family life on ThisCatholicFamily.com. She is also a children's author, including her novel, The Circus of Stolen Dreams (Penguin Random House/Philomel).
Father Patrick Peyton
Every night I would hear my mother call us to pray, and then my father would lead us in the Holy Rosary. To see a man who lived totally what he believed left an impression on me, even as a little child, that nothing could erase.
What love you could get for your little sacred home if you gave 10 minutes out of 24 long hours to your family...If families give Our Lady, 15 minutes a day by reciting the Rosary, I assure them that their homes will become, by God's grace, peaceful places.
That question, ‘Where does prayer fit in today?’, I’d say, where does your heart fit in in your body? Where does the air fit in when you breathe? It’s an essential dimension in our very lives.
Venerable Patrick Peyton, C.S.C., devoted his priestly life to spreading the devotion to Mary and encouraging family prayer, especially the Rosary. Today, Father Peyton's messages that "The Family That Prays Together Stays Together" and "A World at Prayer is a World at Peace" are still well known around the world.
Please visit our Prayer Resources page for new, fun, and free family Advent resources, especially our interactive Advent calendar. Also available: a free downloadable ebook — Father Peyton explains the Rosary with step-by-step instructions on how to pray the Rosary.