I heard a Rabbi say if we promise God we will do something at the same time every day, for the rest of our life, and do it, no matter how small, it will forever change us. Rabbi Hayim Halevy Donin writes in To Pray As A Jew that a pius Jew reads Psalms 145-150 every day before he begins his prayers, just to get in the right attitude. Have you thought about reading Psalms 145-150 every morning before you pray, just to get in the proper attitude?

If that sounds silly, the authors of Mastering Pastoral Counseling write that we act our way into a proper way of feeling; we don’t feel our way into a proper way of acting. Think about that, not only for religious rituals, rites of passage, but many civic ceremonies as well.

Christmas is less than a week away. If we do act our way into a proper way of feeling maybe we should ask ourselves how we are acting to prepare for Christmas. Are we consumed with what we still have to buy or are we consumed with what we hope we'll get? Is that what Christmas is all about?

Many people, maybe even the majority of people in the United States do not believe in Jesus Christ. Despite that, most of us do have an expectation during the Christmas season. We expect all of us to be a little kinder to one another. We expect each other to be happier and most of us hope to spend Christmas with family and or friends. There is an expectation of joy. Why is that? Maybe many people get depressed during Christmas because those unspoken expectations are not met ... again.

Advent is more than a church ritual followed by some and ignored by others. It can help us act our way into a proper way of feeling during the Christmas season. It can help us keep our balance and stay above the commercialism and political fights over where nativity scenes can and cannot be displayed. A little church history will show you that Nativity scenes and Christmas Trees are not what Christmas is all about. Advent can help us remember that Christmas is not about us.

Advent is the traditional beginning of the ecclesiastical year. It begins on the Sunday nearest to St. Andrews Day on November 30. This way there are always four Sundays before Christmas. It is a penitential period for reflecting on the ancient promises of the Bible. It is a time of preparation for the continual coming of Christ's spirit into the world.

The Italian architect-believer, Fra Giovanni, wrote in 1513:

I salute you. There is nothing I can give you which you have not;
but there is much that, while I cannot give you, you can take.
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.
Take heaven …
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in the present.
Take peace …
The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our
reach is joy. Take joy …
And so at this Christmas time I greet you with the prayer that for
you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

(Christian Century Pulpit, December, 1957, “Greeting at Christmas,” by Fra Giovanni, AD 1513, p. 22.)

With less than seven days till Christmas it's not too late to act our way into a proper way of feeling about this season, one another and the reason for the season.