In 2007, a young man in a baseball cap stood in Washington’s Union Station during the morning rush hour and played his violin. He performed six classical pieces in 45 minutes as hundreds walked by. People tossed into his violin case a total of $20. The irony is that the night before this young man, Joshua Bell, sold out Madison Square Garden at $100 a ticket. He is widely acclaimed as the best violinist in the world.
If we’re honest, when it comes to the season of Advent, most of us are like that pedestrian traffic in Union Station. We don’t know what we are missing because we’re too distracted. For example, most everyone anticipates the great sales at the mall on the day after Thanksgiving, string lights on the outside of the house, and decorate the inside of their homes. But how exactly are we preparing our hearts for the greatest gift we’ve ever been given?
The word “advent” comes from the Latin word “adventus”, which means “coming” or “arrival”. As parish leaders, we want to help our parishioners shift their attention from “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” to “Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth” [O Holy Night]. Here are a few ideas to help your parishioners enter into the season of Advent.
Advent Movie Nights
Challenge your parish to fast from secular movies during Advent and only watch movies on FORMED. Here are a few great titles:
Parish Wide Studies
- ADVENT is a 4-week discipleship group study that the entire parish can go through as families and in small groups. Well-crafted discussion questions in the Leader’s Guide will help parishioners engage in meaningful conversation about the coming of the Messiah.
- FORGIVEN has three inspiring episodes that will draw parishioners to the sacrament of Reconciliation during this penitential season.
Audios
Encourage your parishioners to listen to and share with others these powerful audio talks on FORMED for Advent:
- Prepare the Way of the King by Dr. Scott Hahn
- The Healing Power of Confession by Dr. Scott Hahn
- Mary: Handmaid of the Lord by St. Teresa of Calcutta
Make the most of your FORMED subscription this Advent! With good promotion, on-going communication, and the Pastor/priests direct references in his homilies, ADVENT can multiply your number of FORMED users and motivate parishioners and families to understand, live, and share their faith.
Check out this recorded webinar for even more great ideas to used FORMED for Advent.
One suggestion that I heard from parishioners using formed.org for the first time was there needs to be a search bar for them to look at something specific.
Hi Amy,
We do plan to have a search function on formed.org. Since formed.org is a customized site we have to build that functionality but it is definitely on the list as we know the more content we get them more challenging it can be to find content. Our next release, which are are planning by year-end will include a recently watched stripe on the Home page. This stripe will show each piece of content that a user has viewed and will give them a bar along the bottom that will show them where they left off and enable them to resume from that point.