If there is such a thing as preparation for preparation, in a recent edition of the Angelus, Fr. Gerard Beck has given us an excellent means by which to fit ourselves for Advent, the great preparation for Christ’s coming. In order to be ready for Christ’s advent in our hearts, at Christmas, and at the end of the time, we must walk the way of penance, Fr. Beck tells us. Through penance, we erase the stains of actual sins while also combating congenital weaknesses due to original sin.

I remember Fr. Carl Gismondi in Scranton, PA drawing a distinction between the types of penance which we do during Advent and Lent. While the penance of Lent is directed more towards sackcloth, ashes, and fasting, the penance of Advent tends to be more hidden and interior. Yet whether during Advent or Lent, Fr. Beck reminds us, every penance is a means to the end of sanctification; the penance is not the end itself. If a penance encourages more generous, sincere sentiments of heart towards God and our neighbor, we have found the right penance for us. The mortification of our bad habits, vices, and dispositions, i.e. death to self, is our goal, irrespective of the means.

But what is the nature of the interior mortification we do during Advent? I think we too often hear a specious argument along the lines of the following: interior mortification is superior to exterior, therefore all our penances should be interior. To use an example of Fr. Beck’s, an interior penance might be striving to bear more patiently the occasions when others anger or upset us. We mortify the inner man when we swallow insults without responding. We mortify the inner man when we carry ourselves humbly with those with whom we had been accustomed to walk proudly.

If we do these things well, next to them, denying ourselves the random sweet or a pat of butter doesn’t appear to be much. But then people begin to think: “Ah, well, I’ll drop every exterior mortification in favor of interior mortifications.” Yet the interior are by far the harder; they require far greater watchfulness to carry out. During the course of a long period like Advent or Lent, we can forget them much more quickly than we do our resolution to abstain from Desperate Housewives. And, since as human beings, we are made of both body and soul, our penitential practice is somewhat incomplete if we chasten not both the inner and outer man.

Fr. Beck reminds us to do both types of penance, while also telling us that God has provided ample opportunities this Advent to exercise the discipline of interior mortification. Indeed, the best penances, exterior or interior, are those which we have not chosen for ourselves. As Fr. Beck says, as long as we have chosen them for ourselves, even difficult penances can be carried out with relative ease. God, however, has fashioned for us penances precisely suited to our spiritual needs, whether in the form of an illness, a recalcitrant child, or an annoying coworker.

The best part of Fr. Beck’s article is his emphasis upon the importance of undertaking these more interior penances of Advent with just as much forethought and resolution as we would our more exterior Lenten penances. With interior penances, we must make the generous resolution, but God Himself will supply the occasion of acting upon our resolution. Since we don’t have the power to pick the times when our coworker will be petulant, we must watch constantly so as not to abandon the resolution we have made before God.

I recommend passing along this article to friends and family as a solid practical help in preparing for Advent, the solemn preparation for the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ. You can read this at AngelusOnline.org or if you are an Angelus print subscriber only.

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