This final week of Advent will find the holiday hustle turned up to full throttle, but in the midst of gatherings and celebrations, the German Jesuit Karl Rahner encourages us to find time to buck the trend in order the welcome the true “Christmas spirit”:

Have the courage to be alone. Only once you have really managed to do this, and have achieved it in a Christian way, can you hope to give the present of a heart filled with the Christmas spirit – in other words, a gently patient, courageously collected, softly tender heart – to those whom you are striving to love. This present is indeed something you should place under the Christmas tree, otherwise all other presents will simply be an unnecessary expense which could be incurred at any time of the year.  And so for once try to endure your own company for a while.  Perhaps you can find a room where you can be alone. Or you may know a lonely walk or a quiet church.  Don’t speak, then, not even with yourself nor with the other with whom we dispute and quarrel even when they are not there.  Wait. Listen. You must not keep quiet in this way simply in order to be able to speak about it later on.  You must enter into this silence in such a way as to be resolved never to leave it again.