Advent – The Forgotten Season
By Mark Griffin
The season of Advent is approaching. The term ‘Advent’ comes from the Latin word ‘adventus’, meaning ‘coming’. Each year, as we journey through this season, we are encouraged to pray and prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord.
St Teresa of Calcutta once said, ‘Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself”.
It seems to me that over recent years, we are alarmingly losing focus on Advent as a season of preparation and are treating it more like an early, long Christmas party. So often now we see Christmas festivities begin in late November or early December and continue throughout the Advent season.
By Boxing Day, the decorations come down and the sales begin and, sadly for many of us, Christmas has become a distant memory. Why does this happen? What other season of the Church do we celebrate for four weeks leading up to it, at the expense of the season itself?
This coming Advent, I challenge you and your family to be more intentional about making the most of this beautiful season. Just like we would want to clean and prepare our home in anticipation of the arrival of a dear friend or family member, so too the Church recognises the need for us to clean and prepare our heart for the coming of Our Saviour.
There are many Advent traditions that families can embrace throughout the season. The Advent Wreath is a tradition that incorporates the burning of three violet candles (symbolizing penance, preparation and sacrifice) and one rose candle (symbolizing ‘rejoicing’ along the journey).
The candles are placed in a circular wreath of evergreen plants, symbolizing the eternity of God and the everlasting life which he offers to us. Traditionally, there are also prickly holly leaves that remind us of Christ’s crown of thorns and red berries to remind us of the blood He spilled for us.
Another popular devotion is the Jesse Tree. This devotion draws to mind the ancestors of Jesus, branching out into a tree. New ornaments representing descendants are placed onto the tree daily, with accompanying scripture readings and reflections. The tree can later be decorated further to become the Christmas tree at the completion of Advent.
A devotion that is observed in the octave (eight days) immediately preceding Christmas is the reciting of the ‘O’ Antiphons. Each antiphon highlights a title of Our Lord (eg. ‘O Wisdom’, ‘O Root of Jesse’, ‘O Key of David’) and they also refer to Isaiah’s prophecy of the coming messiah.
In addition to these Advent traditions, there are many beautiful feasts throughout early December that are often forgotten in the pre-Christmas rush— St Nicholas (6 Dec); Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (8 Dec); Our Lady of Guadalupe (12 Dec); St Lucy (13 Dec), to name a few.
This year, rather than getting caught up in the secular chaos of the season, let us be intentional while preparing for Our Lord at Christmas, making sure that our heart is ready and waiting to receive Him.