Denver, Colo., Nov 22, 2019 / 11:30 am (CNA).- Advent starts this year on Sunday, Dec. 1. Most Catholics, even those who don’t often go to Mass, know that Advent involves a wreath with some candles, possibly a “calendar” of hidden chocolates, and untangling strings of Christmas lights.
But Advent is more than that. Here are a few points that might help you have a great Advent this year:
What is Advent?
The people of Israel waited generations for the promised Messiah to arrive. Their poetry, their songs and stories, and their religious worship focused on an awaited savior, whom God had promised, over and over, would come to them to set them free from captivity, and to lead them to the fulfillment of all that God had chosen for them.
Israel longed for a Messiah, and John the Baptist, who came before Jesus, promised that the Messiah was coming, and could be found in Jesus Christ, God’s son, the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
Advent is a season in the Church’s life intended to renew the experience of waiting, and longing, for the Messiah. Though Christ has already come into the world, the Church invites us to renew our desire for the Lord more deeply into our lives, and to renew our desire for Christ’s triumphant second coming into the world.
Advent is the time in which we prepare for Christmas, the memorial of Jesus Christ being born into the world. Preparations are practical, like decorating a tree or stringing lights, but they’re also intended to be spiritual.
During Advent, we’re invited to enter more frequently into silence, into prayer and reflection, into Scripture, and into the sacramental life of the Church, all to prepare for celebrating Christmas.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the goal of Advent is to make present for ourselves and our families the “ancient expectancy of the Messiah…by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior’s first coming.”
Cool. So, it’s like 4 weeks long?
Advent is a slightly different length each year. It starts four Sundays before Christmas. But because Christmas is on a fixed date, and could fall on different days of the week, Advent can be as short as four weeks and a day, or as long as five weeks. Christmas is on a Wednesday in 2019, so Advent will be 4 weeks and two days long.
Ok, my priest keeps talking about Advent being the “new year.” But Advent is before Christmas. What’s the deal?
The Church’s feasts and celebrations run on a year-long cycle, which we call the “liturgical year,” because it’s a year of liturgy. The “liturgical year” starts on the first Sunday of Advent. So it’s a new liturgical year when Advent starts. But the Church also uses the ordinary calendar, so it would probably be a bit weird to have a “New Year’s Eve” party the night before Advent starts.
Still, though, Catholicism has a lot of weird feasts, so if you have a “New Liturgical Eve” party, invite me.
And, Advent wreaths. Where do they come from? Is it true that they’re just pagan wreaths borrowed by the Church?
The Catholic Church has been using advent wreaths since the Middle Ages. Lighting candles as we prepare for Christmas reminds us that Christ is the light of the world. And the evergreen boughs remind us of new and eternal life in Christ, the eternal son of the Father.
It is definitely true that Germanic people were lighting up candle wreaths in wintertime long before the Gospel arrive in their homeland. Because, well, candle wreaths in winter are beautiful and warm. That a Christian symbol emerged from that tradition is an indication that the Gospel can be expressed through the language, customs, and symbols of cultures that come to believe that Christ Jesus is Lord.
One candle is pink. Why?
There are four candles on the Advent wreath. Three are purple, and they are first lit on the first, second, and fourth Sundays of Advent. The pink candle is lit on the third Sunday of Advent, which we call Gaudete Sunday. On that Sunday, in addition to the pink candle, the priest wears a pink vestment, which he might refer to as rose. But rose, from this writer’s perspective, is a shade of pink.
Gaudete is a word that means “Rejoice!” and we rejoice on Gaudete Sunday, because we are halfway through Advent. Some people have the custom of throwing “Gaudete” parties, and this is also a traditional day on which Christmas carolers begin caroling door-to-door.
The three purple candles are sometimes said to represent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the three spiritual disciplines that are key to a fruitful Advent.
I like the Advent calendars that have chocolate in them. Do you know where they come from?
No. But I like them too. The chocolate is usually pretty waxy, but still. I think the idea is to build up anticipation by having only one little treat each day. But sometimes I eat them all in the first week. Oops.
Is it wrong to sing Christmas songs during Advent?
Wrong? No, not immoral or anything. Liturgically inappropriate? Totally. Plus, there are a lot of great Advent hymns and songs: “O Come O Come Emmanuel,” “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “O Come Divine Messiah,” “Come Thou Fount,” “Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding”
Wouldn’t you rather sing those than Rudolph? Or the theologically insufferable “Mary, Did you know?”
When should we put up our tree?
Look, when to put up the tree is a decision that families should decide on their own, through time-honored holiday traditions like, say, arguing about when to put up the tree. I’m not getting in the middle of that.
Some people put up their tree and decorate it on the first Sunday of Advent, to make a big transformation in their home and get them into “preparing for Christmas mode.” That seems cool.
Some people put up the tree on the first Sunday of Advent, put on lights the next Sunday, ornaments the next, and decorate it more and more as they get closer to Christmas. That seems cool.
Some people put up the tree on Gaudete Sunday, as a kind of rejoicing, and decorate it in the weeks between Gaudate and Christmas. That seems cool
Basically, as you can tell, I’m not going to take a side on that question.
What does the word Advent mean?
Oh right. I forgot to mention that, I’m glad you asked. Advent comes from the Latin ad+venire, which means, essentially “To come to,” or “to come toward.” Ad+venire is the root of the Latin “Adventus” which means “arrival.”
So Advent is the season of arrival: The arrival of Christ in our hearts, in the world, and into God’s extraordinary plan for our salvation.
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Hooray! No matter what anyone thinks of Pres. Donald Trump, it is his election to the Presidency that gave state leaders the power to finally establish common-sense laws that protect girls and women.
I think that those who are trying, often with good intentions, to “protect the preference” of men and women who experience gender dysphoria, should instead advocate legitimate research into what has caused the gender confusion and find humane and effective therapies to correct the situations, eliminate the confusion and anguish, and give peace to the sufferers about their sexuality.
As someone who experiences inappropriate desire for eating too much junk food, I don’t want someone to tell me that, ‘You’re OK, you’re just a big, beautiful woman and it’s all the purveyors of thinness who are wrong!”, I would rather be helped with establishing better eating patterns and learning how to resist unhealthy cravings.” This approach will lead to health and hopefully a longer life, while the “You’re beautiful just the way you are!” approach will eventually result in disability, disease, and an early death!
Thank you Sharon, I appreciate your compassionate response. 💖 I too am for the protection of women and girls. But id like to advocate for some transwomen only because of this. We are compassionate Christians called to love one another. Regardless of how we feel about the ethics or if we agree with their ideology… many of These trans are often young people who are bullied horribly and often killed or unalive themselves. They are the targets of violence from men even more than we as ordinary women are, and experience SA, abuse, bigotry, just as we women do. They are still vulnerable young people. Science has studied the brains of gay men and gender non conforming men and found them to have the same brain patterns as a woman. So in many cases even if we don’t see them as a woman, they “feel” like a woman if that makes sense. And that still makes them vulnerable to violence. We are in a crisis of male violence against women. However statistically, pretty much none of that is from trans men or gay men. It’s from straight men. I respect your opinions on trans especially bc I understand that ppl have been radicalized by what I respectfully would call “propaganda”. But I understand the right wing Christian church agenda and they have very specific institutions regarding gender that they want to keep in place. That’s fine. I don’t disagree at all with keeping men out of women’s bathrooms! But I’ve never had a man come into the ladies room personally. And I think that a man with bad intentions would just go in anyway regardless of the rules. If he wants to commit violence he’s not looking to do anything legal anyway. But I do just want to mention that I understand ppl think trans is a mental illness. I understand why they think that, i thought that myself. But then, I’m trying to figure this out, because – trans aka ppl who identify with Opposing gender have been around since ancient times. It’s like, 10 percent of ppl are born gay or something (as far as we know). Even in Native American societies they were here. They lived in harmony with everyone- they didn’t need surgery or hormones bc they were accepted for who they were. until white Christian colonists murdered them for being sinful. I honestly felt that was wrong to do but that’s just me . The ones that promised to conform ended up k1llimg themselves. So I’m torn about this bc if they had just left them alone it would have avoided the suffering. I wonder if bc of our society that makes trouble for them. And maybe they would need surgery of hormones of our society accepted them fully as their own thing. In ancient societies there could be many genders. Either way, it’s such a tiny percentage of the population that doesn’t hurt anyone. They would have you believe they are knocking on your door trying to multilateral your children but it’s just not true. How many trans ppl are trying to ruin your life or your friends families? I know this is unpopular but as a Christian I just wish we would leave them alone unless they are doing something criminal. And give them support so that they can just exist… I’m not for violence and too many of them are being murdered, and it’s always by Christians sadly, because of the rhetoric that they shouldn’t be allowed to “exist”. They are here to stay whether we like it or not! We can’t murder them all so what do we do? Accept and love them, I think. But that’s just my humble opinion. Love to you my sister in Christ 💖