A kind reader has asked me to write about Advent and to share some details about the ways in which my family celebrates this beautiful season. I’m grateful for her request, because it’s given me a chance to look with fresh eyes at something I have celebrated all my life. I’ve never known Christmas without the solemn lighting of candles on the Advent wreath during each of the four Sundays preceding Christmas. Even so, the gifts of Advent are something that can become lost to me in December’s busy-ness if I do not slow down, quiet my heart, and spiral deeper into the real meaning of this holy season. What follows is not meant to be prescriptive; I only hope to offer a small glimpse into one family’s way of keeping Christmas.
For readers who may be unfamiliar with Advent, it literally means “coming”. It is the coming of Jesus and the miracle of his incarnation that we are focusing on anew each year when we observe Advent. For the church (mine happens to be Episcopal, but many Christians celebrate this season similarly), the fourth Sunday before Christmas marks the beginning of a new church year. Time in the liturgical year is not random; it is rhythmic and predictable. And yet, this comforting cycle of days is never monotonous, never stale, as the feasts and fasts of each new church year continue to call us to a deeper relationship with our spiritual center, which is God.
To understand why we observe the season of Advent, we must have some understanding of the cycle of feasts and fasts in the church year.
The church year, called the liturgical year, is really a journey through the life and teachings of Jesus as we read and study the New Testament Gospel. We begin with a solemn time of waiting and wonder during the four weeks of Advent, which leads us to the joyous celebration of Christmas and Epiphany lasting for several weeks during January. In the springtime, we follow Jesus all the way to the cross and His glorious resurrection as the Gospel story culminates in Jerusalem during Lent and Eastertide. Finally, during the summer and autumn months, we finish the liturgical year with the long season after Pentecost, a time when we dig deeper into Jesus’ teachings and ask ourselves what His sacrificial and redeeming love means to our modern Christian lives.
Though the Gospel and proclaiming “The Good News” is central to our study and worship on Sunday, we do not focus solely on The New Testament. Woven into the yearly cycle of daily biblical readings are Old Testament and Epistle passages, too. In the Episcopal Church, we read a very large portion of the Bible each year, and continue to prayerfully study the Holy Scriptures in this pattern following a three-year cycle of readings. This cycle of readings is available free of charge online here, and is also found in The Book of Common Prayer, the main prayer book used by the Episcopal Church. Another very good resource is The Divine Hours, a daily series of readings and prayers compiled by Phyllis Tickle that follow the liturgical calendar. Finally, I also enjoy Forward Day By Day, a lovely little book of daily meditations written anonymously by laity and clergy every month. I’m always intrigued by the writings of these authors, who have nothing-- not even a little fame-- to gain for their writings. I treasure this unselfishly offered spiritual food. You can read them each day, free of charge here.
Over the next few days, I'll be posting a series of short articles, sort of a little Advent primer. I hope you'll find some piece of it helpful on your spiritual journey during this Advent season.
Coming next: The Advent Wreath |
