Are you tired of Christmas yet? The Santa Claus Parades are over. I haven’t been in a mall for some time but I’m sure that Christmas music has been playing for quite some time now. Outside Christmas decorations have sprouted up around her and I’m sure in your neighbourhood. Christmas adds have been playing on TV and social media - I think the earliest one I saw this year weas right after Thanksgiving (which for the non-Canadian readers is the second Monday in October – not November).
I know it is pretty much a lost cause but it
calls out for an establishment of a secular Advent just as there is now a
firmly entrenched secular Christmas season.
Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas which, believe it or not,
does not end on midnight on December 25th. The Christmas season in the church year goes from
December 25th to Epiphany when the Wise Men (they were not kings) arrive
at the stable in Bethlehem to worship the new born King of the Jews.
It is a time of preparation for Christmas. Here is a reflection on preparation form the
Society of St. John the Evangelist:
Preparation
Gazing not at Christ’s first coming in our
midst, but straining toward the horizon for his second coming, we enter into
this season of preparation. But Advent preparation is not just about planning a
party towards the end of December. The expectant waiting and preparation of
Advent is time to do the soul’s work of conditioning for ultimate things,
because eternity is on the horizon. Br. Todd Blackham, SSJE
To help
you prepare one good way is to listen to an Advent Carol rather than a Christmas
carol. Here is one of my favourites with
a link: O Come O Come Emmanuel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xtpJ4Q_Q-4.
May you
have a blessed Advent on your journey to Christmas.
I acknowledge that we are on Turtle Island, the original
homelands of the many Indigenous Nations who have lived since time immemorial
in Canada or as many First and other Indigenous Nations
All of the lands in Canada are the subject of up
to one hundred Treaties signed by the Crown in the right of Canada with these
Nations. I will only mention a few of the Nations: the
Cree, Ojibway, Blackfoot, Blood, Dakota, Mig M'ag, Huron, Inuit and these lands
are also home to the Metis people.
No comments:
Post a Comment