Preparing for Advent

 We are about to begin the season of the church year which seems to be overwhelmed by secularism i.e. the Secular Christmas.  That would be the season of Advent which is a time to prepare for the coming of the Christ Child.  Christmas seems to be in full swing now with Christmas carols playing in the stores and Santa Claus parades in every corner of the land. 

I am proposing something which is probably way out in left field (to use a secular metaphor).  I am proposing that we spend a bit of time preparing for Advent.  In case you are wondering, Advent begins this coming Sunday.  We will be lighting the first candle in the Advent Wreath.  I also hope we will be singing some Advent carols – yes there are actually Advent carols such as O Come O Come Emanuel; or, Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming.   

So, what does it mean to prepare for the season of preparation?  The first thing is to understand, as best we can, what Christmas is actually about.   For me this is best summed up by the carol, Love Came Down at Christmas by Christina Rossetti.  Here are the lyrics:

1. Love came down at Christmas,
   Love all lovely, Love divine;
   Love was born at Christmas,
   Star and angels gave the sign.
2. Worship we the Godhead,
   Love incarnate, Love divine;
   Worship we our Jesus:
   But wherewith for sacred sign?
3. Love shall be our token,
   Love be yours and love be mine,
   Love to God and all men,
   Love for plea and gift and sign.

Here is the link for a beautiful reedition of the carol, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UodfFV3A3M

You may be protesting that I am doing just what I object to – jumping over Advent directly to Christmas with this carol.  However, what I am trying to show is that the essence of Christmas is love.  To get ready to prepare for Christmas we must prepare to welcome love within us.  We cannot be ready to receive the love that is born in a stable in Bethlehem unless we begin to truly love ourselves.  That is easier said than done. 

How do we, then, begin to do that?  I received a missive from Kathleen Wiley, a wise person who spoke about the qualities of love proposed by Erich Fromm in The Art of Loving. According to Wiley, Fromm states these are giving, care, responsibility, respect, and knowledge.  When I read this, I had not planned to connect this to Advent but that seems to be where the spirit has taken me this morning. 

What I would like to do is to explore each of these themes during Advent to see what they mean when applied to loving ourselves.  At this point, I am not sure what this idea will reveal as I have not tried to do this before.  So, I am very interested to see what this will reveal as I journey through Advent.  So, with this, I am preparing for the Advent season.  I hope you will join me.

Blessings  

 

 

 

It’s Not Christmas Yet

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 25^th.  The Christmas season in the church year goes from December 25^th 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.