Advent blog: Why Advent? What does Advent mean to me?

Advent has always been a special time to me...a time of preparation and anticipation...in both the religious and secular sense. Growing up we didn't put up Christmas decorations the day (or weekend) after Thanksgiving. We put out the Advent wreath with its purple and pink candles, and we patiently waited each week to light one more candle. After Mass on the fourth Sunday of Advent we would decorate for Christmas. In my mom's household of origin they wouldn't decorate until Christmas Eve...sometimes Santa would bring and decorate the tree. This frames the secular part of the holiday in context with the religious part. We need to wait and anticipate. Christmas begins on Christmas and ends at Epiphany. Maybe it is fitting that my husband's birthday is Epiphany.

Advent has changed a little for me as I formed a household with my husband 16 years ago. We needed to blend traditions. David decorates the weekend after Thanksgiving. He starts listening to Christmas music. I put out the Advent wreath and tend to savor the Advent carols at church and the winter music more than Christmas music. I buy presents and wrap and ship them, but that is part of the "preparation" for me. Each week I say a prayer for the world as I light the appropriate candle after church service. On fourth Advent I light all of them, and the center candle. Then David switches the candles out to red/white/green Christmas candles. I try to reinforce that the 12 days of Christmas begin on Christmas and that Christmas isn't over until Epiphany. The tree doesn't come down until then. Sometimes I do 12 days of Christmas presents, with one gift to unwrap per day. The Christmas music and decorations stay through Epiphany.

At the time of the winter solstice, it is easy to get caught up in the darkness outside. It is easy to get caught up in secular Christmas, which seems to start earlier each year. It is easy to be cynical about it all. But Advent challenges us to "joyful anticipation." I am not always successful in getting there, but I do make an attempt. So while many people wrap up their "30 days of thanks" - nothing wrong with it, I have done it before - I am starting my Advent blog. It will have a different title/topic each day. Some days will be longer and deeper than others. It will be my discipline for "joyful anticipation." While it will be a road you are welcome to travel with me, not all of it will be "churchy" or "religious" or "Christian" but some of it may be as I reflect on the season.

For those not from a Roman/Anglican/Christian framework, Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas. Stories of the annunciation (Mary learning she was to be the mother of Emmanuel, God with us), God's freeing his people from slavery, and the coming of a savior are told during the readings/lessons at church. Each week a candle is lit in anticipation and to mark the time. Three of the candles are purple (or blue - but that's a whole other story), and one is pink. The pink candle is lit the third week. On Christmas Eve the center candle is lit. Sometimes this is the Paschal candle (the light of Christ). During Advent the altar is decorated in blue, at Christmas Eve we use the celebration linens (white).

One definition of Advent is: The word Advent derives from the Latin word meaning coming. The Lord is coming. We may reflect that every year at this time we celebrate his coming , so that in a sense we can lose the feeling of expectancy and joyful anticipation, because at the end of the season, everything seems to return to pretty much the same routine. If that is the case, then our preparation may have been lacking and we have therefore been robbed of much of the true meaning of this season. During Advent we recall the history of God's people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. This gives us a background for the present. Today we can reflect on the past track record of God and so begin to understand what it means to us now for the sake of what is to come, in our own future and that of our world.