Advent is a beautiful, holy and sacred season within the liturgical life of the Church. Throughout the centuries of Christendom (with records of Advent even going back to the 4th century), Advent has always been considered a mini Lent. Did you know that? Here's a great history of Advent throughout the centuries.
Advent season is a time of prayer, penance, and fasting so that come Christmas day, we can more fully participate in the joys of the Incarnation. We anticipate the coming of Christ and make ready our hearts through spiritual preparation. And our celebration of Christmas lasts for twelve days.
Christians are encourage to make spiritual resolutions such as offering more penances, spending more time in prayer, performing various fasts, and making more attempts to destroy our self-love by practicing love of neighbor through helping and serving others more. Have you thought of these things as we begin the Advent season?
Advent eclipsed
Many people have forgotten this aspect of Advent because this Church season has become eclipsed by a secular, consumeristic and materialistic version of Christmas and its preparations. As Catholics, the liturgical life of the Church revolves entirely around Christ and the various mysteries of His life and the saints that we celebrate all point us back towards Him. That is why we should truly strive to "sync" our life and celebrations more closely with the Church than the world. The world draws us away, or at the least, distracts us, from God and what is happening within the Church. For example, we see the necessary spiritual preparation for Christmas eclipsed by a more superficial preparation occuppied by things.
So why the Church liturgical cycle consisting of various seasons? According to this website which gives a thorough yet succinct explanation, the liturgical cycle has a beautiful purpose:
One of the chief ways that the Church teaches and reteaches the deposit of Faith is through its liturgical cycle.
[This is why we don't have just Easter day, but an entire Easter season. Same with Christmas, Lent and Advent, etc... The depth of the mysteries of Christ's life which we celebrate within the Church are so deep and penetrating that the Church takes time to plumb the depths of them]
The Church stretches out over a twelve-month period the divine things that are present in a condensed form in every single Mass. This distension of the mysteries over the course of ayear allows the faithful to appropriate, gradually and solemnly, the deeper meaning of their faith.
Here is a clear example to help you understand the movement of our Redemption as celebrated through the course of a year. It's listed with first the Church season, then what our focus is, and finally our spiritual disposition in accord with those mysteries of Christ's life that we're focusing on.
Advent season........Preparation for Christ's coming......Repentance
Christmastide (ending Epiphany).......Christ's birth.......Joy
Time after Epiphany (called Ordinary time in the new calendar).......Christ's preaching and public ministry
Septuagesima (not celebrated in the new calendar) (through the day before Ash Wedneday).......Fallen man's need for grace....... Repentance
Lent.......Crist's temptation in the wilderness; the events leading up to His death....... Repentance and conversion of life.
Passiontide (last two weeks of Lent including Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum right before Easter Sunday).......Christ's redemptive sufferings, Christ's institution of the priesthood and of the Mass; His betrayal and trial; his sufferings, death and burial....... Repentance, conversion and contrition for our sins.
Eastertide.......Christ's resurrection and ascension and the descend of the Holy Spirit (Pentacost feast falls within Eastertide season).......Joy
Time after Pentacost (called Ordinary time in the new calendar) (from Trinity Sunday up until day before first Sunday of Advent).......Life of the Church after Pentacost, Last Things, the Final Judgement at the end of time.......Joy, anxious anticipation, and holy fear.
I recently spoke with a few other mothers from our church, asking how they were celebrating Advent. I mentioned to one how difficult it is to fight the secular mentality and literally undo it in our heads after being brought up with years of essentially celebrating Christmas backwards with the secular world celebrating Christmas season from Black Friday to Christmas day, and then after Christmas day, done. She had shared in that same struggle, but encouraged me that they've slowly aligned their celebrating more closely to Holy Mother Church through the years.
So for us, it's baby steps and doing it a little at a time to reclaim Advent as Advent and Christmas as Christmas.
Things we're doing to reclaim the true Advent and Christmas seasons
- Putting up Advent decorations instead of Christmas ones.
Ok, so I'm a very simple person and calso a very practical one. So we put out the usual Advent decor like an Advent wreath, an empty manger awaiting the Child Jesus, and our version of an Advent calendar. Then I put up some evergreen decorations too and decorate that with purple ribbon. Advent-ish enough! The kids got super excited when I told them we were decorating for Advent, jumping up and down exclaiming "Baby Jesus is coming!!" We can learn so much from their childlike anticipation and excitement for Christ!
Making Jesus' manger a"bed of love" by filling it with hearts every time they do a sacrifice, prayer, or act of love for the coming Baby Jesus.
Joseph and Mary's journey to Bethlehem begins...
Our version of the Advent calendar...
- Avoiding overexposure to Christmas carols and Christmas stuff in general.
We don't play Christmas carols much in order not to be sick of them come Christmas day (which is how I've felt in the past). I'd really like for us to enjoy them throughout the real Christmas season. I'll still play them a little because they are fun and also help anticipate the coming of Baby Jesus, but we don't do overkill like the secular world. This is yet another reason we're happy we don't have cable TV because it's nothing but "buy, buy, buy!" and constant overkill of Christmas-themed programs and commercials. We have a television screen for movies but that's it.
- Sending out Christmas cards in the Christmas season (or closer to it)
- Focusing more in our spiritual preparation in various ways during Advent, both individually and as a family.
- We're following the Holy Heroes Advent Adventure. You can sign up for daily emails that include audio, videos, prayers and print-outs. Another awesome feature of this is that...it's FREE!
- Making Christmas goodies during the Christmas season (so within the 12 days after Christmas); during Advent we're celebrating St. Nicholas day (Dec 6) so we'll make St. Nicholas cocoa then and give out some jars to people.
- Reading books that relate to Advent in the Advent season and then to Christmas in the Christamas season. I just check most of them out from the library; we'll do the same with movies. (I recommend this site for book lists relating to the liturgical calendar and seasons).
- We just completed our "Advent Clean-out." It's a day we take to simplify a bit and get rid of extra clutter, clothes, toys, books and the like. We didn't really have a whole lot to do, honestly. I think I'm terrifyingly good at throwing things out and not hanging on to things we don't need or aren't practical.... I can't figure out if this is good or bad... So far though, it's worked to our advantage and I haven't regretted getting rid of anything yet. I guess that's a good sign!
- Putting up Christmas decorations and lights some time during the week before the actual Christmas day. The week prior to Christmas is when we start transitioning to celebrating Christmas because it's hard to do everything in a day. But those Advent evergreens...they become Christmas with the switch of a ribbon from purple to a plaid red and lights! We put up our tree too. The Nativity scene goes up but not Baby Jesus or the kings and shepherds yet. This year Bill suggested we put it up in our prayer room for a clearer link to the true meaning of Christmas when we see the gifts on Christmas morning...plus there's really not a spot for it in our living room (you'd have to see our house to believe it). Then of course, Christmas day we go to Mass and celebrate with family! This is the whole reason for Christmas! :)
Obviously, we still shop for Christmas gifts and the like; and when people invite us to parties or Christmas-related events, we'll still go. There's always that prudent balance of living in the world, but not of it.
Honestly, I'd like to celebrate some of the Church's feast days within the Christmas season, including Epiphany. I know some families open another gift on the feast of Epiphany, which is neat. That's why I like talking to other moms and ask about their family's traditions (or browse on blogs) - you can collect many great ideas! There's also the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr, and the Holy Innocents. But we haven't gotten to that point yet (I haven't even thought about how I would want celebrate those feast days because there's so much you can do during this time of the Church year). However, I know in time more traditions will be added in to help live more in accord with the Church year. But again, baby steps. And we've already come a way since when we first got married! Praise God!
With that being said