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The Season of Advent
Anticipation and Hope
The Colors of
Advent 
The Spirit of
Advent Evergreens and The Advent
WreathCelebrating
Advent An Advent
Reflection Music for AdventAdvent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent, with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown.
Historically, the primary sanctuary color of Advent is Purple. This is the color of penitence and fasting as well as the color of royalty to welcome the Advent of the King. Purple is still used in some traditions (for example Roman Catholic). The purple of Advent is also the color of suffering used during Lent and Holy Week. This points to an important connection between Jesus’ birth and death. The nativity, the Incarnation, cannot be separated from the crucifixion. The purpose of Jesus’ coming into the world, of the "Word made flesh" and dwelling among us, is to reveal God and His grace to the world through Jesus’ life and teaching, but also through his suffering, death, and resurrection. To reflect this emphasis, originally Advent was a time of penitence and fasting, much as the Season of Lent and so shared the color of Lent.
In the four
weeks of Advent the third Sunday came to be a time of rejoicing that the
fasting was almost over (in some traditions it is called Gaudete Sunday, from
the Latin word for "rejoice"). The shift from the purple of the
Season to pink or rose for the third Sunday Advent candles reflected this
lessening emphasis on penitence as attention turned more to celebration of the
season.
In recent
times, however, Advent has undergone a shift in emphasis, reflected in a change
of colors used in many churches. Except in the Eastern churches, the
penitential aspect of the Season has been almost totally replaced by an
emphasis on hope and anticipation.
In many churches the third Sunday remains the Sunday of Joy marked by pink or rose. However, most Protestant churches now use blue to distinguish the Season of Advent from Lent. Royal Blue is sometimes used as a symbol of royalty. Some churches use Bright Blue to symbolize the night sky, the anticipation of the impending announcement of the King’s coming, or to symbolize the waters of Genesis 1, the beginning of a new creation. Some churches, including some Catholic churches, use blue violet to preserve the traditional use of purple while providing a visual distinction between the purple or red violet of Lent.
This does
not eliminate any sense of penitence from the Season. With the focus on
the Advent or Coming of Jesus, especially in anticipating His Second Advent,
there remains a need for preparation for that coming. Most liturgical churches
incorporate confessional prayers into the services of Advent that relate to a
sense of unworthiness as we anticipate His Coming. It is appropriate even
in more traditional services of worship to incorporate confessional prayers as
part of the anticipation and preparation of the Season.
With the
shift to blue for Advent in most non-Catholic churches, some churches retain
pink among the Advent colors, but use it on the Fourth Sunday of Advent.
It still remains associated with Joy, but is sometimes used as the climax of
the Advent Season on the last Sunday before Christmas.
Red and
Green are more secular colors of Christmas. Although they derive from older
European practices of using evergreens and holly to symbolize ongoing life and
hope that Christ’s birth brings into a cold world, they are never used as
liturgical colors during Advent since those colors have other uses in other
parts of the church year (see Colors
of the Church Year).
The Meaning of "Advent"
The word Advent
means "coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season
is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and
the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus,
Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is
celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of
creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now
participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. Scripture reading for
Advent will reflect this emphasis on the Second Advent, including themes of
accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment on sin, and the hope of
eternal life.
In this
double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey
of individuals and a congregation, as they affirm that Christ has come, that He
is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. That
acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising
from a profound sense that we live "between the times" and are called
to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God’s people. So, as the
church celebrates God’s inbreaking into history in the Incarnation, and
anticipates a future consummation to that history for which "all creation
is groaning awaiting its redemption," it also confesses its own
responsibility as a people commissioned to "love the Lord your God with all
your heart" and to "love your neighbor as yourself."
Advent is
marked by a spirit of expectation, of anticipation, of preparation, of longing.
There is a yearning for deliverance from the evils of the world, first
expressed by Israelite slaves in Egypt as they cried out from their bitter
oppression. It is the cry of those who have experienced the tyranny of
injustice in a world under the curse of sin, and yet who have hope of
deliverance by a God who has heard the cries of oppressed slaves and brought
deliverance!
It is that
hope, however faint at times, and that God, however distant He sometimes seems,
which brings to the world the anticipation of a King who will rule with truth
and justice and righteousness over His people and in His creation. It is that
hope that once anticipated, and now anticipates anew, the reign of an Anointed
One, a Messiah, who will bring peace and justice and righteousness to the
world.
Part of the
expectation also anticipates a judgment on sin and a calling of the world to
accountability before God. We long for God to come and set the world right!
Yet, as the prophet Amos warned, the expectation of a coming judgment at the
"Day of the Lord" may not be the day of light that we might want,
because the penetrating light of God’s judgment on sin will shine just as
brightly on God’s people.
Because of
this important truth, especially in the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Season
of Advent has been a time of fasting and penitence for sins similar to the
Season of Lent. However, a different emphasis for the season of Advent has
gradually unfolded in much of the rest of the church. The season of Advent has
come to be celebrated more in terms of expectation or anticipation. Yet, the
anticipation of the Coming of the Messiah throughout the Old Testament and
Judaism was not in connection with remembrance of sins. Rather, it was in the
context of oppression and injustice, the longing for redemption, not from
personal guilt and sin but from the systemic evil of the world expressed in
evil empires and tyrants. It is in that sense that all creation groans for its
redemption as we witness the evil that so dominates our world (Rom 8:18-25).
Of course,
there is the problem of longing for vindication from an evil world when we are contributors
to that evil. This is the power of the images of Amos when he warns about
longing for the "Day of the Lord" that will really be a day of
darkness (Amos 5:18-20). Still, even with Amos’ warning the time of Advent is
one of expectation and anticipation, a longing for God's actions to restore all
things and vindicate the righteous. This is why during Advent we as Christians
also anticipate the Second Coming as a twin theme of the season. So, while some
church traditions focus on penitence during Advent, and there remains a place
for that, the spirit of that expectation from the Old Testament is better
captured with a joyous sense of expectancy. Rather than a time of mourning and
fasting, Advent is celebrated as a time of joy and happiness as we await the
coming of the King. (see Can We
Sing Christmas Carols During Advent?)
There will
be time enough during the rest of the journey through the Church Year to
remember our sins. It begins in Epiphany when we hear about the brotherhood of
the Kingdom, and realize our failure to effect it. Then as we move toward and
through Lent we realize that the coming of Jesus served more to lay bare our
own sin than it did to vindicate our righteousness. There will be time to shed
Peter's bitter tears as we realize that what started with such possibility and
expectation has apparently ended in such failure.
It is only
as we experience that full cycle, beginning with unbridled joy in Advent that
slowly fades into the realization of what we have done with and to the Christ,
that the awful reality of Good Friday can have its full impact. And in that
realization we can finally be ready to hear the Good News on Resurrection
Sunday! That is the journey that the disciples took. And so there is value in
taking the same journey beginning with the anticipation and joy of Advent!
So, we
celebrate with gladness the great promise in the Advent, yet knowing that there
is also a somber tone as the theme of threat is added to the theme of promise.
This is reflected in some of the Scripture readings for Advent, in which there
is a strong prophetic tone of accountability and judgment on sin. But this is
also faithful to the role of the Coming King who comes to rule, save, and judge
the world.
Because of
the dual themes of threat and promise, Advent is a time of preparation that is
marked by prayer. While Lent
is characterized by fasting and a spirit of penitence, Advent’s prayers are
prayers of humble devotion and commitment, prayers of submission, prayers for
deliverance, prayers from those walking in darkness who are awaiting and
anticipating a great light (Isa 9)!
The spirit
of Advent is expressed well in the parable of the bridesmaids who are anxiously
awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom (Matt 25:1-13). There is profound joy at
the Bridegroom’s expected coming. And yet a warning of the need for preparation
echoes through the parable. But even then, the prayer of Advent is still:
Come, O Come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel!
And ransom captive Israel!
The
beginning of Advent is a time for the hanging of the green, decoration
of the church with evergreen wreaths, boughs, or trees that help to symbolize
the new and everlasting life brought through Jesus the Christ. Some churches
have a special weekday service, or the first Sunday evening of Advent, or even
the first Sunday morning of Advent, in which the church is decorated and the
Advent wreath put in place. This service is most often primarily of music,
especially choir and hand bells, and Scripture reading, along with an
explanation of the various symbols as they are placed in the sanctuary.
The Advent wreath is an increasingly popular
symbol of the beginning of the Church year in many churches as well as homes.
It is a circular evergreen wreath (real or artificial) with five candles, four
around the wreath and one in the center. Since the wreath is symbolic and a
vehicle to tell the Christmas story, there are various ways to understand the
symbolism. The exact meaning given to the various aspects of the wreath is not
as important as the story to which it invites us to listen, and participate.
The
circle of the wreath reminds us of God Himself, His eternity and endless
mercy, which has no beginning or end. The green of the wreath speaks of
the hope that we have in God, the hope of newness, of renewal, of eternal life.
Candles symbolize the light of God coming into the world through the
birth of His son. The four outer candles represent the period of waiting
during the four Sundays of Advent, which themselves symbolize the four
centuries of waiting between the prophet Malachi and the birth of Christ.
The
colors of the candles vary with different traditions, but there are
usually three purple or blue candles, corresponding to the sanctuary colors of
Advent, and one pink or rose candle. One of the purple candles is lighted the
first Sunday of Advent, a Scripture is read, a short devotional or reading is
given, and a prayer offered. On subsequent Sundays, previous candles are
relighted with an additional one lighted. The pink candle is usually lighted on
the third Sunday of Advent. However, different churches or traditions light the
pink candle on different Sundays depending on the symbolism used (see above on Colors of
Advent). In Churches that use a Service of the Nativity, it is
often lighted on the fourth Sunday of Advent, the final Sunday before
Christmas.
The
light of the candles itself becomes an important symbol of the season.
The light reminds us that Jesus is the light of the world that comes into the
darkness of our lives to bring newness, life, and hope. It also reminds us that
we are called to be a light to the world as we reflect the light of God's grace
to others (Isa 42:6). The progression in the lighting of the candles symbolizes
the various aspects of our waiting experience. As the candles are lighted over
the four week period, it also symbolizes the darkness of fear and hopelessness
receding and the shadows of sin falling away as more and more light is shed
into the world. The flame of each new candle reminds the worshippers that
something is happening, and that more is yet to come. Finally, the light that
has come into the world is plainly visible as the Christ candle is lighted at
Christmas, and worshippers rejoice over the fact that the promise of long ago
has been realized.
The
first candle is traditionally the candle of Expectation or Hope
(or in some traditions, Prophecy). This draws attention to the anticipation of
the coming of an Anointed One, a Messiah, that weaves its way like a golden
thread through Old Testament history. As God’s people were abused by power
hungry kings, led astray by self-centered prophets, and lulled into apathy by
half-hearted religious leaders, there arose a longing among some for God to
raise up a new king who could show them how to be God’s people. They yearned
for a return of God’s dynamic presence in their midst.
And
so, God revealed to some of the prophets that indeed He would not leave His
people without a true Shepherd. While they expected a new earthly king, their
expectations fell far short of God’s revelation of Himself in Christ. And yet,
the world is not yet fully redeemed. So, we again with expectation, with
hope, await God’s new work in history, the second Advent, in which He will
again reveal Himself to the world. And we understand in a profound sense that
the best, the highest of our expectations will fall far short of what our
Lord’s Second Advent will reveal!
The
remaining three candles of Advent may be associated with different
aspects of the Advent story in different churches, or even in different years.
Usually they are organized around characters or themes as a way to unfold the
story and direct attention to the celebrations and worship in the season. So,
the sequence for the remaining three Sundays might be Bethlehem, Shepherds,
Angels. Or Love, Joy, Peace. Or John the Baptist, Mary, the Magi. Or the
Annunciation, Proclamation, Fulfillment. Whatever sequence is used, the
Scripture readings, prayers, lighting of the candles, the participation of
worshipers in the service, all are geared to unfolding the story of redemption
through God’s grace in the Incarnation.
The
third candle, usually for the Third Sunday of Advent, is traditionally
Pink or Rose, and symbolizes Joy at the soon Advent of the Christ.
It marks a shift from the more solemn tone of the first two Sundays of Advent
that focus on Preparation and Hope, to a more joyous atmosphere of anticipation
and expectancy. Sometimes the colors of the sanctuary and vestments are also
changed to Rose for this Sunday. As noted above, in some churches the pink
Advent candle is used on the fourth Sunday to mark the joy at the impending
Nativity of Jesus.
Whatever
sequence is adopted for these Sundays, the theme of Joy can still be the focus
for the pink candle. For example, when using the third Sunday to commemorate
the visit of the Magi the focus can be on the Joy of worshipping the new found
King. Or the Shepherds as the symbol for the third Sunday brings to mind the
joy of the proclamation made to them in the fields, and the adoration expressed
as they knelt before the Child at the manager. If used on the fourth Sunday of
Advent, it can symbolize the Joy in fulfilled hope.
The
center candle is white and is called the Christ Candle. It
is traditionally lighted on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. However, since many
Protestant churches do not have services on those days, many light it on the
Sunday preceding Christmas, with all five candles continuing to be lighted in
services through Epiphany
(Jan 6). The central location of the Christ Candle reminds us that the
incarnation is the heart of the season, giving light to the world.
Celebrating Advent
Advent
is one of the few Christian festivals that can be observed in the home as well
as at church. In its association with Christmas, Advent is a natural time
to involve children in activities at home that directly connect with worship at
church. In the home an Advent wreath is often placed on the dining table
and the candles lighted at meals, with Scripture readings preceding the
lighting of the candles, especially on Sunday. A new candle is lighted each
Sunday during the four weeks, and then the same candles are lighted each meal
during the week. In this context, it provides the opportunity for family
devotion and prayer together, and helps teach the Faith to children, especially
if they are involved in reading the daily Scriptures.
It
is common in many homes to try to mark the beginning of Advent in other ways as
well, for the same purpose of instruction in the faith. Some families decorate
the house for the beginning of Advent, or bake special cookies or treats, or
simply begin to use table coverings for meals. An Advent Calendar is a
way to keep children involved in the entire season. There are a wide
variety of Advent calendars, but usually they are simply a card or poster with
windows that can be opened, one each day of Advent, to reveal some symbol or
picture associated with the Old Testament story leading up to the birth of
Jesus. One unique and specialized Advent calendar that can be used either
in the home or the sanctuary is a Jesse
Tree. (We have available an online Advent calendar with devotionals
for each day of Advent as well as Christmas through Epiphany Day: NazNet's Advent and Christmas
Celebration). All of these provide opportunities to teach children
the significance of this sacred time, and to remind ourselves of it as well.
In
congregational worship, the Advent wreath is the central teaching symbol of the
season, the focal point for drawing the congregation into the beginning of the
story of redemption that will unfold throughout the church year. For this
reason, members of the congregation are often involved in lighting the Advent
candles and reading the appropriate Scriptures each Sunday. While in some
churches it is customary for this to be done by families, it can also be an
especially good opportunity to demonstrate the unity of the entire community of
Faith by including those without families, such as those never married,
divorced, widowed, elderly who live by themselves, or college students away
from home.
Small Things and Possibility: An Advent Reflection
We
live in a world in which bigger and better define our expectations for much of
life. We have become so enamored by super size, super stars, and high
definition that we tend to view life through a lens that so magnifies what we
expect out of the world that we tend not to see potential in small things. But
as the prophet Zechariah reminds us (Zech 4:10), we should not "despise
the day of small things," because God does some of his best work with
small beginnings and impossible situations.
It
is truly a humbling experience to read back through the Old Testament and see
how frail and imperfect all the "heroes" actually are. Abraham, the
coward who cannot believe the promise. Jacob, the cheat who struggles with
everybody. Joseph, the immature and arrogant teen. Moses, the impatient
murderer who cannot wait for God. Gideon, the cowardly Baal-worshipper. Samson,
the womanizing drunk. David, the power abusing adulterer. Solomon, the unwise
wise man. Hezekiah, the reforming king who could not quite go far enough. And
finally, a very young Jewish girl from a small village in a remote corner of a
great empire.
It
never ceases to amaze me that God often begins with small things and inadequate
people. It certainly seems that God could have chosen "bigger"
things and "better" people to do His work in the world. Yet if God
can use them, and reveal Himself through them in such marvelous ways, it means
that He might be able to use me, inadequate, and unwise, and too often lacking
in faith that I am. And it means that I need to be careful that I do not in my
own self-righteousness put limits on what God can do with the smallest things,
the most unlikely of people, in the most hopeless of circumstances. I think
that is part of the wonder of the Advent Season.
I
am convinced that one of the main purposes of the incarnation of Jesus was to
provide hope. While most people today want to talk about the death of Jesus and
the Atonement of sins, the early Church celebrated the Resurrection and the
hope it embodied. It was a proclamation of a truth that rang throughout the Old
Testament, that endings are not always endings but are opportunities for God to
bring new beginnings. The Resurrection proclaimed that truth even about
humanity’s greatest fear, death itself.
Both
the season of Advent and the season
of Lent are about hope. It is not just hope for a better day or hope for
the lessening of pain and suffering, although that is certainly a significant
part of it. It is more about hope that human existence has meaning and
possibility beyond our present experiences, a hope that the limits of our lives
are not nearly as narrow as we experience them to be. It is not that we
have possibility in ourselves, but that God is a God of new
things and so all things are possible (Isa 42:9, Mt 19:26, Mk 14:36)
God's
people in the first century wanted Him to come and change their oppressive
circumstances, and were angry when those immediate circumstances did not change.
But that is a short sighted view of the nature of hope. Our hope cannot be in
circumstances, no matter how badly we want them or how important they are to
us. The reality of human existence, with which the Book of Job struggles,
is that God's people experience that physical existence in the same way that
others do. Christians get sick and die, Christians are victims of violent
crimes, and Christians are hurt and killed in traffic accidents, bombings, war,
and in some parts of the world, famine (see The Problem of Natural Evil).
If
our hope is only in our circumstances, as we define them to be good or as we
want them to be to make us happy, we will always be disappointed. That is why
we hope, not in circumstances, but in God. He has continually, over the span of
four thousand years, revealed himself to be a God of newness, of possibility,
of redemption, the recovery or transformation of possibility from endings that
goes beyond what we can think or even imagine (Eph 3:2). The best example of
that is the crucifixion itself, followed by the resurrection. That shadow of
the cross falls even over the manger.
Yet,
it all begins in the hope that God will come and come again into our world to
reveal himself as a God of newness, of possibility, a God of new things.
This time of year we contemplate that hope embodied, enfleshed, incarnated, in
a newborn baby, the perfect example of newness, potential, and possibility.
During Advent, we groan and long for that newness with the hope, the
expectation, indeed the faith, that God will once again be faithful to see our
circumstances, to hear our cries, to know our longings for a better world and a
whole life (Ex 3:7). And we hope that as he first came as an infant, so
he will come again as King! (See The Second Coming)
My
experience tells me that those who have suffered and still hope understand far
more about God and about life than those who have not. Maybe that is what hope
is about: a way to live, not just to survive, but to live authentically amidst
all the problems of life with a Faith that continues to see possibility when
there is no present evidence of it, just because God is God. That is also the
wonder of Advent.
Music for Advent
Traditional Songs for Advent
(Full
lyrics for these can be found at various places online, such as The Cyber Hymnal™)
Christ, whose glory fills the skies
Come, thou long expected Jesus
Comfort, comfort ye, my people
Creator of the stars of night
Day of wrath! O day of mourning, Part 1
(English translation of Dies Irae)
Go, labor on! Spend and be spent
Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding
(English translation of Vox clara ecce intonat)
Hark! The glad sound
Hark! The voice eternal
High o'er the lonely hills
Hosanna to the living Lord (for the
first Sunday of Advent)
Let all mortal flesh keep silent (English translation of Σιγησάτο παρα σαρξ βροτεία)
Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates (for
the first Sunday of Advent; two versions)
Lift up your heads, rejoice (for the
third Sunday of Advent)
Light of those whose dreary dwelling
Little children, Advent bids you (for
the fourth Sunday of Advent; Second Advent)
Lo! He comes, with clouds descending
Lord Christ, when first thou came to men
(two versions)
O Come, Divine Messiah
O come, O come, Emmanuel! (English
translation of Veni, veni Emanuel)
O Day of God, draw nigh
O North, with all thy vales of green
O very God of very God
O Savior, rend the heavens wide
O Word, that goest forth on high
On Jordan's bank the Baptist's cry
Rejoice, rejoice, believers!
Savior of the nations, come! (English
translation of Veni Redemptor gentium)
Sleepers, wake!
The advent of our King
The day is surely drawing near (for the
fourth Sunday of Advent; Second Advent)
The King shall come when morning dawns
The Lord will come and not be slow
The world is very evil (English
Translation of Hora novissima)
Thy kingdom come! on bended knee
Thy kingdom come, O God
Wake, awake, for night is flying
Watchman, tell us of the night
When shades of night around us close
Modern and Contemporary Songs for Advent
(Full
lyrics for some of these can be found at various places online, such as The Cyber Hymnal™; others are fully copyrighted and can be obtained
only from publishers)
At the coming of the Lord
Be Immanuel in me
Before the starry universe
Breath of heaven (for the fourth Sunday
of Advent)
Child of wondrous love
Come, our Lord (also a song for
Eucharist)
From David's city
Have mercy
Hear the prophets talking
I need a silent night (for the third or
fourth Sunday of Advent)
Immanuel, Immanuel
Light a candle
People look east
Prayer for God's presence
Prepare us
The Advent candle shines with hope
There's a voice in the wilderness crying
This is my song (tune Finlandia;
for the fourth Sunday of Advent)
To a maid engaged to Joseph (for the
third or fourth Sunday of Advent)
Veiled in darkness Judah lay (for the
fourth Sunday of Advent)
We have a hope
Welcome to our world (for the fourth
Sunday of Advent)
When will the Savior come?
Advent Songs Sung
to Christmas Tunes
(Full
lyrics for these can be found at various places online, such as The Cyber Hymnal™)
The King shall come when morning dawns
(using tune Antioch, Joy to the World)
Watchman, tell us of the night (using
tune Mendelssohn, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing)
The people that in darkness sat (using
tune Christmas, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks)
Lo, He comes with clouds descending
(using tune Regent Square, Angels from the Realms of Glory)
Of the Father's love begotten (using
tune W Zlobie Lezy, Infant Holy, Infant Lowly)
Instrumental
(Music and arrangement scores for these are fully copyrighted and can be obtained only from publishers)
Gabriel's Oboe
by David Bennett
During the
Advent season we symbolically participate in the waiting of the patriarchs,
kings, prophets, and priests, as we await Christ's final and glorious return.
Through prayer, liturgy, Eucharist, and the signs and symbols of Advent, we
groan with Isaiah for a day when weapons will be turned into agricultural
instruments. We cry out with Zechariah, rejoicing that the dawn from on high is
breaking upon us. We pray with the likes of Adam, Job, Hannah, Solomon, Micah,
and millions of others, named and unnamed, many whose expectations of the future
kingdom may have been hazy, yet who still yearned for something more complete
and more "real" than what they knew.
We legitimately
cry out Maranatha, Come Lord!, with St. Paul. When God the Word became
man in Christ, celebrated on Christmas day, the world was sanctified. Something
in the fabric of the cosmos shifted as creation became a fitting vehicle for
God's redemptive work. Human experiences have been sanctified as well,
commemorated in our Church Year. Yes, as the season of Advent shows, even waiting
has become sanctified.
As we wait in long lines this Advent season, or as we wait for anything
really, I think it is important that we remember the waiting of those expecting
the Messiah, and always wait with patience, humility, and expectant hope in a state
of prayer. I know it is difficult, but especially during Advent, waiting
prayerfully and patiently, in the manner of our Lord and his blessed Mother, is
not only a good spiritual discipline, but could also lower our risk of
holiday-induced blood pressure. It seems like we're all waiting for something,
so why not use these experiences to enhance our Advent disciplines by
prayerfully waiting, joining our prayers with Isaiah, Zechariah, and all the
saints?
O Holy Word, Come~
Come to us today as you came so long ago
and dwelt among
us in the flesh, in the person of Jesus.
Words are so powerful -
having the power to build up or break down,
to sow love or hatred, healing or hurt.
May the spirit of Jesus guide our words,
that they may be used to create
rather than destroy,
that they may be used to further the work
of building your Realm of Peace.
Amen.
***************
Advent
is a time of preparation, a time of expectation, a time to renew once again our
hope. Amidst pain and sufferings, from crisis to crisis, we have reason to hope
and to long for because our Lord Jesus is coming, has already come and will
come again. This Christian hope triumphs over human tragedies and natural and
cosmic calamities. As followers of Jesus, we need to know how to interpret the
events of history as signs of God's liberation. Precisely the final end
anticipates the judgment of man when he has to make a choice, a decision
whether for life or for death, between God or mammon, between good and evil.
"Come, Lord Jesus, come!" refers not only to the birth of Jesus but
also to the second coming of Christ in glory at the end of the world. We are therefore
asked to stay awake, to be prepared and to be vigilant. As we continue our
journey in life, we are reminded again and again in this season of advent that
we have a companion, a friend whose loving memory gives us hope to face bravely
the madness of this world and that we have a final destination. We are
constantly moving forward towards the end time of God's Kingdom which is
already here but not yet fully realized. Jesus is our companion who journeys
with us and accompanies us to the 
