What is Advent Season?
Advent Season takes place during the four Sundays that precede Christmas. It's a season of remembering and celebrating the unexpected nature of Jesus’s humble birth, of God taking on human flesh. The word Advent is rooted in the Latin 'adventus' and means Coming. This is a season that focuses on both the anticipation of the birth of Love and the second Coming when Jesus will come again to reunite Heaven and Earth once and for all.
Advent is also the start of the Church liturgical year; each Advent we begin a reading cycle (the Lectionary) with one Gospel as our focus. This Advent we began Year C in which we'll hear stories from the Gospel of Luke.
While our society is in "Christmas-mode" and all that entails getting ready for feasting and gift giving on Dec 25th, for Christians Advent Season can be a time to deepen your relationship with Christ. There are many short devotional resources that are particularly lovely to spend a few quiet moments reading in the morning, preparing your heart for the coming of Christ. Author and podcaster Kate Bowler has a free Advent devotional on her website. One of my favorites - and one I reread every Advent - is Madeleine L'Engle's Miracle on 10th Street, a collection of reflections, short stories, and poems by the author of a Wrinkle in Time. Here's the ending of L'Engle's poem "First Coming."
He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!
Let us all rejoice this Advent season.
Blessings,
Rev Jill
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