The First Sunday of Advent
We 21st century people mark the beginning of advent as December 1st, but it is not strictly true and I think it is for the convenience of our modern day Advent Calendars that can be made easily with a 24 day grid. The truth of the matter is that traditionally the 1st day of Advent begins on the first Sunday of Advent and so can be earlier in November or later in December Depending on which day of the week December the 25th falls.
Advent, according to the book C is For Christmas is defined as “coming”, and what do we do when we know something is Coming? We wait. And what do we do while we wait? We prepare. Anyone who has a loved one that lives far away understands this kind of coming.
When you know that the loved one or loved ones are coming to visit you get ready. The house gets cleaned. Fresh linens get put on guest beds and fresh towel are made available in the bathroom. If you are my mother, every food that the loved ones enjoy is gotten into the house to enhance the pleasure of the visit. For my sister Susan and her family this means all the things that cannot be obtained in the south where she lives, the mind and the heart work together to make the coming visit truly joyful.
So it is with Advent and Christmas. Only with Advent we are waiting for Jesus and in many ways we are waiting symbolically and factually. We wait symbolically as we look back on the times prior to His coming to the Earth. We wait in fact as we look forward to the time in which he will come again. And in that time we prepare for both.
I wrote yesterday of how we decorate our houses and how we buy presents and cook for Christmas, I only eluded briefly to how we prepare ourselves. Today we will look a bit harder at that.
There are four Sundays in advent and many traditions are involved in these Sundays. One of the most beautiful and the one that is getting lost is the tradition of the Advent wreath. The Advent wreath is a circle, usually made of evergreen that has four Candleholders attached to it. Four candles are places in the holders and one candle is lit on each of the four Sundays until all four are burning brightly. There is also a fourth candle a thick one that is lit every night. This candle represents Jesus as he is “the light of the world.”
It is not just the lighting of the candles that is important it is also the reading of each Gospel for each of the Four Sundays. The modern Catholic Church has changed these Gospels around so they are different each year. The Protestant Church does the same the difference is that each Church makes its own decision as to which Gospel or Old Testament reading to use. Some denominations do have a set schedule in which the denomination makes the decision for all the individual churches. But for our purposes we are going to take the lead from our ancestors and look at the four traditional readings.
The First Sunday of Advent is Luke 21: 25-33
The Second is Matthew 11: 2-10
The Third is John 1:19-28
The Fourth is Luke 3: 1-6
By taking a look I mean that you should, on each of these Sundays, read these gospels and afterwards meditate on the words. Meditating only means to think about. You take a few minutes each Sunday and read the Gospel and think about it and decide how it applies to your life. If you don’t have a Bible put the word Bible in your search engine and you will find many sites that have the entire Bible right there for you to read. If you have a smart phone or an E-Reader with internet connection you can go to Youversion.com and download a Bible for free.
I also would like to encourage you to make or go out and purchase an Advent wreath. The lighting of the candles and the reading of the Gospels as well as the meditation by candle light brings a whole new meaning to the words. There is something very beautiful in this tradition, something that can touch our very souls if we allow it.
