A Time of Conversion and Hope

Next Sunday we begin the new liturgical year, when we celebrate the Season of Advent. This year’s Advent lasts for only 22 days. In Canterbury on Friday 13th November, the Christmas lights were switched on. The Christmas market is in full swing. The Christmas tree for St Peter’s Square in Rome has arrived. This year it is a red fir (Picea abies) and comes from the Paganella area of the Dolomite Mountains, on the Italian border with Austria. It arrived accompanied by certification that it was harvested according to a sustainable forestry project. It also came complete with handmade wooden Christmas decorations. I have my Christmas cards and I have bought my Christmas stamps. There is a tension — when the weeks before Christmas are exploited for commercial purposes and where social celebrations of the feast are anticipated in schools and places of work.

There are various ways we prepare for Christmas: writing Christmas cards, buying presents and bringing down the Christmas decorations from the loft or wherever they’ve been carefully stored. But in these weeks, we also need to prepare our mind and heart to celebrate the Christmas season that runs from Evening Prayer 1 of Christmas until the Sunday after the Epiphany.

We can take our lead from the next four Sunday Gospels. The first highlights the Lord’s coming at the end of time. The second and third Sundays highlight the need for conversion when we hear the message of John the Baptist. The fourth Sunday, which this year is Christmas Eve, focuses on the immediate events expressing joyful hope as we hear about preparations for the birth of Christ. Advent is a time of waiting, conversion and of hope.

How can we prepare as a family and a parish community? Use the daily readings of the Mass as a source of your reflection and prayer. At the back of the Church there are booklets that give the readings for each day of Advent. For the children, there are Advent calendars that suggest activities and thoughts for every day leading up to Christmas. We also have a good selection of inexpensive Advent calendars in the shop, and a selection of booklets with help to pray every day.

At Mass, the Gloria is not sung during the Advent season and there are no flowers decorating the sanctuary except for the Advent wreath. The priest wears violet — which suggests a state of unfulfilled readiness and should no longer be regarded as an expression of penitence. It serves to set off the joyful white of Christmas with greater effect. We will be having a service of Advent music and readings on 16th December, and also there will be a service of penance on Monday 18th December.

Here is a prayer for Advent: God, our hope, make us eager to await the advent of Christ your Son, so that when he comes knocking, he may find us vigilant in prayer and exultant in your praise. We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, the Lord.