A Spiritual Practice for the Advent Season
We don’t often consider Advent as a fasting season or even a penitent one, but Advent begins with the end in mind. Advent, which means ‘coming‘, reminds us of the birth of the Christ-child, who pierced through the darkness to be with humanity, but it also causes us to gaze ahead as we anticipate Jesus’ second-coming and final establishment of His Kingdom. This is why this season is filled with sentiments of waiting, preparing, longing, and hopeful anticipation. We fast because we mourn what we do not yet have, to quicken the fulfillment of our holy longings, and to prepare our hearts to receive hope, love, joy, and peace at Christmas.
It is in holding this tension that Advent reminds us of our lostness; the abyss between our life on earth and God’s Perfect Love. But it is in the humble and sacrificial act of the Incarnation, God dwelling among us, that Divine Love offers us this invitation to come and adore and join him in the kingdom work of reconciliation.
I’ve Never Heard of Advent
Advent begins November 29 and lasts for four weeks until Christmas Eve. For some of you, this may seem like a new season adopted by the Christian church, but Advent began with the early church beginning in the 5th century. You may have noticed people lighting a wreath with four candles, three purple, and one pink, with a white candle in the center. This is an Advent wreath and traditionally, Christians light one candle each Sunday to represent Hope (The Patriarchs), Love (Prophets), Joy (John the Baptist, pink), and Peace (Mary) and the white candle is the Christ candle lit on Christmas Eve or morning. The color purple is used throughout Advent as a color of penitence and fasting as we long and yearn for God to meet us.
This tactile and visual usage of an Advent wreath helps us engage with Christ’s journey from its prophetic inklings, to the announcement to Mary and Joseph, the Christ-child’s birth and celebration among shepherds in a manger, to the glory and magnitude of God’s physical presence with us in the humanity and suffering of life. Christmas morning then sets the stage for all we have to anticipate through the life of Christ in the years to come; our future hope.
The Crux of the Story
In Advent, we journey with Israel in their mourning and lament, their yearning and aching for a Savior, and remember what has been accomplished. Our church calendar begins and ends with Emmanuel, Christ with us, because Advent is where the past meets the present.
Though in present time we live and walk in the light of Christ with us, we still long for and anticipate the second-promised return of our beloved. We sense in our being there must be more, we are not yet satisfied, our world still groans in want of healing, our lives are still a bit broken, we need a rescuer. The beauty of Advent is that it reminds us each year, before Christmas, that no matter how dark the world may feel, God hears our cries and meets us in time and space out of his pure and perfect Love. He longs to be with us more than we long for his help.
So, as God’s beloved children, we await Christ’s second coming with the same hope and anticipation experienced at his birth. And, we fast to remind us of our need for death and resurrection (new life); the Pascal Mystery, as we await his coming.
Living the Story in Real-Time
In this season of waiting, we are also reminded of our need to live incarnate lives just as Christ did when he came down from heaven to dwell among us. During Advent, we welcome Christ into our lives to dwell in us so we too may be messengers of reconciliation. This is what it means to bear fruit for God’s kingdom, to be the vine and he the branches. We live out the hope, love, joy, and peace here on this earth now, as light piercing through the darkness so that others may see the miracle of Christ as we have already experienced.
We can spend Advent reflecting on what our life was without Christ and how he has thus transformed us. The fasting side of Advent is just that, a reminder that we were once lost, wandering, lamenting, and in need of Christ just like Israel. It fuels us to pray, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven. Yet, we paradoxically define this season as one of Great Joy, from the Angels’ proclamation. Our Messiah has arrived and though he was weak, he was mighty, though he was poor, he was holy. Advent is a truly magnificent season that tells the Mystery of the Gospel so humbly, yet boldly. It is both our shame and our glory.
Reflective Activity: Journaling the Words of Advent
Each Advent I like to spend this season of fasting and reflection by journaling through words that point me toward the essence of the Advent experience. Below I have provided a list of words. All you have to do is find a blank drawing journal. Here is a link to some on Amazon: Notebooks. Then be sure you have colored pencils, pens, a Bible, or whatever tools you need to be creative.
Each day you reflect, meditate, pray, or journal over one word. In the attachment below there are more instructions to help you in this journey. I am so excited you will be joining me in this meaningful and life-giving practice.
Download and print the Words of Advent. I look forward to all the ways God will meet you in peace-filled ways this season as you prepare for Christmas.
Join me and others along the wandering way by subscribing at the bottom of the website. Invite others to journey with you in this season of anticipation. These practices and others can always be shared in Christian community, even if only through the internet. So don’t wander alone, join us. For more on Advent, check out my other blogs on this season.
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