Advent of Jesus' Birth

Advent

The Catholic Church gives us four weeks every new calendar year to prepare for the Birth of Jesus.

It is a time of anticipation and preparation. And I'm not talking about buying presents and making cookies and decorating the yard with large inflatable characters. We pray, give alms to the poor, attend Masses, and some spend time in prayer and fasting.

Traditionally, the season of Advent was a season of Fasting and penance. People would observe the fast during the period until Christmas Day which was a Feast Day spent celebrating Christ's birth. The daily fasting during Advent was dropped in the Church sometime ago, but some people and Eastern Rite Churches still observe this Fast.

Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church
Byzantine-Ukrainian Rite,  Conyers, GA

People would celebrate Christmas by attending Mass and then having a day of feasting on treats that they would not have eaten during the Advent, cakes, candies, fruits (in ancient times, these were a rare commodity during winter because they didn't have jet planes to fly in fruit from the southern hemisphere), then the exchanging of gifts. Usually they would also include a gift for the Christ Child which would be brought to the church and placed in front of the Nativity scene inside the church.

Boy, have we departed from that!. Now it's all about the newest toy, video game, electronic gadget, ever larger flat screen TV's, and sales, sales, sales! All this, and parties, and "me presents" and stress, stress, stress! The TV is full of commercials pushing the sales, making you want the newest thing. 

Credit card companies start pushing their cards at you with freebies to lure you into debt by making it so easy to "keep up with the Joneses". The pressure is on, starting earlier and earlier every year, so that the Christmas decorations are going up before Halloween has even arrived.

I used to work in an office where the "Secret Santa" exchange had gotten so out of hand, it cost a fortune to participate, and then the pressure was put on everyone to contribute to gifts for the bosses. Twenty dollars here, twenty dollars there, and gifts for your "secret santa" recipient everyday for a week! I added it up and it cost over seventy-five dollars minimum to participate. And if you didn't contribute to the gifts, you were ostracized and looked down on. The stress it caused every year was unbearable.

My pastor this week made some very valid points about how we should really spend Advent. He suggested that we become Jesus to others, we give birth to Jesus so to speak, because he has already come by birth and resurrection, we should be Christ on earth now, for others to see, until his third and final return. 

This is a beautiful way to share your faith as well as your self with those you love. How can we celebrate in our homes? Here are a few ideas:

Advent Wreath

An Advent Wreath, make it a daily prayer time by lighting a candle each evening, adding another candle each week. The proper order is two purple candles, a rose candle the third week, and a purple candle the fourth week. Say the Advent prayer for each week, you can find them on many Catholic websites, including the USCCB. Make it a family event.

Christmas cards, when cards arrive, save them near the candle display and use the prayer time to add additional prayers for the senders of the cards.

Nativity, set up a nativity scene. Let your children help, and tell the story of the nativity as to do so.

Advent calenders, have long been a way to teach young children about Advent and Jesus' Birthday. You can make one of your own, I found one at this website, ABOUT.COM and another one with free stencils,at Fashion-era,. This is one from the USCCB website, you can print out, http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/liturgical-resources/advent/upload/advent-2012-calendar-print.pdf

Charitable Gift giving, plan a gift giving project with your family and bring them to a charity or if your church has an "Angel tree" every year, bring the gifts by the designated due date to ensure the persons receiving them have them before Christmas.

Jesse tree

Jesse Tree, a Jesse Tree celebrates the family lineage of Jesse to Jesus. There are a lot of ways to do it, try this link or google for more ideas.

These are only a few, there are dozens of ways families celebrate Advent and teach their Children to anticipate Jesus' Birthday. 

So take some time out from your busy day, your week, to think about how you can prepare yourself for Jesus' coming. Think about his birth and what a wonderful gift we received from God on that day. God became flesh and dwelt among us. God HUMBLED Himself, to become human like us, to teach us the real way to serve the Lord and gain Salvation, freely giving himself to be tortured and crucified as the Lamb of God, for OUR SINS, not his, so that we can become deserving of our Heavenly reward, Eternal Life with Christ, the Trinity. 

It is more than a once a year celebration, for those who only attend Mass or Church on Christmas Eve.

You are truly loved by our God, and He is always there for you, for us, waiting for us to come to Him, waiting for us to ask Him for his forgiveness and thank Him for his gift to us. Do you need something else in your life? Do you feel that something is missing in your life? 

Come home, come to the Catholic Church and receive the fullness of Faith. We're here waiting for you, welcoming you, into the FAMILY of God.

Blessings,

The Catholic Lady©