A Word from the Associate&

     To live within the Church is to belong to a new and fresh creation.  The old has passed away, the new has come.  Not only in our hearts, but in the way we organize our homes, our time, our environments, our patterns of living, we    express the Kingdom that is coming and has already broken out among us.  One way we do this is to keep the seasons of the Church.  We mold our lives to the eternal rhythms of heaven.  There is great richness here.
     As the Christianity around us has decayed over the last generations, so also the seasons have decayed and lost their freshness and their luster.  One of the seasons most lost to us is Advent.  The Spirit of Advent is one of joyful expectancy, of watchful hope, of a kind of inner vigilance as we wait for the Bridegroom, Christ, to begin the Wedding Feast that will make all of creation dance for joy.  So for four weeks we watch, we pray, we hope, we set our minds on what is to come, on making ourselves ready to receive the One we love.
     Then at the Vigil on December 24^th, Advent gives way to the blessed and joyful season of Christmas.  As we have watched for our King, now we enjoy his presence.  As we have fasted, now we feast.  As we have eagerly waited for His coming, now we rejoice in his having already come the first time.  For twelve blessed days we feast, we sing, we remember, we give gifts, we celebrate Immanuel, God with us.  This Christmas feasting ends with the great feast of the Epiphany, the showing of Christ to the world.
     Some older Christmas carols retain these rhythms.  "The Twelve Days of Christmas" recalls the tradition of giving a gift on each of the days of celebration.  "We Three Kings" is a song not for Christmas Day itself, but for Epiphany.  Even songs like "Deck the Halls," hardly spiritual in content, were sung on Christmas Eve as the Advent Season was  giving way to the joy of Christmas.  As we have watched with Christ, so now let us rejoice with him.
     A secular world has forgotten all of this, and has forgotten the true joy of the Christmas season.  Advent is forgotten, since the coming King is no longer looked for.  And so customs, foods, decorations, music, that were once a part of the Twelve Days of celebration, have migrated to Advent, and other sentimental customs have jumped in as well, largely centered on spending money for gifts.  The odd thing that happens in this secular version is that Christmas becomes, not the first day of celebration, but the last, and often, if we are honest, kind of anti-climactic, and we are left wondering what all the fuss was really for. 
     Why not take Advent back?  Why not make some small moves to reserve Christmas feasting and celebrating to the true Christmas season, and to use Advent as it is meant to be used, to remember and prepare for Christ's coming.  We will find, if we do, that both Advent and Christmas have become for us more rich and meaningful, less driven by the frenetic drive of a culture that has forgotten the joy and peace of those Divine rhythms.
     "What I say to you I say to all: Watch!"