ad·vent
n.
1. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important: the advent of the computer.
2. Advent
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
a. The liturgical period preceding Christmas, beginning in Western churches on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and in Eastern churches in mid-November, and observed by many Christians as a season of prayer, fasting, and penitence.
b. Christianity The coming of Jesus at the Incarnation.
c. Christianity See Second Coming.
Sometimes, like I mentioned before, we get caught up in "trappings and wrappings". Today when Jamie and I ran errands, or really, to be honest, just went puttering, I had in the back of my mind to find an advent wreath. I also wanted to find a couple of children's Christmas books because I enjoy them myself, and I enjoy reading them to the doggies.
Getting distracted by just spending time together (which is an awesome thing we don't get to do enough), I forgot all about looking for a wreath. When we got home, I started to obsess (us autistic folks, for those of you who don't know are AMAZING obsessors). I HAD TO HAVE AN ADVENT WREATH OR ADVENT WOULDN'T HAPPEN AT OUR HOUSE! Even if I do have an advent calendar, I HAD TO HAVE AN ADVENT WREATH! What, oh, what was I to do??????
Trying to relax myself, I took a hot bubble bath and was enjoying my Santa Clause Christmas book. In the back of my mind I was still thinking I WANT AN ADVENT WREATH!!! All of a sudden, SPLASH!!!, into the tub fell a candle I hadn't noticed since we lost power in the middle of the summer during a storm. I'm pretty sure God was telling me "Stop sweating the small stuff, Carrie, and get on with it."
As you can tell, Advent is pretty important to me. Not just the liturgical/candle lighting/scripture reading part of it, but also the secular opening windows/moving a marker/counting down the days until Christmas part of it.
Being autistic, it is easy for any holiday, especially Christmas, to become overwhelming. Christmas carols in the store, Christmas lights every where, crowded stores, ringing bells, even church, doesn't have its normal ritual. There can be extra hymns thrown in, extra candles lit, and even bell ringing (albeit pretty hand bells) during service. Everything looks different, and nothing is quiet the same. Exciting, happy, and joyful....YES, but different, unsettling, and overwhelming.
Our family created several "advent" traditions of our own. Every evening we would open a window of our advent calender to know how many more "sleeps" until Christmas, read a children's Christmas story, then lit which ever appropriate candles on the Christmas wreath and read the children's version of the scripture for that particular day, all while sitting by our nativity scene.
Also if a children's Christmas show was on TV, after bath and pajama time, we were allowed to quietly curl up on the rug and watch tv in the glow of the Christmas tree lights.
Jamie and I have been working hard to create our own traditions. Some similar to what we've grown up with, some not, but all geared toward meaning in our family.
This afternoon I once again allowed myself to get tangled in the "trappings and wrappings" of the season. Before Jamie or Teddy even had a chance to notice, my good friend, God, gave me a firm tap on the head, tossed a candle my way, and reminded me Advent is about preparing myself to be closer to the Divine.
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| Our Advent Table made just for us! |
How about each of you? How do you prepare for the Divine in your life? How do you prepare for Christmas? Do you celebrate Advent in a traditional fashion, or do you have your own personal traditions? Please share with us some of your traditions. You don't have to call it advent, heck, you don't even have to call it Christmas.
I know many of my friends are spiritual in nature, but not Christian. I hope some of you will share too. Also, I know some of you consider yourself agnostic or atheist, but still celebrate a time of renewal. I want to hear from all of you and hope everyone here will be open minded to learning too.
I wanted to share this hymn, "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel". It didn't become part of my Advent tradition until I was 10 or 11. And at that age, I thought it was a boring, icky, hymn. Now I find, it truly calms my soul at any time of year. Throughout Advent, even while discussing and sharing other winter traditions, I will continue to share other favorite versions of this hymn.
Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel
Translated: John Neal, 1818-66
Translated: John Neal, 1818-66
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
3 comments:
I had barely heard of Advent, let alone celebrated it until last year when you taught me all about it. It wasn't a thing Free Will Baptists honored growing up. You would think they would use any excuse they could to go to church, but I guess it was a thing "high-falutin" churches did. It is an amazingly beautiful thing.
Your attitude toward the holidays is beautiful, Carrie. I tend to be so angry this time of year. I hate what the holidays have become. It is so greedy and materialistic. The ugliness of humanity seems so evident as we have seen during Black Friday. The expectations are so high and you feel forced to give great gifts even though you can't afford it. Thank you for reminding me how it should be. Now to figure out how to make it so. :)
The only thing I knew about Advent was chocolate in weird cardboard boxes and you couldn't eat but one piece a day...
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