An excerpt from our Advent devotional guide.
Keeping time is important to the shape of our lives. School terms, holidays, and family traditions all serve to teach and reinforce certain values. The Church Calendar is an important way of time keeping, gathering our lives around the saving work of Jesus Christ. It begins with Advent, a season spanning four Sundays, when the Church practices watching, praying, and preparing for Christ’s coming.
Advent means “arrival,” and the season draws our attention to three senses of Christ’s arrival. First, we look back to Christ’s coming in humility, born of the Virgin Mary. Second, we look forward to his coming in glory to judge the living and the dead and make all things new. Finally, we attend to Jesus’ arrival and presence among us now as he meets us through his Word and Sacraments and works in our lives by his Holy Spirit.
These three aspects of Christ’s arrival belong together. The humble Savior who came to Bethlehem is the same Lord we will meet at the last day, and he is the one who is at work in our lives to prepare us for the renewal of all things. This is why our Advent prayers ask God for grace to “cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light”. Advent is a season to acknowledge the sins that hinder us, hear the prophetic call to repentance, and ask Christ to bring renewal. Everything in this season of preparation depends upon his grace and mercy.
Advent is a season with a distinctive mixture of seriousness and joy. We give sober attention to the world’s suffering and our own need for renewal, and we do so in the confidence that the One we await has already come to redeem us. Christ’s first arrival arms us with the courage necessary to face the darkness head on and the patience to wait for its final illumination.
We are called to embrace the season of Advent through simple practices: praying the Daily Office, reading Scripture attentively, examining our consciences, and giving generously to those in need. As Christmas approaches, we sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” in both mourning and joyful expectation. These rhythms train our hearts to welcome Christ, so that when Christmas arrives, we will be ready to celebrate his birth with gratitude and carry the joy of his presence through all twelve days.
