a saint benedict’s table resource for home use
T
he crush is on… everywhere you go there are Christmas decorations, piped-in songs and carols, and the endless push to spend, spend, spend. There is another way to mark this season.
This little resource contains a few ideas as to how you might bring Advent home, so that when the great feast that is Christmas arrives you’ll be able to welcome it with freshness, not with a sense of being exhausted by all the noise and clatter.
The Advent Wreath
The Advent wreath comes to us from the Lutherans of northern Europe. While they have been using it in their shops and homes for the past several hundred years, it is only in the last 20 years that it has become a common tradition throughout the Christian Church worldwide. It usually consists of an evergreen wreath with four candles, one for each week of Advent. Because of the fire hazard of drying evergreens and candles, you may wish to use an artificial wreath, or simply four candles in ordinary candle holders.
While in Europe the candles are usually ordinary red or yellow candles, when the wreath was taken into the church, we initially used one pink and three purple candles to match the liturgical colours of Advent. The pink candle was lit on the third Sunday of Advent, called “Gaudete Sunday” (meaning “joy”) after the opening sentence for that day, while the purple candles were used for the other three Sundays. In recent years we have attempted to distinguish between the solemn observances of Advent and the more austere observances of Lent and so the use of blue is becoming more common as the liturgical colour for Advent (leaving purple/violet for Lent) and thus you will now see blue Advent candles in common use. Having said all that, whatever colour(s) you choose will be the “correct ones” for your home and will become ‘your family’s tradition!
The Advent wreath is normally lit immediately before the evening meal each day, followed by the grace/blessing/thanksgiving for the meal. On the first Sunday of Advent and throughout the following week, one candle is lit, during the second week two candles are lit and so on until the last week of Advent when all four candles are lit, each night. (If you use small candles, it is advisable to have several replacements available as you will be burning one of them for at least 20 to 28 days!) For young members of the family, the lighting of the candles will act as a count-down to the coming of “baby Jesus”, while for older members it will offer a moment for solemn reflection on that week’s Advent theme.
The daily use of the Advent wreath helps to set this season apart from the rest of the year and helps us individually and as a family to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. You may wish to incorporate a recent church addition to the wreath by lighting a white candle set in the middle of the wreath on Christmas Day and the week following to represent “Christ, The Light of the World” coming in our midst that first Christmas.
The Crèche
A crèche or manger scene can be assembled gradually over the season, which gives accent to the idea of preparation.
Week 1: Put out the stable with animals and the manger (if you have one from which the baby can be removed…). You can also place the shepherds and sheep in some out of the way place, signifying “the fields.”
Week 2: Place the Mary and Joseph figures across the room; their journey has begun.
Week 3: Move the Mary and Joseph to a place closer to the stable, leaving the shepherds in the fields.
Week 4: Mary and Joseph are now in the stable with the animals, but there is no baby yet.
Christmas Eve: The baby is placed in the manger, the shepherds are moved to the stable, and the magi are placed somewhere else in the house (they’ve just seen the star, and begun the journey).
Christmas 1: Leave the family in the stable, but move the shepherds back to the fields. Bring the magi to a place closer to the stable.
Epiphany (January 6) Bring the magi to the stable.
So basically, do whatever you can to reframe this season a bit and bring Advent home, even when the rest of the society is in full Christmas-shopping and holiday-partying mode; when we actually hit December 24th and enter into our celebrations, they might just resonate with a deeper joy.