O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

It is hard to believe that the season of Advent is upon us already. It always seems to me that there should be at least a week between Thanksgiving and Advent...that there should be a slower transition into the Christmas season. But really, that's what Advent is. It's the looking forward. It seems that the retail industry leaps straight into Christmas from October. It was November 1st of this year that I saw my first "Christmas" commercial on television. The week before Thanksgiving, a local radio station began it's 24/7 broadcast of nothing but Christmas music. It's hard not to get caught up in the push of the holiday season when you are bombarded with holiday sights and sounds for almost two months before December 25th.

Advent gives us an opportunity to slow things down. To reflect and prepare for the feast of Christmas. The word "Advent" is derived from the latin word "adventus", which means "coming". In the church calender, Advent is the time of preparation of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We wait, prepare, and look forward to remembering his birth on the feast day of Christmas, but we also wait, prepare, and look forward to when he will come again.

For me, Advent was always a time that was marked by devotion and prayer. Growing up, our family always had an Advent wreath, and we would light the candles nightly, week by week, and read through a devotional book. We would have weekly Advent services at our church, in addition to the regular Sunday worship. These practices helped us to slow down our pace and remember what the season was really about.

This year, I am starting a new tradition, along with my usual Advent practices, thanks to the Dominican Nuns of Summit, New Jersey. In their blog, Moniales OP, they wrote of one of their traditions, which was to recite a prayer 15 times a day from November 30th, the Feast day of St. Andrew, until Christmas. It's a beautiful tradition. I am modifying it a bit though...I doubt I will have the discipline to recite the prayer 15 times a day, but I will recite it once a day, perhaps more, up until Christmas. It's a lovely prayer that is a great way to focus in on what we are preparing for throughout Advent:

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. In that hour, vouchsafe, O my God to hear my prayer and grand my desires through the merits of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.

Try to incorporate something quiet into these next few week of Advent. Remember why this is "the most wonderful time of the year"...because it is the birthday of our Lord and Savior!

O Come, O Come Emmanuel! And ransom captive Israel, who mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear. Rejoice, Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you O Israel!