Making time for Advent

The
Catholic Weekly
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Sydney
7 December 2003

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Making time for Advent

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Making time for Advent

By Bill and Monica Dodds

If everyone helped out around the house just a little bit, what a difference that would make, right? Put at least some dirty clothes in the basket, some dirty dishes in the sink or dishwasher - some of their stuff somewhere out of sight. It’s the same with Advent.

The liturgical season leading up to Christmas has already begun so it’s easy to think: too late, next year.

It is always easy to get so caught up in the Christmas rush (and crush) that marking Advent is little more than a passing, guilty thought.

Who has time for Advent?

What family has a schedule that can add even one more item?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Give your everyday prayers an Advent angle. Tape a simple Advent prayer to the bathroom mirror, fridge or dashboard (“Heavenly Father, help us place your Son at the centre of our family’s Christmas celebration this year”).

2. Sing, whistle or hum O Come, O Come Emmanuel often. Take ad-vantage of the fact that the hymn has a catchy tune.

3. Do not wait until you have the time and energy to be able to do a lot. Do a little now. It really does not matter if your Advent wreath has no boughs and the candles are not purple and pink. It does not matter if you have no wreath and simply light a series of candles to mark the season.

The goal is not to create a picture-perfect wreath.

The point of an Advent wreath - sacramental - is to help the family prepare spiritually for the great feast of Christmas.

Any candle can be a symbol, a reminder.

And any rendition of O Come, O Come Emmanuel - no matter how poorly a family may sing - can be a prayer that helps the household step out of the commercial rush-and-crush in order to focus on the One whose coming is going to be celebrated.

And if any attempt at family singing is truly a fiasco, recite a prayer together. Cannot find one that seems appropriate? Say an Our Father or Hail Mary.

4. Put that sacramental - the wreath or simple candle - where the people are. If you seldom have dinner together as a family, it makes little sense to have an Advent wreath (or a designated Advent candle) sitting on the dining room table. Move it into the living room or family room where the family, eventually, gathers in the evening to watch television.

Stop for a moment (turn off the television; do not just mute it) and say your prayer or sing your song. Yes, that seems less than ideal, but even a little bit makes a difference, right?

Neale and Helmore’s greatest hit The now traditional O Come, O Come, Emmanuel was the work of two Englishmen who were Anglican priests.

Historians say the words come from an unknown ninth-century author and were translated from Latin into English by John M Neale in 1851. (He is also the one who gave us Good King Wenceslas.)

And the music is from a 15th-century French melody arranged by Thomas Helmore in 1856.

Bill and Monica Dodds are Catholic News Service columnists