Advent - coming of Christ
I like the Advent season, for the obvious reason of course, but also because it is a great way to keep the "secular Christmas fanaticism" away. Advent asks that we wait and watch for Jesus, that we do penance ( one of our parish priest's homily was all about reconciliation, that we need to be reconciled with Jesus and our neighbor - he suggested that we go to confession at least once during this advent season. In fact, my friends and I tried to inform others, especially other Catholics, that the official Christmas season does not start until Christmas day - we are in Advent season not Christmas season. That said, my family still does some Christmas secular stuff like putting Christmas lights on the house, decorating the house before Christmas eve, talking about Santa Claus with the kids, etc. But we definitely don't act fanatical on this stuff, some people already had Christmas lights on after Thanksgiving and all those stores that open at 5 AM on Friday - we don't do that stuff. We got our advent candles out and bought an advent calendar for the kids. My big point on Advent that I try to tell people all the time is that we are also preparing anew for Jesus' 2nd coming. He said he would be coming again and the Church wisely has us contemplating this "coming again". So we basically get a two-for-one deal with advent - waiting for the anniversary of his 1st coming and waiting for his second coming. I would urge everyone to slow down this Advent season - no need to rush doing all those Christmas activities - they can wait - in fact, Christmas season goes from Christmas Day until Baptism of the Lord in the middle of January - two weeks to display your Christmas stuff.
I was teaching at Children's ministry for our prayer meeting and I went over the historical aspects of advent, the liturgical aspect of the season and went over some of the symbols used in advent. Also, since there is no meeting next week, I also included a discussion of St. Nicholas
whose feast day is on Dec. 6th. Giving some gifts on St. Nicholas day ( especially in a shoe left out) is a great way to change up the Christmas season - St. Nicholas was known for his generousity and also his humbleness and is the model of all Christians. It is rumored that Santa Claus is a derivative of St. Nicholas especially when pronounced in Dutch (sinter klaas - watch Miracle on 34th street - there is a scene when a dutch girl comes to Santa and she does say sinter klaas). So May God bless your advent season, that he may slow down your days and help you to contemplate Jesus' 2nd coming.