RV Trips: An Advent for all

So, what is Advent anyway, and why would you or I want to celebrate it?

The Latin “advenīre” means “to come to,” and long ago the early Christians adopted the first weeks of December to acknowledge the season in which they prepared to celebrate the Nativity, or birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas.

In my family of origin, we celebrated Advent in the traditional and prescribed Catholic manner, with an Advent wreath on our dinner table and additional prayers before each meal.

Each Sunday of Advent we would light one more candle, so during the first week we lit one candle, the second week we lit two, until just before Christmas, when the wreath blazed with light. It was festive and joyful to add that candlelight to our mealtimes. As the month progressed, that first candle got smaller and smaller and, as a child, I wondered if it would even last until Christmas. The wisdom of years has taught me that Mom would speed our dinners along for that last week, to ensure the candles would hold up for the season.

Theologians could tell us the religious reasons for Advent, but my message is about some personal reasons we might want to participate in this season of waiting. Whether or not we attend a Christian church, we are all still waiting during this time. We wait for gatherings with family and loved ones. We wait for the New Year, so we can start again and hope for better results. Many of us wait for gifts given and received. In the northern hemisphere, we all wait for that day when the sun starts to rise a little earlier and hang around a little longer, bringing us more light if not more warmth, and a boost to our emotional doldrums. Celebrating Advent as a special season gives us an excuse to set aside a few minutes of each day to slow down, to gaze into candlelight, and to enjoy the waiting.

When my children were small I wanted to include the Advent wreath in our family traditions, but the prayers from my Catholic days didn’t suit. So I wrote my own prayers — or you could call them meditations or passages. The first set I wrote was for young children. They explained what was going on in the world around them, and reminded them of what Advent can mean. I admit that in later years I used the next edition of the Advent passages to encourage best sibling and family behaviors and relationships. Regardless, each candle lighting begins and ends with the same words, and the middle section changes according to the week of the season.

Here is the Advent passage we are reading this week.

Advent: A time to Wait, a time to Reflect, a time to Love, a time to Hope.

Winter brings longer nights, cocoa for breakfast, cozy evenings working or reading by lamplight.

We enjoy the fruits of our Summer labor: hearty soups, spicy pickles, savory roasts and stews.

We are so fortunate.

We are so grateful.

At this busy time can we be more patient, less judgemental?

Can we be bringers of Peace?

To everything there is a season, a time to every purpose under heaven — Ecclesiastes 3:1

Writer Rita Vavrosky is a small-scale farmer, educator, mother and grandmother hoping to make the world a better place, one thought at a time. Email her at [email protected].