Dear Friends,
Each year’s Christmas is rooted in the days preceding the feast. Creation’s images of growth and unfolding come and play with us in prayer: root and branch; sun and star; pregnancy and birth. Advent customs like the wreath, O antiphons, calendar and Jesse tree lead us through familiar scripture prophecies and stories each year.
One such custom, the Advent calendar, originated as a European regional custom. German Christmas markets popularized calendars among visitors from around the world. Wooden Advent calendars often feature little drawers for each day before Christmas. Fabric and paper calendars have spaces for each Advent day. Day after day, children and adults can discover a treat in a drawer or pocket. They uncover pictures related to the salvation story.
Unsurprisingly, the Advent calendar concept has been adopted by holiday purveyors of yarn, liquor, cosmetics, and pet toys. We believers could bemoan the commercialization of an Advent custom. We could also spend some time appreciating a season that leads us day by day, each year, to a deepened understanding of Christ’s coming. This is the way of God’s continual unfolding in creation. It is the way of cosmic growth and human growth. We know and keep relearning the lesson.
For the remainder of this Advent, join me in an appreciation of the day-to-day reality of God’s coming to us. Let Advent customs - calendars and wreaths and Jesse trees and O antiphons - tug us toward a deeper appreciation. We could also add to our Advent practices this prayer of St. Richard of Chichester. It was popularized in the musical Godspell:
In hope,
Susan Schantz SSJ
