Don’t Forget To Remember The Forgotten Season of Advent!

Mandeville, LA – Today marks the start of the season of Advent and like all other Church seasons, the wisdom of commemorating and living Advent beautifully guides Christians to being prepared for Our Lord’s arrival.

I’ve been pouring over the internet the last 4 days gathering a list of Advent events every family can participate in and promote publicly. In the time it takes to rake the latest transgenderMammy™ (Pink) over the well deserved coals we can post pics of Nativity displays, Advent Wreaths, homemade cookies and more. Start with the simple Advent Wreath that you can actually make yourself with the assistance of the whole family as detailed here.

The controversial apologist Michael Jacob wrote this about Advent.

We Christians are to prepare for the Coming of Christ before He actually comes — and that Coming is symbolized and recalled at Christmas. Non-Christians miss this season of preparation, and then scramble for six days after the 25th to make their resolutions. By then, however, it’s too late — Christmas has come and gone, Our Lord has already made His visitation to the earth, and He has found them unprepared. This is precisely what will take place at the Second Coming, when those who have put off for their entire lives the necessary preparations will suddenly be scrambling to put their affairs in order. Unfortunately, by then it will have been too late, and there will be no time for repentance. The Second Coming will be less forgiving than the Incarnation. There will be no four-week warning period before the Second Coming, like we get during Advent. There will be no six-day period of grace after the Second Coming during which to make resolutions and self-examination, like the secular world does from Dec. 26 until Jan. 1.

This makes logical sense when the journey of Faith and salvation is viewed properly as being a series of events as opposed to being an event. Note the difference between the two, one requires all our attention nearly all the time the other requires no attention or effort beyond a one time statement of purpose and a perfunctory repetition of that statement if it is needed. Viewing Christmas this way as but one event in a perennial series of events makes it seasonal, not in the calendar sense but in the religious, like the season of Lent. During this season the display and use of icons can assist keeping us in the mood. The images of Our Lady visiting St Elizabeth and the magnificat reminds us of St John The Baptist “preparing the way”.

John beareth witness of him, and crieth out, saying: This was he of whom I spoke: He that shall come after me, is preferred before me: because he was before me.

In the same manner of awaiting Christ’s arrival, St Luke leaves no doubt of the need of preparation for the Savior and that this should give the faithful joy and anticipation.

“And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: [42] And she cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. [43] And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? [44] For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. [45] And blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.

In Elizabeth’s humble salutation you can’t help but feel the joyous anticipation of the coming of Our Lord. Here we should note especially during Advent that the joy of the Savior’s arrival is fully tempered with the humility and penitence of the Faithful who have awaited.

He hath shewed might in his arm: he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart. … [52] He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble. … [53] He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.

Bearing all this in mind, let us do all we can to restore the season of Advent by patiently and humbly awaiting the joy of Christmas but not until Christmas. Maria von Trapp recounted the shock she felt when first seeing the ‘Muricanization of Christmas.

It was fall when we arrived in the United States. The first weeks passed rapidly, filled with new discoveries every day, and soon we came across a beautiful feast, which we had never celebrated before: Thanksgiving Day, an exclusively American feast. With great enthusiasm we included it in the calendar of our family feasts.

Who can describe our astonishment, however, when a few days after our first Thanksgiving Day we heard from a loudspeaker in a large department store the unmistakable melody of “Silent Night”! Upon our excited inquiry, someone said, rather surprised: “What is the matter? Nothing is the matter. Time for Christmas shopping!”

It took several Christmas seasons before we understood the connection between Christmas shopping and “Silent Night” and the other carols blaring from loudspeakers in these pre-Christmas weeks.

And even now that we do understand, it still disturbs us greatly. These weeks before Christmas, known as the weeks of Advent, are meant to be spent in expectation and waiting.

This is the season for Advent songs–those age-old hymns of longing and waiting; “Silent Night” should be sung for the first time on Christmas Eve. We found that hardly anybody knows any Advent songs. And we were startled by something else soon after Christmas, Christmas trees and decorations vanish from the show windows to be replaced by New Year’s advertisements.

Here’s a list of Advent Songs if you need one.

Gabriel’s Message

Creator Alme Siderum

Lo, How Rose E’er Blooming (Kevin & Rachel McCormick)

Alma Redemptoris Mater

Veni Domine Jesu

Veni Veni Emmanuel

Angelus ad Virginem

Maria Walks Amid The Thorn – German Advent Carol

TheKingDude

Host of the Mike Church Show on The Veritas Radio Network's CRUSADE Channel & Founder of the Veritas Radio Network. Formerly, of Sirius/XM's Patriot channel 125. The show began in March of 2003 exclusively on Sirius and remains "the longest running radio talk show in satellite radio history".

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