Advent

Today is the first day of Advent (from the Latin word adventus, meaning "coming"). It is the beginning of the liturgical year in the western Christian church and the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus; in other words, the period immediately before Christmas. In the Roman Catholic and Lutheran calendars, Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before December 25. Christians believe that the season of Advent serves a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting that Christians today endure for the second coming of Christ. Many people make use of Advent wreaths during this season, with one candle representing each of the four Sundays of Advent. Western christians use purple and rose colored candles, lighting one each week, with the rose candle lit on the 3rd Sunday of Advent. It is usually burned at the family evening meal each day. During Christmas Day, four lit white candles are used.

Advent is a journey from darkness to light, lighting the first feeble candle in the shortening, frigid days as we begin the vigil of waiting, and then sense the first glimpse of longer, lighter days with the lighting of the rose candle. What Advent is, really, is a discipline: a way of forming anticipation and channeling it toward its goal. There's a flicker of rose on the third Sunday—Gaudete!, that day's Mass begins: Rejoice!—but then it's back to the dark purple that is the mark of the season in liturgical churches. And what those somber vestments symbolize is the deeply penitential design of Advent. Nothing we can do earns us the gift of Christmas, any more than Lent earns us Easter. But a season of contrition and sacrifice prepares us to understand and feel something about just how great the gift is when at last the day itself arrives.

This, by Joseph Bottum is worth reading.