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Florida Advent Wreath

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Advent is a time of quiet contemplation and reflection but also a time of restless expectation and journey. My favorite practices, like Advent calendars and Advent wreaths, are ones that give me day-by-day opportunities for reflection but also activate my senses. They emphasize the juicy paradoxes of Advent–like light and darkness, “already there and not yet, flesh and spirit, stillness and movement, faith and fear, sorrow and joy, despair and hope. Advent asks us to rest and go inward but it also propels us forward to a future of “God with us” in a new way.

Advent in Jerusalem was on my calendar for 2020. Advent in Florida is where I am. Except for two years when we lived in Florida a few decades ago, most of my Advents have been in colder places with bare trees and leaves on the ground. I’m learning to appreciate the dense jungle greenery of this almost-tropical state, even in November. The saber pines, cedars, water and live oaks, palmetto scrub, and palm trees are home to the raccoons, possums, woodpeckers, and squirrels we see almost every day (or night) in our yard.

Using local plants and greens seemed like the logical choice for this year’s Advent wreath. Since I have divided loyalties between blue and purple for the candles, I’ve have two wreaths. I put the candles in the holders, placed them on a table, and with haphazard delight walked in my yard and neighborhood to gather local flora. The wreath with the blue candles has cedar clippings and Brazilian pepper plant (invasive, I think, but pretty). The wreath with the purple and pink candles has saber pine, cedar, pinecones, water oak, and a puff of Spanish moss. (I wanted to use more Spanish moss, but I over boiled it in an attempt to get rid of the pesky red bugs that sometimes live in it.).

The candles of the Advent wreath mark the four Sundays and four weeks before Christmas. The traditional color for Advent, purple, represents reflection, repentance, and royalty. Some churches and people prefer blue as a symbol of hope, joy, expectation, and Mary. The colors purple and blue claim their own paradox. Advent, as preparation for welcoming and receiving Jesus, includes both hope & expectation AND self-examination & repentance. So hang a little purple; hang a little blue, if not literally then at least in your heart and in your mind’s eye. Pre-Christmas time can be overwhelming and depressing. On those days, focus your eyes on the blue. When you are overloading your car with presents and decorations and carping at everyone around you, focus on the purple.

The colors are a visual reminder of Advent messages in Scripture.
Blue: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13 NRSV)
Purple:  “In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near…“You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.” (Matthew 3:1-2, 7b-8 NRSV)

Some people like to use a pink candle for the third Sunday of Advent to mark the halfway point to Christmas.

Light the first candle on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29. Say a prayer, recite a passage of Scripture or sing a song.  With small children, a short and repeatable scripture verse might keep their attention and help them to learn some words of Advent. Use the same prayer or line of scripture all during the first week. On the second Sunday of Advent light the second candle as well as the first. As the weeks pass and more candles are lighted, the darkness of Advent is infused with the anticipated brighter light of Christmas.There are dozens of Advent Wreath lighting devotionals available online. The website Building Faith has many ways to celebrate the weekly ritual.

If you missed my Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany book, you can still order it in Paperback or on Kindle. Click on the photo below. It offers other examples of Advent Wreaths and many ways to celebrate the whole Nativity Season at home. Many of the activities incorporate praying in color.

 

Last Sunday of Advent

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The weeks of Advent are far-spent, only four more days until Christmas. I have loved this Advent as I usually do, but it also has been too short. There are three meditation books I would still like to read and I have squandered my sitting-still/prayer time. But the days roll on and prepared or not, Christmas comes. More of signs of it are visible in my house than last week.

  • The Advent calendars are almost complete.
  • The fourth candle on the Advent wreath is lit today.
  • .Mary and Joseph are within eyeshot of the manger on the mantel.
  • The Paperwhite narcissus are in full bloom.
  • The Christmas tree is decorated and a few gifts have made their way under it.
  • The lectionary readings begin to tell the Nativity story in Luke 1 with Gabriel’s appearance to Mary and Mary’s response: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Advent 4 collage resized

Psalm 89: 1-4 (NRSV)– one of the other lectionary readings
1 “I will sing of your steadfast love, O LORD, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
2 I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David:
4 “I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.'”

 

Advent Wreath–It’s Not too Late

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I’m a real fan of hodgepodge/homegrown Advent wreaths. Ever since I failed a couple of decades ago at weaving and wiring greenery into a metal ring in a church basement, I have given up using prefabricated frames. Now I use four random candle holders and any size candles–votives, tapers, balls, or thick columns. Sometimes I match the candles, sometimes I mix it up or recycle them from previous years. To create a wreath, scatter greens, herbs, ribbons, or paper chains around the candles.

Even a week into the Season, it’s not too late to make an Advent wreath for 2014. Use four purple/blue candles or three purple/blue plus a pink candle for the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday–the Sunday of “rejoicing” in the middle of the time of repentance. “Rejoice (gaudete) in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice.” If you can’t find blue, purple, or pink, use any four candles to represent the four Sundays of Advent. This Sunday, December 7, light two candles indicating the start of the second week of Advent. Light the same two candles all week. On December 14, light the pink candle plus the candles from the first two weeks.On December 21, light all four candles. The darkness dissipates as Christmas approaches.

A traditional time to light the candles was at the evening family meal. Since many families now are untraditional and an evening meal together may not happen, place the wreath in a central location. Where is most of the foot traffic in your house? In the kitchen, near the bedrooms, near the bathroom? Find a few minutes before bedtime or in the morning to light the candles. Say a prayer, read an Advent scripture, read an appropriate poem or piece of prose, or just be quiet. Pages 67-71 of The Season of the Nativity: Confessions and Practices of an Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Extremist give suggestions for readings and a variety of ways to use the wreath.

Advent Wreath Collage Resized

 

 

Advent Calendar Week 1

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Here is the first week of my Advent calendar. I love the daily discipline of praying this way–especially when I manage to get up at 5 AM and sit at the table in the dark with only the lights of the candles on the Advent wreath.

Here is my friend Cindy O’s calendar. Cindy and I have both been drawing Advent calendars for the past five years.

Advent Traditions

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Advent is my favorite time of the year. I’m even somewhat of an Advent fundamentalist. I like the waiting, the preparation, the darkness, the melancholy,….I want it to last for its full twenty to twenty-four days. And then I want to celebrate with gusto all twelve days of Christmas from December 25 to January 5.

I know I can’t change the culture that puts up Christmas trees the day after Thanksgiving (or before) and plops them on tree lawns on December 26. It’s not my job or my business to convince anyone to turn back the clocks to some previous era. But I can orchestrate the way my family and I celebrate Advent in our house. Purple lights on the front porch and purple candles on the Advent wreath remind me to slow down and hold back. The Christmas tree, even if it is in the house, remains undecorated until at least December 20th. These self-imposed traditions extend, expand and enrich for me the three-pieces of the Nativity triptych–Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany.They help me enter into the experience of the longing for, the coming of and the shining forth of the Savior.