Advent is a seasonal time before Christmas for preparation. It means coming, and it signifies the coming of our Lord. The season is not only to look at our Savior's first Advent, but to be mindful of His second Advent. For our Advent spiritual reading this year, my family is taking its prompting primarily from the The Liturgical Year, Vol. I, Advent written in the 19th century by the Rev Dom Prosper Gueranger, Abbot of Solesmes (1841-1875). It is available for free via the iPieta app. It juxtaposes nicely with the liturgical readings from the 1962 Catholic Missal. My family attends a traditional Latin Mass parish that uses this missal, so Dom Prosper Gueranger's writing gives a feel of continuity and building from what we have already taking place rather than another Advent/Christmas activity jammed into an already busy time of year. It extends the Mass into our daily lives, into the home, and helps us to make the connection that the Faith is to be carried out through everything and not remain behind at the church.
The overarching seasonal theme is "Come, let us adore the King our Lord, who is to come." We will be taking scriptural readings, particularly from the book of Isaiah and the Mass, to contemplate and prepare ourselves to adore the King of the Universe who is to come, not only as the infant at Christmas, but as our Judge in the Second Coming. Mixed in are the various saint feast days we celebrate during this season that we will look at more to learn from and prepare ourselves. I'm posting here to document, share, and possibly inspire others to dig into the rich spiritual traditions of the Catholic faith.
Granted we will be doing the Advent wreath. We gathered various evergreens from our yard along with sprigs of rosemary, thyme, and lavender. The purple flowers are from our heather shrubs, also known as Calluna. Using floral wire, I wrapped it straw and the greens around a floral wreath ring. The floral ring and wire were both purchased at the dollar store. I read about using straw or newspaper as the wreath base to help keep the it from drying out too much through the season. We didn't have any newspapers, but we had extra clean straw that we use to clean out our chicken coop. This is our second year doing this, so will see if it we can make it to Christmas without it drying out and becoming a fire hazard. Next year I think I would try shredded paper bags for the base in hopes it would not be as messy as the straw was.
