ADVENT 2007

Tomorrow begins Advent, so today I want to post some information about its history.

The liturgical season of Advent marks the time of spiritual preparation by the faithful before Christmas. Advent begins on the Sunday closest to the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle (Nov. 30). It spans four Sundays and four weeks of preparation, although the last week of Advent is usually truncated because of when Christmas falls.

Advent has probably been observed since the fourth century. Originally, it was a time when Christians readied themselves for baptism.

During the Middle Ages, Advent became associated with preparation for the Second Coming. In early days Advent lasted from November 11, the feast of St. Martin, until Christmas Day. Advent was considered a pre-Christmas season of Lent when Christians devoted themselves to prayer and fasting. The Orthodox Eastern Church observes a similar Lenten season, from November 15 until Christmas, rather than Advent.

One of the earliest references to Christmas being celebrated on December 25 appeared in Antioch in the middle of the second century. At that time, Christians were still persecuted. An official determination was made in the fourth century, when the Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, thereby ensuring the legality of Christmas celebrations. The Council of Tours in 567 established the period of Advent as a time of fasting before Christmas. They also proclaimed the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany a sacred, festive season.

Now many people become very concerned and think Advent is Catholic and that Christmas is pagan.

It would be impossible to deny the influence of the catholic church on the celebration of Advent or Christmas. It would also be impossible to deny that it is possible that certain pagan celebrations may have influenced when the church decided to celebrate Christmas.

In spite of the above mentioned facts, each person should realize the following:

The days of the week are named after pagan gods:

Monday: Monday (pron. IPA: /ˈmʌndeɪ, ˈmʌndi/) is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. It gets its name from the Moon, which in turn gets its name from Mani (Old English Mona), the Germanic Moon god.

Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. The name comesfrom Middle English Twisday, from Old English Tiwes dæg, named after theNordic god Tyr, who was the equivalent of the Roman war god Mars.

I could give more examples but those should suffice. The question really is, can we use the time of Advent and Christmas to help us spiritually? I say yes!

We can use Advent to look to the first and second coming of Christ. We can focus on important doctrines like the incarnation, the diety of Christ, etc.

We can celebrate the fact that God the son was born of the virgin to save sinners from their sin!

The real struggle is trying to keep the focus during this season on Christ and not on things like Santa Clause and materialism.

Here are the Scripture readings for the Sundays during Advent:

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT: December 2, 2007

Isaiah 2:1-5

Psalm 122:1-9

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:37-44

SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT: 9 December, 2007

Isaiah 11:1-10

Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 17

Romans 15:4-9

Matthew 3:1-12

THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT 16 December, 2007

Isaiah 35:1-6, 10

Psalm 146:6-10

James 5:7-10

Matthew 11:2-11

FORT SUNDAY OF ADVENT: 23 December, 2007

Isaiah 7:10-14

Psalm 24:1-6

Romans 1:1-7

Matthew 1:18-24