Journey to Advent

Somehow while I was growing up I concluded that liturgy = boring. I also figured that any “man-made” traditions (i.e., anything not specifically mentioned by name in the Bible), such as Advent, Lent, etc., were only for people whose faith was dead.

Then, during the summer I lived in Oxford, England, I attended an Anglican church (seemed to be the appropriate thing to do!), and discovered something weird: the Spirit was actually very much alive in this church, despite – or perhaps in accordance with? – the liturgical style of the services! It was a very eye-opening experience for me.

A few years later, after Pete and I were married, we attended a couple of different Episcopal-now-Anglican churches, and experienced the same phenomenon – the liturgy and traditions of the worship services were beautiful, alive, and in fact very meaningful. Church tradition became very intriguing and attractive to us; it was both comforting and exciting to think that we were saying the same words, and doing some of the same things that had been said and done for centuries. In this time where new churches are springing up all over the place, with new philosophies, styles, perspectives, etc., it was refreshing to find a bedrock of thought that had stood the tests of time and place.

Soon thereafter we discovered the joy of celebrating seasons such as Advent and Lent, of marking our days and weeks according to the Church calendar. For us, it has helped to sharpen the focus of our family on the Truths beyond what our culture teaches. Marking certain seasons like this, setting apart those weeks as special and different, has allowed me to personally realign and re-set. And by doing special activities with the kids during these seasons, they begin to see more about how significant the Events we’re celebrating are.

Advent, especially, the time of Waiting for the Coming (both for Christ as a baby, and also His second coming), is an exciting time to share as a family. Each year we’ve added to and/or changed how we celebrate this season, but here are a few of our favorite things we’ve done so far:

1.) Make an advent wreath on the first Sunday of Advent. We go to our local Christmas tree seller and ask if we can just have some of the scrap branches, and they always give them to us for free. We put them on our foam ring, add candles, and voila – a beautiful-smelling wreath. Throughout the season we then light the appropriate candles at dinner, and try to have extra family times on Sundays to talk about each theme for the week.

2.) Make 2 Advent paper chains. Each day the kids can take a ring off each of the chains. One has a particular person or family to pray for that day, and the other has a Scripture passage we read together during our dinner/wreath time, which coincides with that week’s theme.

3.) Watch Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem: For the younger kids especially, it’s been fun for them to try and find Mary and Joseph each morning as they make their way around our house, headed towards to the Nativity scene we’ve set up. (We hide them each night after the kids go to bed… if we remember!) Then after Christmas, the Wise Men begin their trek, to end on Epiphany.

4.) Celebrate St. Nicholas Day. This has become one of our family’s favorite holidays. In the past we’ve had friends over, had a Moroccan meal, decorated Gingerbread men, and then hung out the kids’ stockings after they go to bed. This year we’re planning on doing more St. Nick-type activities as we try to do some anonymous things for people in need. One of our plans involves some “candy-caning” of peoples’ yards… the kids think anything that involves sneaking around in the dark is FUN!

There are, of course, many other opportunities to do things outside the home – so many concerts, celebrations, etc. – but these are just a few of the things we do within our family, to commemorate this Season of Hope!