Today in Luke we’re introduced to St. John the Baptist, also known as Jesus’ weird cousin. Despite his personal idiosyncrasies, John’s message is pretty clear. In fact, it’s direct from the prophet Isaiah:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be brought low,
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
This suggests to us a kind of spiritual terraforming—it’s not the more gentle, natural spirituality that we might take from other parts of the tradition. We hear very similar language in our reading from Baruch. In this way, I think the rhythm of the liturgical year teaches us to discern a basic principle of the spiritual life, which is that it doesn’t always look exactly the same, not just from person to person, but from day to day. Even those who take religious vows still take seasonal moments away from their ordinary routine. Advent is meant to be not a passive time of waiting, but an active preparation for the coming of the Lord. Remember the parables about the wedding feast and the wise virgins; we do not want to be caught unawares and find ourselves out in the darkness. The coming of the Lord requires more than simply prepping holiday meals and buying presents.
For my homily today, then, I want to break from my more normal theologizing and present eight very practical ways that we can prepare for the Lord’s Advent.
- Read through the Gospels. We’ve just started Year C of the lectionary, so a focus on Luke would be especially fruitful in relation to the Sunday readings. Our alternate collect for today—one of those collects that comes straight from the Anglican prayer book with no other parallel in the Latin Church—suggests that Scripture is meant for our learning, and that we should “hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” it.[1] It is nourishment for our souls. Like food, sometimes it may take extra work; sometimes it comes easy. Either way, the word of God is a gift waiting to be received.
- Listen to some Advent music. You’ll hear Christmas music, no doubt, pretty much anytime you go out into public these days. It’s weird to be in the most secular of establishments and all of a sudden hear somebody crooning “Silent Night.” But Advent has its own music, and there’s a whole treasury of it in the English tradition. If you’re not familiar with it, you might start by searching “King’s College Advent Procession” to find a classic playlist.
- Have some fast days and practice abstinence—and not just on Fridays. Among the Episcopalians, there was once a great deal of consternation over the character of Advent. There were those who thought one penitential season—Lent—was quite enough, thank you very much, and so they insisted that Advent had to be about something else, something less dreary. My point is that for Catholics, this is not really a subject of debate. Advent is penitential. No, it’s not quite the level of penitence of Lent. But if we give up things in Lent, there’s no reason not to give up things in Advent also as a kind of spiritual training.
- Don’t celebrate Christmas early. This is a tough one. The balance is somewhere between being a complete grouch on the one extreme and treating the whole month like a party on the other. So this doesn’t mean you should avoid saying, “Merry Christmas”—especially if someone says it to you—or that you should become the Advent Police and go around scolding people for putting up decorations early. But there is something to be said for a slow approach, of being intentional about when we do things and what that says about the season we’re in.
- Go to confession. I mean, you should be going to confession anyway if you’re receiving Holy Communion regularly. But Advent is, again, a time especially devoted to preparing ourselves for the second coming of Christ—which is his coming in judgment. So accusing ourselves now is always better than being accused later.
- Pray the office. Whereas the clergy and religious have certain obligations about the Divine Office, the laity are more free in how they approach it. Advent is a good time to experiment. I don’t mean tinkering with things, but trying out different forms of prayer. There’s the standard Roman Liturgy of the Hours; there’s the older Latin form of the Breviary; there’s the Divine Worship Daily Office, which is peculiar to the Ordinariate’s tradition. Not to mention all sorts of traditional votive offices like the office for the dead and the little office of the Virgin Mary. These can be beautiful practices that highlight the distinction of a certain season. The St. Gregory’s Prayer Book has a lovely set of family prayers, an “office” if you will, around lighting the Advent wreath candles at home.
- Practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Food, clothing, health and well-being, help for those along the margins—all of these remain crucial forms of Christian witness in the world. Almsgiving is distinct from our ordinary support of the Church, and it is one way that we can choose to care for those in need. There are many worthy charities looking for support this time of year, and rightly so; Catholics should be known by their generosity.
- Do something with candles. This is such a small thing, but it’s especially good with kids, whether you can make something like a traditional Advent wreath or not. Advent is all about darkness and light—a contrast made more definite with the natural season. Simply allowing ourselves to experience this in concrete form can help us prepare in heart and mind for Christmas.
Let me close by once more praying the seasonal collect for Advent:
ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead; we may rise to the life immortal; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.
[1] BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.