11-20-2004, 09:05 PM
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Survivor Mom
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Texas
Posts: 4,939
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Re: Study Session #1 - Advent
The Basics...
Advent is an especially lovely season and we can make great use of it. With the beginning of the season of Advent, we begin a new liturgical year. The First Sunday of Advent is therefore the Church's "New Year's Day". Advent begins the Christmas cycle.
Advent comes from the Latin word for an "arrival" or a "coming". Advent means that the Lord is coming. Jesus Christ is about to arrive.
Advent is a time of joy tinged with penance. Joy, because we can imagine nothing more sweet than the Christ Child and His Mother Mary's bliss at His coming to light. Penance because we must strive to be properly disposed to receive so great a gift of His presence. The liturgical color used in the Latin Church for the liturgy during Advent is purple, a sign of penance. In some places people may see blue used, which is done without the Church's approval. The Latin Church also emphasizes the penitential dimension of the season by directing the use of sparse ornaments in church and by legislating that instrumental music should not be used, except to sustain congregational singing. This is a kind of liturgical fast, which makes the joy and celebration of Christmas all that much more powerful by the contrast of the lean and muted season of Advent. Advent is a time of great joy, because we look forward to the beautiful feast of the Nativity, but it is joy stitched through with somber and focused spiritual preparation by doing penance.
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