Advent

Advent - Season of Anticipation

Why does the Church prepare to welcome her Lord at this time of the year, not with festive songs and blazing lights, but in darkness and stillness, the darkness only pierced by the candles of the Advent Ring?

The answer is we are not clutching a present possession, we are looking forward in hope to a future joy. Now is not the time to sing rejoicing carols. We go faltering forwards our eyes fixed on the growing light which will not break out in fullness until we celebrate the Birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.

We lose something if we prematurely seize that which has not yet arrived. Christmas is all the more exciting and satisfying if we are prepared to watch and wait for its coming.