The First Sunday of Advent has arrived. The time of 'preparing to prepare' is over and the wait for our Savior has begun. Our family's Advent traditions include evening prayers with the lighting of our Advent wreath. We had some trouble finding our wreath, this being our first Advent in our new house, but Anna Ruth came to the rescue at the last minute. She remembered seeing it in a cupboard in the basement marked 'science shelf' from its previous life in our old house. Whew. The letters above are new this year - hard to see in the picture but they are a nice purple color.
We also actually found our Jesse tree and our somewhat bedraggled but much-loved collection of ornaments to put on it. They are the symbols we have used for years and my children do not like to alter tradition so there was no question of making new ones. The Jesse Tree takes its name from the scripture verse, Isaiah 11:1 - A shoot shall rise from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. This refers to David, Jesse's unlikely shepherd boy chosen to be king and to the Christ Child who will eventually be born from his lineage. Every night we will read the familiar and old, old stories of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, and on and on up to the birth of Our Lord. We will tell the stories of waiting as we wait ourselves in joyful hope. (Mary Rose pointed out the Israelites had to wait thousands of years but we only have to wait one.) We are also planning to read Rebecca's lovely family reflections that she so kindly posted on her blog.
We have also joined in the beautiful tradition of praying the Christmas Anticipatory Prayer, to be prayed fifteen times a day from the feast of St. Andrew on November 30 until Christmas. Following Alice's wonderful idea I have put it in my sidebar so it can be easily read as we go about 'visiting' each others' blogs. Margaret had asked her readers how they intend to incorporate this into one's daily prayer, so I thought I would share here what I've decided to do. I made numerous copies of the prayer, about two dozen, and printed them out. I cut them up into little cards and mounted each one on a bit of purple construction paper.
I have scattered these all over the house, posting them in very ordinary places and tucking them into cupboards and such.
My idea was that whenever we encounter one of these prayer cards we are to stop and take a moment to pray the prayer.
They are like little purple stop signs for me, causing me to stop and pause and pray and call to mind what it is this season of Advent is all about. It is such a brief but beautiful prayer. It takes just about a quarter of a minute to say it so there is no excuse to not stop and pray every time I encounter a purple card. I admit we are not actually counting this way, but I am striving to stop and recollect and pray in joyful anticipation many more times than fifteen per day. Whenever I see a purple card and I read that first Hail, comma, I am compelled to Hail and pause and step back a minute from the busyness and hubbub of this household and let my mind wander to that stable at midnight in the piercing cold. It is a beautiful thing.
Hope your Advent has gotten off to a blessed start!
And if it hasn't, there's always tomorrow.
