Welcome to the Advent Thoughts
Since the 5th century, Catholics – and, later, other Christian denominations – have celebrated Advent. The four Sundays prior to Christmas comprise the Advent season. I find it a lovely and deep time to look within and prepare for the birth of something new in our lives.
The word Advent comes from the Latin meaning “coming; arrival.” Within the Christian context, this is viewed as longing for the return of Jesus – the Second coming. I look at it as a deeper longing for the birth/rebirth of the Christ nature – the Light – within each of us. That doesn’t depend upon some individual from long ago, but upon us and our opening to the ever presence of the divine.
The Advent wreath consists of 5 candles – 4 arranged in a circle around a 5th, central candle. Each of the four candles represents a quality of the process of preparation, one for each of the Sundays. Traditionally, there is a liturgy that goes along with each of these Sundays. The central candle represents, for Christians, the light of the birth of Jesus and, for many, the hope of the Second Coming of Jesus. The circle of the wreath represents the Infinite Oneness, with no beginning or end. The evergreens often used with the wreath symbolize the life that is always present in every season.
For us, who look at the deeper meanings of such stories and rituals, we see the central candle as representing the birth, or rebirth, of the Christ light within us. The “Christ” is not a person, rather, according to Ernest Holmes, the Word of God manifest in and through humankind, or even the entire manifestation of God – thus including all of life. He goes on to say that each of us “‘puts on the Christ’ to the degree that we surrender a limited view of Life to the Divine realization of the wholeness and unity with Good, Spirit, God.” (SOM 579) It is our deep, whole, spiritual nature.
In today’s world, we often want and expect instant results. We delude ourselves into thinking that we’re “already there.” But true spiritual work is releasing our delusions. And, like everything else that we see in nature, takes time to unfold. By participating in some longer term practice of deepening, we open ourselves to this unfolding – not trying to force it or “make it happen,” but making it welcome, letting it unfold. The very birth of Jesus, like all births, didn’t happen instantly. It took the usual nine months, then there was the growth from the infant, through childhood, early learning experiences until the final blossoming of the Christ could emerge.
Traditionally, this was a time of fasting – of going deep to create an opening for this birth. We’ll use it also as a time to deepen our own minds to open to the already and always present Presence within. While this Presence is right now, we often don’t see it because we don’t take time or rise above the busyness of our daily lives to experience it. So, these four weeks are an invitation to slow our roll, to sink into the sweet awareness of the Light within and let it shine within our lives. It is my hope and intention that these writings and this season supports you in having a deeper experience of your own Christ nature.
We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all eternity… But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me. ~ Meister Eckhart