AdventReflections - St. Mary of Grace Independent Catholic Church

The Season of Advent: A time of preparation

Below are a few spiritual practices to help make your Advent more prayerful and meaningful.
A good resource for Advent traditions, reflections, and prayers:

Praying Advent
Description from the site: "We often miss Advent's power because these December weeks are full of secular Christmas parties and preparations for Christmas. Each year, the busyness of this season serves to distract us from having an Advent season that truly prepares us for the celebration of Christmas, with all its meaning. This site offers simple ways to enter into this Advent season, week by week, in the midst of our everyday lives."

Full Homely Divinity
From the site: "The season of Advent looks back, to a time before the birth of Christ, to show us how the people of God learned hope in ancient times. And then the season of Advent looks forward, far beyond the birth of Christ, to the true object of our faith, the King who comes to conquer the darkness, restore creation, and establish his Kingdom for ever...We cannot hope to reverse the commercial hijacking and premature celebration of Christmas which has played a major role in the near demise of Advent, so we should not waste our time trying. What we can do is rededicate ourselves to the observance of Advent in our churches and in our homes. Through the years the Church has developed many resources for this, so we do not need to reinvent Advent. We just need to rediscover it."

The O Antiphons

The seven "O Antiphons" are prayers that come from Evening Prayer during the eight days before Christmas Eve. Each Antiphon begins with "O" and addresses Jesus with a unique title which comes from the prophecies of Isaias and Micheas (Micah), and whose initials, when read backwards, form an acrostic for the Latin "Ero Cras" which means "Tomorrow I come." Those titles for Christ are:

Sapientia (Wisdom)
Adonai (Lord of Israel)
Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse)
Clavis David (Key of David)
Oriens (Radiant Dawn/Dayspring)
Rex Gentium (King of all Nations)
Emmanuel (God with Us)

The O Antiphons can serve as a basis for prayerful reflection on the theology and themes of Advent.

Scriptural basis and background of the O Antiphons

Reflections on each of the O Antiphons

The Angelus

The Angelus is a devotion in honor of the Incarnation. It is generally used throughout the liturgical year, but can also serve as a reflection on the themes of the Advent season.

The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Hail Mary, full of grace …

Behold the handmaid of the Lord.
Be it done unto me according to thy word.
Hail Mary, full of grace …

And the Word was made Flesh.
And dwelt among us.
Hail Mary, full of grace …

Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God.
That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that, we to whom the Incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an Angel, may by His Passion and Cross, be brought to the glory of His Resurrection. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Advent Reflections

Bp. Tim Cravens

This Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent, we begin a new church year. We remember the First Coming of Christ in the Incarnation, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas; we prepare for the Second Coming of Christ at the end of time; and we encounter Christ’s coming to us daily – in the Eucharist, in Scripture, in prayer, in community, and in the poor.

The first Psalm says of the righteous that “their delight is in the law of the LORD, and they meditate on God’s law day and night.” I would like for us, in this church community, to have as our goal for this new church year to get to know the Scriptures more deeply, so that we may be “like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither”, as the first Psalm goes on to say of the righteous.

I would like to ask each member of this jurisdiction to do three things this year:

· prayerfully read through the New Testament;

· pray the entire Psalter on a regular basis; and

· study the Gospel according to Mark, the gospel being read this year in the modern three-year lectionary.

If we become more rooted in scripture, we will find that our encounters with Christ in the Eucharist, in prayer, in community, and in the poor will become more profound, and our ability to witness to the Light of Christ within us will grow.

Please be assured of my prayers for a meaningful Advent and a joyous Christmas.

+Tim