Advent wreath: meaningful preparation, not nice decoration

By Bob Zyskowski, The Catholic Spirit

Okay, this is the Advent I’m really going to do it. I promise.
I’m really going to pray with the Advent Wreath, all four weeks.
No, really. I mean it.
I know the Advent Wreath should be more than a nice decoration to have around the house during the holidays, and I know that I will get more out of the Advent season and my preparation for Christmas if I put more into it.

Have you had this kind of conversation with yourself?

Let’s do it this year. Let’s make the time to light the Advent wreath every Sunday starting Nov. 30 and let’s use this simple season ceremony that has been a part of Catholic life since the 16th century.

This is something each of us can do as individuals, as a family, or as a group with others you might invite to join you.

Clip the Advent wreath ritual out of this paper each week or pull it off of archden.org (click on the Advent page link) or off of TheCatholicSpirit.com and make all the copies you need.
It doesn’t have to take long to make our prayer around the Advent wreath a meaningful part of each week. With the right priorities, all of us can find 10 or 15 minutes.

Find a time convenient for yourself and anyone who might be joining you.

Use any or all of ritual
It’s a brief ritual that will be in this newspaper and Web site each week during Advent. Use the whole thing or parts that make sense for you and those praying with you.

Read the readings aloud or silently.
If you are with others, take turns leading and take turns with each of the various parts of the ritual.
And don’t rush through the prayers of petition at the end.

Take your time with each and reflect on what you’re praying for.
The Season of Advent opens the new Church calendar, and what better way to start the new Church year than joining with others across the globe in preparing our hearts for the miracle of Christmas.

Advent Week 1

The following Advent Wreath prayer is intended to help busy households make Advent a prayerful time during the rush of Christmas preparations. The language is fairly simple to be used for personal prayer and reflection or by groups of adults or adults with children, and options are noted to allow for participation by a variety of members of the household.

Leader: Today begins a special time of year for us. This week we begin the season of Advent—that period of waiting before Christmas. In order to help each of us prepare our own hearts for the birth of Christ, we want to take a few moments each week to pray together.

• Light first candle on the Advent Wreath (choose a different person for this task each week)

• (optional) Read aloud Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2b-7; 1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Mark 13:33-37 (a different person might read each passage)

• Leader: Did you ever wonder why God didn’t make it easier for us to be good? The Bible passages that the Church has chosen for this First Sunday of Advent point out two things: that we aren’t perfect, and that we could be—and we’d better be!—better people. The prophet Isaiah begs God for help. The evangelist Paul offers up a thank you to God for all the gifts we have. And Mark’s Gospel reminds us that the time to start living the right way is right now—this Advent—today.

Closing prayer:
(Leader may read all, or others in the household may each read a segment)
1) Dear God, help us to accept that we are the clay and that you are the potter. Throughout this first week of Advent, help us remember that we are your people and that you are our God. Help us get our priorities right and put the most important things first—loving God and loving our neighbor.

2) Holy Spirit, guide the choices we make throughout this week so that we choose to do what honors our creator and what shows our love of others.

3) Father in heaven, we offer thanks to you for the many gifts and talents you have given to all the people on the Earth, to our family and friends, to the neighbors we know and the neighbors we have yet to befriend.

4) Lord Jesus, we wait in joyful hope for you. Come into our hearts, so that when the time comes, we will be prepared to join you in everlasting joy.

Bob Zyskowski is associate publisher of The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.