Mark A. Villano - Time to Get Ready: An Advent, Christmas Reader to Wake Your Soul

Time to Get Ready

Time to Get Ready

An Advent, Christmas Reader to Wake Your Soul

MARK A. VILLANO

2015 First Printing

Time to Get Ready: An Advent, Christmas Reader to Wake Your Soul

Copyright 2015 by Mark Villano

ISBN 978-1-61261-559-2

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) is a trademark of Paraclete Press, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Date

Villano, Mark A.

Time to get ready : an Advent, Christmas reader to wake your soul / Mark A. Villano.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-61261-559-2

1. AdventMeditations. 2. ChristmasMeditations. 3. Epiphany seasonMeditations. I. Title.

BV40.V55 2015

242.33dc23

2015027047

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press

Brewster, Massachusetts

www.paracletepress.com

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

With gratitude to
the many preachers, teachers,
and other ministers of the Word
who have enriched my life.

Introduction

Seasons of Grace

Advent is the beginning of a new year, that is, the beginning of a new, holy time of prayer and reflection on the revelation of Christ to humanity. With the assistance of this pattern of living and reflecting on the Christian mystery, we hope to more fully participate in that mystery. We seek to open ourselves to the invitations of grace around us. Just as we are immersed in creation, so we want to be immersed in the Spirit. We want the seasons of our lives to become seasons of grace.

Where did Advent come from?

The earliest Christians relied almost entirely on the Lords Day, the weekly celebration of the day of the Lords resurrection, to maintain their identity and nourish their mission. By the end of the second century, though, what we now know as liturgical seasons began to emerge. First came an annual feast of Easter, Pascha, known throughout the church by about the third century. In some places, its time was determined by a lunar calendar, and in others, by a solar calendar. In both cases, the feast celebrated not one incident but the whole Christian mystery and its impact on peoples lives. Not long after, the period of fifty days from Easter to the feast of Pentecost was observed as a season of celebration. The mystery of Resurrection was too big for one day: its Scriptures, stories, and implications needed to be unpacked over time. Easter was seen as the perfect time for initiating new Christians into the life of the community. For those readying themselves for baptism at Easter, a forty-day period of fasting, penance, and more intense instruction developed. The whole community joined them in this spiritual preparation, and thus was born what we know as the Lenten fast, leading to a fuller experience of Easter renewal and feasting.

It was in the fourth century when Christians began celebrating the birth of Jesus. Christmas, like Easter, was more than an observance of a particular event. It was the feast of the Incarnation, of Gods self-emptying love and embrace of humanity. Both Eastern and Western Christians eventually settled on December 25 as the feast of the Nativity. And just as with the Paschal feast, a pattern of extension and preparation developed. Christmas expanded into the Christmas season, a period of celebration culminating in feasts of Epiphany, or manifestations of Christ: the visit of the Magi, the Baptism of the Lord. A period of preparation for Christmas also developed: the four weeks of Advent.

Advent (from the Latin for coming) is replete with readings, themes, symbols, and traditions. Advent is a time of expectation and hope. Throughout this holy season we move from hope in Christs coming in the fullness of time, to joyful anticipation of the Christ childs birth. The goal of the season is to make us more ready to receive the message of Christmas and to engage its meaning in our lives.

Everyone can benefit from considering these ancient patterns and seasons of prayer. In a culture where the holiday season has been reduced to commercial excess, social obligation, or bland sentimentality, what would it mean to take back Advent as a time when spiritual groundwork was paramount? What would it mean to conceive of Christmas as the beginning, rather than end, of a celebratory season a season meant to open you to a new awareness of God at work in your life?

Consider this book a daily retreat, a time when you can let go of the activity and noise of your life and simply listen. It is meant to be a companion for personal prayer.

Go to a comfortable place. Light a candle. Pray as you normally would. Then read a reflection. Listen. Pray.

Advent begins four Sundays before Christmas. You can begin these reflections on that first Sunday.

And may we always welcome the light and peace of our merciful God!

By the tender mercy of our God,

the dawn from on high will break upon us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the

shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:7879)

Time to Get Ready

First Week

Advent Waiting

Once upon a time there was , and then everybody leans forward a little and starts to listen.

We want to know what is coming next. There was a young woman named Mary, and an angel came to her from God, and what did he say? And what did she say? And then how did it all turn out in the end?

The story Christianity tells is one that can be so simply told that we can get the whole thing really on a very small Christmas card or into two crossed pieces of wood. Yet in another sense it is so vast and complex that the whole Bible can only hint at it, a story beyond time altogether.

Yet it is also in time, the story of the love between God and humanity. There is a time when it begins, and therefore there is a time before it begins, when it is coming but not yet here, and this is the time Mary was in when Gabriel came to her. It is Advent: the time just before the adventure begins, when everybody is leaning forward to hear what will happen even though they already know what will happen and what will not happen, when they listen hard for meaning, their meaning, and begin to hear, only faintly at first, the beating of unseen wings.

FREDERICK BUECHNER

One

Telling Time