Dear Friends,

 

What are you giving up for Advent?

A strange question, you may think, since this time of year is when we do anything but give things up. We’re likely to do more shopping, spend more money, eat more food and drink more alcohol than in any of the other 11 months in the year, so why think of giving anything up? Well, there may be good reasons ……..

Actually, I know some of the things I would like to give up at this time of year: the relentless background music of Christmas carols and jingles assaulting my ears in every shop; the constant reminders of ‘countdown to Christmas’ – only ** shopping days left; the writing of lists (it becomes a compulsive habit at this time of year); the mince pies which seem to appear earlier every year; laughing Santas and nodding reindeer; the growing pressure to prepare for ‘the perfect Christmas’.

 

Advent – the period leading up to Christmas - is actually meant to be a sombre time, rather like Lent, when we pause and take stock of our lives and the world we’re in, in order to get ready for the coming of Christ at Christmas; then (and only then!) our celebrations can begin, and we can make whoopee. So Advent calendars giving us chocolate throughout December, or the ‘gastronomic Advent calendar’ which arrived in the post the other day with a recipe of festive fare for every day, are missing the point. We have, as the old slogan for the Access card used to put it, taken the waiting out of wanting: this is the time to wait, to reflect, to prepare our lives for what is to come, rather than indulging ourselves in an excess of eating, drinking and shopping, so that by the time Christmas day comes we’re fit only to collapse in an exhausted heap.

 

I’ve recently found a newly published book which reflects my feelings about Advent and Christmas: ‘Doing December Differently  - an alternative Christmas handbook.’ It makes refreshing reading, with its suggestions for avoiding that awful feeling of being trapped in a vortex of getting and spending as Christmas approaches.

Here are a few tips it offers:

• Do what you can to make small changes in your seasonal routine, to keep this season as you feel it should be …
• Be compassionate – to yourself, as well as to your relations and friends, and be realistic about what you can and can’t ‘get out’ of Christmas – give up the illusion of ‘the perfect Christmas’.
• Cherish and claim limitation, restraint, simplicity, and ‘enough-ness’ as sound Advent principles, as much as you can.
• Try and build in some quiet moments in all the rush, to remember what it’s really all about, to take a critical look at your life, and to prepare yourself inwardly for the coming of Christ.
• Try to keep a sense of perspective: it will pass! Give up on guilt. Laugh at the awful bits, and cherish the unexpected moments of wonder.

I hope and pray that for you as individuals, and for us as a parish, Advent will be a thoughtful time of preparation which will enable us to celebrate Christmas, when it comes (and not before!) with greater joy and meaning.

 

With love,

Rosey