November 25, 2011
Welcome Advent
Parishes, school catechists share ideas about the Advent season
Maryann Joyce, above right, youth coordinator and CRE at St. John Church, Evansville, takes notes during the “Welcoming Advent” meeting for school and parish educators. She is with Donna Gish, interim director of the diocesan Office of Catechesis. (Message photo by Mary Ann Hughes) Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Advent is a season of preparation, and last week catechists from across the Diocese of Evansville gathered at the Catholic Center to share ideas which they use to help their students through those four weeks.
The meeting was hosted by the Catholic Schools Office, using the title “Welcoming Advent,” which is a direct tie-in to this year’s diocesan theme in schools, “All Are Welcome.” Participants included teachers and principals as well as DREs and CREs.
Daryl Hagan, diocesan superintendent of schools, welcomed everyone with the words, “I hope this helps our students know what Advent is so you can have a really joyous Christmas.” He encouraged them to go back to their parishes and schools and ask, “Is Advent missing?” because in order to have Christmas “we have to have Advent first.”
Matt Miller, diocesan director of Worship, noted the difficulty of focusing on Advent “when everything is telling us to focus on Christmas. The stores have been focusing on Christmas for three months.”
In the early Church, the length of Advent varied from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, Miller said, noting it was “always connected to the celebration of the Nativity.” Pope Gregory the Great, pope from 590 to 604, standardized the number to four Sundays.
The word “advent” comes from the Latin word adventus meaning “coming,” and the season calls Catholics “to remember the historical coming of Christ,” Miller said. We are also called to remember Christ coming in the present because the “Incarnation still is a real thing for us through the Mass,” while looking ahead to the future when Christ will come again.
Advent is in the very beginning of each Liturgical year, “a reminder that we should spend every day of our lives preparing for Christ’s coming.” Violet is the color of the Advent season. It’s traditionally a royal color, reminding Catholics “we are called to be a people preparing for the coming of the king.”
The readings and prayers in Advent, he said, are all about “preparation” and “getting ready, all pointing us toward Christ.”
The challenge for Catholics, he said, is to “keep our focus on Advent” even though we have been getting Christmas fliers since September. “Some of it is unavoidable. It’s silly not to focus on Christmas, to not do Christmas shopping, but we have to keep our focus on Christ in all we do. We have to stay focused on what the Liturgy gives to us through the season of Advent.
“We need to make sure we keep our focus where it needs to be,” and we can do that “by listening to the readings, and listening to the prayers” during Advent.
Hagan challenged the catechists to take a look at the environment in their churches and schools. “When you walk into your classrooms on Nov. 28, will it look different?” An environment for Advent should let students know “we’ve entered a new season.”
He suggested that the signs and symbols of Advent should have the “same gusto” as the signs and symbols of Christmas.
And when families entered the parish buildings and see “all the purple” they have the opportunity to start the dialogue about the Advent season.
The gathering ended with the catechists sharing ideas about ways to bring Advent into their parishes and schools. They had each been asked to bring a favorite project, which they shared. The ideas included Advent plays and prayers, Jesse tree activities and various craft projects.
Hagan concluded the gathering by thanking everyone “for helping with the spiritual lives of our children, because that’s what we are here for.”