Celebrating Advent 2013

We've been celebrating Advent since 2001 in our household. Keith made us the tabletop Advent wreath above, and through the years we have celebrated Advent with different materials. We read through the adventure books Jotham's Journey and Tabitha's Travels which tell an adventure story that ends on December 24th at the manger and the birth of the Christ Child. We've also used a little book called Christ in the Carols, a devotional with the lyrics to and the background of each carol with a closing meditation and prayer. We've used the Scripture readings from Focus on the Family or the Lectionary from the Book of Common Prayer. As the kids grow up, each year we do something slightly different.

Each family member has his/her turn to light the Advent candle(s) in the wreath and to read the Scripture from the Advent calendar wall hanging Keith's sister made for us with 25 hand-embroidered pockets for candy/gifts and a laminated Scripture verse attached to each one.

This year we're using a Scripture reading plan from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. On the right side of the home page is a calendar where we click on the date and the Advent Scripture readings for that date come up: an Old Testament reading, a responsorial Psalm, and a Gospel/New Testament reading. We add the Advent Collects from the Book of Common Prayer 2011 and a spontaneous prayer afterward, and we have our Advent celebrations for 2013.

For more about the significance of Advent, here's a post I've written in the past: First Sunday in Advent.

And here is my post from 2012 on The Third Sunday in Advent (Gaudete Sunday) which explains why we use a rose/pink candle for this Sunday rather than the usual purple for the rest of the Sundays in Advent...among other Advent ponderings....

Wishing you a holy and truly blessed Advent season!