Advent — Week One

Advent begins this evening.

A curious thing about Christian liturgy is that the day doesn’t begin in the morning, but in the evening. The liturgical day begins not with the hope of morning prayer, but the hesitation of vespers, the gentle entreaties of evening prayer. Today in Saint Andrews, the sun will have been tucked in her seaside bed for four hours when the priest's words ring out, marking a new liturgical season. The chilly faithful will huddle near each other, candles flickering in the darkness, their visible breath rising agains the stone walls of the church. And the priest will pray:

Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord;
and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night;

This is where we begin the season of advent, in the dark and cold, waiting with held breath and strained eyes for the coming of a light we can't quite see. Advent comes from the latin word adventus meaning arrival, invasion, or coming. The prophet Isaiah foresaw this coming, writing “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Isaiah 9:2). Since the very earliest years of the Christian church (the fifth century and likely before), Christians have kept the four weeks prior to Christmas holy, a season of restraint, fasting, hope, preparation, making room in our hearts for the coming of the Christ.

For me personally, advent is a favourite season in the Christian year. It makes room for longing, a time to press into the desire for things to be put right, a recognition that things are not as they should be, a space to admit how much I want Jesus to come near and how far He can feel sometimes. In advent we remember that Christ has come, we invite him to come each day into our hearts, and we prepare our hearts for his final return to judge the living and the dead.

I invite you to join me in keeping advent this year.

Whether you are new to advent, an advent veteran, a believer, or an unbeliever, I invite you to join me in this season of patience, of longing, and of preparation. Over the next four weeks, I’ll be posting advent podcasts from the last two years on my podcast. The first one explains the history of advent, and some ways you could celebrate advent with your family. I’ve also attached some advent books, music, and art for you to enjoy as you prepare for Christmas. You can find all this at the link below. I hope they become tools for hope and devotion in your journey toward Christmas.

Much love,
Joy 

listen here — show notes (far) below

Find section titled “Advent — Week One: The Coming”

Advent Literature














Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas

By Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Annie Dillard, Thomas Merton, C. S. Lewis, Henri J. M. Nouwen, John Donne, Meister Eckhart, Dorothy Day, Thomas Stearns Eliot, Edith Stein, Thomas Aquinas, Philip Yancey






Watch for the Light from Plough Publishers

This was a familiar and loved book in my home, which we often read together as a family with tea time after church. It is a masterful collection of advent reflections from some of the best and brightest Christian authors. It draws on many traditions and periods in history to create a companion to advent. It is a lovely resource, and a good one to dip into as needed (i.e. if you miss a reading, all is not lost). I also was delighted to realize that this volume is published by Plough, whose team I had the pleasure of meeting this past summer. I did a podcast with one of the magazine’s editors, Veery Huleatt, should you care to give it a listen.

Waiting on the Word: A poem a day for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany

By Malcolm Guite






Waiting on the Word by Malcolm Guite

Oh, I’m so excited to pick this one up again! This is a collection of poems, one for each day of advent, compiled by priest, poet, professor Malcolm Guite (whose work was featured on last week’s episode!). With each poem he includes a devotional reflection. This is a wonderful, contemplative companion to advent. I savoured each day of devotions. This is the advent devotional companion I’ll be using this year.

The Glorious Impossible [Illustrated with Frescoes from the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto]

By Madeleine L'Engle

I didn’t know to love this book until I took a class in my masters on Giotto, the artist who is featured in these pages. Giotto is considered to be one of the first artists involved in the “humanistic turn,” which was an artistic, philosophical, and theological movement which emphasised realism, the human form, and emotion. This movement came about partially as a result of the rediscovery (and translation) of Aristotle’s philosophy in medieval Europe, with all its emphasis on the particularity of goodness. This was coupled with a rising emphasis on the incarnation, that strange and wonderful idea that God had taken on flesh. Giotto’s paintings seem to beautifully contain all these burgeoning movements, honouring the mystery of the incarnation with his gentle, realistic, and yet intensely holy paintings.

After learning all this, you can imagine my joy at discovering that we had a book under our coffee table featuring Giotto’s beautiful paintings and Madeline L’Engle’s (a favourite author) beautiful words. This is not a devotional book (i.e. does not include scripture readings or prayers), but it is beautifully devotional, and could be a good one to read with a wee one on your lap. I highly recommend. 

A Christmas Carol: Illustrated Classic

By Charles Dickens

So, this isn’t exactly adventine, but I read it leading up to Christmas every year. If you haven’t read this classic Dickens Christmas story, you must. It is a ghost’s tale, a morality play, a fairy story. It is a part of my yearly ritual to read and be chastened by it. Audiobook versions can be fun as well.

Advent Music:














Midwinter Carols

Joel Clarkson





















Midwinter Carols, Vol. 2

Joel Clarkson






Midwinter Carols by Joel Clarkson

I may be biased, but I think Joel’s Christmas albums are some of the best there are. These collections include a diverse selection of Christmas and advent carols, many you will know and some beautiful ones you may not, arranged in lovely, instrumental style. I leave these on repeat almost all of advent and christmastide. Also, my advent-musical theme for the podcast is taken from this album… ha! Anyway, I cannot recommend them highly enough. You can find them on Amazon, iTunes, Spotify, etc. Or you can “buy local” (i.e. Joel’s website).

Joel currently has a sale on: buy the set for $15.Check it out on his website.














Behold The Lamb Of God

Centricity Music (CEY)






Behold the Lamb of God by Andrew Peterson

This wonderful album by singer songwriter Andrew Peterson prepares its listeners for the celebration of the Incarnation by interweaving the grand narrative of scripture with prayerful, confessional longings. I wish I could see this live!

Advent Choral — a playlist by Mark Eliott

If you’re a liturgical stickler, and refuse to listen to Christmas music until actual Christmastide, your soul will glory in this excellent advent choral playlist. It’s got many of the treasures of the British choral tradition, i.e. lots of boys choirs. I was also delighted to discover a Saint Andrews theology professor made the playlist. Give it a listen!

Another Advent Resource…

Each year the society for Christianity and Culture at my alma mater Biola University puts out an “advent calendar” which sends devotional reflections to your inbox with a piece of visual art, music, and poetry. In case you wondered “did this inspire Joy’s podcast” the answer is “yes! slightly! it did.” The quality of the selections have varied from year to year, but overall I’ve found this to be a really fruitful and engaging advent resource… and it’s helpful that it comes to your email every morning! I’d recommend subscribing.

Sign up for Biola Advent Here
ADVENT PODCAST ONE:The Coming

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

— John 1:14

Visual — Advent Wreaths and Calendars

Since around the fifth century or before, Christians have marked the four weeks before Christmas as a special time of prayer, fasting, and contemplation, preparing their hearts for the coming of Christ at Christmas. This is a part of the larger church year, which you can hear more about in the podcast.

One way of marking advent is the advent wreath. There is one candle for each Sunday in advent.

We have the German Lutherans to thank for this tradition, along with many other Christmas traditions including the advent calendar, Christmas market, and Christmas tree. Consider making an advent wreath with your family so you can celebrate together! Advent wreaths are usually comprised of four or five candles. One for each of the weeks of advent respectively, and Christmas itself. A Lutheran pastor came up with the advent wreath to help the children of his congregation mark the days until Christmas.

Advent Calendars…

Another lovely tradition, also started by the Deutschlander, is the Advent Calendar.

These were calendars (or clocks!) where each day had a different image or quote or verse for each day of advent. They were usually delightful and Christmasy and cozy. It is no wonder they are one of the few Christian traditions that have made their way into the secular mainstream! This tradition is less explicitly Christian, but it still fosters that sense of delight, anticipation and wonder. As a little girl, my mom got me advent calendars with little milk chocolates in each window. What could make a child long for Christmas more?!

2. Literary — The Coming, by R.S. Thomas

And God held in his hand
A small globe.  Look he said.
The son looked.  Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Colour.  The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, A river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.
               On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky.  many People
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs.  The son watched
Them.  Let me go there, he said.

3. Musical — the O’ Antiphons

We know it as O Come O Come Emannuel, but this ancient song has been sung in monasteries for 1,500 years.

The O’ Antiphons date back to the early sixth century where they were sung in monastic communities before Christmas. The O’ Antiphons were so named because each one of them began with “O” followed by a name for Christ. There were seven O’ Antiphones, and one was meant to be sung each day the week before Christmas.

17 December: O Sapientia (O Wisdom)

18 December: O Adonai (O Lord)

19 December: O Radix Jesse (O Root of Jesse)

20 December: O Clavis David (O Key of David)

21 December: O Oriens (O Dayspring)

22 December: O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations)

23 December: O Emmanuel (O With Us is God)

The first letter of each antiphon adds up to an acrostic in latin which reads “Ero Cras" which means “tomorrow I will be there,” anticipating Christ’s second coming

By singing these verses, the monks (or nuns!) both celebrated the beauty of Christ’s coming in the Incarnation and anticipated Christ’s second coming when he would make all things right. This is what we celebrate in advent: both the wonder of Christ’s coming into the world through the incarnation, and the hope of Christ’s second coming where he will redeem all things.

Bernard of Clairvaux, an 11th century priest, said that at advent we celebrate Christ’s Three Comings:Christ’s coming into the world at the incarnationChrist’s coming into our hearts every dayChrist’s second coming in which he will redeem all things
As we enter this advent season, spend a little time each day meditating on these three comings. And tell me: how do you celebrate advent?Thanks for stopping by! Tune in next week for my advent series!do you enjoy speaking with joy? want extra content and resources? consider supporting me on patreon!