By Barb Arland-Fye
Editor
Our family’s Advent wreath is a pewter ring with four candleholders that we purchased about a decade ago at a religious supply store and we cherish the memories we’ve made praying at the table around our wreath.
Each year, we find a new source of inspiration for our weekly Advent prayers. This year, we chose Catholic Relief Services’ digital “Pray with the CRS Advent Wreath” (sign up at https://tinyurl. com/yera7e32). My husband Steve also picked up The Little Blue Book for Advent (for purchase at https://tinyurl.com/ 2fnxwc2d) in the entryway of the Catholic church where we attended Mass last weekend while we were in Arizona for a wedding.
We’ve made good use of the Little Books in the past for Advent and Lent. Both Advent resources we’ve chosen this year offer short but effective opportunities for reflection around the dinner table on Sundays, which is one time during the week when we’re all together as a family.
The CRS Advent prayer guide encouraged us to “reflect on the many gifts Jesus brings to our lives — including hope, faith, joy and peace — and on our Gospel call to share them with others to build a more just and peaceful world. Together, let’s prepare our hearts for a Christmas filled with love and purpose!”
CRS presumed that most households using this prayer guide would have an evergreen wreath. The blessing of the Advent wreath includes this line “May its evergreen branches awaken our hope to share with people who need it most.” Even with a pewter Advent wreath, we take the message to heart: “awaken our hope to share with people who need it most.”
Hope was the emphasis for the first week of Advent. While faith is the emphasis for the second week of Advent, the sense of hope permeates the readings as well. The prophet Baruch, in the first reading (Baruch 5:1-9), proclaims “Up, Jerusalem! Stand upon the heights; look to the east and see your children gathered from the east and the west at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing that they are remembered by God.” Luke’s Gospel speaks of John the Baptist going “throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins …” (Luke 3:1-6).
I asked my son Patrick to read the CRS Prayer to Light the Candle for the first week of Advent, which included a quote from Pope Francis that moved me. “Christ’s grace, which brings to its fulfilment the hope of salvation, impels us to cooperate with him in building a more just and fraternal world, in which all people and all creatures can live in peace, in the harmony of God’s original creation.” I pray daily and fervently for peace in the world, but I know that peace must permeate my innermost being first.
The CRS Advent prayer guide provides questions to ponder and share. The first week contained five questions, which proved a little too much for my husband and sons, eyeing their sirloin roast, vegetables and stuffing left over from Thanksgiving. I might copy and paste the questions for each of my family members to consider every day of Advent — and beyond. Among them, “How do we make our hope visible day by day?” “What actions can we take to alleviate hunger and bring hope to people who need it most?”
(Contact Editor Barb Arland-Fye at arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org)
