Advent Resources

Advent Study: Journeying the Way of Love

There is a four week curriculum for use during Advent. Interested in journeying with other parishioners during Coffee Hour or during the week on Google Meet?

Contact the office or speak with any Vestry member and we will put you in touch with each other.

A Liturgy for Lighting the Advent Wreath

These are the prayers we are using during worship as we light our Advent wreath. You might also want to use them at home.

Advent Calendars An Advent calendar also helps us to mark the days of Advent as we move towards Christmas. Advent Calendars seems to have moved beyond the traditional chocolate behind each door. Some St. John’s families have advent calendars with tea, Legos, or cheese! What is behind the door each day at your house?

Here is an advent calendar that you can print and use which offers daily suggestions for engaging in the seven practices that encompass the Way of Love: turn, learn, pray, worship, bless, go, and rest. These are printed and available to pick up in the Narthex.

Here are others that allow you to pray and doodle each day.

Does your family have an Advent Wreath? We light the wreath at St. John’s each Sunday of Advent, but we know many families have their own wreaths at home that they light each day, increasing the number of candles lit each week. Often the wreath is created out of evergreens, symbolizing everlasting life in the midst of winter and death as the evergreen is continuously green. The circle reminds us of God’s unending love and the eternal life God makes possible. (The photo is the wreath made by the Kim family.) Other families choose five of their most beautiful candlesticks, arrange them in a circle, and light taper candles each week. Others have wooden or ceramic candle holders. We would love to see pictures of your wreaths!

The Colors of Advent. On the First Sunday of Advent our altar hangings change to blue and we set up our Advent wreath with three blue candles and one pink. While purple (or violet) is the color of penance and sacrifice first used during Lent and subsequently during Advent in the Roman Catholic Church, blue is a recovery of an ancient English tradition stemming from Salisbury Cathedral, and so it is referred to as sarum blue. (Sarum being the ancient Latin name for Salisbury.) While the deep blue conveys a feeling of solemnity, because of its association with the Blessed Virgin Mary, it also conveys the Advent themes of hope and expectation. On the Third Sunday of Advent, we light a pink candle, marking that Sunday as Gaudete Sunday, reflecting the opening words of the ancient introit appointed for the day: Rejoice in the Lord, always!