Saturday, December 1, 2007

Hmmm...Why Are Advent Candles Purple?

Advent, being a time of humble reflection and preparation of the heart for the coming of the Christ Child, The Abbess must confess that it has been very humbling to learn this past year (through the blogs of my many new "virtual" friends) that she comes from what is termed low church tradition.

Low church basically speaks to the lack of formal liturgy. This is in contrast to the often lavishly formal high church liturgy found in traditions like those of our Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox and Celtic brethren (and sistren, of course). And I grew up viewing formal liturgy as something, well, less than authentic or spontaneous. I understand where that view came from, but I have chosen to be more inclusive as I get older...for lots of reasons I'm not going to process today.

So, since this will be my first year celebrating Advent in this manner, I offer this link to what I found to be a good general overview concerning Advent... for any closet low church lurkers out there. ;^)

I don't know that I'll be posting every day... we'll just have to see how things go. And though my family and I will be using Brother Maynard's new book on Advent from John's perspective, I'm going to encourage you to process his book with him, rather than with me.

But I will be sharing my insights about why Advent's main color is purple... and pray that by December 24th, all of our hearts will be prepared to humbly receive afresh the most amazing gift ever given.

And you'll just have to wait... which is another big theme in Advent... and not lose hope.

Be blessed.

4 comments:

Sonja Andrews said...

errr ... I know that you **meant** to write "Saint" John since you are now in High Church mode.

LOL ... just poking a little fun ... very nice intro.

AbiSomeone said...

Hehehe...Sonja! ALL the brothers and sisters in Christ are saints -- the faithful chawcyd (hassidim) who embrace the way of cHesed! ;^)

Actually, am I in High Church mode? I think not! The Abbess is a wee bit leery of heights, being more Hobbit-like, and decidedly organic in additional to being "virtual".

So I guess that makes me, ummm, more like Underground Church!

Anonymous said...

Hmmm, I'm wondering if I could be BOTH high AND low? Could require some quantum supposition...or a rack.

AbiSomeone said...

Well, that just seems right, mate! We are the both/and people, the bridge-builders and interpolators, eh?

Now that you have me thinking about it, Matt... I guess The Abbey is one of those split-level affairs: you approach at street level what is actually the second floor, where there is a spiral staircase going up and down.

Wow... so many thoughts came pouring out, and this comment got longer and longer... that I decided to turn this into a post of its own! ;^)

Thanks for the inspiration, sonja and Matt!