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"Rorate, caeli, desuper, et nubes pluant justum" Is. 45.8
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness
Introduction
The Church has been celebrating the four weeks before Christmas for centuries as a penitential time. In our modern world, this period before Christmas has become anything but penitential. For the Americans there is the post-Thanksgiving rush to purchase (not to mention finishing the remainders of Thanksgiving!) and for the rest of us at work, and elsewhere, the busy rush towards Christmas begins about that time - which especially involves shopping for everyone but also “Work Christmas parties” begin in earnest. Adventus30 is an attempt to react to this reality and to rediscover this wonderful penitential time.
Some of us have been doing this little programme yearly now for some years. If you are returning, it is good to have you back, if you are new, the following is an attempt to explain what Adventus30 is all about.
It is important to recognize that while Advent is a penitential season it is not Lent - which is generally lived in a stronger penitential spirit. Advent, however, is also shorter, so in some ways there is no excuse not to ‘hit it hard’ so that you can then celebrate the Christmas Octave and 50 days of Christmas with great joy, having prepared yourself physically, penitentially and spiritually.
Furthermore, Catholics don’t fast every day or do penance every day during a Penitential Season, generally. It is a fine Catholic practice to have a ‘day off’ on feast days of the Liturgical Year, and Adventus30 will reflect this, especially helping those who have not been doing penance regularly with the Church in the past.
In Adventus30 we will focus on four main considerations:
A. Prayer
B. Penance
C. Intention/Purpose
D. Accountability
A. Prayer
Introduction
One of the key purposes of the Advent season is to pray more while meditating particularly on the Incarnation, that Our Lord became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and appeared first to us at midnight at Christmas.
The Church celebrates this feast not so much to recreate that event, but rather to focus on Our Blessed Lord coming to us in grace in human hearts. In this sense then, our Advent preparation is a ‘preparing of the stable of our human heart’ to receive the Just One who descends as the heavenly dew into our hearts.
To make the most of our prayer during this Season in Adventus30 we will commit to:
Regular Morning Prayer
Daily Meditation (usually within the context of the morning prayer)
Evening Prayer
Daily Rosary
The St. Andrew’s Christmas Novena (a prayer traditionally prayed 15 times daily until December 24 for a particular intention)
One hour of weekly adoration (where possible or a weekly hour of meditation).
Meditation Guides
Every day on the website you can find the link to a handy calendar which has further links to the meditation and martyrology of each day until Christmas.
Please use these meditations as a guide to meditating daily, the key focus of this entire programme. St. Theresa of Avila said once that meditation and mortal sin cannot exist together. If there is one, the other goes. So the aim is to be meditating which will allow us to begin in the spiritual life, by overcoming definitively mortal sin.
The Meditations are taken from a book called “Hamon’s Meditations”. The aim of using these meditations is to concentrate on the Mystery of the Incarnation and the Advent Season, but this does not have to be exclusively. The main idea, rather, is to begin a process of meditating daily on something of our holy faith, dedicating a specific amount of time, whether it be 5 to 30 minutes, to the practice of meditation, as a way to begin to include this in our prayer regime – if we don’t already – regularly throughout the year.
Basically, although slightly different, each of these “Meditations” will have a structure which involves taking up a point/theme, reading about that, then following with a pause (in time) to reflect on that theme(s)/point(s), followed then by what is called a Colloquy, or a direct conversation with Our Blessed Lord, the Most Holy Trinity, or Our Lady or the Saints, depending on the topic/theme.
Morning and Evening Prayer
A set Morning and Evening Prayer is also provided (links are available on the above Adventus30 landing page) as a suggested prayer regime for the period of Advent. Please use this, or alternatively your own. It is merely a guide to provide a structure to the process of prayer in the morning and the evening. It is not the Divine Office, or a specific formulary, so use it at will, or ignore it completely.
The ideal would be to do your meditation in the morning (this is not in any way compulsory) and so you can see that the meditation part can be inserted into the Morning Prayer formulary, quite easily, after the section “Ask God for the necessary graces”.
The St. Andrew’s Christmas Novena
The Church has proposed a very powerful prayer novena, traditionally recited 15 times daily repeatedly from the feast of St. Andrew (30 November) until Midnight Mass. It is available here below, but also on the website here: https://www.iriafoundation.org.au/st-andrew-s-novena
Hail, and blessed be the hour and moment at which the Son of God was born of a most pure Virgin at a stable at midnight in Bethlehem in the piercing cold.
At that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, to hear my prayers and grant my desires.
(Mention your intentions here)
Through Jesus Christ and His most Blessed Mother. Amen.
The Martyrology and the Saints
In addition to the daily meditation, the text of the Martyrology is linked to daily in the calendar on the landing page. This ancient listing of the Saints who either were martyred on that day, or whose feast is celebrated that day, is read daily by priests and monks in the recitation of the Divine Office. It is a beautiful way to invoke the Saints’ witness daily, and, to realise how many of our forebears in the Faith suffered for the faith. This can encourage us in the practice of uniting our suffering/penances/difficulties, with Our Blessed Lord, and the Martyrs and Saints.
You might like to read this out daily either privately, or, alternatively if you have a family, it can be read after the prayer over the meal. In which case the formula might go something like this:
The Angelus is recited or sung.
Blessing of the Food (both said standing) is said or sung.
Then everyone sits [except the reader] quietly (no-one begins eating) to listen to the reading of the Martyrology (which is of the following day). The Martyrology is read by the reader standing. “The Roman Martyrology for the Xth day of December, 2021”…
At the end of the Martyrology all say “Deo Gratias” or “Thanks be to God” and make the sign of the Cross.
Also, during the Advent period, where a Saints’ day occurs, a short hagiography (description) of the life of the saint will also be given on the Saint. You might also like to read this out too at dinner, or during family prayer, for example. (We will attempt to provide these hagiographies in a link also on the daily calendar).
B. Penance
To ensure that the period of Advent is lived penitentially, it is considered opportune to adopt the following penitential practices:
No Alcohol
Make your bed
Sacramental Confession Weekly
No social media except Saturdays
No TV/Movies
Cold Showers
Fasting on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays of Advent (skip one meal)
Fasting on Bread and Water on the Ember days (18, 20, 21 December)
No snacking between meals
Generally, especially for “newbies” there will be NO fasting (i.e. feasting instead) on Double Major feasts and Above (S. Andrew 30 Nov, Immaculate Conception 8 Dec, Sundays) and Freedom from Penances/Abstinences/Practices on those days.
Regular accountability to the chaplain (discussing with him, usually by short text on the Telegram App) dispensations and variations to any of these penances (adding/reducing).
C. Overall Purpose/Spirit of Adventus30
The principal aim of Adventus30 is to prepare us to have a focus on the the great mystery of the Incarnation of Our Lord, revealed to us in the flesh at Christmas, particularly in our prayer life. The penance we do, helps us to detach from the flesh and its demands, and make room for the spiritual.
The Advent period is composed of four Advent Sundays, so the amount of Advent days can vary from year to year. It is roughly about four weeks and will include three Ember days which this year fall on 18 (Wednesday), 20 (Friday) and 21 December (Saturday).
Traditionally, also, the Church makes a more intense (final) preparation in the Nine days before Christmas, known as the Christmas Novena. Some additional penitential practices and a Novena Prayer will be added to the practices we have already adopted.
D. Accountability and the Chaplain
A weekly Colloquium (Zoom Meeting)
Once a week there will be a 30 minute zoom session:
Wednesday for Men
Thursday for Women
7:30 pm Queensland
8:30 pm Australian Eastern Daylight Saving Time
1:30 am Los Angeles, USA
4:30 am New York City, USA
9:30 am London, UK
Please note that the colloquia will be recorded for those unable to attend.
In this weekly meeting there will be a short spiritual exhortation (from the chaplain) for the week followed by an account by each of the participants (completely optional) to share a little of their spiritual insights/struggles/difficulties etc. for that week. Each participant is encouraged to share for no more than a minute, and of course can opt not to do so. In our experience these meetings can be a great way to be encouraged to stick to our Adventus30 promises when penances or prayer is being weakened by the demands of our world, by listening to the struggles and insights of our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
The Chaplain
The Chaplain, Fr. Withoos, is there for your spiritual assistance during this time. For spiritual matters, please do not hesitate to contact him through the Telegram App by text known as Direct Message (or DM @FrWithoos). Please feel free to set up a time with him (again by DM) to chat a little if you felt that useful. If you would like to vary any of the elements of the programme, please be encouraged to contact Fr. Withoos to discuss this privately by DM.
The Advent season, in terms of the world, rather than a penitential season is quite the anticipated Christmas feasting period. We live in the world but are not of it. This may mean, for example, that you have a work Christmas party that occurs during this time. Please do not hesitate to contact Fr. Withoos who will be able to vary your penitential practices, or give you a dispensation for that day/evening or whatever time period you require. A simple text to Father can achieve this, and will ensure that you don’t have to suffer qualms about not doing the programme properly, or feeling that your preparation for Christmas, or the penitential nature of the season has been compromised. Keeping that accountability to the chaplain will ensure a certain sense of penance regardless.
E. Finally…
You may not know but Adventus30 is completely free, just like the Catholic faith. As you will begin to see, however, the work involved is not insubstantial.
This programme could not happen without some people behind the scenes who volunteer their time. In the past that person has been principally Dylan Shogren who this year - with a young family - is wisely taking a step back. Thanks Dylan. Our amazing webmaster, Marisa Moloney, is continuing on, for which I am grateful. Thanks Marisa.
I would like to introduce two new helpers on the administrative side. Adam Paige has been a regular participant in both Adventus30 and Septuagesima70 over these years. Adam will take on the administrative burden of uploading the various meditations and making changes as required to the programme as directed by feedback or the chaplain. Thanks Adam. Phoebe is also joining us, principally, to assist Adam in his task. Thanks Phoebe.
We hope you can, by means of Adventus30, get the most out of this wonderful season of the Liturgical Year, thus being able to enter more fully, into the joy which is the celebration of the Incarnation of Our Blessed Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, made flesh for us men, and for our Salvation. A Blessed Advent to all!
Fr. Withoos
Chaplain
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