{"id":49828,"date":"2019-11-08T13:19:40","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T19:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=49828"},"modified":"2019-11-12T12:00:53","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T18:00:53","slug":"why-wait-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/08\/why-wait-for-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Wait for Christmas?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Having recently celebrated the November feasts of All Saints and All Souls (or was it Halloween we were celebrating last week?) It seems that Christmas has already started.  Living in Ireland, we do not even have the fig leaf of Thanksgiving to camouflage the start of the commercial observance of Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to consider certain Christians\u2019 condemnation of the early start of the Christmas season to be a little exaggerated.  What\u2019s the problem, I thought, if people want to play music celebrating the Birth of Christ before the canonical December 17 start of the liturgical preparation for Christmas. In so many areas the secular world is at odds with the Christian message, so if people want to sing songs about \u201cthe little Lord Jesus\u201d in early December, then this can only be a positive thing and those who criticize it are only sour grapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However today I saw an advert on my computer for a particular type of whiskey-based Irish Cream Christmas cake (which incidentally is no more Irish than a particular type of US breakfast cereal that has a leprechaun as its mascot). The advert screamed \u201cWhy Wait for Christmas?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why, indeed? I thought.  Today we can\u2019t bear to wait. Christmas is celebrated whenever we want and we seem incapable of waiting for anything. The proliferation of Advent Calendars<\/a> in our stores catechizes us that the best way to prepare for Christmas is to indulge ourselves every day. Tiffany & Co. recently unveiled a $112,000 Advent Calendar<\/a> . The Advent themes of eschatology and preparation for our own end is obviously ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But perhaps there is something in the traditional season of Advent and some value to waiting. For many in the First World, there is no material need to wait for Christmas.  We can afford to have a nice meal whenever we want. Our credit cards can buy a nice gift whenever we desire.  What our grandparents spent months saving for is too close to our daily reach. But this only means that we have lost the grace of waiting. There is a real danger that Christmas will no longer be special. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting further I remembered a poem that I learned as a child. Patrick Kavanagh<\/a> (1904-1967). This poem, entitled Advent<\/a>, is a lament for those who \u201chave tested and tasted too much,\u201d those who have lost their \u201cwonder\u201d The image of Advent as a penitential time when all that was available was \u201cdry black bread and the sugarless tea\u201d brings back memories of my own grandfather who was born a few parishes over from Kavanagh and who I remember doing such penance in my own childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May all of us receive the gift of \u201cwonder\u201d and a renewed spirit of \u201cwaiting,\u201d so that we can avoid the spirit of excess in these weeks of the pre-Christmas time so that we can truly be ready to go out to meet Christ who comes at Christmas \u201cwith a January flower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advent <\/strong>
We have tested and tasted too much, lover \u2013
Through a chink too wide there comes in no wonder.
But here in the Advent-darkened room
Where the dry black bread and the sugarless tea
Of penance will charm back the luxury
Of a child\u2019s soul, we\u2019ll return to Doom
The knowledge we stole but could not use.
And the newness that was in every stale thing
When we looked at it as children: the spirit-shocking
Wonder in a black slanting Ulster hill
Or the prophetic astonishment in the tedious talking
Of an old fool will awake for us and bring
You and me to the yard gate to watch the whins 
And the bog-holes, cart-tracks, old stables where Time begins.
O after Christmas we\u2019ll have no need to go searching
For the difference that sets an old phrase burning \u2013 
We\u2019ll hear it in the whispered argument of a churning
Or in the streets where the village boys are lurching.
And we\u2019ll hear it among decent men too
Who barrow dung in gardens under trees,
Wherever life pours ordinary plenty.
Won\u2019t we be rich, my love and I, and please
God we shall not ask for reason\u2019s payment,
The why of heart-breaking strangeness in dreeping hedges
Nor analyse God\u2019s breath in common statement.
We have thrown into the dust-bin the clay-minted wages
Of pleasure, knowledge and the conscious hour \u2013
And Christ comes with a January flower.<\/p>Patrick Kavanagh<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having recently celebrated the November feasts of All Saints and All Souls (or was it Halloween we were celebrating last week?) It seems that Christmas has already started.  Living in Ireland, we do not even have the fig leaf of Thanksgiving to camouflage the start of the commercial observance of Christmas. I used to consider certain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":49830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[3118,17,91,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ars-celebrandi-new-ws","category-liturgical-spirituality","category-liturgical-year","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Wait for Christmas? - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/08\/why-wait-for-christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Wait for Christmas? - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Having recently celebrated the November feasts of All Saints and All Souls (or was it Halloween we were celebrating last week?) 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