Sunday 30 November 2008

The Advent Wreath

Today we lit the first candle in our Advent wreath. There are many traditions associated with the Advent wreath.

In Catholic churches, three of the candles are purple and one is rose. The purple candles symbolise faith expectation, and the rose candle symbolises joy and hope. These colours mirror the colour of the priest's vestments used during the Sundays of Advent.
In earlier times, the season of Advent had stronger penitential and ascetic aspects, and a relaxation of disciplines was offered on the third Sunday of Advent called Gaudete Sunday, from the Latin for 'rejoice', the first words of the Introit.
Many people have an Advent wreath at home and it is a lovely thing to do, to light a candle on each Sunday of Advent and say a prayer together as a family.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some people can't access the blog easily. Will you make a hard copy and display it in the church?

St Ann's Parish said...

khoi
Thank you. The blog as you know is accessible to anyone who has the internet; it is not essential.