HOW LONG IS ADVENT (TABLE)

The table and information was compiled by Fr. Felix Just, SJ who has an amazing website!

ADAPTED FROM FR. MICK’S 2017 COLUMN

This weekend will be something of a nightmare for planners and musicians. (If you start feeling sorry for yourself, think about the pastor or secretary who will be answering all those phone calls!) The fourth week of Advent starts and ends this weekend. The problems, of course, arise from trying to celebrate the Fourth Sunday of Advent on Saturday evening and Sunday morning and then starting the celebration of Christmas on Sunday afternoon or evening.

Parish leaders need to determine well in advance what is really workable. If you have a noon Sunday Mass, for example, how soon can you really manage the first vigil Mass of Christmas? Do you need to defer the start of Christmas a few hours or can you cancel the noon Mass on Sunday and convince people to come to earlier Masses to complete Advent?

Many people today have gotten into the habit of celebrating Christmas Mass very early on Christmas Eve. That frees them for whatever family activities they want to do on the feast itself. For some, it amounts to “getting Mass out of the way,” but for many, it just allows a more relaxed celebration of the feast. While parish leaders naturally try to accommodate this desire for early Christmas Mass, you might question whether scheduling such Masses at 2:00 p.m. (or even 3:00 or 4:00) is really helping people to keep the religious nature of Christmas foremost in their awareness. Even if you normally have such early Masses for Christmas, the calendar this year might call for delaying a bit later so that there is some gap between the Advent Sunday and Christmas.

Another concern, of course, is when to decorate the worship space for Christmas. The temptation, of course, is to do all of that on Saturday, but that will conflict with the Advent liturgy. You could bring in major elements like Christmas trees (unlit) and the manger (without figures), signaling the nearness of the feast but still letting Advent’s preparatory nature be evident.

The Gospel for this Sunday comes from Luke, even though it’s Mark’s year, because Mark has no infancy narrative. It focuses our attention on Mary, so this might be another time to sing the Magnificat, especially if the assembly just learned a new version last week. That will help them really learn it while it also focuses on Mary in the same style as the Gospel.