On this first day of Advent, first day of the new church year, and first day of the new English translation of the Mass, I think one of the first new prayers we hear really sets the right tone for the new season. It is called the collect prayer (rhymes with frolicked), because the opening prayer of the Mass gathers, or “collects” all of our prayers, our needs, our petitions, our trials in life, our attempts to please God even when it’s tough to do so, and lays them right at the foot of the altar as a gift to Our Lord.
The old (inaccurate) translation we had been using for 30+ years was pretty lifeless, but you can almost feel the excitement and motion this new translation. It starts “Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming …” The sense we get is something I remember from my childhood. I lived in Detroit but my grandfolks lived right here in Cincinnati (in Clifton). When they would make the long drive up to Michigan to visit us once a year (usually for Thanksgiving) that was a momentous occasion. This was long before cell phones, of course, so we had no idea exactly when they would come. We children would anxiously wait by the plate glass window in the living room, driving our parents crazy by asking them every five minutes how soon they would arrive. When they finally did arrive, when we caught that first glimpse of their wood-paneled station wagon way down the street, we would run out the door to meet them, not even waiting for them to pull into the driveway before we would bolt out to meet them. But we wouldn’t come empty-handed. We might be toting some little welcoming gift my parents gave us for them, or like as not, some little home-made doodad or drawing we had hastily scribbled, to give to them.
And that is the Spirit of Advent: that joyful anticipation of the very moment Christ arrives, as we celebrate his Incarnation and birth. (He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary as we now pray in the new translation of the creed, using the technical term to remind us that God Himself took on His “flesh” – His real human nature – from His mother Mary). When that great miracle occurs – and it recurs every time we celebrate the Holy Mass – we don’t want to come to Him empty handed. Instead, we want to be prepared to meet the God-man, the Word-made-flesh, “with righteous deeds” – that is, acts of charity to our neighbor, acts of penance and self-denial, and acts of obedience to God Our Father. This is only fitting, of course, because Jesus is the new-born King, the King of Righteousness. These righteous deeds we do during Advent may be simple and humble gifts – like the handmade cards we gave to our grandfolks, or the simple gifts the shepherds probably brought to the baby Jesus – but they are true expressions of our joy and anticipation at meeting Jesus, the living Word who will soon dwell among us.
May your Advent be joyful, as we eagerly prepare over these next four weeks to rush forth to meet the King of Kings.
<Prev Next>