My dear people of God,

Grace and peace be unto you in the Name of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

My wife, Rita, is the babysitter for our one year old grandson three days a week, and waits at the bus stop for the arrival of our first grandson (who is seven) from school at the bus stop at 4PM on the same three days. When our daughter-in-law came to pick up the boys at 6PM on All Hallows Eve, she said, "I can't believe it! They've put up the Christmass snowflakes on the utility poles this afternoon, and they're lit!!!" She was not pleased, nor were we.

As a child, I remember that no public Christmass decorations were put up in my hometown in New Jersey until after Thanksgiving Day (which in the US is the fourth Thursday of November). I imagine that Christmass commercialism emerges earlier and earlier each year for you as well in the United Kingdom.

Thanks be to God that Holy Mother Church gives us the gift of Advent. This first season of the Church year is to be a time of preparation for Christmass, and a buffer against the winds of secularism and consumerism.

Advent means "coming." Actually, the Church bids us to prepare ourselves and be spiritually ready for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (His Second Coming) to judge the quick and the dead, the coming of the Son of God as the Word made flesh at the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and in the Nativity of Jesus, and the coming of Jesus Christ as He re-presents Himself in the consecrated elements of bread and wine become His Body and Blood.

It's the rare person who doesn't love Christmass and all the joy it brings. We do know that for many it can be a difficult time emotionally when one is dealing with loss and brokenness when others are so happy. Whatever our emotional and spiritual state, whatever the season in our life happens to be, Christmass is a very different time and experience when Advent is welcomed and observed.

Advent is a penitential season, not as intense and long as Lent, but penitential nevertheless. Advent is a traditional time for the sacrament of penance (confession). It's a time for all of us (as the Advent Collect states) "to cast away the works of darkness" and to invite God to "put upon us the armour of light." God grant us the grace to keep a holy Advent.

I remain thankfully yours and fFaithfully in Christ,

+David L. Moyer Episcopal Visitor