Advent, Pre-16 and The Nativity Story

SDG here, inspired by Jimmy’s fascinating post about purple in Advent to offer a few brief thoughts about Advent, including some 30-year-old observations about Christmas commercialism from Pre-16, and a plug for The Nativity Story — as well as (ahem) my coverage of it at Decent Films.

Every year at this time, of course, countless Christian families struggle with the annual pre-Christmas hype, which now seems to begin shortly after Halloween, and is in full swing by Thanksgiving. The notion of Advent as a distinct season of preparation, of recapitulating Israel’s long anticipation of her Messiah, seems lost amid a hectic welter of consumerism and commercialism.

As a result, lots of people are "Christmased out" long before the 25th. Forget about the Octave of Christmas — let alone the traditional 12 days — let’s just bring on New Year’s and get the whole "holiday season" over and done with for another year.

Of course there’s also the annual anti-commercialism backlash (for all the good it does), and the "Keep Christ is Christmas" campaign. At the same time, it may be worth noting that the evils of Christmas consumerism may have been slightly exaggerated.

For a couple of years now, a 1977 essay by then-Cardinal Ratzinger on Christmas commercialism has been getting some attention, probably because of his ascension to the Chair of Peter. Last year it was cited here, then this year it cropped up in the paper I write for, the National Catholic Register ("Have a B16 Christmas"). The official Yankee cap tip, though, goes to Wheat and Weeds for printing the following excerpt in full:

Nowadays a theologian or preacher is all but expected to heap more or less sarcastic criticism on our popular way of celebrating Christmas and, thus, to contrast impressively the sentimentality of our celebration with the reality of the first Christmas. Christmas, we are told, has been commercialized irredeemably and has degenerated into a senseless marketing frenzy; its religiosity has become tacky.

Of course, such criticism is largely justified, even though it might too readily forget that, behind the facade of business and sentimentality, the yearning for something purer and greater is not entirely extinguished; indeed, that the sentimental framework often provides the protecting shield behind which hides a noble and genuine sentiment that is simply reluctant to expose itself to the gaze of the other.

The hectic commercialism is repugnant to us, and rightly so: for it is indeed utterly out of place as a commemoration of the hushed mystery of Bethlehem, of the mystery of the God who for us made himself a beggar (2 Corinthians 8:9). And yet, underneath it all, does it not originate in the notion of giving and thus the inner urgency of love, with its compulsion to share, to give of oneself to the other? And does not the notion of giving transport us directly into the core of the mystery that is Christmas?

In the offertory prayer of the Christmas Vigil liturgy, we ask God for the grace to receive with joy his everlasting gifts that come to us in the celebration of Christ’s birth. Thus the concept of gift-giving is squarely anchored in this liturgy of the Church and, at the same time, we are made aware of the primal mode of all giving at Christmas: that God, on this holy night, desired to make himself into a gift to mankind, that he turned himself over to us.

The one genuine Christmas gift to mankind, to history, to each one of us, is none other than Jesus Christ himself. Even those who do not believe him to be God incarnate will have to admit that he has enriched and gifted the inner existence of generations upon generations.

So there you have it. Maybe you don’t have to feel guilty every time you set your foot in a mall or order another package from Amazon.com. OTOH, there are probably better things you can be doing as well, so…

With five kids, Suzanne and I are always looking for ways to make Advent more special and, well, more Adventy. I’m definitely looking forward to checking out the book Jimmy mentioned, The Catholic Home, to see how we might expand or enhance our family practices.

FWIW, here are a few quick notes about Advent in our house. If you have any suggestions you’d like to share, by all means note ’em in the combox!

As part of our effort to minimize the pre-Christmas hype and accent the distinctive nature of Advent, we wait until the third week of Advent — the week of the pink candle on the Advent wreath, the week of special joy at reaching the halfway mark — to trim the tree and hang lights on the house. (Actually, depending on the weather, we might hang lights earlier, but we don’t light them until the third week.)

We do an annual Jesse tree with OT and NT readings for every day of Advent. (Not the one in this example, but it gives you the idea.)

While it doesn’t directly relate to the meaning of the season, of course as Christmas approaches we watch It’s a Wonderful Life. Last year we watched The March of the Wooden Soldiers, and probably will again. Perhaps this year we’ll watch some version of A Christmas Carol too (I like ’em all).

And, starting this year, I believe we’ll have a new Advent tradition: watching THE NATIVITY STORY (opening in theaters today), the first major Hollywood movie that focuses on the real real meaning of Christmas since, well, practically ever. Hopefully we’ll catch in in theaters this weekend; next year we’ll watch it on DVD.

GET THE STORY.

Read more. Read even more.

Jimmy Akin’s Store

Back in the early days of the blog, I tried keeping a page of recommended resources for folks, and I meant to add to it whenever I recommended a new one. That way if someone had a question, for example, about what Bible translation or Greek study tool I recommend, they could look on the recommendations page and find out.

This proved to be impractical. Blogging software is not set up to make maintaining this kind of page easy, and it proved too difficult and cumbersome to fish the page out of the archives and add to it (and remember to do this), and so the page fell into desuetude.

Things change fast on the Internet, though, and Amazon.com has now come up with a tool that allows me to do this kind of thing much more easily. They call the tool an "aStore," and they introduced it in a beta version a few months ago, asking people to test it out and give them feedback. I tested it out, and knew immediately that it wasn’t anywhere near flexible enough to be very useful, but they’ve now added new functionality that allows me to use it for the kind of standing recommendations page that I’d wanted early on.

In other words, I don’t have to fight the software any more, trying to press it into a purpose it’s not designed for. With the aStore, I can quickly and easily add products that I recommend or that I think readers may be interested in.

So this weekend I reorganized and expanded the store to include a variety of categories and products. Over time, I’ll add more, as well as adding reviews for products I feel particularly strongly about.

There is one category in particular, I’d like to call attention to. This category is called In The Mail, and I’m using it for products that publishers have sent me review copies of. To try to get the word out about their books, DVDs, CDs, or what have you, publishers generally send out review copies to media outlets–magazines, newspapers, TV and radio shows, and now blogs.

So every so often I get an unexpected book or DVD in the mail with a note from the publisher saying, "We thought that your readers might be interested in this, and we hope that you’ll enjoy this review copy and perhaps let your readers know about it."

And most of the time (not all of the time), the publishers are right and it is something I think readers would be interested in. I might not be interested in it myself, but I can see how others would be. A good example would be The Catholic Home by Meredith Gould. This is a book about Catholic traditions and activities for things that your family can do at different times in the liturgical year and when a family member is preparing to receive a particular sacrament. Since I don’t have a family at the moment, this kind of book isn’t of much use to me, but since most folks are more fortunate than I am family-wise, I can see how it would be of interest to a lot of readers.

And so, as long as I think that the product would be interesting to people and as long as a quick look at it suggests that it is "Mostly Harmless," I’m happy to go ahead and let folks know about it. So that’s what I’m putting in the "In The Mail" category on the store.

As I add new items to this category, I’ll also put a notice on the blog so that people will know that they are there and, in some cases, I’ll add a brief (or not so brief) review of the product. If you look at the category at the moment, you’ll see that I have several products there that I haven’t yet put up notices for or reviewed. I plan to do that, but I’ll have to do it over time because I am always concerned about maintaining the right mix of topics on the blog so that it stays interesting to people. I don’t want it to be a blog about reviews of Catholic books and videos, though letting people know about Catholic (or other) resources that they may be interested in is something that I’m not opposed to.

I thought I’d explain all this so that folks would understand how this works and what purposes I’m intending to use the aStore for.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do get a (tiny) cut of the proceeds on the products sold through the aStore, which I figure will help defray the costs of maintaining the blog, which I pay for out of my own pocket. The amount of money I get from the store is not great, though I was shocked when I checked my quarter-to-date earnings report and found out that the blog may have actually paid for itself this quarter.

I know some blogs try to maintain themselves by using advertisements, and that’s fine, though I’ve always resisted that–even when people have asked if they could advertise on JA.O. I don’t like it when a blog is cluttered up with advertising–usually for products or services that the blogmasters have little or no control over. JA.O is not a commercial venture for me, and if I were in it for the money I could make a lot more by devoting my blog writing time to paying projects. The blog is something I do for fun, and it’s great if it pays for itself (at least the costs I pay TypePad), but I’d rather have that happen through recommending products I think readers will actually enjoy and benefit from rather than ads from an Internet ad service.

Hope that explains matters and, if you’d like to browse some books, DVDs, or CDs that you might find of interest,

CHECK OUT THE STORE.

B16 In Ephesus

Here’s some video from the Mass that Pope Benedict celebrated at Mary’s House in Ephesus (the Vatican guidebook for the trip notes that there is no archaeological evidence for Mary having lived there, but it is a traditional site of Marian veneration, including for Muslims).

The video covers the presentation of the gifts, and the song being sung at this point is reportedly Nearer, My God, To Thee, though my German isn’t good enough to tell (the tune sounds right, though).

I’m interested in this Mass because of the peaceful, open-air setting and the fact that there were apparently only three hundred or so people there due to the remote area and the low population of Christians in Turkey, making this a far more intimate papal celebration of the Mass than ususally occurs on an apostolic voyage.

I would have loved to be there.

HERE’S JOHN ALLEN’S ACCOUNT OF THE EVENT.

AND HERE’S THE JOINT DECLARATION B16 SIGNED WITH PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW THE NEXT DAY IN ISTANBULCONSTANTINOPLE.

AND JOHN ALLEN’S ACCOUNT OF ONE OF THEIR MEETINGS.

What’s With All The Purple?

I’ve recently got a couple of e-mails on similar themes. First, a reader writes:

There seems to be some confusion as to the mind of the Church on what
exactly our approach to Advent to be.  History seems to attribute to it a
penitential character similar to Lent.  The purple vestments, the biblical
sense of preparring for something very important with fasting, the
"interruption" of the season with a note of a special Sunday–Gaudete
Sunday for Advent–to remind the faithful of the ultimate goal and to
lighten the burden, so to speak, these all seem to point the way for the
exhortation to the faithful to go beyond their normal course of dailly
taking up their crosses and takin gon more fasting, prayer and almsgiving.

However, I am not aware of any such documented canon, encyclical, precept
or the like such as we have with Lent that calls for this.  We, of course,
as Catholics are not just peple of the book or written word, but in the
modern world, documentation is generally the way the Church communicates
her mind.  She certainly does so regarding Lent and this exhortation
trickles down quite clearly via your local parish in many–I would
speculate–if not most or all places, at least in the United States.

So, do you have any sources to which we can turn in addition to what
comments you have to offer about the season of Advent and penance?

I would venture to say that many Catholics have no idea Advent is
penitential in nature and they have to treat it as such by their
practices.

Then another reader writes:

I had a question which has been bugging me and I can’t seem to get a good answer except that it seems like "things have changed."  Whenever I read something pre-Vatican II it seems like Advent is considered a penitential season.  Not as solemn or penitential as Lent, but nonetheless, penitential.
Yet, I am confronted with Msgr. Peter Elliot’s rather emphatic statement of "The season with which the liturgical year begins is not penitential." – p. 34, #42, "Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year"
This seems to be at a difference to the actual practices of wearing violet, not singing the Gloria, not using the organ as much, or not decorating the altar with flowers as much.  Even the Saints (I believe Saint Francis in his Rule) have referred to Advent as the "little Lent."

I was curious if you knew.

From the little I have read, there is not as much of a penitential nature to Advent as in the East, but I would think that if this is a time of preparation for the Coming of Christ (especially the 2nd Coming) that penance would be an intrinsic part of that preparation (for final judgement).

Given that Advent starts this Sunday, it seems timely to answer these questions, so here goes.

First, it seems that Advent has at least some penitential involvement in its origin. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes:

A synod held (581) at Mâcon, in Gaul, by its ninth canon orders that
from the eleventh of November to the Nativity the Sacrifice be offered
according to the Lenten  rite on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of the week.

And the Lenten practices, such as wearing purple, etc., are also strongly suggestive of a penitential season.

I don’t have verification that St. Francis referred to it as the "little Lent." I am aware, though, that that phrase is used in Eastern Orthodoxy.

So there’s certainly a penitential cloud swirling around Advent. Whether that actually solidified in the West such that Lent became a formal penitential season, I can’t say.

If it ever was formally a penitential season, it seems to have lost this character some time ago. The 1907 article in the Catholic Encyclopedia (linked above) does not mention it being penitential.

A check of the 1917 Code of Canon Law also reveals nothing of this sort. The 1917 Code doesn’t use the concept "penitential days." Instead, it uses "days of fast and abstinence" in its place, but when it’s setting forth the days of fast and abstinence, it doesn’t mention Advent (it does mention Lent).

When the General norms for the Liturgical Year and the calendar came out after Vatican II, it had this to say:

V. Advent

39. Advent has a twofold character: as a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming to us is remembered; as a season when that remembrance directs the mind and heart to await Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. Advent is thus a period for devout and joyful expectation.

40. Advent begins with evening prayer I of the Sunday falling on or closest to 30 November and ends before evening prayer I of Christmas.

41. The Sundays of this season are named the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Sundays of Advent.

The weekdays from 17 December to 24 December inclusive serve to prepare more directly for the Lord’s birth.

So no mention of it being a penitential season–unlike Lent, concerning which the General Norms state:

27. Lent is a preparation for the celebration of Easter. For the Lenten liturgy disposes both catechumens and the faithful to celebrate the paschal mystery: catechumens, through the several stages of Christian initiation; the faithful, through reminders of their own baptism and through penitential practices.

And when we look in the 1983 Code of Canon Law–which does use the concept of penitential days–we find:

Can.  1250 The penitential days and times in the universal Church are every Friday of the whole year and the season of Lent.

Bam.

So Advent is not a penitential season, at least in the universal law of the Latin Church.

Ya coulda fooled me!

I mean, what’s with all the purple?

One clue may be found in Wikipedia:

In the Roman Church the liturgical color of purple or violet is used in the liturgy. Often times the purple used is a darker purple (sometimes called "Royal Purple") whereas in Lent the color is often a reddish purple ("Roman Purple).

So maybe . . . just maybe . . . the purple in Advent is supposed to be a signification of the birth of a coming King rather than a sign of penance.

In any event, it ain’t a penitental season, so don’t beat yourself up. Do focus on preparing joyfully for getting ready for the commemoration of the birth and the anticipation of the return of the King.

As to how to do that in the concrete, you might want to check out The Catholic Home.

Handy Latin Phrases

Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat.
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.

Ecce hora! Uxor mea me necabit!
Look at the time! My wife will kill me!

Lex clavatoris designati rescindenda est.
The designated hitter rule has got to go.

Sentio aliquos togatos contra me conspirare.
I think some people in togas are plotting against me.

Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
If Caesar were alive, you’d be chained to an oar.

Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam posit materiari?
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

(At a barbeque) Animadvertistine, ubicumque stes, fumum recta in faciem ferri?
Ever noticed how wherever you stand, the smoke goes right into your face?

Sona si Latine loqueris.
Honk if you speak Latin.

Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes
If you can read this you’re over-educated

Mihi ignosce. Cum homine de cane debeo congredi.
Excuse me. I’ve got to see a man about a dog.

Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes!
If you can read this sign, you can get a good job in the fast-paced, high-paying world of Latin!

Gramen artificiosum odi.
I hate Astroturf.

Nihil curo de ista tua stulta superstitione.
I’m not interested in your dopey religious cult.

Noli me vocare, ego te vocabo.
Don’t call me, I’ll call you.

Nullo metro compositum est.
It doesn’t rhyme.

Non curo. Si metrum non habet, non est poema.
I don’t care. If it doesn’t have meter, it isn’t a poem.

Fac ut gaudeam.
Make my day.

Braccae illae virides cum subucula rosea et tunica Caledonia-quam elenganter concinnatur!
Those green pants go so well with that pink shirt and the plaid jacket!

Visne saltare? Viam Latam Fungosam scio.
Do you want to dance? I know the Funky Broadway.

Re vera, potas bene.
Say, you sure are drinking a lot.

Utinam barbari spatium proprium tuum invadant!
May barbarians invade your personal space!

Utinam coniurati te in foro interficiant!
May conspirators assassinate you in the mall!

Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!
May faulty logic undermine your entire philosophy!

Radix lecti
Couch potato

Mellita, domi adsum.
Honey, I’m home.

Tam exanimis quam tunica nehru fio.
I am as dead as the nehru jacket.

Ventis secundis, tene cursum.
Go with the flow.

Totum dependeat.
Let it all hang out.

Te precor dulcissime supplex!
Pretty please with a cherry on top!

Magister Mundi sum!
I am the Master of the Universe!

Fac me cocleario vomere!
Gag me with a spoon!

Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure.
I can’t hear you. I have a banana in my ear.

Prehende uxorem meam, sis!
Take my wife, please!

Nihil est–in vita priore ego imperator Romanus fui.
That’s nothing–in a previous life I was a Roman Emperor.

Recedite, plebes! Gero rem imperialem!
Stand aside plebians! I am on imperial business.

Sic faciunt omnes.
Everyone is doing it.

Fac ut vivas.
Get a life.

Anulos qui animum ostendunt omnes gestemus!
Let’s all wear mood rings!

Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam.
I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.

CHT to the reader who e-mailed! Let the Latin nitpicking begin!

A Smattering

GirlwithlocketI haven’t posted here at JA.O for a bit, having been busy with "life stuff"… family, art competitions, inner ear gremlins… but thought I would check in and spout off on a few things just because I can;

The Mid Term Elections – This reminds me of an exchange I saw on an episode of the Andy Griffith Show; Founders Day is coming up and someone asks "Who’s going to be Potato Queen this year?" and Andy answers something to the effect of "Well, I don’t know… who’s turn is it?". It’s now the Democrats’ turn. I just wish we had more than two girls from which to choose our Potato Queen.

Ojay’s Book – Does this whole thing sort of disprove the idea that protests don’t work and only serve to give the protestee free publicity? People hollered and complained and the thing got torpedoed – sounds good to me. Now we need to get that nasty black book out of Wal-Mart.

Playstation Craziness – Can’t they find a better way to do this? Isn’t it a bit ironic to crush and pummel others for the chance to buy a Tickle Me Elmo? How about this… the store hands out lottery tickets (one per customer, checked against a database) in the weeks leading up to the release of the game. On that day they hold a raffle in the parking lot and call out the names of the winners. They then invite everyone inside for free hot cocoa or – for you city folk – a latte. This ought to make everyone happy and avoid the frightening crowd scenes reminiscent of a European soccer match. Unless, you know, people are just that nuts for hot cocoa.

B16 in Turkey – Now here’s a man’s man… into the teeth of the storm. Please join me in praying a Rosary for his safety and that he will be powerfully used by Christ on this trip.

The Portrait (above) – Warning: Shameless Self Promotion – Why did I post this? Only because it is my latest portrait (still wet) and because my portrait prices are RIDICULOUSLY LOW right now. So low that I am loath to advertise them publicly (I have my reputation to think about). I am also offering my regular still-life pieces at a mere fraction of the website price for readers of JA.O. Just mention that you saw this on Jimmy’s blog. See, I am keen to make some extra money to get the missus a nice anniversary bauble. 25 years and not so much as a stray smooch. She really deserves something special for putting up with me… you have no idea…

Visit my WEBSITE, or e-mail me at timjonesart@yahoo.com

Pope Benedict Day: The Book

Last week I blogged about Pope Benedict’s forthcoming book about Jesus. The story I referenced had some brief excerpts from the introduction to the book.

Now Zenit has posted all of the preface (or as much of it has been made public).

HERE ‘TIS.

It’s also posted an excerpt from the book’s introduction (it apparently has both an preface and an introduction).

HEREZAT.

One of the interesting things to me about the book is that B16 appears to wish to read the gospels in light of both historical criticism and faith. Too often these approaches have been seen as mutually exclusive, so that one must either accept historical criticism and reject the perspective of faith in Christ or one must accept faith in Christ and therefore reject historical criticism. Pope Benedict proposes to reject this either/or solution in favor of a both/and solution, and I for one am interested in seeing the model that he proposes for how the two approaches can be harmonized.

Here’s a taste of his approach, from a passage in the Preface:

I believe, in fact, that this Jesus — the one of the Gospels — is
a historically honest and convincing figure. The Crucifixion and its
efficacy can only be explained if something extraordinary happened, if
Jesus’ figure and words radically exceeded all the hopes and
expectations of the age.

Approximately twenty years after Jesus’ death, we find fully
displayed in the great hymn to Christ that is the Letter to the
Philippians (2:6-8) a Christology which says that Jesus was equal to
God but that he stripped himself, became man, humbled himself unto
death on the cross and that to him is owed the homage of creation, the
adoration that in the prophet Isaiah (45:23) God proclaimed is owed
only to Him.

With good judgment, critical research asks the question: What
happened in the twenty years after Jesus’ Crucifixion? How was this
Christology arrived at?

The action of anonymous community formations, of which attempts are
made to find exponents, in fact does not explain anything. How would it
be possible for groups of unknowns to be so creative, so convincing to
the point of imposing themselves in this way? Is it not more logical,
also from the historical point of view, that greatness be found in the
origin and that the figure of Jesus break all available categories and
thus be understood only from the mystery of God?

Of course, to believe that though being man He "was" God and to
make this known shrouding it in parables and in an ever clearer way,
goes beyond the possibilities of the historical method. On the
contrary, if from this conviction of faith the texts are read with the
historical method and the opening is greater, the texts open to reveal
a path and a figure that are worthy of faith. Also clarified then is
the struggle at other levels present in the writings of the New
Testament around the figure of Jesus and despite all the differences,
one comes to profound agreement with these writings.

Of course with this vision of the figure of Jesus I go beyond what,
for example, Schnackenburg says in representation of the greater part
of contemporary exegesis. I hope, on the contrary, that the reader will
understand that this book has not been written against modern exegesis,
but with great recognition of all that it continues to give us.