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Do you remember the gospel from the first Sunday of Advent? That Gospel was a wakeup call to all of us Christians. We were instructed to “Stay awake!” It is very important because all of Advent is a season of great awakening, preparation, and of great expectation of the birth of the Messiah. It is a season that will end this week in an outburst of great joy. It is, a   season of prayer when we turn to God in prayer. Therefore, with the psalmist, I pray for you all with the phrase from the psalm of that first Sunday: “Peace be to your homes! May peace reign in your walls, and in your palaces, peace!” 

Let the Advent wreath be a visible reminder to us all of our call as people who are followers of the Light of the World. It is not just an invitation to light, but an invitation to be bearers of light to all. In the days ahead let us remember that it says to us: Light the candle. Pray more deeply. Love more generously. Give more freely. Christ is coming this week— as an infant, yes, but also as a king. Time is short. We need to be ready. Let us always remember, he is here now. Let these four lights be sparks of hope, peace, joy and love to all we meet. St Teresa of Avila said: “Christ has no body now but yours” so we must be the Body of Christ and let our hands and feet, our eyes and ears, each word we speak, bring compassion to the world around us.

The colour of the Advent candle we light this Sunday is rose – not pink. Rose signifies rejoicing, and signals a spirit of joyful hope during Lent and Advent.  It breaks the more sombre tone of these penitential times of the year.  This comes from Brother Hyacinth Cordell, a Dominican, who wrote about all this online several years ago.  Br. Cordell noted that nature’s cycle is comprised of two things: life and light.  The seasons revolve around that—the rejuvenation of spring and summer, the desolation of fall and winter.  Our liturgical seasons follow a similar pattern. “The dark colour of violet in Advent,” he wrote, “harmonises well with the diminishing sunlight late in the year.”  It also points to royalty, and Christ as our King. “Rose,” he wrote, “is a softening of violet. It is violet approaching white. In this sense, it anticipates the pure white of the Birth and Resurrection of Christ.”