decemBER 2011 celloutlines
celloutlines | overview
Advent Lives Introduction It’s not long now till Christmas! Only about four weeks! How much have you got to do? Have you got presents to buy and wrap, Christmas cards to write, parties to go to, decorations to put up?! Are you starting to feel ‘Christmassy’, to get excited, looking forward to a special day spent with family and friends? In the Christian calendar the four weeks before Christmas are known as Advent. The word ‘advent’, from Latin, means ‘the coming’. Advent marks the start of the Christmas season and is a time of waiting for the arrival of Christmas, the coming of Jesus to earth when he was born as a baby in Bethlehem. It is a time of spiritual reflection as well as excitement and anticipation. It’s a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus’ birthday and to remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas. During Advent many church services include a short Advent ceremony, often using an Advent wreath or candles. An Advent wreath looks something like this:
The circle of greenery symbolises continuous life and the never-ending circle of God’s love. There are four candles, traditionally three purple and one pink, or all red. Each candle represents an aspect of the spiritual preparation for the coming of Jesus and one candle is usually lit every Sunday of Advent so that during the last week before Christmas all four candles are lit. Often a fifth candle, called the Christ Candle, which is white, is added to the centre of the wreath (as in the picture) for lighting on Christmas Eve. There are varying suggestions as to what each candle can represent. For the purposes of this month’s cell groups, our candles are going to represent hope, peace, joy and love. So this month in the cell groups we are going to have our own little ‘Advent Ceremonies’! We are going to take some time out of our busy December schedules to prepare our hearts for celebrating the real reason for Christmas. Each candle that we light together will symbolise our prayers of thanks and worship to Jesus for coming into the world. We hope that the times you have in your cell groups will be like a little oasis of calm amidst all the hustle and bustle and frenetic activity of this month. A time to be still, to reflect and to worship. A time to remember again together why this time of year is so special! continued over >>>
www.salvationarmy.org.uk/alove