As we start the third week of Advent, Christmas Day is exactly 10 days away and the Church, fittingly asks us to contemplate Joy. So, today, on what the Church calls Gaudete Sunday (Gaudete meaning “rejoice”), we begin the first of our poems about joy: A Child of the Snows, by GK Chesterton.
A Child of the Snows
By GK Chesterton
There is heard a hymn when the panes are dim,
And never before or again,
When the nights are strong with a darkness long,
And the dark is alive with rain.
Never we know but in sleet and in snow,
The place where the great fires are,
That the midst of the earth is a raging mirth
And the heart of the earth a star.
And at night we win to the ancient inn
Where the child in the frost is furled,
We follow the feet where all souls meet
At the inn at the end of the world.
The gods lie dead where the leaves lie red,
For the flame of the sun is flown,
The gods lie cold where the leaves lie gold,
And a Child comes forth alone.
Roundup: The Third Week of Advent
Prayers and Devotions
Someday, I would love to do the Jesse Tree with my children. But for now, I don’t trust my ability to stick to just about anything with the kids for the whole of Advent. What we have done successfully, however, for the past two years is an O Antiphon tree. This year, we’ll do that for the third time, when the O Antiphons begin on December 17.
The O’ Antiphons do not require a tree. The Church has been singing them for over 1500 years in the seven days preceding Christmas Eve with no tree in sight. Traditionally, they are sung during evening prayer, before the Magnificat (Mary’s song of praise and thanksgiving in Luke 1). Each antiphon begins with the invocation of Christ, by one of the titles given to him in the Book of Isaiah: O Wisdom, O Sacred Lord, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Radiant Dawn, O King of the Gentiles, O Emmanuel.
If you pray evening prayer, you will be praying the O Antiphons. If, however, Vespers is a bit much with preschoolers before dinner time (as it absolutely is for us), you can just pray the Antiphon and (if time allows) read the biblical passage from which the title is taken. This, for us, is where the tree comes in.
Back in 2022 I purchased a beautiful set of O Antiphon cards and cardboard ornaments from Mother and Home Market. The card for the day sits in a stand on our table, near the Advent wreath, and we read the Antiphon and accompanying short Scripture passage at dinnertime before lighting the candle. Each child then takes a turn hanging the accompanying ornament on a little tree in our kitchen. The ornament features an in image that corresponds to the o Antiphon for the day. The kids love this, and when the O Antiphons begin, they know that Christmas is drawing near.
Mother and Home still has the cards, but no ornaments. You could absolutely make your own, however, as a Christmas craft. Or skip the cards and ornaments altogether. The important part is the antiphons, which both beautifully remind us whose birth we are awaiting and connect us to centuries upon centuries of Christians who prayed these ancient prayers in the days leading up to Christmas.
If you want to learn more about the O Antiphons, this article from Simply Catholic is helpful.
Saints and Feasts
After last week, which was jam packed with feast days, this week is mostly feast free on the Roman Calendar, with just the feast of Saint Peter Canisius on Saturday (and if there are any particular liturgical traditions associated with him, I am not aware of them!).
Decorating
I’d hoped to have the house mostly prepped for Christmas by today, with just the decorating of the tree to do, but that has not happened. Trying to decorate a new house for Christmas, with three small children in the mix, has proven slow going. We are decorating our main tree tonight, though, and I will hopefully finish up the rest in the next few days. Typically, I spend the week before Christmas planning my menu for any Christmas hosting we are doing (we’ll have friends here on Christmas Eve) and starting Christmas baking. My hope right now is to do Christmas candy with the kids on Friday of this week, but we’ll see how the week goes.
Thanks, as always, for following along here. Throughout this week, the daily Advent poems will continue to be free for all subscribers. If you would like to receive my Friday reflections on the poems, however, along with special holiday meal and drink recipes from me, I would love it if you joined us as a full subscriber. This retreat and the newsletter itself only exists because of reader support, so I am incredibly grateful for every one of you who is already helping me do this work and for those of you who decide to upgrade your subscription today.
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