**Updated and reposted from last year! 🙂
I love the tradition of the Advent wreath. It so totally packed with symbolism! It is such a great way to teach the children even more about God, Christ and the Christmas season.
The round shape stands for God’s eternity. Like God, it has no beginning and no end.
The greens used to make the wreath are EVERgreen, and therefore unchanging, just like God.
The four candles symbolize the four centuries that man waited for the coming of our Savior.
Three of the candles are purple since Advent is a time of penance. It was because of our sinfulness that we needed a Savior, and so we must prepare ourselves through sacrifice and penance during Advent for Christ’s coming at Christmas. However, we know that Christ HAS and IS coming again, and so our penance is a joyful one! We are joyfully anticipating and preparing ourselves for the celebration of Christmas, as well as Christ’s second coming. Therefore, one candle is pink to represent our joy.
On the first Sunday of Advent we light one purple candle. On the second Sunday of Advent, two purple candles are lit. On the third Sunday of Advent, which is called “Gaudete Sunday”, we light the pink candle since “Gaudete” means “let us rejoice!” And then, on the fourth (and final) Sunday of Advent, all four candles are lit. The gradual lighting of the candles is a visible sign for us. We can see the light growing brighter the closer we get to birth of Christ, who IS the light of the world!
We use to make our own Advent wreath by gathering greens from our yard, but the past couple years I have been purchasing wreaths. This year I found a beautiful artificial wreath from Costco, for only a few dollars more than the real evergreen wreath, and decided to switch over since it sits in front of our fireplace and dries out so quickly. We will also be able to reuse it now! 🙂 I have four silver candle stands on which I place the candles. I use to purchase taper candles, but since we light them every night, we burn through them so fast… So, I switched to pillar candles which will last all of Advent, and have been working great! (Thankfully I was FINALLY able to find a pink candle, though not exactly the shade I was looking for… oh well!)
After dinner, on the first Sunday of Advent, my husband leads us in prayer as he blesses our wreath before we light the first candle. We use the blessing found in a great little book called Handbook of Prayers. (I just LOVE this little prayerbook!) You can also find the blessing here.
Each evening of Advent, before we relight the candles of our wreath, we say one of the following prayers, depending on which week of Advent it is:
The First Week
Bestir, O Lord, Thy might, we pray Thee and come; That, defended by Thee, we may deserve rescue from approaching dangers brought on by our sins, and being set free by Thee, obtain our salvation. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
The Second Week
Stir up our hearts, O Lord, to prepare the ways of Thine only-begotten Son, that through His coming we may be worthy to serve Thee with purified minds. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
The Third Week
Incline Thine ear to our prayers, O Lord, we beseech Thee; and make bright the darkness of our minds by the grace of Thy visitation. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
The Fourth Week
Bestir, O Lord, Thy might, we beseech Thee, and come; and with great power come to our aid, that, by the help of Thy grace, that sins may be hastened by Thy merciful forgiveness. Who livest and reignest, with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.
I just love Advent! Thank you for posting this!
You have a very lovely advent wreath there! A blessed advent to you all Jessica!
Beautiful, thank you for the links and inspiration! I’ll have to check out that book that you got the blessings from . . . sounds like my cup of tea!
And by the way, I FINALLY (praise God!) found a pink pillar candle myself on Saturday, the day before Advent!! Our wreath is pictured on my blog . . . we’ve also included a white “Christ” candle that we’ll be lighting on Christmas through Epiphany.
Best,
Sarah
PS – I’m also loving (again this year) the prayers on Creighton University’s website. They’re beautiful!
how long do you keep your candles lit each evening? And do you perform it before dinner?
We burn our candles for about an hour every night. We pray the Rosary and bedtime prayers, read our Advent picture book for the day, and sometimes just sit around and visit, with the candles lit. So peaceful and one of my favorite times of the day!