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Advent: A Season of Renewal and Hopeful Anticipation
If you think about the months that have made up the year 2020, they have been filled with waiting. Waiting for stay-at-home orders to subside. Waiting for COVID-19 numbers to decline and the pandemic to be over. Waiting for the turmoil caused by an election year to cease, and for peace to come upon our country. That’s why though Advent is traditionally associated with waiting and anticipating, this year we’re hoping to shift gears a little and adopt a new liturgical approach.
“This Advent season, we are hoping to shift our focus to waiting on the Lord and the hopeful anticipation that the Advent season brings,” says Parochial Vicar Fr. Matt King. “Isaiah 40:31 says, ‘They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.’ There are many of us who desire a sense of renewal in our lives as we are on this spiritual journey. Our goal as a parish this Advent will be to encourage and strengthen this hope and sense of renewal in the Lord and all the joyful promises that Advent provides us.”
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One way the parish hopes to facilitate this hopeful anticipation is through an Advent day of Reflection and Holy Hour. Similar to the event held on Sept. 26 entitled “National Global Day of Prayer and Repentance,” Fr. Matt says this will be a time to come together as a faith community for encouragement, praise and personal prayer time.
“We had a great turnout and very positive feedback from those that attended the Holy Hour in September,” Fr. Matt says. “Since this was such a success, we are planning on having another Holy Hour along with a day of reflection in Advent. This Holy Hour will take place on Saturday, Dec. 5 at 10:00 a.m. in the Cultural Center. We would like to have an opportunity for our parishioners to enter into the spirit of Advent by hosting this day of reflection. We will have a Holy Hour, a couple of reflective talks and hopefully music. The hope is that this day will engage our numerous groups and ministries in the parish.”
The parish also plans to host a daily reflection series with Zoom sessions available Monday-Friday for parishioners of all ages. These will begin at 7:30 a.m. and will last approximately 20 minutes.
“We are hoping to provide our parish with the opportunity to start their day off with an Advent reflection before work, errands or other events they might have during the day,” Fr. Matt says. “The goal will be to leave each person that engages this daily reflection with a thought or word that they can pray about or reflect on throughout the day.”
In these ways, Our Lady Star of the Sea hopes to journey together in joyful anticipation as the days draw closer to our Lord’s nativity.
