O Lord, stir up Thy might, we beg Thee, and come, That by Thy protection we may deserve to be rescued from the threatening dangers of our sins and saved by Thy deliverance. Through Christ our Lord, Amen.
advent wreath prayer for the first week of advent
We may be a little counter-cultural (maybe a lot counter-cultural?), but our family uses the month of December as a way to build anticipation for the coming King. Over the years, we have created a gradual approach to our preparations/decorations that really works for our family. It’s non-stressful for me and the kids get more and more excited as the house fills with décor and baked goods. For Catholics, Christmas doesn’t end on December 25 – it’s just the beginning! This year, I’ll finally be jotting down what we do during Advent for posterity (anyone else use a blog to help remember things?).
On the first Sunday of Advent, we start with the theme of hope…and I like to add the theme of “light” here too: the Christmas tree goes up with only the lights, we put our electric candles in the windows, and we roll beeswax candles for the Advent wreath. Our little manger is set on the side table with a mug full of paper straw, ready and waiting for a month of good deeds. We set out the Nativity scene but keep Jesus tucked away for later.
We aren’t doing our typical “Advent School” this year because I just didn’t have it in me to tackle all of the crafts, ha! The big boys are growing older and my little boys have little interest in coloring and construction paper. I’m hoping that picture book reading and baking will still make for some happy memories. I did get Sophie the Christmas paint-by-number book (affiliate link) but have only given her one page to work on each day. She flies through them in hours otherwise!
On another happy note, my first year forcing paperwhites has been a success! They are beautiful and don’t actually smell as bad as I remembered. Next year, I will definitely add some vodka to the water to stunt their growth – mine are looking a little gangly and some are falling over from being so tall.
Beautiful background music that I found this week:
Been reading your blog off and on for several years and I just wanted to say that I like your simple posts about your home and food and finances and life. They inspire me to live intentionally and record my days too. I like the gradual Advent approach too! 🙂
Thank you so much for reading my ramblings, Mary!
Beautiful flowers and the baking and reading sound wonderful