For many centuries, Christians have approached the Advent season as an intentional anticipation of the true story of Christmas, cultivating joy and thankfulness through a variety of practices.
Advent comes from the Latin word ‘adventus‘, meaning ‘arrival’, because the season commemorates the incarnation – the coming of Christ into our world as ‘Immanuel: God with us’. Like the season of Lent before Easter, the original emphasis of Advent was on preparation by means of fasting and prayer.
Our traditional Anglican Prayer Book also supplies special readings and prayers for each Sunday in Advent. Here at Bulli Anglican, we make use of these in our 8am congregation along with special devotions on “Hope” “Faith” “Peace” “Love” for the 4 Sundays of Advent. We also add a 5th devotion “Christ” at 11pm on Christmas Eve. Along with these devotions we gradually light the 5 candles on our Advent Wreath.
Contemporary Advent calendars supply readings, pictures, prayers and activities for people of all ages. The “Names of Jesus” is an Advent calendar we will be making use of tonight at our Community Carols Event. For this and more Advent ideas for how you can prepare yourselves for Christmas, checkout –