Thinking about a celtic advent...

I've been taken recently by the ancient Celtic practice of honoring an Advent that is really the 40 days before Christmas - an early parallel to Lent - rather than the revised 30 days of the Western and/or Roman realm.  That would start the season on the evening of November 14th - a rough connection in the Northern hemisphere to the diminishing day light - and continue until Christmas Eve on December 24th. (For more thoughts, you might enjoy exploring the Prayer Foundation/Celtic Advent posting @ http://prayerfoundation. org/advent.htm or The Contemplative Cottage @ http://contemplativecottage. com/2011/11/15/celtic-advent-40-days-of-joy/)

Don't get me wrong:  I'm NOT interested in lengthening any of the Christmas frenzy or consumerism.  Already marketers are positioning "holiday" gear in our stores as soon as Halloween ends.  And I'm only partially down with reclaiming the ancient "lighter fast" of the Celtic Advent.  One season of physical fasting is enough - and Lent is the right time - so what attracts me to 40 days of Advent?  Two insights:

+ First, just as the liturgical color of Advent has morphed from a penitential violet to a contemplative deep blue, so might the season become grounded in quiet introspection.  Once after a jazz worship liturgy a man said to me, "You know, I've never thought of 'Take 5' as a spiritual song before... but what would happen if every day I actually DID take 5?  Five minutes for quiet prayers of gratitude and listening?"  This year, our faith community is trying to practice taking one - one minute of silent gratitude with those we love - each day.  I hate to say it like this (because I fight the bottom line metaphors that our consumerist world have forced upon us to shape reality) but here goes anyway:  I think there would be a market for a more counter-cultural and introspective congregation that helps real people practice a way of "coming unto me all ye who are tired and heavy laden."  And I don't mean a market in the sense of selling or manipulating consumers.  I mean a place that would resonate with the hearts of women and men who know they are too stressed out but don't know how to unplug from the madness.  I've been told that it takes about 40 days to create a new habit, so....

+ Second, practicing contemplation in a healthy way means "taking a long, loving look at what is real."  It is not escapist or privatized, but compassionate in the truest sense.  What would it mean for us to look with love upon the real pain of the world?  Not the manipulated crisis of a 24/7 cable news market, but the wounds of those around us?  Or the joys we encounter everyday in small ways?  What would it mean for us - and those we rub shoulders with - for us to practice looking at everything through the lens of love rather than fear or judgment?

Thomas More once put together a very helpful little booklet and CD grounded in the Jungian archetypes at work in the Advent/Christmas stories.  It is accompanied by a variety of sweet Celtic carols and tunes.  I think the time has come to pull that out and start my "long, loving look at what is real."  Want to join me?