Churches celebrate Advent season with candlelight services
For many Houstonians, the holiday season includes attending various celebrations, plays and festivals with celebrating friends and family members. For many practicing Christians, this includes the celebration of Advent season, which often includes attending a candlelight service during the holiday season.
According to First Presbyterian Church in Houston, the use of candlelight during Advent and Christmas is a long-standing Christian tradition. For as long as candles have been in existence, they have been used to illuminate the darkness, allowing us to “see” and make our way through unfamiliar territory and exposing that which is hidden.
“In the Gospel of John, the person of Jesus Christ is referred to as ‘the Light of the World,’ and Matthew’s gospel invites the Church, the Christian Community, to be the light of the world as they fulfill to act as ambassadors for Christ,” said Rev. Michael Homan, Associate Pastor of Worship, First Presbyterian Church.
The purpose of candles and candlelight services in Advent is to remind worshippers that, prior to the coming of Christ, the Israelites experienced more than 400 years of silence in their relationship with God. The prophet Isaiah tells of Christ’s coming when he reminds us that “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” The Advent candles representing hope, peace, love and joy bring a poignant visible reminder of Christ’s present and future promises. For those who find themselves in seasons of lament, silence, sadness and despair, Advent reminds us that Christ not only came long ago, but that He promises to come again and put everything back together in a redemptive way.
First Presbyterian Church, Houston holds an Advent Candlelight and Carol Service on the first Sunday of Advent. And they continue to light a unique candle on the remaining Sundays of Advent during regular worship services. (Peace, Love and Joy). On Christmas Eve they light the center candle, the Christ candle.
“We gather as God’s people to remember a storied past whereby God has demonstrated his loving kindness to all creation, and to look ahead to a day when all hope has been restored through Christ Jesus,” Homan said.
While the Roman Catholic Church does not have any specific services that are candlelight during Advent, it does within its individual churches does have the candlelight service by lighting each candle as explained at the beginning of mass, usually asking a couple of parishioners to assist in lighting the candle and the symbolism is then explained at the mass. Additionally, it does celebrate the First Sunday of Advent with Advent Wreath. Many times, these wreaths do include candles as a visual to count down the four Sundays of Advent.
“The progressive lighting of the candles symbolizes the expectation and hope surrounding the Lord’s first coming into the world and the anticipation of his second coming to judge the living and the dead,” said Rev. James Burkart, Pastor, Christ the Good Shepherd Catholic Community in Spring.
“The liturgical color for Advent is purple, just like Lent — as both are seasons that prepare us for great feast days,” Burkart said. “Also Advent (like Lent) includes an element of penance in the sense of preparing, quieting and disciplining our hearts for the full joy of Christmas. This penitential dimension is expressed through the color purple, but also through the restrained manner of decorating the church and altar.”
For the Catholic Church, most of the month of December includes the liturgical season of Advent. The season of Christmas does not officially begin until Christmas Eve. During this time, members are invited to spiritually prepare for the coming of Christ in two ways. While they are preparing for the celebration of the historical event of the birth of Jesus Christ into the world, they celebrate Christ Mass, or Christmas. But according to Burkart, the first two Sundays of Advent encourage worshippers to also prepare for the Second Coming of Christ, for which they are still preparing.
“For Christians, Jesus is the present given to us, and for that, it seems important that we take serious the invitation to spiritually prepare for this reality,” Burkart said.