ADVENT DEVOTIONAL CALENDAR 2019

Light your Advent candle each day as you read the Bible and pray.

Download your Advent Devotional Calendar here....

How to use it

• Try and set aside 5-15 minutes every day.
• Buy or use a special candle to light each day as you read and pray through the suggestions on the calendar.
• There is a suggestion to ‘eat simply’ – try going without so many calories or too much rich food, just have enough.
• There is a suggestion to donate to a charity working with the homeless.
• There is encouragement to pray through what you see and notice going on around you in people, the media and nature.
• Who is it for?
• For everyone who uses the Cathedral website.
• For all the Cathedral community.
• For people you want to send it to and invite to share in the daily devotional exercise.

What’s the last week about?

The last week of Advent is special: at Evensong (evening prayer) a special antiphon is sung or said before and after the canticle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Magnificat. Each begins with an ‘O’ and relates to some facet of Christ’s nature and ancestry.

December 17     O Sapientia                         Wisdom

December 18     O Adonai                             Lord of Israel

December 19     O Radix Jesse                     Root of Jesse (Jesse was the father of King David)

December 20     O Clavis David                    Key of David

December 21     O Oriens                              Morning Star rising in the East

December 22     O Rex Gentium                 King of all nations

December 23     O Immanuel                       Immanuel – ‘God is with us’        

As the week draws us to Christmas so the note of longing love and desire intensifies.

Why make an effort when life is so busy anyway?

• It is easy to get diverted into all the seasonal pre-Christmas rush and bustle.
• This is a simple prayer and bible-reading exercise, spiced with some practical tips to help us use the Advent Season as a time of preparation for the coming of Christ.
•  It is designed to take us on a journey, looking back to John the Baptist and Mary the Mother of Jesus; looking out into the world today, into our own hearts and experience; outwards again to Jesus Christ as he encounters us in life today and in his promise to be with us always.

Advent is the Church’s mindful antidote to some of the stress and craziness of a modern Christmas, letting us encounter Christ again in his joy and humility.