During the holidays, nativity scenes and Christmas trees decorate most Catholic homes, but what about Advent wreaths?
Advent wreaths are traditionally made from evergreen branches and have four candles. The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent—three candles are purple, and one is a rose color.
The purple represents prayer, penance, and preparation for the coming of Christ. Historically, Advent was known as a “little Lent,” which is why the penitential color of purple is used. During Lent, we prepare for the resurrection of Christ on Easter. Similarly, during Advent, we prepare for the coming of Christ, both on Christmas and at the second coming.
The rose candle is illuminated on the third Sunday of Advent, known as Gaudete Sunday. At Mass on the third Sunday, the priest will also wear rose colored vestments. Gaudete Sunday is a day for rejoicing and joy as the faithful draw near to the birth of Jesus, and it marks the midpoint of Advent.
“The progressive lighting of the candles represents the expectation and hope surrounding our Lord’s coming into the world and the anticipation of his second coming to judge the living and the dead,” says the USCCB.
During the Advent season, the faithful will also notice a common theme in the Gospel readings. The readings focus on preparation or “making straight the path of the Lord,” penance, and fasting. All of these things remind us of the importance of preparing our hearts for the Lord and making room for his presence in our lives.
Did you know?
The Advent wreath originated from a pagan European tradition, which consisted of lighting candles during the winter to ask the sun god to return with his light and warmth.
The first missionaries took advantage of this tradition to evangelize to people and taught them that they should use the Advent wreath as a way of preparing for Christ’s birth, and to celebrate his nativity and beg Jesus to infuse his light in their souls.
The circle of the Advent wreath is a geometric figure that has neither a beginning nor an end. It reminds us that God does not have a beginning or an end either, which reflects his unity and eternity. It is a sign of the unending love that the faithful should show the Lord and their neighbors, which must be constantly renewed and never stop.
The green color of the wreath represents hope and life. The Advent wreath reminds us that Christ is alive among us, and that we must cultivate a life of grace, spiritual growth, and hope during Advent.
Bless your Advent wreath
The blessing of an Advent wreath takes place on the First Sunday of Advent or on the evening before the First Sunday of Advent.
When the blessing of the Advent wreath is celebrated in the home, it is appropriate that it be blessed by a parent or another member of the family.
To bless your Advent wreath at home, follow our guide, “How to bless your Advent wreath at home.”
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A scene from the trailer promoting Liberty University’s campus ministry production of “Scaremare.” / Scaremare on YouTube
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 29, 2022 / 10:55 am (CNA).
This October some churches and ministries in the United States are once again hosting Christian versions of haunted houses, and nonbelievers and believers alike are lining up for some rather existential spine-tingling for the first time since the pandemic.
Popular among evangelical Protestant churches in the South, these “judgment houses” typically stage dramatic representations depicting what happens after people die, leaving visitors to ponder whether they themselves are headed for heaven or hell, and presumably, to act accordingly.
Is this a good way to save souls? Some Catholics experts in evangelization who spoke to CNA have reservations.
A different way to evangelize
The late Jerry Falwell, the Baptist televangelist, and founder of Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, is credited with hosting the first judgment house in 1972, “Scaremare.”
Scaremare is still going strong in Lynchburg, where the university’s campus ministry stages a production every year around Halloween that draws people from all over the region attracted by the lure of “fun-house rooms and scenes of death in order to confront people with the question ‘What happens after I die?’”
The performance does not disappoint those looking for the sort of adrenaline surge a horror movie produces. As many as 4,000 visitors a night witness gruesome death scenes including a massacre at a movie theater and a camper who is mauled by a wild animal.
According to Josh Coldren, the director of the 2022 production of Scaremare, the scenes are intended to make people think about their fears and their mortality.
“We talk about how everyone faces death, but how there is hope beyond our fears and hope beyond death, and that hope is in Jesus Christ,” Coldren told CNA.
According to Scaremare’s website, over 26,000 people who visited over the years “have made decisions for Christ over the past two decades. Ironically, this House of Death points to the Way of Life!”
While judgment houses can function as memento mori, efficacious reminders of the inevitability of death, some judgment houses, also known as “Hell Houses,” have become controversial for taking the idea to an extreme. Graphic scenes such as abortions, extramarital sex, and drug use are sometimes depicted along with the consequence of these actions as the sinners are shown condemned to spend eternity in hell.
Scaremare doesn’t get into these issues or talk about hell at all, Coldren told CNA.
“We don’t have a scene of hell, and we stay away from demons. We believe those things are real, we just make sure we stay away from them,” Coldren said.
Tom Hudgins, is the owner of Judgement House, a company based in Seminole, Florida, that provides scripts to churches to stage dramas. Before COVID, he told CNA, they helped as many as 350 churches at a time hold Judgement Houses. They are slowly getting back to business, he said, and about 50 participating churches are listed on their website.
Hudgins explained to CNA that, unlike more extreme Hell House productions, his scripts never talk about social issues. Small groups of visitors walk through scenes meant to encourage self-reflection. Each production begins with death, by a car crash or cancer, for example, and then the audience sees what happens after death.
“They see what hell would be like, but they also see what heaven will be like, and everyone can make their own decisions,” Hudgins said.
A scene from a production of a Judgement House script. Decaturville Pentecostal Church YouTube
Bonnie Gilliland, the dramatic director at Morningside Baptist Church in Tallahassee, Florida, is staging a play with the help of Judgement House this October. She told CNA that the productions are a way of sharing the Gospel.
“We include a lot of scripture, it’s very biblically based,” she said.
Gilliland explained that this year’s production isn’t just for nonbelievers – it’s meant to give the regular churchgoer a wake-up call.
“The current drama gives people an opportunity to understand and examine whether they have a relationship with Jesus Christ because it’s more than just going to church, it’s about accepting Jesus as your savior and receiving the gift of eternal life,” Gilliland said.
Kelly Armstrong, the director of the judgment house at New Harmony Baptist Church in Albertville, Alabama, told CNA that past productions have depicted scenes of car wrecks, overdoses, and abuse.
Visitors see “how people make decisions that affect their eternity,” he said. “It brings our church together, and makes people think.”
Catholic criticism of “hell houses”
Judgment houses have not found favor among Catholic churches in the United States, and two experts in evangelization and pastoral care told CNA that they don’t think talking about hell attracts people to the Church.
Sherry Weddell is the founder of the Catherine of Siena Institute, an apostolate that helps evangelize Catholic parishes to turn pew-sitters into “intentional missionary disciples.” She told CNA that she advises any Catholics considering introducing hell-related themes to their Halloween decorations or celebrations, to rethink that idea.
“If you live in an area that has a significant number of young adults, especially parents of young children, or in an area that is highly secularized like urban areas of the East or West coasts, many will find it offensive or off-putting. And there is a real chance that sensitive and young children could be upset by it which would fuel their parents’ unhappiness with the sponsoring Catholic community,” Weddell explained.
“You could upset people who might otherwise have been open to attending an Advent or Christmas event at your parish or just open to a friendship with a Catholic like you.
“Instead of building or strengthening bridges of trust, you could be shattering or weakening whatever trust may already exist. There are creative, positive, child and parent-friendly alternatives such as “trunk-or-treating,” costume parties, and community of light events that foster both long-standing relationships and fun,” Weddell said.
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti, the chief exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington, and a psychologist and researcher at the Catholic University of America, told CNA that the threat of hell isn’t effective in this day and age.
“People today are not convinced or influenced by threats of hell. The Church just really stopped doing that because it just doesn’t work. You know, you can do all the hellfire and damnation sermons you want, but people just kind of yawn, “ Rossetti said.
“We’re trying to emphasize God’s love and God’s mercy, which I think is much more to the point, frankly. And also more of a message that’s needed in our day. And I think that started with Pope John XXIII at Vatican II. He said, today what the message needs to be is of God’s mercy and compassion and God’s love.
“This is what attracts people, and this is sort of the core of our message. God loves us and God has saved us out of his love and compassion in Jesus,” he said.
Papal aide Monsignor Paolo Braida reads Pope Francis’ prepared remarks for the Sunday Angelus on Dec. 3, 2023, from the chapel at the papal residence at Casa Santa Marta. / Vatican Media
Vatican City, Dec 3, 2023 / 08:32 am (CNA).
Pope Francis for the second consecutive Sunday was assisted by an aide in praying the Angelus as he continues to recover from an acute bronchial infection.
“Even today I won’t be able to read everything: I’m improving, but my voice still doesn’t work,” the pope said during the Sunday morning broadcast on the first Sunday of Advent. Instead “it will be Monsignor [Paolo] Braida who reads the catechesis,” Francis continued.
Braida, who serves as the head of office at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, once again read the pope’s remarks from the chapel at the papal residence at Casa Santa Marta. Last week the pope introduced him, saying he is the person who usually drafts the pope’s Angelus reflections.
Pope Francis normally prays the Angelus from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
On Saturday afternoon the Holy See Press Office reported that “the health conditions of the Holy Father are improving; the pope has no fever and is continuing with the appropriate therapy. To avoid exposure to sudden changes in temperature, tomorrow morning Pope Francis will recite the Angelus via connection from Casa Santa Marta.”
Braida opened the first Angelus of the new liturgical year by reading the pope’s remarks on the theme of “vigilance,” noting that in the Christian context being vigilant does not arise out of “fear” but instead stems from a sense “of longing, of waiting to go forth to meet their Lord who is coming.”
Reflecting on the parable of the master who goes from his house, leaving his servants in charge, the pope in his remarks noted that “they remain in readiness for his return because they care for him, because they have in mind that when he returns, they will make him find a welcoming and orderly home; they are happy to see him, to the point that they look forward to his return as a feast for the whole great family of which they are a part.”
The same sense of longing that defines the season of Advent prepares us “to welcome Jesus at Christmas.”
The idea of preparedness is, Braida read, ultimately one characterized by hope as seen in the “attitude of the sentinel, who in the night is not tempted by weariness, does not fall asleep but remains awake awaiting the coming light. The Lord is our light and it is good to dispose the heart to welcome him with prayer and to host him with charity, the two preparations that, so to speak, make him comfortable.”
To that end, Advent is not only a time of preparation but also of interior reflection where we can ask ourselves “how we can prepare a welcoming heart for the Lord.”
“We can do so by approaching his forgiveness, his word, his table, finding space for prayer, welcoming those in need. Let us cultivate his expectation without letting ourselves be distracted by so many pointless things and without complaining all the time, but keeping our hearts alert, that is, eager for him, awake and ready, impatient to meet him.”
After the recitation of the Angelus, Braida read the pope’s appeal, drawing attention to the end of the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas, which lasted from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1, allowed for humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, and resulted in a prisoner exchange between the two parties.
“It grieves us that the truce has been broken: that means death, destruction, misery. Many hostages have been freed, but many are still in Gaza. Let’s think to them, to their families who had seen a light, a hope of hugging their loved ones again,” Braida read.
The Qatari state-owned media outlet Al-Jazeera reported that a Hamas official told the network that “negotiations on prisoner exchanges are now over and will not resume until Israel halts its attack and hands over all Palestinian prisoners.”
The pope’s aide then noted that the Holy Father was following the events of the United Nations Climate Conference despite not being able to take the trip himself due to his illness.
“Even if from a distance, I am following the COP28 proceedings in Dubai with great attention. I’m close. I renew my appeal to respond to climate change with concrete political changes: Let us escape from the constraints of particularism and nationalism, patterns of the past, and embrace a common vision, committing ourselves all now, without delay, for a necessary global ecological conversion,” Braida read.
The pontiff, who will turn 87 on Dec. 17, was supposed to be in Dubai from Dec. 1–3 to deliver a speech to the conference and preside over the opening of the first-ever faith pavilion. However, given his illness and the ongoing treatment, the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, led the Vatican delegation in place of the pope.
The pope closed the broadcast by telling the nearly 20,000 faithful present in the piazza and those watching the broadcast: “I wish everyone a happy Sunday and a happy Advent journey.”
Washington D.C., May 21, 2021 / 15:00 pm (CNA).
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